CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER
WEEKS LATER A WARM DAY led to a thunderstorm and a chilly night.
Finally gaining Steers’s approval, Nash had retained temporary security personnel and posted them around the clock at the elevators in the lobby.
He and Thura had moved to the same floor as Steers and her mother.
Hiroko had also been moved here, via Steers’s order.
They were circling the wagons until they would leave for America, which Steers had told him would be soon.
Now Nash rose from his bed and checked his watch.
He was not on duty for another six hours, but he just couldn’t fall asleep.
He got dressed and decided to go for a walk since the storm had passed.
He checked in with Thura, who patrolled through the penthouse every thirty minutes and also was in contact with the security in the lobby.
No one was allowed up to the penthouse or the two floors below it without Steers’s express permission.
He and Thura were splitting the security shifts with one of them on for twelve hours and the other off.
“Anything going on?” he asked Thura.
“All quiet. Hey, you sure they gonna let me in?”
“In where?”
“America, man.”
“Ms. Steers will take care of the paperwork, I’m sure.”
Thura looked at him questioningly.
“What?” said Nash.
“Been meaning to ask you: When you went to dinner with her, what did she want?”
Nash shrugged. “I think she wanted a friend.”
“Why does someone like that need a friend? That woman is so rich, she can buy whoever she wants.”
“Well, she bought the guy who tried to kill her.”
“This is true,” Thura conceded.
“So that sort of ‘friendship’ is only good until someone comes along who’s willing to pay a higher price.”
“Money, man, it does bad shit to people. Look at Amrita.”
“She said you were the one who was greedy. That you wanted us dead to collect a reward and throw off suspicion.”
“I told you, man, I get paid for a job, I do the job.”
“You proved that.”
Thura grinned. “And that lady is paying me so much. I am rich, Dillon. What else do I need? I mean, come on.”
“Just wait until you get to America. You see, there the richer someone is, it’s actually the case that they want even more money. It’s an addiction, like meth or heroin.”
“So what did you say to her when she asked about you being her friend?”
Nash didn’t answer right away. “I told a vulnerable and lonely woman that I would be her friend. You think I did the right thing, Thura?”
“Look, Dillon, sometimes you got to do and say stuff. I don’t mean you don’t mean what you say. Life throws you some crazy shit. Amrita turned up one day in my town, scared, hungry, all alone. She told me her story. She had nothing. She needed a friend. So I became her friend.”
“But then you ended up having to kill her,” pointed out Nash.
“That’s what I mean when I said life throws you some crazy shit. It was my turn to get hit with it. I did not want to do it. I wished I didn’t have to do it, Dillon. But . . .”
“But I’d be dead if you hadn’t.”
Thura looked away and shook his head. “That will go with me to my grave.”
“Don’t beat yourself up too badly. We all have things like that we carry around. Phone me if anything comes up.”
He slipped on a raincoat and headed down the elevator. He checked in with the guards in the lobby. They had come from a licensed agency and seemed to be real pros, but Nash didn’t trust any of them. If one of Steers’s longtime people could be corrupted, anyone could be.
Except for me, and I’m already working against her.
His head suddenly throbbing, he headed out into the drizzle and got a cup of flat white coffee and a croissant from a café. Even at this hour, large groups of people were out and about, and many places were open for business.
He ate and drank, lost in his own thoughts. Nash being back in his hometown would make it easier to communicate with Morris and the FBI. And being back on American soil would probably make him feel better. He could even drop by Temple’s home or office and check up on his efforts to liberate him.
Right.
But it also came with complications.
As he was walking back to the penthouse at around three a.m., Nash saw the woman get out of a cab in front of the building.
And received the absolute shock of his life.