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											| This  is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to real persons is unintentional and strictly coincidental.  If you are below
 the age of 18, or 21 depending on your locality, stop reading right
 now. If your government prohibits erotic literature, stop reading
 now and delete this. If you choose to continue, that is your decision
 -- and your responsibility -- not mine.
 
 This is intended solely for adults, and any other rebroadcast,
 retransmission, and account of this game is strictly prohibited by the
 National Hockey League. Wait --The NHL doesn't care --I care. Any
 unauthorized redistribution of this is in violation of copyright. I
 authorize this to be archived in its entirety -- which must include
 this disclaimer and the author credit -- on non-profit web sites. I
 expressly prohibit posting of this work on pay-sites, sites with
 advertising, and any type of site where a fee is charged. Any other
 distribution without the author's permission is strictly prohibited.
 
 "Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog" Copyright 1999 by John3365A@aol.com.
 All rights reserved.
 ---------------------------
 I'd love to know what you think. Positive or negative, I'll try to
 respond to everyone (except obnoxious flames).
 Thanks. My e-mail address is John3365A@aol.com.
 
 Author's note: I got the idea for this  one day when the Jim Croce song
 "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" came on the radio. I thought it would be interesting
 to see what Leroy's life was like and I wrote this. The  is set in the early
 1970's and the characters use language that could be considered offensive by
 several different racial and ethnic groups. My intention is not to offend anyone,
 but to try to portray the characters as accurately as possible.
 --------------------------
 Meaner than a Junkyard  by John A
 The opening of the door cast the bright afternoon light into
 the darkened corners of the dimly lit saloon, temporarily
 blinding those unfortunate enough to be looking in that
 direction. The harsh light, however, was mitigated somewhat
 by the six foot four inch frame of the  entering. Wearing
 a blue velvet jacket and matching pants, the  seemed much
 larger than his actual height, due in part to the two inch
 heels of his alligator skin boots and his five-inch Afro and
 in part to the presence with which he carried himself.
 Almost unnoticed, dwarfed by the large man's form and
 trailing just behind, was a pretty, petite, cocoa skinned
 woman wearing bell bottoms and a halter top.
 
 "Yo, Leroy. Where the fuck you been keeping yourself at?"
 called the bartender, smiling warmly at his friend.
 
 "Eddie, my brother," Leroy flashed a grin at the bartender.
 "You know me. I'm a busy man. I gotta go where the games is.
 Plus, I got me a  out at Sportsman's been giving me some
 good tips."
 
 "Well, you better get your ass 'round here more, nigger. Or
 are you too good fo' us now? The next thing we know, you
 gonna be movin' with all them honkeys on Lake Shore Drive."
 The large bartender laughed robustly as the two  clasped
 hands.
 
 "Fuck you, man." Leroy joined his friend in laughter.
 
 "Say, Monique. You lookin' real fine. What you still doin'
 with this chump?" Asked Eddie.
 
 "I must be stupid," sighed Leroy's longtime girlfriend.
 "Sometimes, I wonder myself."
 
 "Well, when you get tired of him, you come see a real man."
 The  man's huge belly rippled as he laughed. "What you
 want to drink, sweetness?"
 
 Monique laughed at his playful flirtation. "I'll have a
 seven and seven, Eddie."
 
 Eddie mixed the drink for Monique and handed Leroy a bottle
 of his usual, a Colt 45.
 
 "Say baby," Leroy looked at Monique, "why don't you go over
 to a table and wait for me. I got some things to talk about
 with my man, here."
 
 "Don't you keep me waitin' long, Leroy Brown." Monique
 dropped a dime in the jukebox and selected a song by the
 Supremes before walking sexily to a booth in the corner of
 the dingy, smoke filled tavern.
 
 "Leroy, when you gonna make that  an honest woman?"
 Eddie wondered.
 
 "Eddie, you know me. I got too much lovin' to go around." As
 Leroy grabbed the bottle of beer, the two large diamond
 rings on his right hand sparkled, even in the dim light of
 the bar.
 
 "Leroy, I don't know why, but that  loves you, and she's
 one foxy mama. You keep fucking all of them whores," Eddie
 said 'whores' as if it rhymed with 'sewers,' "and you gonna
 lose her. That's the biggest mistake you'll make. You listen
 to me, now. That's a good  you got there."
 
 "I know Eddie, you right." Leroy tried to placate his
 friend.
 
 "Ok, shut me up. But don't come bitching to me when she gets
 tired of your shit."
 
 "Say Eddie, what's up with the game?" Leroy changed the
 subject as the strains of 'Baby Love' played over the
 jukebox speaker.
 
 "Well, I was talking to Jimmy Jablonski..."
 
 Leroy cut Eddie off, "Jablonski, that fat fuckin' Polack.
 What the fuck is he doin' settin' up the crap game? I don't
 trust that  fucker."
 
