The Jealous Kind (Holland Family Saga #2) - James Lee Burke Page 0,139
else that hurts.”
My vision was starting to go out of focus. I pressed my hand against the side of my head and then looked at my palm. It was matted with blood and hair. “What about the hit men?”
He closed his eyes as though processing the question. “Which hit men?”
“The ones you sent up to the Heights because you wouldn’t go yourself. What if they see the convertible? What if they tell your old man you’re about to steal a million dollars from him?”
“They don’t know me, asshole. You’re really dumb. That’s why people like me win and people like you lose.”
“Grady will screw you, Vick. After I’m out of the way, he’ll want Valerie back. That means he’ll have to get you out of the picture because he knows you for the lowlife you are. You have another problem, too. Grady thinks that money and gold are his. Why would he share them with you?”
For just an instant I saw the focus change in his eyes, like he was watching a bird fly into a distant tree. “I didn’t quite get that.”
“In your mind, you’re stealing from your father or the Mob. In Grady’s mind, you’re stealing from him. Would you give away fifty percent of your money to take back what’s already yours?”
There was a smirk on his lips, the kind stupid people wear when they convince themselves they long ago solved the great mysteries of the world and now float high above them. He dropped the handcuffs through the gate. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
The door chimes rang upstairs. I heard Grady pull open the front door. “I must be hallucinating,” he said.
“My heap broke down two blocks up the street,” Saber’s voice replied.
Chapter
36
CAN WE COME in?” Valerie said. “We’re drowning.”
“No. Get out of here,” Grady said.
“Why are you acting like this?” she said. “Where’s Aaron?”
“He left his heap here and went off with some guys,” Grady said. “I thought he was with you all.”
“That’s his hat on the floor,” she said. “Where is he, Grady?”
“We had an argument,” he said. “It’s nothing to worry about. Will y’all get out of here?”
“No, we will not,” Valerie said. “Have you done something to Aaron? What are you hiding?”
“A million dollars is what he’s hiding,” Saber said.
Way to go, Sabe. You just flushed all of us. But how could I be mad at him? The Sabe had gone looking for his old friend.
“Come in,” Grady said.
I heard Saber and Valerie step inside the foyer and the door closing behind them.
“Your heap is up the street?” Grady said.
“Yeah, the weld on my manifold cracked,” Saber said.
“I’ll call a wrecker. It’s on me,” Grady said.
“We don’t want a wrecker. Where’s Aaron?” Valerie said.
“Downstairs,” Grady said. “We need to work things out. I’m going to bring the elevator up. Vick’s here.”
“Vick Atlas is here?” Valerie said. “That’s why that clock is smashed on the floor?”
“Take it easy, Val,” Grady said.
“Don’t you dare talk down to me,” she said.
“Lower your voice.”
“Have you hurt Aaron?” she said.
“I’m bringing the elevator up,” Grady said. “None of this is my doing. All of you had your chance, but you wouldn’t listen. Now we’re either going to work this out, or the shit is going through the fan.”
I heard the engine that drove the elevator come alive, then the elevator jolted and began rising. I watched Vick bolt for the stairwell, the hypodermic needle in one hand, the semi-automatic in the other.
Our lives were now in the hands of infantile men. They were irrational, frightened, narcissistic, ruthless, and cruel. One had murdered his father because he wasn’t allowed to play a song recorded by a man of color; the other had been disfigured and perhaps neurologically impaired by a father he both imitated and despised. I thought again about my father and his fellow soldiers who went over the top in the Great War. I wondered if my legs would fail me when I had to face my own ordeal.
THE ELEVATOR STOPPED on the first floor and the outer door slid open. At the same time, Vick emerged from the stairwell at the back of the house.
“Aaron, are you all right?” Valerie said. She was dripping water on the floor; her hair was glued to her cheeks.
“Sure, Val,” I said.
Then she saw Vick coming toward her. “Is that a gun?”
“It’s not my dick,” he said.
“You’re disgusting,” she said.
“I told them we’d work it out,” Grady said. “You hearing me, Vick? We’ve got ties.”