CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER
NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, Dillon,” said Mindy. The three of them were in the library having cocktails before dinner.
“You too, Ms. Temple.”
“Please, it’s Mindy. You don’t work for Rhett anymore.”
He nodded and looked her over. She was as lean and fit as ever, but there was puffiness in her face that he hadn’t noted before.
“How’s your daughter?”
“Mandy is fine. Growing like a weed. She’s already in bed.” She glanced at Temple. “Rhett told me that you know about. . .?”
“Yes. I’m glad she’s doing well and has both her parents around.”
Temple had just swallowed some of his scotch and almost coughed it back up.
“Yeah, lucky little kiddo,” he said, giving Nash an unfriendly look.
A minute later dinner was announced, and they went into the dining room.
The conversation was listless if amiable.
“This place is so big that our toddler Mandy gets lost sometimes,” said Mindy as they were finishing dessert.
“Hell, so do I,” groused Temple. “It should have its own fucking zip code.”
“Rhett, I told you before about your language. Mandy can pick it up.”
“But Mandy’s not here now, is she?” countered Temple. In a low voice that probably only he could hear he added, “Thank God.”
Mindy turned to Nash. “I never really saw myself as a mother, but now? I really can’t see myself as anything else.”
Nash almost slipped and said something about his wife feeling the same way.
“Being a mother is the toughest job in the world. But probably the most rewarding.”
Temple poured himself more wine. “Okay, can we talk about something else? I feel like I’m in a Hallmark movie, and in case you didn’t know, I’m not a fan.”
Mindy said, “Where did you and Dillon go? You just said a road trip.”
“We had some business we were conducting on behalf of a third party,” Temple answered vaguely, glancing at Nash.
“Is the business done then?” asked Mindy.
“Work in progress,” Temple said casually, sipping his drink. He looked around the grand room. “You know, I like my penthouse a lot better. This place actually gives me the creeps. It’s like a museum.”
“We can move into your penthouse,” Mindy said quickly. “There’s plenty of room for Mandy and her things. And there’s a separate suite for her nanny.”
“No, nope. The penthouse is my escape place. Where I get to be, well, me.”
“I just thought—” began Mindy before Temple cut in.
“We are not married, Min. And we are never going to be married, okay?”
Mindy shot Nash an embarrassed look. “Please, Rhett, this is not the time or place.”
“Well, you just don’t seem to take never for an answer.
With capital appreciation you now have well over 300 million bucks in an investment portfolio that throws off nearly ten million a year just in interest and dividends, and a lot of it tax-free.
You can go anywhere, buy anything. You’d be a great catch for some guy looking to score an easy life. ”
“That is not how I want to find my life partner,” replied Mindy primly, shooting Nash another embarrassed look.
“Your life partner?” scoffed Temple. “I told you to knock off the meditation voodoo books, but you do you. And I’ll do me. Now the meal’s done, why don’t you go check on Mandy? Dillon and I have some things to discuss.”
“Just like that?” said Mindy coolly.
“Just like that,” he replied, his mouth easing into a snarky grin. She got up and stalked out while Temple watched her with a widening smile.
After she’d gone Nash said, “She’s going through some complicated things right now, Rhett. You could be more supportive.”
“I could be, but the fact is I don’t want to be. And you haven’t lived with her. It’s hell. But forget that. This lawyer, Dickey, how do you want to handle it? I mean, he’s going to want to say zilch. But we can’t leave it there.”
“I don’t think siccing Steers’s goons on him would be the right thing to do.”
“Why the hell not?”
“They might kill him for all we know.”
“Look, Dillon, you have to understand that this is dog eat dog. And while I don’t want this lawyer to die, I don’t want myself to die even more.
So get with the program. There are winners and there are losers and there is nothing in between.
Why do you think a few guys who look and act like me and my dad own this country?
Because they are strong. And they don’t care about anybody but themselves, okay?
” Temple waved his arms wildly around. “I’m not saying that’s how little old Jesus would have done it.
But the tech bros would eat Jesus alive today.
Take care of the poor? Treat everybody the same?
Love everybody for who they are? Give me a break.
No, you crush the opposition. You love your brother so long as he does what you tell him.
The second he goes rogue, you throw him under the bus.
You gotta be a killer, like my old man was in business.
And we’re killers like that, right? You and me.
And, hell, you killed for real back in Myanmar. ”
Nash stared at him for a few seconds, considering how to respond to this barrage of a word salad. Temple was a man who had earned really nothing that he had, but had acquired it by simply being the son of a rich man.
He said, “Let’s talk to Dickey. He might open up more than you think.”
“If he’s smart, he can be bought, and I’m willing to dump a truckload of cash on anybody who can get us to Nash.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “Why do you think he hasn’t surfaced? He’d get a hero’s welcome.”
“Well, his daughter is dead and so is his wife. Maybe he thinks he doesn’t have anything to come home to.”
Temple looked surprised. “Huh, I never thought about it like that. You might be right.”
“By the way, what’s with Mindy’s face?”
Temple glanced at him sharply. “What are you talking about?”
“It was all puffy.”
“Oh, she had some dental work done,” he said quickly.