CHAPTER 71
CHAPTER
STEERS CLIMBED INTO THE FRONT passenger seat as Nash started the car, shifted it into gear, and punched the gas. A minute later they reached the main road and Nash gunned it.
“What happened? What did Thura say?” exclaimed Steers.
Nash eyed the rearview mirror. “He said men came in and shot everybody. Apparently they’re all dead. I heard a gunshot while I was talking to Thura. I think he was killed by that shot. Then a man came on the line.”
“A man? What did he say?
He eyed her and lied: “He said we’re dead too.” Then he looked up ahead. “We need to get rid of this car. They’ll be able to track it. Do you have your phone with you?”
“No, I left it at the house. Did he say anything about my mother? Is she dead as well?”
“He didn’t mention her. But she was there when we left the house.”
Thirty minutes later Nash stopped the car in a parking lot. Just in case, he took the time to wipe all their fingerprints off the vehicle. Then they rushed over to a nearby rental car agency. Fifteen minutes later they sped off in a Nissan Rogue SUV.
Nash had already taken the SIM card out of his phone and crushed it. He next stopped at a store and bought a new card for his phone, then set it up using his backup identity. He also purchased a throwaway phone for Steers.
“Will they be able to track your renting this car?” asked Steers when he got back to the car. “Or the phone purchases?”
“No. I used a credit card with a duplicate identity that I set up a while ago. The same ID I used to set up my phone.”
They drove off and Nash hopped on the interstate.
“Where are we going?”
“Right now, away from here. We can settle on a destination later.”
As they drove along Steers stared out the windshield. He shot her glances from time to time and finally said, “You said you and Lord were good to go?”
“I believe I intimated that I was safe until the transaction officially closed. Now that it has. . .well, things have obviously changed. But we don’t know for sure it was him behind this attack.”
“Well, he’s right at the top of my list.”
She glanced at him. “We need to part company, Dil—Mr. Nash. Your chances of survival are much greater without me along.”
“Do you have any other properties that they might not know about that we can go to for now until we regroup?”
“Why do you still desire to help me, after all that I have done to you? It would make more sense that you would simply shoot me.”
“Look, just cut that shit out,” barked Nash. “For now, we need each other to survive.”
“I do have such a property. I have kept it as a safe house of last resort.”
“Can we drive to it? Planes and trains are out.”
“Yes, but it will be a long drive.”
“Where is it?”
“In New Orleans.”
“The Big Easy. Interesting choice,” he commented.
“I like the weather. And it’s private.”
“Private is good, especially now.”
They stopped at a department store and bought some clothes and other essentials, which Nash put on his backup credit card.
He also stopped at a gun store and bought an extra pistol and a box of ammo for it, as well as additional ammo for the Glock and the Beretta.
Unfortunately, Steers had left her gun back at the gravesite when they’d fled. Then they headed south.
After three hours on the road they got off the interstate and had dinner at a pizza place in a strip mall. He had pasta and a beer, and Steers had a salad and water. They paid in cash.
As they walked out he said, “Not exactly high cuisine and amenities, I know.”
“Food is food. It does not really matter to me.”
Back on the road, they drove for another three hours. It was well past dark now, and Nash was weary.
“I would drive, Mr. Nash, but I never learned how and am not licensed.”
“Just call me Walter, okay?”
“And you may call me Victoria if you wish.”
They constantly checked for news on their phones of what might have happened at Steers’s estate. Finally, when they had pulled into a rest stop, the story broke.
Nash quickly read through it.
“Okay, a delivery guy showed up and saw a body in a pool of blood. He called the cops.” He looked up at Steers. “The live-in staff included Thura and four other security guards, the cook, two maids, your three attendants that came with us from Hong Kong, and a gardener.”
“And my mother,” pointed out Steers. “Do they not identify or quantify the number of bodies?”
“Not yet. And they make reference to the owner not being there, meaning you. There is no mention of me, but that probably won’t last once they start looking into things.”
“Do you think they will arrive at the conclusion that you and I did this and then fled?”
The thought had occurred to Nash. “Not out of the realm of possibility.”
“Which means the police will be looking for us.”
Nash said, “Maybe I can do something about that.”
He got on his phone, downloaded the encrypted app that Agent Morris had previously provided him, and then sent an email detailing what had happened.
“Who did you send that to?” asked Steers.
“Somone who can help us.”
“The FBI perhaps?” she said.
He shot her a glance. “Someone who can help us,” he repeated.
They got back on the road and kept driving. Finally, Nash had to pull off. They checked into a motel and took the only room available.
Nash grabbed dinner at a burger place and brought it back for them.
Steers was in the shower and came out a bit later with wet hair and wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and shorts that she had purchased when they’d stopped for clothes. Her feet were bare and her features tight as she eyed the twin beds.
Nash sat on one of the beds and checked his emails. He read off the one he’d received from Morris.
Understand and are monitoring the situation and will keep you apprised. We will do all we can to keep cops off your back.
Nash figured that was the best they could do under the circumstances.
He parceled out the food on a small table. They drew up their chairs and ate in silence, until Steers said, “What did your person write back to you?”
“That they’re aware of the situation, are monitoring it, and will keep us informed.”
She nodded but made no comment.
In the bathroom Nash washed up and changed into a T-shirt and sweatpants that he’d bought.
Twenty minutes after Nash had turned out the lights she said, “Once we get to New Orleans, what then?”
“We catch our breaths, get some data, process it, and then make decisions, hopefully good ones.”
“All right.” She paused and asked, “Is your wife alive?”
“What does it matter to you?”
“I would hope that she is alive, that is all.”
“Why?”
“Because she did nothing wrong. It was Rhett Temple who put her in danger. But I do want you to know that Lynn Ryder did not ask me before she sent her team out. But she did let me know about it shortly afterward. I ordered her to instruct the men not to harm your wife.”
Nash turned to the side and looked in her direction. It was so dark in the room that he could barely make out her figure lying on the bed.
“Well, I’m not sure they got the message, because I killed all three of them before they could murder her.”
She said nothing for a few seconds. “That would have required a great deal of skill.”
“I was fortunate to get us out of there alive.”
“So she is alive. I am happy for you.”
Nash turned away from her. “Sure, thanks,” he said curtly. He was confused and frustrated and tired and not very hopeful about how this was all going to play out.
“Can I ask you a question?” he said.
“Of course.”
“Lord has your business. Why does he want you dead?”
“As I said, we have no way to know that Mr. Lord is behind this.”
“Who else?”
“My partners from the south perhaps?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you got them billions. They’ll be cheering you, not looking to kill you.”
“For some it’s not always about the money.”
“How about you? It can’t be about money. You sold your empire for zip.”
“You are wrong. I received my freedom. That is worth more to me than billions.”
“Well now you’re running for your life,” he pointed out.
“As I said before, we will see what we will see.”
“I don’t understand you.”
“I can say the same about you,” she retorted.
“My motivations are pretty clear.”
“Not all of them, no,” she replied.
“Think what you want.”
Nash closed his eyes. His thoughts turned to Thura, who was almost certainly dead. All the man had been through, only to die like that.
I’d be dead, too, if Steers hadn’t ordered me to take her for a drive.
And she could have shot me out in the woods. But she didn’t. Even after she found out who I really was. The man she’d been looking for all that time.
Steers’s voice interrupted these thoughts. “I know what you must think, Walter, and all I can say is I’m sorry for everything you and your family have endured. If I could have, I would have made different choices.”
“You could have made different choices, Victoria. There was no one stopping you. You have to own this. Just you. Nobody else.”
Exhausted, he fell asleep.
In her bed Steers continued to stare at the ceiling.