Well, I wasn't going to post this chapter tonight...but I just couldn't wait. The BIG secret is revealed in the last line. But don't cheat and read that first! Read the whole chapter...I'm pretty proud of it!

King Benny finally makes an appearance in this chapter. As I said before, I borrowed the character from the movie Sleepers. I also based parts of the conversation on some scenes in the movie.

PLEASE let me know what you think of this chapter. Things have been leading up to this.

There is still one secret left to be revealed. It's not Angie's secret, but someone else's! Some of you may have figured it out by now, but there is more to come! Enjoy...

Chapter Fifteen - Safe in the Arms of Danger

Benny's Fish Market, Hell's Kitchen: Eighty Seven Hours Missing

Angie walked through the streets of Hell's Kitchen and looked around at what her former neighborhood had become. Things were still very much the same, yet so much was different. The buildings she remembered so fondly were still standing - St. Mary's Church where they attended mass each Sunday was still on the corner, while their elementary school, Holy Cross Parochial, still loomed large on West 43rd Street, and the various small businesses they frequented as children still dotted the side streets. But the buildings were showing signs of neglect and decay as the escalating crime and poverty in the area forced the former shopkeepers to relocate. At last, Angie turned the corner and saw the only building she would ever come back here for...Benny's Fish Market. King Benny still ran a small piece of Hell's Kitchen, working out of the same dark room he had when Angie had first met him.

To raise a child in Hell's Kitchen was to live in the valley of the shadow of the gun. Poverty and unemployment, in and of themselves, aren't necessarily dangerous, but there were always too many guns and drug dealers in the neighborhood. So most parents put their trust in King Benny, the biggest eyes and ears in Hell's Kitchen, when it came to protecting their children. Even those parents who despised his occupation, like Frank Sullivan, respected his devotion to keeping the children of the neighborhood safe. King Benny used diplomacy when called for and force when necessary. He earned his money from old fashioned mob enterprises - loan sharking, numbers running, drug trafficking, and truck hijacking. King Benny ruled with a tight fist and lashed out with a deadly purpose against any threat to his domain. And Hell's Kitchen was his domain.

He would do favors for those he liked and ignored those he considered liabilities. He would listen to people's problems and offer opinions on how those problems could be solved. He was a father without a conscience. His decisions were never rash and always final. In Hell's Kitchen, his words were respected as law. And it was the only law that was never broken.

The back room of King Benny's fish market was a foul smelling room that was like a second home to Angie when she lived in Hell's Kitchen. Like a library was for some, it became a place to escape the harshness of life. It was a strange escape into the quiet company of the single most dangerous man in Hell's Kitchen.

Pausing in the doorway, Angie watched the old man for a moment. He was the one thing in this neighborhood that never changed. His hair was a bit grayer at the temples and there were a few more lines in his forehead, but other than that he was the same man she had always been intrigued by.

"Don't hover, Mary Angelina. If you are going to come in, then come all the way and sit with me. Let's play."

His voice was still the same as she remembered also...low and gravelly, with a thick Italian accent that was unlike any she had grown up with. It was comforting, in a strange way, but she also knew that at times it could scare the life out of his enemies. As she did when she was a child, Angie obeyed King Benny's command and moved forward.

The large room was wrapped in darkness and Italian love songs played from a juke box on a far wall. Three men dressed in black jackets and black sport shirts sat a table in the corner playing cards. None of them spoke, but they let their eyes wander all over Angie as she made her way to the back of the room.

King Benny calmly shuffled the cards in front of him, a large espresso cup to his left and the shades of a nearby window drawn to block out the mid-day sun. Angie sat down across the table from him, as she had so many times when she was a child, and waited for the game to begin. She took a few moments to study the old man who sat before her up close. He was older, wiser, and, Angie guessed, as dangerous as ever. She had been counting on that.

Never showing any sign of the emotion he held inside, King Benny asked, "Are you sure you wanna play me?"

Angie shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

"I cheat." He said simply.

Angie grinned in spite of herself. "So do I."

"Good." he said, finally cracking a slight smile, and opened the deal. The game was sette bello, Italian blackjack, which he had taught her to play on a rainy Saturday afternoon long ago when she was supposed to be at story hour at the library. He let her win only once in all those years. And she had been perfecting her game ever since.

"Hungry?" King Benny asked, tossing her two cards.

Angie shook her head. He had little use for words and used as few as he possibly could. Angie appreciated that about him. For you always knew that when he did speak, it was important to listen.

"Are you sure?" he wanted to know.

"I'm sure." came her answer.

"What's it going to be?" he asked nodding toward her cards, the topic of food now closed.

"Give me a hit."

King Benny flipped the card from the top of the deck, his eyes never leaving Angie's. "You're over." he said. "Now you're into me for a dollar."

"We used to play for pennies." Angie reminded him, digging her wallet out of her purse.

"That was a long time ago." was his simple answer. "The stakes are higher now."

That was the understatement of the century. "Double or nothing." she told him.

"A sucker bet," King Benny said and smirked, dealing out fresh cards and sipping from his espresso.