 "What the fuck you gonna do? He's bringin' in some real
 money. He got a couple of  from the north side with deep
 pockets, a couple of rollers from Dee-troit and Cleveland,
 and a few  from back east with some big-time dago
 backing, if you know what I mean. There's even a rumor that
 the  Jew from Miami might show up; you know the kind of
 scratch he has. There's gonna be a lot of green here next
 Friday, Leroy." Eddie hesitated and shook his head at his
 friend. "That's real money and Jimmy's bringin' it in.
 Unless you just want to play with a bunch of jerkoffs from
 Calumet City who might not even be able to scrape up a
 Benjamin? Forget about the Polack. Don't be stupid, Leroy.
 This is a night that can make a year."
 
 If it had been anybody else but Eddie Jackson who spoke to
 him like that, Leroy would have pulled his 'Saturday Night
 Special' from his pocket and had it pointed down the man's
 throat. But Eddie was like a  to Leroy. After his
 mother died when he was 14, Leroy was taken in by Jackson
 and his  and treated like a son. And Leroy never forgot
 what Eddie did for him. When Eddie needed some money a
 couple of years ago to keep from going out of business,
 Leroy stepped forward and paid off all of Eddie's debts in
 full and wouldn't hear a word about being repaid. Leroy was
 a tough man, but he was fiercely loyal above all, and he
 never forgot what Eddie and his wife, Shirley, had done for
 him.
 
 But with the rest of the world, Leroy Brown had a ferocious
 temper, and was more feared by everyone on the south side
 than anyone else -- for good reason, too. Even some of the
 cops were afraid of him. Ever since he was a teenager, Leroy
 worked the streets; running numbers, making 'deliveries,'
 running protection rackets, pimping, and enforcing gambling
 debts among other things. Before too long the streets of the
 south side of Chicago belonged to him, and Leroy began
 moving up in the seamy underbelly of what passed off as
 south side society -- although the cops tended to define
 that type of 'society' as 'vice, narcotics, and
 racketeering.'
 
 Above all of his other talents, Leroy was a skilled gambler,
 and now that was the way he made the bulk of his money. Crap
 games, horses, running numbers games, cock fights -- Leroy
 had a hand in all of them. He either ran the game and
 collected the vig, or was a player and was better than most
 around him. He had his 'boys' at Arlington and Sportsman's
 Park clocking the horses' morning workouts and hanging
 around the stables, finding out information the general
 betting public didn't know. Leroy also made it a point of
 being very generous with the stableboys and practice riders,
 who made very little money and were more than eager to feed
 Leroy some bit of info that perhaps not even the trainers
 knew. But Leroy's big game, his big score, was Craps. Dice
 was where Leroy made his big money. There were more illegal
 Crap games floating around the south side than all the legal
 ones in Vegas combined, and Leroy had a hand in most of
 them.
 
 Next Friday's game would be one of the biggest games of the
 year, with high-rollers coming in from all over, playing in
 the back of Eddie's Tavern -- Eddie's private room was
 designed for that very activity, hosting a regular game
 every Saturday night. Friday's night's game would probably
 have a minimum of $1000 hinging in each roll of the dice.
 And Eddie was right, there was going to be some huge money
 there next Friday. If Leroy wanted to have the chance to
 make a serious score, he needed to be there, Jablonski or no
 Jablonski.
 
 "All right, Eddie. Fat Jimmy's bringin' in some players. I
 still don't trust the prick."
 
 "Me neither, but he's not gonna fuck with *you*, Leroy."
 Eddie said with finality.
 
 Leroy took leave of his friend and joined Monique at her
 table. Monique DuBois grew up in the same apartment building
 as Eddie and Shirley Jackson and had known Leroy since they
 were both teenagers. The  of the local Baptist
 church's deacon, Monique was raised in a very strict home
 and wasn't allowed to date until she had been 17-years-old.
 But that hadn't stopped her from being good friends with
 Leroy, though. And shortly after turning seventeen, against
 her parents' better judgment, Monique began dating Leroy.
 Whether it was how dangerous it made her feel, the thrill of
 being with the 'baddest  in town', as Leroy was known, or
 being with someone whom she knew was truly a sweet and
 caring  to those he was close to, Monique couldn't
 explain it. What she did know now was that after being with
 him for almost ten years, off and on, she truly loved Leroy,
 and knew that in his own way, he loved her too.
 
 "You all ready for your 'big game,' sugar?" Monique asked.
 
 "Baby, Leroy's gonna be making a big score next Friday."
 Brown smiled broadly as he gulped down the remainder of his
 malt liquor. "You gonna come and watch?"
 
 Monique snickered. "Wait in the bar from ten at night until
 God-knows-when in the morning, getting hit on by every  who comes in here? No thank you." She smiled broadly, her
 chocolate eyes sparkling at her boyfriend. "But you can take
 me someplace real nice Saturday night with all your
 winnings."
 
 "You're on, baby. We'll have a big night at the Four
 Seasons. A fancy dinner, then we'll spend the night in one
 of those penthouse suites. We'll show those uptown  fuckers that Leroy Brown is a  with class and style."
 
 "That sounds great, sugar. I can't wait." Monique cooed.
 
 Leroy smiled and gulped down the remainder of his drink.
 "You all set, baby?"
 
