"Bruce?" The door swung open and I scooted backwards. Xiao came in with his shirtsleeves rolled up, followed by a tiny man. The man stood beside Xiao with his arms folded placidly. I wasn't fooled. My time in NoLuk territory had taught me that appearances are deceiving. Heng looked like the most mild-mannered man in Chinatown, but he'd been a prizefighter and knew exactly where to hit a guy to make him talk.

"What?" I answered sullenly, looking up at them.

"We want answers. Are you going to give them to us, or will Heng have to take them from you?" Xiao checked the wrappings on his fists, then grinned and loomed over me. "Start talking. Why was Shamus after you?"

I looked down. "I'm not telling you that."

Heng kicked me and prompted, "Answer Xiao."

Xiao stared at me. "You do know Shamus is dead?"

"Yes." I didn't elaborate. No sense in incriminating myself.

"Then you've got nothing to worry about."

I almost laughed. It wasn't Shamus I was worried about now; it was Brody and his goons. If I breathed one word of what he and Shamus had been up to, I'd have a lot more to worry about than I did right now. Heng twisted my arm a bit further and I felt my shoulder pop out of place.

I hesitated again and Heng's tiny foot connected with my side. "He should have a bruise right there," Xiao commented. I groaned and hunched over and Xiao feigned surprise. "Well, what do you know? I was right."

Heng rested his foot against my side, pressing delicately on my bruise. "To tell only half the truth is to give life to a new lie, Mr. Buchanan."

"Yeah?" I groaned. "Well, telling the whole truth isn't going to give life to anyone in my case. Especially not Shamus."

Xiao lowered one eyebrow. "Stay on track, Buchanan. Why was Shamus after you?"

"He ran a black market for muffins. One of his side jobs. I was doing a few odd jobs for him: selling muffins and the like. But...I spent the money I was supposed to give him. He sent Brody after me and gave me two days to get the money to him. My two days was up the day Shamus...died."

"So Shamus McGinty and Brody Delaney came after you that night to get the money?"

I nodded, trying to speak quickly. "Except I didn't have it. I met my brother Buck and he gave me some money. It wasn't as much as I needed and it wasn't enough to keep Brody from clobbering me, but it was enough to buy me another day from Shamus and Brody."

Xiao nodded slowly. "And that's all? That's why you crossed onto our territory?"

"Uh-huh. That...and Madame Lee's geishas."

Xiao surveyed me with interest. "You went to Madame Lee's?"

"And had a swell time until your goons saw me. Ask..." I frowned, trying to remember the girl's name. "Jade! Ask Jade; she'll tell you I was there."

"Anyone else who can tell me where you were before we found you?"

I shook my head. "No one who's still on your territory. There was a girl...a redhead who was trying to talk to me. I don't know why she was over here or what she wanted."

Xiao and Heng exchanged puzzled glances. "A redhead?"

I shrugged, using my eyebrows instead of my shoulders. "I think she was a redhead. It was dark."

"You'd never seen her before?"

"No...but she knew my name."

Xiao shifted his weight and fiddled with his bean-shooter. I had the feeling he was getting tired of talking to me. "You didn't know hers?"

"No...wait, she did mention her name. O'Somethin'...O'...I don't know."

"But she was Irish?"

"Look, I don't know!" I burst out. "I'm not some magician who can remember everything!" What was her name?"O'Capable? O'Cappella! That's it - Annie O'Cappella."

Xiao's eyes narrowed and he was about to speak when one of the other NoLuks stuck his head in the door. "Xiao?" Xiao sighed, walked to the door, and conversed quietly for a few minutes.

I tried to figure out why Xiao was so interested in this dame. Sure, O'Cappella was an Irish name, but that didn't mean the redhead dame was involved with McGinty...I suddenly remembered one of the boys in McGinty's gang. His name was O'Cappella, too. They called him Knockout Neil. He was an infighter with a wicked left hook and a penchant for thrill-chasing. Maybe this dame was related to him, but that still didn't explain Xiao's interest.

Xiao returned and stared at me, cracking his knuckles. Knuckles...fistwraps...Suddenly I realized why Xiao was interested in the name O'Cappella. He must have lost a fight against Neil and now he's holding a grudge. I didn't have time to think about anything else because Xiao's fist came flying towards my head. A bunch of muffins exploded before my eyes and everything went black.

***

I woke up and tried to open my eyes. They were almost swollen shut. I tried to sit up, but my whole body hurt too much. I rested my hand on my side and gingerly felt my ribs. Several of them were bruised, but I thought one might be broken. My shoulder was sore, but it felt like it had been popped back into place.

I was lying in a bed with a red velvet comforter thrown over me. I pushed the blanket back and painfully pulled myself into a sitting position. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and tried to stand up, but ended up collapsing back on the bed with a groan.

The door opened and Brody Delaney walked in. I laughed when I saw the bruises on his face. My laugh ended in a gasp of pain from my side. "I have you to thank for these bruises, Buchanan." Delaney frowned at me.

"Yeah? I've got several to thank you for, too." I snapped, then frowned. "Whaddya mean by that? You're the one who clobbered me!"

"I'm also the one who crossed territory lines to try to get you back from Madame Yu."

That surprised me and I stood, narrowing my eyes at Delaney. "That didn't work out too well for you, did it?"

He grimaced. "Running away didn't work out too well for you. I honestly don't know why Lulu bothered getting you back."

"I guess you don't know her as well as you think." I made an attempt at a smirk. Delaney lunged towards me and things might have gotten ugly if Lulu hadn't walked in.

She pulled her fur coat over her evening dress and stepped between us. "Brody, what's going on?" She laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Ask Bruce." He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall.

"Bruce?" She raised one eyebrow. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

"You're probably right." I grinned ruefully and eased back into the bed. "Wait. Do you know if Neil O'Cappella ever fought the NoLuks?"

Lulu frowned. "Neil...I don't know...why?"

"There was a redhead who tried to talk to me before I went to Madame Lee's. Said her name was O'Cappella."

Lulu's eyebrows furrowed and she opened her mouth, but Brody spoke up. "He fought somewhere, that's for sure. He'd come in pretty beat up some nights, but he always had plenty of dough on him, so he must have won some of the fights."

"Why would Xiao have been interested in Neil?" Lulu asked, running a brush through her hair and checking her reflection in the big mirror on the wall.

I watched her, mesmerized by her figure. "Same reason I'm interested in Delaney. He whipped me in a fight and I now I want to whip him."

"Neil's dead," Delaney said stiffly. "If you'd stuck around longer, you'd know that."

Neil? What could he have done to get himself killed? "A pity Xiao doesn't know that," I said lightly. "He'll spend his time hunting down someone who's six feet under."

Lulu gave me a stern look as she opened the door. "You get back in bed, Bruce. I'm going out. Brody, there's sinkers and whiskey in the kitchen."

Delaney grunted and followed her out. I waited until I heard the outer door had close behind Lulu, then headed for the kitchen. I passed through the living room and noticed Delaney sleeping on the couch. Looks like I took his bed. Sorry, not sorry. A little while later, pain numbed and brain deadened, I stumbled back into the bedroom and fell asleep.