CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER
NASH WAS IN THE GUESTHOUSE watching the security console that controlled and showed footage from all the surveillance cameras arrayed around the property. He was surprised when he saw on one of the screens a Porsche pull up at the front gates. The driver honked.
It was his former boss, Rhett Temple.
Nash hit a button on the console. “Can I help you?”
“Dillon, is that you?”
“Alive and kicking, Rhett.”
“Um, can you let me in? Steers called and said she wanted to meet.”
“Okay, give me a sec.” Nash texted Steers to confirm this was actually the case and received an immediate reply of yes.
He opened the gates and Temple pulled through and got out of the Porsche.
“Hey, Dillon, real glad you made it back to the States. I was working on it, I swear. But I hadn’t reached the end zone yet.”
“Yeah. Ironic that we’re just right down the road from you now.”
“Yeah, ironic.” Temple looked the place over. “Damn, this is about the same size as the monstrosity my old man built. I knew something big was back here—just never had a reason to check.”
“It might be big, but it’s home sweet home to us.”
Temple glanced at him sharply and then, sensing Nash was joking, he grinned. “So, where’re the ninja dudes? Out dismembering somebody?”
“No, they’re not here right now, but their spirit will always be with us.”
“Shit, Dillon, you sound like you drank the Asian Kool-Aid.”
“It’s not like I had a choice—unlike you, right?” said Nash.
Inside the house Nash led him down the hall to Steers’s office and knocked.
“Come.”
Opening the door Nash said, “Ms. Steers, here’s Mr. Temple.”
“Thank you.”
When Nash turned to leave, Steers said, “You are part of this meeting, Dillon-san.”
Temple shot him a glance, presumably over what she had called Nash.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Nash, and he took a seat next to Temple.
Steers sat at her desk and placed her hands in front of her. “Now that I am back in the United States, there is unfinished business.”
Temple said, “I put the CEO in place. She’s working out great.”
“I speak not of that, Mr. Temple. Let me finish.”
“Of course, sorry.” Temple glanced worriedly at Nash.
“The outstanding item is the whereabouts of Walter Nash. I spoke to you about this before you left Hong Kong and told you that finding him was a top priority. However, nothing has been accomplished though much time has passed.”
Nash hunkered down in his chair and glanced at Temple.
“I’ve been trying,” whined Temple. “The guy just vanished like smoke. None of my PIs can find one damn thing. They’ve looked everywhere.”
“That is not good enough,” replied Steers in a sharp tone. “He must be found.”
“Why is this so important?” asked Temple. “The guy’s on the run.”
“Ask yourself this question, Mr. Temple: If Mr. Nash has been exonerated from all crimes, why is he still, as you say, ‘on the run’?”
“Well, because . . .” Temple turned to Nash, who kept his gaze rigidly on Steers. “Um, well, I guess that doesn’t make sense, now that you mention it.”
“I think it makes sense in that Mr. Nash is still working with the FBI to bring me down. And if he brings me down, you go down, too, Mr. Temple—which is why I asked you here, as we have mutual interests in this matter. I have given you much leeway. Too much. That ends now.” She stood and looked down at the men.
“I will give you one month to find him, Mr. Temple. And if you do not, then I cannot guarantee that something irreversibly painful to you will not occur.” She glanced at his cut-up arm.
“Something immeasurably more than you have already endured.”
A tense Temple sat up straighter and said, “Well, I could use some advice on where to look. It’s been scorched earth and still nothing, other than the fact that he was at that place owned by his father’s friend.”
Steers glanced at an iPad on her desk. “This Mr. Isaiah York?”
“Right. But he’s gone underground, too. No one’s laid eyes on the guy in like forever.”
“You think they’re connected still?” asked Nash. Having been around the woman long enough, he instinctively knew that Steers did nothing without good reason. And since she had asked him to attend this meeting, she must desire his input.
“I think it obvious, Dillon-san.”
“Then if we find York, his only last known contact, we may find Nash, that’s your reasoning?”
“Correct.”
“Look, we’re chasing our tails here,” said Temple. “They have both vanished from the face of the earth.”
Steers said, “Not entirely true. While Mr. Nash has come close to achieving that status, Mr. York has a condo here in town and there is also his business facility, which you searched, but long ago. He has financial accounts, friends, and clients. These may furnish new leads.” She glanced at Nash.
“You can vet and bring in new security to assist Thura in protecting me, my mother, and the estate. I want you and Mr. Temple to focus full-time on finding Walter Nash. And failure is not something that I will countenance in this matter, to make myself perfectly clear.”
Temple looked confused. “Why do you need a new security team?”
Steers glanced at Nash and nodded appreciatively. “I see you did not tell him. That was good. But I will.” She turned to Temple. “I had a traitor in the ranks. He attempted to kill me. Dillon-san saved my life. The rest of my security team was slaughtered. Dillon-san and Thura are all that remain.”
“Jesus,” exclaimed Temple. “There was nothing in the news about that.”
“I know. If I had died, no doubt it would have been newsworthy.” Steers leaned forward and said, “I have given you more flexibility on this matter than was good for either you or me. But now accountability will be applied. Do you understand me?”
“I understand you,” said Temple meekly. “You have made it crystal clear, Ms. Steers.”
“Then you may go. Dillon-san will be in touch shortly with next steps.”
Temple rose and quickly exited the room.
Nash said, “Why the sudden interest in Walter Nash?”
“I believe I just revealed my reasoning. Did you find a fallacy therein?”
“No. But you have a lot going on, what with your business partners, your mother, almost being killed. I just wondered why this floated back to the top.”
“Your job is not to wonder, it is to execute my orders. You will follow up the leads I mentioned pertaining to Mr. York.”
“Of course.” Nash paused, sensing an opportunity, a risky one. “You do raise an interesting point about Nash: Why not just come out of hiding and accept everyone’s apologies?”
“He is working with the FBI. It is the only explanation.”
“No, I think there’s another one.”
She looked up from her iPad. “Such as?”
“Well, you set him up and ruined his life. Yes, he was exonerated from all that, his innocence established, his reputation intact. But there’s one thing that you took from Nash that he cannot get back.”
“And what is that?”
Nash took a moment to steel himself. “His daughter. You took his daughter. Now, I don’t have children, but if I had? Well, I can’t imagine a more powerful incentive for revenge.”
She said slowly, “So. . .you believe Walter Nash has gone underground because he wants to kill me to avenge his child?”
“And now that you’re back in his hometown you just made yourself an easier target.”
“Perhaps I have,” she said in a way that Nash did not quite understand.
“And if we find Nash—”
She interjected, “When you find him.”
“When we find him, what do we do with him?”
“You will bring him to me.”
“And then what?”
“And then I will deal with Mr. Nash. Once and for all.”