“Right,” Ty said quietly.
“Now, I got more.”
Fuck.
“Right,” Ty repeated.
“As much as Dolinski can keep a line to me, he does. That Misty Keaton woman’s activities have thrown a freeze on shit at the CPD. These fuckers are scared shitless and don’t know which way is up. They are not scrambling. They are immobilized. They are also lookin’ to their leader who is actin’ business as usual. Now, they don’t know if he’s got an ace in the hole that’s gonna shine the light of the Mother of God on them and save them at the last minute or if he just don’t give a fuck and has his own exit strategy planned. My guess would be the latter. What you need to know is it might be the former. That said, the good news for you is, you and Lexie have unofficially been declared off-limits. This is not comin’ from the top, this is the boys makin’ up their own minds that they don’t wanna dig a very deep hole any deeper by fuckin’ with either a’ you. The ACLU bein’ involved, you gettin’ an attorney who, apparently, locally has a reputation for being a ball-breaker and a liberal one at that and the entrance of one Samuel Sterling into this hubbub, a man I don’t know but I’ve done some checking on and he’s got weight, a fuckload of money and both he earned for himself so this is no dumb motherfucker, he also takes no shit and further takes absolutely no shit due to his skin color and therefore it doesn’t take a leap to figure that, if he’s in the position to step in when a brother is doin’ it, he will and anyone who knows him knows this, all this means you got so much firepower at your back, they won’t say boo to you.”
“Proof you are Santa Claus,” Ty muttered.
“Well, no, ‘cause the boys at CPD are scared shitless but Fuller has convinced himself his skin deflects bullets and he don’t give a shit who he says boo to. Sayin’ that, now I’ll prove I’m Santa Claus ‘cause there has been a recent occurrence which meant that, on the fly, there needed to be some sharin’ and that sharin’ is… now wait for it…” he hesitated dramatically, Ty clenched his teeth then he gave it, “Detective Chace Keaton has been workin’ undercover for the IA for the last thirteen months.”
Ty shot up to sitting and rumbled into the phone, “You are shittin’ me.”
“What?” Lexie whispered, also sitting up with him, rearranging her legs so they were over his thighs and putting a hand to his chest.
He looked to Lexie, shook his head then touched his forehead to hers briefly before he pulled back and gave a still talking Peña his attention.
“Nope. No shit. This guy was deeper than Dolinski, in the inner sanctum. IA wants a clean house and they wanna make an example and considering how messy this shit is, they’re pullin’ out all the stops but it is still takin’ time. Now, the reason Dolinski learned this is because Keaton was in on a strategy meetin’ and the play that was to be instigated was that Fuller wanted you down and out. And to do that, he was gonna light a fire under your parole officer’s ass to do a random inspection of your home. Now, they didn’t know if they’d find anything so they decided to find somethin’ whether it was there or not. And to make certain it was enough not only to get you in hot water but set you to boil, they were going to plant a firearm and dope during that inspection which Fuller was going to make damned sure had his boys involved in it obviously so they could plant the shit. And just because they’re dickheads of mammoth proportions, they were also gonna plant dope in Lexie’s car.”
Ty closed his eyes and clenched his teeth.
Peña kept speaking. “As Keaton was involved in this meeting, he informed IA of this plan, IA told him he had a comrade in arms that he didn’t know he had and then Keaton manipulated the situation. He made it so it was Dolinski and him who did the inspection and he leaked the information in a way you’d have a head’s up. Luckily, you had your shit together and half the town was in your kitchen. This gave Dolinski and Keaton an excuse not to follow through with the plan seein’ as Jackson was there as was Sterling and they’d both sniff that shit out faster than snot. So, they aborted but I say aborted in quotes because they weren’t gonna do it in the first place but at least they didn’t get their asses in hot water and under suspicion because they didn’t.”
So Ty had angels too.
And one of those angels was fucking Chace Keaton.
Fuck.