 "Yeah, I'm done. Where are we going?" Monique asked.
 
 "I thought we could go back to my place for a while." Leroy
 grinned lasciviously.
 
 "Leroy, what kind of a  you think I am?" Monique said
 shrilly. "Why don't we go someplace nice tonight and then
 we'll see what happens."
 
 "I'd love to 'nique," Leroy hung his head a bit, "but I got
 some business to take care of tonight."
 
 Monique raised her voice. "Yeah, I know what kind of
 business you got to take care of. I don't..."
 
 Leroy cut her off, "No baby, it's not like that. I really
 have to see some people tonight."
 
 "I don't know why I stay with you Leroy."
 
 "You love me, baby. You love me." He said glibly.
 
 Leroy and Monique said goodbye to Eddie and left the bar.
 They walked around the corner and got into Leroy's Eldorado
 convertible and drove the four blocks to Leroy's apartment.
 
 Leroy's apartment was the typical single male's apartment.
 Spartanly furnished, its main focal point was the  stereo and television in the living room, and the large
 collection of albums near the Hi-Fi. Monique began flipping
 through the albums, looking for something to play as Leroy
 was fixing a couple of drinks for them. She put a Sly and
 the  Stone album on the turntable as Leroy sidled up
 behind her. He began nuzzling her neck and squeezed his body
 against hers, pressing his hardening penis against his
 girlfriend's ass.
 
 "I told you to put your gun away before you walk up to me."
 Monique joked.
 
 "This ain't my gun, baby. It's 100 percent Leroy."  Brown
 brought his right hand to Monique's braless  and began
 fondling them through her top.
 
 "Mmmm." Monique turned around and kissed Leroy deeply as she
 started to stroke his ever-hardening cock through his pants.
 
 Leroy removed his hands from her  and unbuttoned and
 unzipped her jeans, letting them slide to the floor. He sank
 his hand in the front of her panties, finding her treasure
 already wet.
 
 "Damn, baby, you already hot." Leroy remarked as they groped
 each other on the way to the bedroom.
 
 "That's the way you get me, sugar." Monique had removed her
 halter and slid her  down as she plopped on the
 middle of Leroy's king size water bed.
 
 Leroy stood by the bed, removing his velvet suit, admiring
 the beautiful form of his sexy girlfriend. He sat on the bed
 and removed his boots, placing the six inch switchblade
 which he always kept in his right boot on the nightstand.
 
 He stood and removed his boxers, freeing his large,  cock from its cloth sheath.
 
 "Oooh, baby. You get down here and give me some good
 lovin'." Monique purred.
 
 Leroy climbed on the bed and took one of Monique's ample
 breasts in his mouth, gnawing on the nipple. She writhed on
 the bed as he  on her tit and began to finger her
 pussy. Not one for tenderness, Leroy probed inside her sex
 roughly, making sure she was wet enough to handle his
 enormous tool.
 
 After just a few minutes of foreplay, Leroy was atop her,
 beginning his opening thrust.
 
 "Unggh." Monique gasped, in both ecstasy and discomfort as
 the forceful intrusion caught her by surprise.
 
 Leroy pressed himself fully inside his girlfriend,
 stretching her out to such a degree that would have seemed
 impossible because she was a rather small framed girl. His
 technique wasn't spectacular; he was the type to thrust in
 fully and withdraw and then repeat the process again and
 again, forcefully. What was spectacular was Leroy's stamina.
 It always amazed Monique that she was able to come so often
 through Leroy's simple pounding. Perhaps it was the
 ferociousness of his thrusts, or perhaps it was his sheer
 size -- Monique didn't understand it, she only knew that it
 felt great.
 
 After about twenty minutes, Monique could feel her self
 begin to tingle. Indeed, her breathing got ragged and her
 cunt muscles started to clamp down in orgasm on Leroy's
 prick.
 
 Leroy slowed his pace a little, leaning over to kiss Monique
 tenderly. Lightly extending his tongue over her lips, he
 waited until her breathing became more settled before he
 increased the intensity of his thrusts once again.
 
 Monique's second orgasm was much more forthcoming than the
 first, and she was screaming in joy as the waves of pleasure
 washed over her.
 
 "That's the way to take my cock, bitch." Leroy grunted,
 almost incoherently. "Leroy's going to fuck your  dry,
 baby."
 
 "Give me your cock,  fucker. Fuck my  hard, fuck
 me, Leroy. Ohhh. Fuck. OHHH!" Monique squealed in orgasm.
 
 Four more times, spanning another hour, Monique achieved
 orgasm, each one, seemingly, more powerful than the
 previous. For the last of Monique's orgasms, as she was
 yelling out with pleasure and scratching deep welts in his
 back, Leroy could feel his own boiling sensation deep within
 himself. As Monique's vaginal walls were spasming around his
 cock, Leroy blasted off in his own intense pleasure,
 overflowing her sex with his own fluid, before collapsing
 next to her on the bed.
 
 After about ten minutes of silence, Leroy spoke, "Damn
 woman, you're going to kill me."
 
