Young McHanzo: The Man Behind the Mask

Chapter 3

Never in McCree's life had he been more nervous than he did at this dinner. Surrounded by watchful and discriminating eyes, Jesse could hardly take a sip of water without his hand shaking like a leaf in the wind. Genji sat the farthest from him, happily eating his lavish dinner while chatting with the staff, they seemed to like him and appreciated his outward kindness to the hired staff. Shimada Sama sat at the head of the table, to Jesse's right. A pair of older gentlemen in suits sat to his left side. Lastly, Hanzo rested across from Jesse. Jesse thought Hanzo would be left out of business, just as Genji had been. But it seemed, to Jesse's surprise, Hanzo was of age to almost run the entire arrangement. Shimada Sama said very little, talking in hushed, quick japanese to Hanzo when his oldest son needed guidance. Other than that, Hanzo talked confidently, asking questions Jesse felt unqualified to answer,

"Who were you last clients?"

"What partners do you have in the United States?"

"Is DeadLock affiliated with an another source within Asia? Do not lie to me."

"What kind of connections does DeadLock have in the United States?"

The questions never slowed, the entire dinner Hanzo was ablaze with prying questions. His voice never wavered, his words were confident and dominant, like Jesse was scum who he was assigned to deal with. Jesse was too nervous to see Hanzo as anything other than one of the terrifying partners Boss always dealt with. All hopes of flirting fleeted quickly.

The other two men were no better, they were introduced as the Shimada Affiliates. Jesse honestly did not know what that meant. They asked questions about past transactions and what kinds of trades DeadLock usually attended to. Jesse was very much under the impression all of these questions were overstepping their grounds, Boss never discussed other trades while in the process of another. Jesse lacked the eloquence to say he was not qualified to answer these kinds of questions, he also lacked the knowledge to answer most of them.

Nerves coursed his body as Hanzo and the other affiliates awaited a reply from the quivering man. Genjis rich laughter echoed from a few meters away, he was making a few of the waitresses laugh. A distinct contrast from the two conversations added to the tension, it was obvious the Shimada's were used to this kind of meeting.

"Well?" Hanzo snapped, using his left hand to crack his knuckles, his eyebrows high on his face as he stared Jesse down, waiting for a reply,

"I, well–I'm," Jesse's eyes danced back and forth, looking for someone or something to bail him out of this nightmare. But unlike his past deals, Jesse had no back up, he had no one behind him, he had no tricks up his sleeves. It was just him, an unqualified, nervous cowboy.

He didn't even have Abram and Christof to back him up, not that they would have anyways.

"How can we know DeadLock is of an honorable decent?" One of the men in suits suggested, Hanzo grunted, his shoulders bouncing in a silent laugh. Jesse was close to standing from the table and sprinting away from the house, he would run all the way back to the US if he had to.

"I'm not sure he can prove that." Hanzo chastised.

Jesse shut his eyes for a moment, racking his brain for everything he had ever heard drop from Boss's mouth, every detail to every word ever spoken. If Jesse was going to get out of here with his hide still attached to his backside he was going to have to put on one hell of a facade.

"Now, I don't think y'all have much of a standing to be placin' accusations like this. Saying we ain't got any standards when choosin' who we deal with and when we deal ain't your place darlin'." Jesse leaned over to table and cocked his head to the side. It was risky to use names but he had Hanzo's attention now, "DeadLock has been makin' deals in the southwest as long as I can remember, if there's a new gang in town, we gon' make their business, our business. Ain't no one going to be making back trades without us knowing, and ain't no one going to go back on their word and get away with it. To answer your question, I can assure you DeadLock is about as honorable a gang that you'll ever come across. We ain't here tryin' to pull one out from under you, and we ain't here to make no trouble."