“So, Santa says, while your ball-breaker attorney does her thing, Keaton’s got your back. Dolinski tells me that Keaton tells him that Fuller is already making noises about his next play. Keaton is in place to deflect it. I do not know this man’s story and I do not have a line to him. I do know his wife recently got dead. I also know she fucked you in the sense that that is the definition of understatement. And I also know she got dead and they think he’s still a loyal foot soldier so somethin’ is fucked with that. So this man might have your back but you keep an eye to it.”
“Always do,” Ty told him.
“Good. Don’t stop, Ty, and when I say that, not for a minute.”
“Like I said, Angel, always do.”
“Right,” Peña whispered.
“You got more?”
“Just like all the little boys and girls, Santa’s generous and they’re turnin’ their stockin’ inside out hopin’ for one more piece of candy.”
“I’m not sayin’ I’m not grateful,” Ty said quietly. “I’m sayin’ I got news to break to my wife and an imminent visit from my father, a drunk, an asshole the last thirty-six years but now a man who wants to get to know his son and daughter-in-law and try to be a good grandfather, so I got gratitude, Angel, I just don’t have time.”
Silence then, “Sorry, Ty, never stops for you.”
“Not a problem, Angel, and no, it doesn’t but I got hope this shit storm will end soon and all I’ll have is sunshine.”
“I hope so too, esé. Stay sharp.”
“Same to you.”
Then he heard the disconnect.
“What?” Lexie asked the minute he pulled the phone from his ear.
Ty pressed his lips together. Then he tossed his phone on the coffee table with a clatter and framed his wife’s face with his hands, bringing her close as he leaned into her.
And he gave it to her quick and straight.
“They found the man who killed Rodriguez and they also found that hit was ordered by Shift.”
He watched up close as her eyes got huge. Then she closed them, turned her head slightly away and pressed her lips together.
Ty slid his hands back into her hair and whispered, “Mama.”
Lexie’s eyes opened and came back to him.
“I don’t believe this. Ronnie loved him,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Ty whispered back.
“And I thought Shift loved Ronnie.”
He didn’t respond because he didn’t need to, it was obvious Shift didn’t love Rodriguez.
“They were brothers.” Lexie was still whispering. “How could he do that?”
“No fuckin’ clue, Lex.”
She held his eyes, he couldn’t read hers.
Then Ty spoke. “Angel is on his way to Ella right now.”
“Shit,” she said softly.
“’Spect you’re gonna have to deal with that,” he warned her.
“Yeah, no love lost but still, it’ll be a blow.”
Watching her face and, for once, unable to read it, he moved his hands forward, taking her hair with them until they were at the sides of her neck and he asked, “This a blow for you?”
Her head tipped to the side and her eyes grew unfocused like she was thinking about it and he then understood why he couldn’t read her. She didn’t know what to think.
Then she decided what to think and her eyes focused again on his.
“It’s surprising,” she said quietly. “But, I don’t know, weirdly, it’s good to know what happened, who was behind it. But it doesn’t breathe life into Ronnie and even if it did, it wouldn’t matter. That’s… it’s…” She swallowed, shut her eyes tight for a second, opene
d them and continued, “All that is gone. All those years, all that feeling I had for him and now this is just, it’s just…” she trailed off but lifted her hands to wrap her fingers around his wrists and she finished, “Ty, it’s strange to feel this way but it’s just… news.”
Ty stared at his wife. She was over it. She was over Rodriguez. She’d moved on.
With him.
His fingers squeezed her neck and he bent to touch his mouth to hers. When he pulled back he dropped a hand but used the other one to wrap around the back of her neck and tuck her face in his throat. Both her arms moved to curve around his middle.
Once she settled she sighed.
Then she asked, “Does Angel have Shift?”
“They’re lookin’.”
She nodded.
Ty kept talking. “Dad’s here, Ella calls, you take all the time you need. I’ll keep him busy.”
She nodded again.
