“Hmm.” I paused and mouthed to Tex to get the car. “You do have my permission. When does Phoenix need the money?”
“Tonight.”
“Of course he does,” I said. “Fine. I’ll get the money. We’ll put all of this behind us and live like one big defective family. Sound good?”
“I never did get your sense of humor.”
“I wasn’t being funny, Dad.”
“Fine. Tonight then?” Damn if he didn’t sound ridiculously pleased with himself.
“Sure. Oh, and remember.” I cleared my throat. “If anything goes wrong, if for one second I smell a rat, I’ll shoot you.”
“You’d shoot your own flesh and blood.”
“Of course not.” I hung up and threw the phone against the ground. It shattered into a million pieces.
Tex pulled up and got out of the car. “Shit. You didn’t have to take it out on your phone.”
“I need a new one.” I released Trace’s hand and flexed my fingers.
“I’m on it.” Mo ran back in the house. We always kept extra phones around. Mainly because we needed lots of lines open for business, but also because Nixon and I had always had a tendency to break phones when we got upset. Expensive habit.
I paced in front of everyone. “He wants us in the dark for a reason. Damn you, Nixon.” I realized I had slipped. Trace looked at me curiously, as did Tex and Mil. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.” I cleared my throat. “Normal. Everything has to go normal today. Trace, I’ll go to class with you; maybe we’ll find answers there. If not… Shit, I’ll have to get the money myself.”
“Money?”Mo repeated. “What money? What’s going on?”
“Apparently we need to pay someone off.” I clenched my hand into a fist. “And good ol’ Dad wants me to be the one to make the transfer.”
“It’s a setup,” Tex interjected. “No boss does the business himself. He pays someone to do it for him. What Tony’s asking is not only ridiculous, it’s stupid. He knows you aren’t stupid enough to go do it yourself.”
“Which is exactly why I have to.” I scratched the back of my head. “I’ll go to the bank after classes and make the withdrawal with Sherry. She’s family so she won’t blink an eye when I take that much money from the accounts. Just know that if a bomb goes off it’s probably not an accident.”
At Trace’s sharp intake of breath, I paused. “Shit, I’m sorry, Trace. I was being sarcastic.”
Her hand flew across my face so hard I nearly fell. “Well, stop being sarcastic or I’m going to kill you myself!”
Mo had just returned, holding out my new phone, but she snatched it back from me.
“What the hell, Mo, I need that!”
Mo stuffed it in her purse. “Not until you’re done looking like you want to shoot the first thing that looks at you funny.”
Tex grinned sheepishly and batted his eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Looking at you funny. Is it working? You wanna shoot me?”
“No.” I shoved my hands in my pockets.
“Cool. Mo, give him the damn phone.”
“Men!” she shouted and handed me the phone, then got into the running car. Mil stood on the stoop and waved good-bye.
I paused. “There aren’t any men here to protect you.”
She lifted her coffee cup in the air with one hand and pulled a pistol from her bathrobe with the other. “Do I look like I need protecting?”
“No,” I chuckled.
“That would be a hell no,” Tex called from the front seat. “Play nice, Mil.”
“Always do!” She walked back inside and shut the door.
“She scares me,” Tex announced once we were on the road.
I laughed. “Yeah, well imagine what she was like before reform school.”
Chapter Forty-three
Nixon
“So?” I took a long swig of coffee and leaned against the tree. “Fifty-fifty it’s going to work?”
“I’d say…” Phoenix shrugged. “Thirty-seventy.”
“Chase will do it because he knows it’s not a normal call to make. We can bank on that.” I replayed the plan in my head over and over again until I wanted to puke. “I told him to go about business as normal. He’ll do it.”
“Good.” Phoenix nodded. “Because if he doesn’t your entire plan goes to hell.”
It would be fine. It had to be. “How was Tony?”
“Oh, you know.” Phoenix shrugged. “Pissed, but when you make an angry man an offer he can’t refuse—”