“How much of a cut will you walk away with?” he asked.
“Full partners. I get half. But I can’t walk away.”
“You could always go back to Miami.”
“I’ll never go back to Miami.”
“Then what are you complaining for?”
“Are you really as thick as you seem, or are you pretending?”
“I’m pretending.”
She frowned and turned aside, and in profile Chase saw the surgery scars more prominently, but somehow he seemed to like them even more. It was a good metaphor-one minute you saw one thing, the next something else. It all depended on the light and the angle.
She was mad he was going to pay out and not get into an argument with Jonah, something that might lead to them pulling guns on each other. He wanted to ask her what the old man had done to turn her against him like this.
Had his grandfather been the one who’d given her the scars? He couldn’t see Jonah as the jealous type and figured his grandfather would’ve let her walk away if she wanted to go. Did she have something on him? Or did she just not understand that Jonah wasn’t like other men and wouldn’t give a damn if she left? Did it all break down to her just thinking he’d be bitter if she dumped him, that he’d hunt her down and try to get her back? She fucked him but didn’t know him.
Or maybe there was something else to it.
He asked, “Why do you stick with him if you hate him so much?”
“What makes you think I hate him?”
“Every word you say.”
Her expression hardened. “Where else could I go?”
“You could go anywhere. Jonah doesn’t care what happens to you.”
“I know that.”
“Then what’s the problem.”
“He won’t let me take Kylie.”
Chase got out from under the hood, thinking maybe he heard wrong with the engine humming.
“Kylie?”
Nodding, Angie gave him a look that told him, This is why Jonah has to die. “Our daughter.”
“She’s twenty-four months,” Angie said. “The happiest baby in the world. Never cries, never frowns. Has a head of wild curly blond hair. Where she got it from, I have no idea. Dark eyes and golden hair. She walks and talks like a champion.”
Chase thought, Does family get any stranger than this? He had a snuffed mother, a suicided father, a murdered wife, a heartless grandfather, and a two-year-old aunt. “Pictures?”
“I had to leave them in Aspen when things went south.”
“Where is she?”
“In Sarasota with my sister, Milagro. Milly. She’s three years older than me, has a kid of her own. I told you I left my aunt’s house as soon as I could. She pretty much did the same. She got married to a professional surfer before she graduated high school. He doesn’t have much brains, been smacked in the head with his board too often, but he’s got a good heart and he likes children. He has to tour a lot, goes to Southern California, out to Hawaii, even Australia. But he makes good money and I left them with a wedge of cash to watch over Kylie. We go back to visit when we can, at least two or three times a year.”
Chase stared at her. He toyed with the Chevelle’s idle so the noise would drown their voices. He moved closer to her. “I still don’t get it. So why don’t you leave him?”
“He thinks it’s important. Blood. Family. He’d let me go in half a second, but he’d never let me take Kylie.”
It surprised Chase. He couldn’t imagine Jonah ever caring so much about anything, except money.
Angie said, “He’d pull her out of my sister’s house and take her along on scores, like he did with you.”
“Don’t let him.”
“I won’t.”
It was always a gamble, being open and honest, in the straight life or the bent one. The knife was sharp enough to ease inside without you sticking your belly out to meet it. But they had somehow arrived at the place where the truth had to be spoken and had to be heard. He couldn’t figure out how it had happened or why he was willing to take the risk. There was no reason at all, except he was thinking of the baby he and Lila had never had.
He said, “Is Jonah the one who beat the shit out of you so badly you needed the plastic surgery?”
“No.”
“Would he ever hurt the kid?”
“No,” Angie told him. “I don’t know. Maybe. I can’t be sure. I can’t take the chance. Not with him. Not with my little girl.”
He nodded, thinking, of course not. Where Jonah was concerned you could never take the risk. “I’ll help however I can, but don’t ever try to work me again like you did last night.”
“All right.”
“I won’t kill him.”
“Then you can’t help me,” she said.
“I can set you up with some cash.”
“I’ve got cash. I can always get cash, but there isn’t enough money in the world to make him quit coming after us.”
It was true, and he’d have to think about that. If the old man really did think blood was important, what went on inside of him where Chase was concerned? Strange, but Chase wanted to know and he didn’t want to know.
“Did Jonah ever really talk about me?”
“Yes. Mostly about the things I said. How good you were behind the wheel. How all the strings respected you even though you were so young. He did say he was sorry he didn’t come to your wedding. I think he was touched that you’d invite him after not seeing him for all those years.”
Jesus Christ, Chase just couldn’t believe it. This had to be a setup. Probing Angie’s gaze, he hunted for the slightest sign of a lie. He didn’t find any. But there had to be more to it. He leaned back against the grille and let the thrum of the engine work into his chest, preparing him. “What else?”
“He thought about tracking you down and killing you after you left him. You actually managed to hurt him. You’re lucky you ran. If he’d found you, you’d be dead and buried in some lime pit.”
Jonah said, “I’ll make some calls. Maybe I can turn something up on this outfit.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You might call the wrong person. Someone you pissed off somewhere down the line who knows the crew and can alert them.”
“So what? Maybe it’ll rattle them. They’re already gone. There’s nothing left to lose.”
“Are you in or out?”
“And I can say out and you’ll still sell the house and pay me the money.”
“We’ve been through that. Now it’s time for you to tell me if you’re still going to help me or not. If not, load up and go.”
