CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER
WHAT ARE WE REALLY DOING here, Dillon?” said Temple.
They were parked outside of Isaiah York’s condo about a mile from Nash’s old home.
“Waiting for York to show up.”
“And if he doesn’t? Which he hasn’t, ever since Nash went on the run.”
“Then we move on to something else. Another lead.”
“Back to the place we already searched, you mean?”
“Have you had eyes on it this whole time?”
“Not me, maybe Steers.”
Nash nodded. He had contacted Shock about Steers’s new focus on her people finding him and through him. . .me, he thought.
But now I am her people, so there’s that.
Temple said, “So how was your time in Hong Kong? It went by fast.”
“Maybe for you, it did.”
“Look, I know you think I just left you there.”
“I don’t think it, Rhett, I know it. So let’s not discuss it anymore. Steers was very clear. We get this done or else.” He paused. “At least for you it is.”
“Right, I get that I’m in the crosshairs, okay?” He looked off for a moment. “So what’s this ‘Dillon-san’ junk?”
“It’s an expression of friendship, of honor.”
“Because you saved her life?”
“She actually started calling me that before I saved her life.”
“Look, don’t answer this if you don’t want to,” began Temple.
Nash gave him a sideways glance. “No, I’m not sleeping with her, and I have no intention of doing so.”
“So you don’t want to?”
Nash barked, “For fuck’s sake, what part of ‘focusing on the task at hand’ don’t you get?”
“I’m just trying to have a discussion here. We have a lot of ground to catch up on.”
“Friends who have been apart have things to catch up on. We have never been and will never be friends.”
“Hell, we went through a lot together over in Myanmar.”
“That was a job. That’s it.” He glanced at Temple. “And why would you want to be friends with me? You’re a billionaire. Everybody wants to be your friend. I’m a nobody.”
“Yeah, they all do want to be my friend, but only because I have money. How can I tell if someone wants to be around me just for the real me?”
“Well, you might want to answer another question first.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you even know who the real you is?” asked Nash.
Temple started to say something, stopped, and looked off again.
“I don’t think the guy’s coming back here.
Why don’t we go to the facility we searched before?
We can take my jet.” He added excitedly, “I got the latest Gulfstream, the G800. It’s like the Taj Mahal at forty-one thousand feet.
Set me back sixty million after my trade-in, but hey, it’s just money. Can’t take it with you, right?”
Nash shook his head. “No, let’s do a road trip instead.”
Temple looked startled. “A road trip? It’s a long drive.”
“Well, maybe along the way we can rekindle the friendship we never had.”
“You are one strange dude, Dillon.”
“Well, maybe I have every right to be,” said Nash.
He put the car in gear and drove them off.
* * *
It was well past midnight. In two days’ time Nash and Temple would be heading to Shock’s training facility in a neighboring state. But Nash needed to meet with someone first.
He drove into the alleyway, blinked his lights, then killed the engine.
He had told Thura that he was going to snoop around Nash’s old home to see if he could find out anything.
Shock got out of the SUV parked in the alleyway and walked toward Nash, who had also climbed out of his vehicle. The two men met midway between the two cars and shared an impromptu hug.
“Damn good to see you, Walter. Didn’t know if I’d ever get the chance again.”
“It’s great to see you too, Shock. How’s Byron doing?”
“No problems there. But, man, the shit you’ve been doing and in the places you been to that you told me about when you called? Damn miracle you still standing.”
“You built me to survive, Shock. And I have, so far.”
“So the lady is hot to trot to find you again?”
“She’s made it my and Rhett Temple’s sole mission on earth.”
“So how you gonna play it?”
“I’ll go along to get along, stall for time, and continue to discover all I can about her operations. I’ve already passed a lot along to the FBI. She had an all-hands meeting with her cartel partners. Now she’s going to meet with the guy who put her mother in prison and probably tried to kill her.”
“So the lady is playin’ both sides. Risky, but show’s she got some balls.”
“She has the biggest pair I’ve seen on anyone, Shock. But her risks are always calculated. Only this one I can’t figure out. Yet.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“We’re driving to your training facility in two days’ time. Is there any way you can get the tattoo binders out of there? Keeping in mind that they might have eyes on the place?”
“Consider it done, Walter. Got a cleanin’ crew goes in weekly, so if they got eyes on it, that won’t raise no flags. I’ll put Byron in as part of the team tomorrow. Old Black dude takin’ out the trash ain’t gonna get nobody suspicious. He’ll bag the binders and get ’em out that way.”
“Thanks, Shock. I. . .I know I could have put this all in a text or told you when I phoned, but—”
“It’s good to see you, too, Walter,” said Shock. “And Judith? You told me she was okay?”
“She’s in protective custody. I killed three men who were going to kill her, and I did it by following your advice of using whatever was at hand, not fighting honorably, and doing what I needed to do to survive.”
“Only way this shit works, Walter, and don’t let nobody ever tell you different.”
“I sometimes wonder what my father would think of all this.”
“Well, I can tell you. First, it would be a bigger shock to him ’bout who you are now than when I came out the closet. And, second, he would be as proud of you as he was of anybody.”
“You really think so, Shock?” said Nash uncertainly.
“Hell, Walter. You reinvented yourself to get the job done. No, you went even farther than that. You became the opposite of who you’d always been.
You overcame every obstacle I threw at your ass.
All the other guys I trained? They broke.
Them muthers just quit. But you didn’t. So take it to the bank that your old man, who never quit nothing in his whole damn life, is either lookin’ up or down at you with a big-ass smile on his face. ”
“Thanks, Shock, that means a lot coming from you. No one knew my father better.”
“Now, where do you see this all headed? Steers and everythin’?”
“I still want to bring down her empire and avenge Maggie, but . . .”
Shock looked at him funny. “But what?”
“You ever gone into a situation where you thought for sure you knew what someone else was all about? No gray, just black-and-white?”
“Hell, Walter, that’s what I did with your ass!”
“But you were wrong about me.”
“I prejudged you, sure. But how the hell you havin’ that problem with someone like Victoria Steers? She killed your daughter, man.”
“And I will hold her accountable for that.”
“But?”
“But having come to know her after all this time together. . .and I know this will sound. . .weird.”
“Just get it out in the open, son,” advised Shock, looking seriously apprehensive.
“But part of me feels sorry for her.”
Shock stared at him for a few moments. “All right, Walter, let me give you some advice.”
“Okay.”
“You may know the woman better now. And maybe there’re things in her past that made her what she is, made her do what she does.
I get that. Evil folks are created in lots of different ways.
We all have choices, but some folks have a lot fewer than other folks.
And sometimes the reason has nothin’ to do with them, really, it’s how other people perceive them.
For me it’s the color of my skin. But at the end of the day, Walter, you have to remember that Steers made her choices.
And if push comes to shove, she will kill you if she perceives you as a threat to her.
Just the way people like her are wired. You remember I told you about Peanut? ”
“The most dangerous man you knew other than my father.”
“Right, and I also told you what made him dangerous.”
“He basically had no conscience and wouldn’t waste a second debating whether to kill someone. It gave him just enough of an edge to be pretty much unbeatable.”
“And with that, Walter, you just described Victoria Fucken Steers to a T. And don’t you never forget that, son.”