 "I'm going to kill you?" Monique, still breathing heavily,
 raised her eyebrows. "I'm not the one with the nine-inch
 weapon between my legs. I thought I was going to pass out
 that last time I came."
 
 He chuckled. "Well, you sure do make me feel good, baby."
 
 "You make me feel good too but you know what would make me
 feel really good?" Monique said hopefully.
 
 "Woman, are we going to have this talk again?" Leroy said
 with more than a little exasperation in his voice.
 
 "Don't give me that 'woman' crap, Leroy." Monique's voice
 was raised. "You know what I'd like you to do."
 
 "A real  don't need to do that shit. The only reason  suck on their woman's twat is 'cause they can't please her
 the regular way. What do you think I am, one of those white
 pussies from Lincoln Park who don't know how to make his
 woman feel good with his dick?"
 
 "That's not my point, Leroy." Monique sighed, knowing that
 she wasn't getting anywhere with this discussion once again.
 
 "Listen to me, baby. When we in bed, do I make you feel
 good?"
 
 "You know you do." Monique agreed emphatically.
 
 "So, what else do you want? Leroy Brown don't do that, you
 know that baby."
 
 Monique started with a fury in her voice. "Well, one of
 these days, you're not going to have me around if you don't
 start treating me better. One of these days you gonna
 realize what you're giving up. You go around fucking all
 your hoes, but they just want you for your money. You know
 I'll always be there for you. You're just too stupid to see
 it for yourself."
 
 Monique jumped up from bed and stormed to the bathroom as
 Leroy closed his eyes and sighed. He was firmly convinced
 that 'real men' didn't need to perform oral sex on their
 women to satisfy them but he also knew that she was right
 about one thing -- he needed to be a  and take their
 relationship more seriously. He also was honest enough with
 himself to know that perhaps he was a little too afraid to
 settle down, feeling the need to keep up his 'reputation.'
 He knew that he loved Monique, but while there weren't many
 things that frightened him, marriage was certainly chief
 among them. He admitted to himself that he wanted to spend
 the rest of his life with her, he just didn't know if he was
 ready to begin the rest of his life quite so soon. 'I'm a
 young man,' he thought, 'it'll be a while before I get that
 wake up call. But someday it'll happen. Eddie's right. That
 sure is one fine woman I got.' Leroy tried to dwell on it a
 bit more but his thoughts were getting ragged, his eyes got
 heavy and he just rolled over and fell asleep.
 
 ---------
 
 Over the next week and a half, Leroy spent his time going to
 the track, overseeing his various 'business' ventures, and
 collecting various debts owed to him to raise as much money
 as he could for the big crap game. In fact, the 'business
 meeting' Leroy had to leave Monique to attend actually
 entailed going down to Archer Avenue to collect money from a
 couple of the prostitutes for whom he pimped. He would just
 as soon have not continued pimping, but the four  he
 protected had been with Leroy for three years and had always
 been good to him. So, out of loyalty to them, he continued.
 
 By the time Friday night came, Leroy had accumulated over
 $27,000 cash in preparation for the game. That was about
 half of what Leroy called his 'working' capital. It was more
 than enough money to stake the game, but not so much that
 he'd endanger his ability to adequately stake himself in
 future games, such as the big one in Milwaukee in about a
 month.
 
 
 He walked into Eddie's saloon shortly after nine, and wound
 his way through the busy Friday night crowd, greeting his
 old friend at the bar.
 
 "Eddie, my man. What's up?" asked Leroy.
 
 "Leroy!" Eddie smiled broadly at the appearance of the  whom he considered his son. "Fat Jimmy just got here a
 little while ago; he's setting things up in the back. The
 game's going to start at ten. See those  over there?"
 Eddie tilted his head toward the end of the bar. "Those are
 two of the dagos from back east. One's from New York and the
 other's from Philly."
 
 "You keep 'em filled with drinks, I'll cover it later."
 Leroy chuckled. "Anyone else here?"
 
 "A couple of other  are here. Don't worry, I've been
 liquoring them up. The  Jew, Heillman, from Miami is here
 but he don't drink nothing stronger than Ginger Ale."
 
 "That's ok. The booze ain't going to change the way any of
 these  play, anyway. I'll catch you later, I'm going
 back and seeing what that fat Polack bastard is up to."
 Leroy walked past the bouncer into the private back room.
 
 "Leroy, how's it going?" The obese Pole forced a smile as he
 was arranging things around the large crap table. Leroy
 noticed that Jablonski was sweating profusely, despite the
 cool temperatures of the room.
 
 "Not bad," Brown responded coldly. "Everything all set?"
 
 "Pretty much. Most of the  are here already. We're just
 waiting for a couple more. We should have about fifteen
 guys."
 
 "Good. I'll be out at the bar."
 
 The back room was for players only, and it was just shortly
 after ten that Fat Jimmy was passing around the dice for
 their inspections. Each of the men, in turn, took out their
 various dice testing devices to make sure that they weren't
 playing with unevenly weighted, or loaded, dice.
 