“Lex, we’re close,” he assured his wife with a squeeze at the back of her neck. “Pretty soon, these hits’ll stop comin’.”
Yet again, she nodded.
A knock came at the backdoor, Lexie tensed and so did Ty.
His Dad.
Jesus, God, he hoped his father had his shit together and this did not mean another hit.
Her arms slid from around him so she could pull down her skirt.
“You good?” he asked. “I can ask him to –”
She shook her head then pulled her face out of his neck to tip it back to give him a small grin she wasn’t committed to but she was trying. It wasn’t a blow, she wasn’t suffering but the news was not good, her family was going to have a past loss made fresh again, she was going to have to deal with that and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Then she whispered, “I made brownies.”
Ty studied her face. Then he grinned back.
Then he set his wife aside, got up and went to go let in his father.
* * * * *
His father showed up sober. Nervous but sober. And his nerves didn’t fade no matter that there were flowers in a vase, Lexie was tricked out, she’d made some snack where she’d baked cups of rolled out pieces of bread she’d cut the crusts off of and then filled with some sausage, mushroom, olive, cream, garlic and cheese stuff that tasted the shit then offered up homemade brownies with a thick layer of chocolate frosting she’d served with ice cream. She was saying plainly that Irv was welcome, this visit meant something to her, she wanted to make it nice but Irv still didn’t get it and relax. Lex went all out being Lex, smiling, joking even touching, his arm, his hand.
Irv did not loosen up.
Ty acted as normal, not overtly welcoming but not hostile either. Watchful but not tense. He wasn’t going to go all out like his woman was doing.
This was Irv’s penance, whatever was going on in his head that wouldn’t let him relax, Ty was not going to bust his ass to let him off paying it. One visit where he’s sober, one phone call where he pulled up the courage to share was not going to buy his father that.
Ty would wait and see and give it to him when he earned it.
When Lexie’s phone rang, Ty took over with his father and Irv wound up tighter. It was then Ty saw that Lexie actually was helping his father relax, it was Ty he was worried about winning.
This didn’t change his manner but when his wife wandered to the front deck for privacy, Ty explained her absence completely and honestly, laying it all out about Lexie, her dead parents, her dick of a grandfather, her being taken in by the Rodriguez family, her relationship with Ronnie, most, if not all, of the path that led her to Ty and her recent news. He did this in an effort to make his father understand why his wife was crystal and should be treated as such.
From the look on his father’s face when he was done speaking, he figured Irv got it.
She was gone awhile. When she came back, she got Irv another soda and led him onto the deck. It was then Ty decided he had business he needed to see to and he was going to let his wife get to know his father without him there as a physical reminder of just how bad Irv fucked up.
When he told her he needed a few minutes, she nodded.
He made his excuses to his Dad, walked up the stairs, went to the office, closed the door, pulled his phone out of his back pocket, sat in the swivel chair and dialed Julius.
“My man,” Julius greeted.
“You don’t fuck around,” Ty replied and heard a deep chuckle, Julius knew what Ty was talking about. Ty kept talking. “You know I appreciate it. What I need to know is if I got debts to pay.”
“Welcome to the jungle,” Julius stated.
“Come again?”
“You were forced to live in a zoo, Walk, a controlled jungle that has guards and bars. But outside that, you mighta skirted the real jungle but you didn’t live in it. LA has a jungle, Dallas too. And in the jungle, it’s survival of the fittest.”
“Not sure you’re answering my question, brother,” Ty told him.
“Okay, then I will,” Julius returned. “See, got a brother who’s got a brother who had a brother and when I say that I mean they shared blood. He didn’t get a cap busted in his ass. He got two to the face, five to the chest. A signature. He was not feelin’ the love for Momma and the Hit Man so he laid them out.”
There it was.
Julius wasn’t done.
“Got another brother who’s got a brother who was lookin’ into expandin’. Business is boomin’, my man, and he wanted more turf. Now he’s got it.”
There was more.
