Colorado 03 Lady Luck (60 page)

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, opened 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.

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.