 Leroy looked around the table, examining his competition. In
 addition to Fat Jimmy Jablonski, there were the two well
 dressed  from back east with the mob backing, Paulie
 Benedetto from Brooklyn, and Anthony 'Tony Balls' Bellotti
 from Philadelphia. Next to them were three semi-regulars to
 the Chicago games. Leroy thought that they were all from the
 north side, although they could be from the suburbs, too.
 Though they weren't dressed particularly well, Leroy knew
 from past experience that they had a lot of money to bet and
 they didn't particularly care whether or not they won, they
 were just there for the action. Leroy guessed that they
 probably spent much of the evening prior to the game getting
 coked up; their judgement would certainly be impaired, at
 best. Those are the best players to have at a game, Leroy
 thought.
 
 Next to them were several people Leroy didn't recognize, but
 by the look of their finely tailored suits, they looked to
 have money to burn. Leo Heillman, from Miami, was next to
 them. He was the player to be most feared in the game. He
 had the deepest pockets of any of the players, and the most
 experience. It was rumored that Heillman had been shooting
 craps since he was a kid on the lower east side of
 Manhattan. Between running games for the mob and playing in
 a fair amount himself he was able to afford a major interest
 in one of the fancy Havana casinos before Castro came to
 power and closed them all down. Despite that setback, he
 still had a hand in most of the illegal games in south
 Florida that fled north after Batista's fall and was
 probably worth more than everyone else at the table,
 combined.
 
 Next to Heillman was an enormous, severe looking man, who
 perhaps rivaled Leroy in size and never cracked a smile. He
 was an unknown to the game, in fact all they knew of him was
 that his name was Luther, he was from Detroit, and had some
 previous business dealings with Fat Jimmy. An unknown
 player, thought Leroy, was dangerous.
 
 The remaining players were familiar to Leroy, and posed no
 threat at all. They were generally under funded for a game
 of this size and that, more than luck or play style, is
 often the death knell for a craps shooter. A large enough
 bankroll is absolutely necessary to ride the losses when the
 dice are running cold so there will be enough in reserve
 when the dice start to heat up. And despite whatever the
 study of statistics says, dice, much like women, run hot and
 cold from one moment to the next. The key is knowing how to
 handle them when they're cold so you'll still be around when
 they warm up again. At a thousand dollars a roll, minimum,
 unless these  got hot in a hurry, they were going to be
 out fast.
 
 After the dice had been thoroughly inspected to everyone's
 satisfaction, the game began. Out of respect, it was agreed
 that Leo Heillman would come out first. Setting the tone for
 the night, he laid $1500 down on the line and waited as the
 others dropped their cash on the table and covered his bet.
 After the last of the $1500 was matched, Leo sent the dice
 bobbing over the baize surface of the table, making them
 rattle off the far rubber wall. Six showed up on the dice
 and became the point.
 
 "I've got five small to make the point." Leo said, now
 offering to place an additional $500 down on whether he
 could make a six before a seven came up.
 
 "I'll lay the full five, at even money." Leroy covered the
 bet, knowing full well that the shooter had five chances out
 of eleven to make six before a seven was rolled and should
 be getting 6-5 odds, instead of the even money he was
 offering.
 
 "On." agreed Leo as he prepared to roll the dice again.
 
 Private craps, as they were playing tonight, was a much
 different game than Casino, or Bank, craps as was played in
 the hotels of Nevada. In Casino craps, each player plays
 against the house, which accepts all bets. The odds the
 players receive give a slight advantage to the Casino, and
 this 'vig' is what allows the casinos to make money. Over
 time, the one to two percentage point advantage that they
 have translates into tremendous profits for the casinos.
 
 In private craps, there was no 'house'. The other players
 covered the bets of the shooter, and each time he
 sevened-out, the roll would be passed to the player to his
 left. Although the Vegas Strip hotels would comp -- that is
 offer free -- high rollers like these flights to and from
 Vegas, rooms, meals, and even female companionship, most of
 the big players preferred the huge private games such as
 this one tonight. The stakes were generally higher, but more
 importantly, these games were under the table and the IRS
 would not find out how much money was bet -- and won.
 
 Heillman shook the two dice in his hand, needing to roll a
 six, his 'point', before he rolled a seven. He threw the
 dice several more times, none of which got his needed six,
 or the desired result of the players covering his bets, a
 seven. With each successive roll the table became more
 animated, the players shouting out their encouragement for
 one result or another.
 
 "Seven!" The shouts arose from around the table. Heillman's
 money was divided up among the players who covered it, and
 the $500 'odds' bet was pushed toward Leroy.
 
 Luther was the next shooter, and he laid $1000 on the table,
 which was covered by the players. He established a point of
 nine and dropped another $1000 on the table. Leroy
 immediately yelled, "Covered for $1200."
 
 "Fuck you man," was Luther's curt reply. "Those odds suck."
 
 "$1300." Leroy simply replied.
 
 "On."
 
