to me. I can hear the heavy breathing of the little one, Duffy at my back. Nash is behind us somewhere. The Russian's eyes have flickered over to him a time or two. I wonder if he knows who he is, if he recognizes my supposedly dead brother behind the facial hair.
"I still don't believe you. I think I kill you all and take my chances."
Suddenly, Duffy releases me and moves to the Russian's side. Turning to face us, he draws a gun from the waistband of his pants and trains it on me. I know I should be afraid, but it all seems so surreal, I'm just...not. My emotions haven't caught up with my brain yet. My adrenaline is still kicking the shit out of everything except for the fear that Olivia might get hurt. That's my primary concern right now.
I take a step back to align myself with Nash. I do a double take when I glance over at him. He's as pale as a girl under his tan, staring at Duffy like he's seen a ghost.
"What?"
"That's him," he says quietly, almost too quietly, like he's in shock or something. I just don't know why.
"That's who?"
"That's the bastard that killed Mom. He's the one on the video." There's about ten seconds of absolute silence while everyone digests what Nash said. He's the first to recover, of course. Taking us all by surprise, Nash lets out an animalistic growl and lunges forward. "You mother fu - "
With my reflexes still under the influence of an ass ton of adrenaline, I'm able to reach out and stop him before he can get to Duffy. "Nash no! They've got Olivia." I feel the muscles of his shoulder flex as he strains against me. When he looks at me, his eyes are blank. It's like he's so furious he doesn't quite understand what I'm saying. That or he just doesn't care. I give him a shake to snap him out of it. "They've got Olivia, man. Be smart."
His look assures me that "smart" to me is much different than what "smart" is to him. He's got no stake in this, only his hunger for revenge. That's all he wants. And I'm standing in the way of that. But I'll be damned if I risk Olivia just to satisfy his needs. There will be time for that later, when we can think and plot and be prepared. Today is not that day. Today is only about making sure Olivia is safe. Nothing else. Nothing else matters as much. Not by a long shot.
I look to the Russian. "Still think we don't have a video?" If there was no video, Nash wouldn't have recognized the trigger man.
I can tell by the return of the tick in big Russian's jaw that he doesn't like something. And I know exactly what it is. He's stuck. He knows there's no way he's leaving here with everything and he knows he can't kill us and take it. So he has to bargain. Even though he says he doesn't bargain.
"You're not leaving here until I get the books. The real books."
I hate to give up the books, but the only reason Nash is here is so that I could give up the books without being up shit creek. And if this is the bone I have to throw these dogs to get them off my back so I can get to Olivia, so be it.
"Fine. Take the books. A good faith offering." I turn and nod to Nash. His lips thin and I can tell he doesn't want to give them a damn thing but a bullet between the eyes. I can almost hear Nash's teeth grinding. He looks livid. But he doesn't argue. Thank God. At least he didn't come back a total bastard. At least he can be considerate of the lives at stake here.
Never taking his eyes off the other two men, Nash reaches into the compartment behind the seat on the bike and pulls out the real ledgers. With an eff-you flip of the wrist, he flings the books onto the ground about a foot in front of the big