Julius continued.
“Got another brother who’s got a brother who sells gash. Always recruitin’. Didn’t mind he got himself some more when girls lost their Daddy. They got a new Daddy now.”
And that was the rest of it.
So Julius finished, “What I’m sayin’ is, you don’t owe dick. A man goes down, other men move in to stake their claim. Shift was not liked. My chats pointed out the benefits of workin’ for the cops, get that asshole outta the way, divvy up the leftovers. No one’s hurtin’ in this scenario, everyone got what they wanted. You’re good.”
Ty couldn’t say he felt peace deep inside his soul that the loss of Shift to the underbelly of Dallas meant Peña didn’t clean the streets but instead bought himself different headaches with new names and faces. But, even so, it meant Ty lost himself a headache and he had enough of them, he could use losing some pain.
“You know it without me sayin’ it,” Ty said softly.
“I know it,” Julius returned then asked, “Been two days since I been updated on the Life and Times of Ty Walker, ‘spect there’s news.”
Ty had kept him briefed and he didn’t delay in relaying his update.
When he was done, with a smile in his voice, Julius noted, “Soon, your free will be free. Means you and Lexie can haul your asses out to LA.”
“Just as long as one, the other or all of your women take Lex to a beach.”
“That we can do.”
Ty grinned at his phone.
Then they said words of good-bye.
Then he flipped it shut, folded out of the chair, shoved the phone in his back pocket and walked back down to his wife and father.
Chapter Nineteen
That Felt Good
Ty sucked back the last of his beer and I watched as his long arm reached out to put the empty on the coffee table.
I was tucked into the back of the couch, my front tight to my husband, my cheek to his chest, my nearly finished beer in my hand resting on his abs and we were watching a movie.
His Dad was gone. The visit had not been great, it had not been shit. I’d invited him back, Ty had not protested, Irv had said he’d be delighted to come but no plans were made. There was something going down with Irv and Ty and I suspected, when plans were made, they’d be done through Ty.
I didn’t pry. Ty needed to work this out without me in his face about it and he knew I was there when he needed me.
After Irv l
eft, I made dinner and Ty told me the rest of what Angel had to say. To say I was stunned was an understatement. Then again, Chace Keaton had given it away that day in the closet; I just didn’t get all of it.
We ate dinner and we hit the couch.
And I didn’t like the dregs of beer, warm beer at the bottom of the bottle was not my favorite thing so I wanted another one and I knew my husband did too.
So I pushed up on my elbow that was between the couch and Ty and looked down at him.
“I’m getting us more beer,” I said when his eyes moved from TV to me.
His answer was to stretch a long arm out to tag the remote and hit pause. Then he looked back at me. I grinned, put a hand in his chest but pushed up on my hand in the couch.
Then something caught at the corner of my eye, I turned, looked over the back of the couch for a scant second and at what I saw, instinct drove me to drop instantly down, all my weight hitting Ty. It came as a surprise to him and he grunted, his hands going to my hips, his lips beginning to curve up because he thought I was messing around then he saw my face and they stopped.
“Someone’s doing something at the backdoor,” I breathed, my lungs constricted, my breath sticking in my throat.
Ty went solid under me for a nanosecond then he bucked his hips to pull out his phone as he whispered, “Stay here. Do not move. I’m not back in five minutes, you dial 911 then you call Tate.”
I opened my mouth to protest but didn’t get a sound out before his phone was pressed into my hand, he was out from under me and he was gone.
I lay there hyperventilating, listening and clutching Ty’s phone in my hand. Ty didn’t have shoes on and I’d taken mine off when we hit wind down mode on a Sunday night which was to say, approximately five seconds after we waved his father away. I couldn’t hear him move, I couldn’t hear anything.
Then I heard the backdoor open.
Then nothing.
I kept hyperventilating, counting to thirty then counting to thirty again trying not to think about my husband having enemies, no weapon and no shoes.
I counted to thirty again.