 Leroy once again was getting the best of the percentages
 with the shooter. By offering $1300 to cover a $1000 bet,
 his percentage advantage was enormous. Since there are four
 ways in which a nine can be rolled, compared to the six ways
 which total a seven, true odds should be 3 to 2. For the
 odds on Luther's bet to be true, Leroy should have covered
 with $1500; by only covering with $1300, Leroy was giving
 himself a huge advantage.
 
 Luther rolled several numbers, none of which were nine or
 seven. Some of the other players were throwing down money on
 the side numbers. That is they were betting that other point
 numbers, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10 -- it generally is considered
 bad form to place side money on the shooter's point -- would
 be rolled before the shooter rolled a seven. Most players
 don't like to take these bets, and in many games go
 uncovered. But these were the bets that Leroy thrived on.
 Offering such unfavorable odds that would often result in a
 30 or 40 percent advantage, Leroy used these side bets to
 clean up.
 
 All the side bets were laid and covered, most by Leroy, and
 although he had to pay off on two sixes and a ten, when
 Luther sevened out, Leroy had netted himself $5600 and was
 well on his way to a big night.
 
 Several other shooters began rolling, none with too much
 success. The dice were very cold, which was frustrating to
 most players, but a boon to Leroy. Covering many of the
 bets, Leroy had found himself up over $12000 without the
 dice having made a full circle of the table. Then the dice
 were placed in front for Leroy.
 
 Leroy always passed on the roll. In most games, that's the
 type of thing that will create enemies real quick. But Leroy
 had always told the  of a small game he was playing in
 when he was a teenager and was shooting when he learned the
 tragic news that his  had been killed in an auto
 accident. Ever since then, he would relate, he could never
 bring himself to shoot the dice himself.
 
 It was, of course, all a lie. Leroy had never actually known
 his father; Thomas Brown was the innocent victim of a
 crossfire on the El when Leroy was just a baby. And Leroy
 had been at his mother's bedside when she died from cancer
 thirteen years ago. Still, it was a nice excuse not to roll
 the dice and take the worst of the odds. Leroy didn't become
 who he was by being a fool. 'Let all of those others shoot
 the dice,' he thought. 'I'll take the odds and over time all
 their money too.'
 
 Over the next two and a half hours the dice were in various
 stages of warmth, as the players would say. A couple of
 shooters got hot on their rolls -- namely Heillman and Tony
 Balls -- but for most of them, the dice were pretty cold. By
 12:30, the three north side 'coke heads' as Leroy had
 categorized them had lost a combined $65000 and were out of
 the game. Also gone were four of the underfunded players,
 and $36000 with them. Paulie from Brooklyn and the $40000 of
 mob money he brought with him had also departed. Most of the
 remaining players were either down or up no more than a
 couple of thousand. Heillman, whom it was later learned had
 staked himself with $75000, was up about $28000; Tony Balls,
 through a couple of hot rolls of his own and some judicious
 coverage of bets, had added $37000 to the $25000 he showed
 up with. Leroy, however, was the big winner on the evening
 thus far having added over $70000 to the $27000 he staked
 himself to.
 
 "I got to go take a  and get something to drink. I'll be
 back in about a half hour." Leroy picked up his money off
 the table and headed back into the main bar.
 
 Fridays at Eddie's was always hopping and tonight was no
 exception. Eddie had two other bartenders and two waitresses
 working to keep up with the crowd, but when he saw Leroy
 emerge from the men's room, he called over his  friend.
 
 "Don't tell me you out already man?" Eddie furrowed his brow
 in concern.
 
 Leroy laughed heartily. "I'm just taking a break, give me a
 .45, Eddie, while I hit the can."
 
 "So, are you gonna tell me how the fuck you doin', or do I
 get to play 20 questions?" Eddie asked as Leroy returned
 from the bathroom.
 
 "I haven't counted it yet. But I guess I'm up pretty close
 to 60, 70 large."
 
 "No shit?"
 
 "No shit, man. I'm fuckin' on fire. Those dice are so
 fucking cold. But I think the game might not last too late,
 players are dropping like flies. We won't have enough for a
 good game before too long." Leroy took a long swig from his
 drink, and as he tilted his head back, he noticed a
 beautiful woman sitting alone at the other end of the bar.
 
 "Say, Eddie. Who the fuck's that bitch? She working?"
 
 "I don't think so. She been in for a couple of hours. A
 bunch of  went up to her, but she shot 'em all down. Not
 any kind of pro I ever seen turn down that many guys. Plus,
 she's been checking her watch every few minutes; like she's
 waiting for somebody." Eddie observed.
 
 "She's one foxy lady. I think Leroy needs to introduce
 himself."
 
 "Hey, Leroy, what about Monique?"
 
 "What Monique don't know won't  her." Leroy chuckled as
 he headed down to the other end of the bar.
 
 "I think it's a crime that such a pretty lady should be
 alone." Leroy took the seat next to her.
 
 "And who are you, the date police?"
 
 "No, my name is Leroy Brown, and I hate to see such a foxy
 mama all by herself."
 
 "So what do you think you're going to do about it?" She
 asked haughtily.
 
 "Well, first I need to find out your name and find out why
 you're alone?"
 