Angie lost the first ten hands they played, as King Benny kept picking up her dollars and piling them next to his cup. He kept the deck of cards at his right hand, dealing with only one finger, his eyes always fixed on Angie and never on the table. He shuffled the cards every other deal and ignored the phone when it rang.

"You always end up with a six." Angie said with a smile. "How is that?"

"I'm lucky."

"I thought you said you cheated."

"Same thing." And to King Benny, it probably was. Deciding that they had played for long enough, King Benny sat back and regarded her for a few moments. Finally, he said, "I am guessing that losing ten dollars to me at sette bello was not the reason you came all the way back to your past. Trouble at home?"

Angie shook her head, "I'm not home long enough to have trouble."

"You have been running from the past for a long time, mi felicita italiano." He said, invoking the name he gave to her when she was a child. "Has it finally caught up to you?"

There was no reason to play games with him...he had the uncanny ability to see right through her. Nodding, she said quietly, "I need a favor."

King Benny smiled and shook his head in amusement. "Your mother, God rest her soul, would turn over in her grave if she knew you asked me for a favor." He raised an eyebrow at her and then said, "Your father too, for that matter."

"I think they might approve of this." There was no love lost between King Benny Spinopolli and Big Pauly Caruso. That was no secret. They were two dangerous men who protected their turf with deadly force, always trying to conquer the other. But more than that, the rivalry between them was personal. "Did you love my mother?" Angie asked.

King Benny's face registered a look of surprise before he was able to cover it up with his usual stoney faced mask. "That is what you come to ask?" he asked.

"No." Angie said simply. "Just background information. Did you?"

Quietly, he answered, "I loved her every day."

"Is that why you watched out for me and Eddie?"

"I watch out for all the children of my neighborhood." He said, nonchalantly.

"We were special." Angie countered.

King Benny eyed her for a moment and Angie thought she saw some amusement behind his glare. "Yes." He answered. "You were special to me. You still are. I like you. You always made me smile and not too much makes me smile." He was very careful not to reveal too much humanity, for in his business it was a liability. But Angie knew how rare it was that King Benny expressed affection for anything. Then, getting back to the subject at hand, he asked, "Now what is the favor?"

Angie took a deep breath and said, "Eddie is missing."

Without missing a beat or batting an eyelash, he answered, "And this surprises you?"

"No." Angie answered, knowing that would be his reply. In the world King Benny and Eddie lived in, people disappeared all the time. And Angie was certain King Benny knew exactly what Eddie had been up to in the last sixteen years. "But I need to find out what happened to him."

"There are some things in life that you are better off not knowing." He answered quietly. "The truth may be more painful than you can imagine."

Angie shook her head. "Nothing can be worse than not knowing."

King Benny mulled over her words for a few moments as he studied her face. Finally, he said, "I am an old man, now. I cannot help you.

As if she was prepared for that answer, Angie said, "I was hoping you would come out of retirement for this." She looked his square in the eye. "For me. For my mother." Angie pulled a large envelope out of her purse and slid it across the table to him. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "My Uncle Tony likes to buy girls for his parties. They are expensive..."

"How do you know this?" He asked, eyeing the envelope suspiciously but never touching it.

Angie shrugged and said slyly, "I guess I have some of my father in me after all." Looking down at the envelope, she continued, "The girls are foreign and exotic. And very expensive. More expensive than he wants anyone in the family to know. So he goes outside the family to finance them. He owes..."

"No." King Benny stopped her by suddenly saying and picked up the envelope from where she had placed it on the table. He walked over to a small kitchenette where he proceeded to strike a match and set fire to the envelope without ever viewing the contents.

Angie jumped out of her chair with a start. "What are you doing?" she demanded. Mikey had been up half the night calling in favors to get her that evidence.

"Tomorrow you will wake up and hate yourself for what you were about to do." He explained, coming back to sit at the table. He motioned for her to sit as well and she obeyed, the tears brimming in her eyes. This had been her last hope. But she would not let him see her cry. King Benny hated weakness. She listened as he continued, "You are a good girl, Mary Angelina. Not many people get out of this life. You got out. Don't throw it away."

"He's my brother." She said quietly, pleading with him.

"Eddie's not a good boy anymore. He's a killer now." King Benny tried to reason with her, but he could tell his words were falling on deaf ears.

Why did everyone feel they had to keep reminding her of that? "Please." She whispered. "I have to know."

He cocked his head to one side as he regarded her. "And you think selling me your uncle's debts will make everything better? That when I call in his loan that he will just break down and tell me what happened to your brother?" he asked. "It don' t work that way."

"Then make it work. Do it your way."

"My way?" King Benny asked,watching her closely. "You know nothing of this life. Keep it that way. It's not worth it. Don't throw away the life you have created for yourself. Having Tony Caruso owe me money..."

"He owes you more than money." Angie interrupted him, a cold new tone to her voice. "A lot more. He owes it to us both."

King Benny was both irritated and intrigued at the same time. He was proud of the way she would not back down, but his word was final. He would not let her get involved in his business. "I am an old man and could die at any moment, Mary Angelina. I have no time for riddles. What does your uncle owe that is worth more than money?"

Angie leveled King Benny Spinopolli with her eyes and said in a calm, defiant voice, "He owes us my mother. Anthony Caruso is the man who killed her."