 "My name's Doris and I'm waiting for my man."
 
 "Well Doris, I don't know what kind of  would make such a
 sexy woman wait in a bar for him all night."
 
 Doris stared deeply into Leroy's eyes, becoming instantly
 attracted to this  whom she only had known for a few
 minutes. "I think you're right. What do you plan on doing
 about it." She wet her lips sexily with her tongue and
 started running her index finger along Leroy's forearm.
 
 "Well, I happen to have access to a room upstairs. I'll make
 you forget all of your worries." Leroy then turned to Eddie,
 "Say, my man, throw me the key. And take this green and
 throw it in your safe." Leroy handed more than $97000 to his
 friend.
 
 Eddie sighed in resignation and tossed Leroy the key to the
 small apartment above the bar after dropping the cash into
 the large grey safe. Leroy led Doris up the back stairs and
 into the second floor apartment.
 
 They threw themselves at each other, savagely mashing their
 lips together. Leroy parted her lips with his tongue and she
 eagerly  it into her own. They moved to the bedroom,
 where Leroy fell back on the bed and Doris straddled him,
 furiously unfastening his pants.
 
 "You think you're pretty slick with women don't you?" Doris
 said as she was yanking down his boxers.
 
 "Well, they do call me the 'treetop lover'." Leroy boasted.
 
 Doris gasped as she removed his nine inch cock from his
 pants. "Leroy, they might call you the 'treetop lover', but
 right now I'm interested in that tree trunk." With that,
 Doris opened her mouth widely and engulfed his huge member,
 getting about half of it in. With one hand she violently
 pumped his shaft while timing her hand strokes with the
 bobbing of her head on his cock.
 
 Leroy lifted Doris off of his cock and finished taking his
 clothes off while her dress slid off of her sexy body,
 revealing   with jet black areolas topped by
 three-quarter inch nipples.
 
 Leroy licked his lips as he pulled Doris down on the bed.
 She climbed on top of him and gingerly lowered herself on
 Leroy's prick. She grunted in a combination of pain and
 pleasure as Leroy bottomed out. Riding him like a cowboy,
 her  jiggled obscenely as Leroy tried to corral them
 in his large hands.
 
 He grabbed them roughly in his hands and lowered a nipple to
 his mouth, nibbling on its stony peak. Doris moaned her
 pleasure and bucked her  harder on Leroy's cock. Her
 movements became more clumsy and Leroy had to grab her by
 the hips to steady her. She grunted and squealed in orgasm
 as she collapsed on Leroy's chest. They lay like that for a
 couple of minutes, Leroy's cock resting just inside Doris's
 sex. He flipped her over, entered her quickly, and began
 pounding her  without remorse. She came shortly and
 came again, and then three more times, yelling loudly with
 each orgasm. Leroy sped his movements, knowing he needed to
 get back to the game, and his cock erupted, releasing a
 torrent of semen into her well fucked cunt.
 
 They dressed quickly and silently, sharing a light kiss
 before leaving the apartment to head back to the bar. As
 they emerged from the back stairway Doris turned white as
 she looked in the direction of the bar. The object of her
 attention was an   who had just emerged from the
 back room.
 
 "Where the fuck you been, Doris?" Luther boomed from across
 the bar.
 
 "Now settle down Luther." Doris replied meekly.
 
 "Don't give me that 'settle down' shit," Luther bristled.
 "What the fuck you doing with this chump?"
 
 "Who the fuck you callin' 'chump', nigger?" Leroy responded
 angrily.
 
 "I'm callin' you chump,  fucker."
 
 Leroy was not a  accustomed to being yelled at in a
 hostile fashion and in Eddie's place, which he considered
 part of his 'turf', this was an affront that he could not
 let go unchallenged.
 
 With a mighty grunt, Leroy sprang from his feet like a puma
 and retrieved his switchblade from his boot all in one
 motion. His lunge landed him to within two feet of Luther,
 and Leroy depressed the catch on the blade, releasing it
 from its sheath, and stabbed it deeply into his adversary's
 abdomen. But the other  reacted quicker to the attack
 than Leroy expected and was able to turn himself slightly.
 Instead of entering the center of the stomach the knife
 ended plunging into the side muscles near his belly; it was
 certainly bloody and messy, but didn't do any serious
 damage.
 
 "Arrgh." Luther screamed out in pain and reflexively drove
 his heel into Leroy's groin, causing him to stumble backward
 in pain. Blood was oozing out of Luther's side but he took
 advantage of  Leroy being in a supine position and pounced
 on him with his own knife. He managed to plunge it into
 Leroy's arm several times before Leroy was able to gain some
 leverage and throw him off.
 
 The back room had cleared of all the craps players, most
 having run out the rear exit with the first sounds of
 commotion. All of the bar occupants had fled, were hiding
 under the table, or were inching closer to get a better
 view. All except Doris, who was screeching for Luther and
 Leroy to stop, and Eddie, who was searching behind the bar
 for his sawed off shotgun.
 
 The next few minutes were a blur of knives, blood, and two
 large bodies flailing around on the floor. Out of the mass
 of confusion two gunshots were heard and as the bar silenced
 en masse the next sound was the click of Eddie's shotgun
 being pointed at Luther's head.
 
 "Now unless you don't want to be pickin' up your fucking
 brains with a straw, you'll drop that gun and get the fuck
 out of here." Eddie said emphatically as blood was gushing
 from Luther in several places.
 
 When it was finished, Leroy was sliced in over a dozen
 places and had bullet holes in his leg and stomach. He was
 unconscious and blood was seeping from him at an alarming
 rate. An ambulance rushed him to the hospital, where he
 underwent emergency surgery and remained unconscious in
 intensive care for three days.
 
 Monique, Eddie, and Eddie's wife, Shirley, all took turns
 sitting in vigil for those three days as Leroy barely clung
 to life. They paced and swore, and tried to lay blame for
 Leroy's resultant condition. But when all the recrimination
 was over, they all came to the same conclusion: it was
 simply Leroy's time. He had been in too many of these
 scrapes to escape the odds forever. He lived life by the
 street's rules and now he was paying the consequences for
 it.
 
 Tuesday he woke up in the hospital with the three of them
 waiting near his bed. His head throbbed and he was shocked
 to see all of the stitches and IV tubes now decorating his
 body. He looked haggard -- near death would be as apt a way
 of describing it as possible -- but brightened as he saw his
 friends surrounding the bed.
 
 "What day is it?" Leroy asked in a rasping, barely audible
 voice.
 
 "Tuesday, baby." Monique reached out and lightly grasped his
 hand and Leroy tried to muster up strength to squeeze back.
 
 "What happened?"
 
 "That big  fucker kicked your ass. I never thought I'd
 see that day." Eddie replied then tempered the harsh nature
 of his comments. "I found out that he fought golden gloves a
 couple of years ago, then he turned pro. Now he's moving up
 the ranks in the Light Heavyweight division. But he looked
 real shitty when he left too."
 
 Leroy could feel some strength return and he struggled to
 pull himself to a sitting position. He drank a cup of water
 and some of the life seemed to return to his face.
 
 "Eddie, man, I'm sorry about the bar."Leroy said. "What kind
 of shape is it in?"
 
 "It's not too bad, a few broken tables and stools. That's
 all."
 
 "Well, whatever the damage comes to, let me know. I'll cover
 it." Leroy tried to summon a smile.
 
 "No need. With the money I made from holding the crap game
 in my place I got more than enough to..."
 
 Leroy cut off Eddie, "Fuck that shit, Eddie. I'm responsible
 for that mess, I'm going to pay for it. Besides, I walked
 out of that game with over 70 large more than I started
 with."
 
 Monique asked if she could have a few minutes alone with
 Leroy. Shirley leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and
 Eddie patted his non injured shoulder before they left the
 room.
 
 "Oh, sugar I was so scared that I was going to lose you."
 Monique said.
 
 "I'm sorry for puttin' you through all this baby." Leroy
 apologized.
 
 "Well, if you could manage to keep your dick in your pants
 you wouldn't have been in this position, would you?"
 
 "Baby, I don't know what to s..."
 
 "I don't want to hear any of this 'baby' shit." Monique
 scolded. "I can't live this way anymore. I love you but I'm
 not going to spend my life waiting on you to go fuck all
 your whores and then come back to me. You're going to have
 to choose between me and them. I'm not going to spend my
 life sharing you." Tears started rolling down her cheeks and
 she tried to hide them.
 
 Leroy closed his eyes in reflection. The pain of his wounds
 were nothing compared to the pain he knew he had inflicted
 on his girlfriend. He knew Monique was serious; she had
 never spoken to him about this with such feeling and
 intensity. He also knew he couldn't live his life without
 her. They had been together for over a decade, and although
 he didn't think of his future often, whenever he did Monique
 was always a large part of it.
 
 He felt fairly confident that he could give up the other
 women; he usually only picked up other women because he
 could. He liked all the sex, but Monique was always more
 than enough woman for him. The big question he had to ask
 himself was could he make a commitment of this magnitude and
 honor it.
 
 As he thought more about it, he realized that for the first
 time he could ever remember, he was thinking about his own
 mortality. The fight and loss to Luther had been the first
 defeat of any note that Leroy had ever suffered, and it
 scared the shit out of him. He realized, perhaps for the
 first time in his entire life, that he wasn't invincible and
 that certainly made him think about things in a much
 different light. Perhaps settling down wasn't such a bad
 thing, after all. He loved Monique with all his heart and
 maybe it was time to step up to the plate and be a  about
 things.
 
 "Monique, baby," Leroy looked up at her and started to
 remove one of the large diamond rings from his right hand.
 "This might not be real proper doing it this way, but I love
 you."
 
 Leroy took Monique's hand and began to slip the oversized
 ring over her thin finger. Tears began to well up in
 Monique's eyes as he brought her hand to his lips.
 
 "What I'm trying to say is..." Leroy hesitated, clearing his
 throat. "Monique, baby, will you be my wife?"
 
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