“I don’t see what the problem is. Those two have been in love since they were knee high to a grasshopper. Don’t know why Colton is being such a stick in the mud. From what I recall, when he and my daughter started going together he didn’t ask my permission. He just came and told me he was taking her and from then on she was going to be his responsibility.”
“Yeah but if that boy tries that shit with Colt it’ll be the last thing he ever did.” Cy had a point and it wasn’t just the weed talking.
“Why don’t you take a hit Drake, I see you eyeing it.” He’s one tough customer. Between him and my son I can’t get the two of them to toke up no matter what I try.
“That’s where we come in. The three of us have to put our heads together and come up with a plan or there’ll be no peace anywhere. I’m surprised Tina haven’t said anything to you about all this.”
“Last I saw she was on the phone with the rest of them. I usually make myself scarce when I see her gearing up for that mess.”
“Well we can’t sit this one out, she’s ours as much as she’s my son’s. So, any ideas?”
“Proceed with caution; we all remember how he acted when she was born and in the years since. We can’t go at him head-on, we have to come at this thing like we’re going into combat.”
The older Cy gets the more he reverts to his days in the army. Add that to the weed we both hit on a daily basis and the old guy’s just cranked up. “I have an idea but we’ve got to play it cool. Tomorrow’s Saturday, I say we go over like usual and talk up the boy as much as we can. Show him in a good light you know.”
“What’s that gonna do? Colt could care less what anyone else thinks when it comes to his wife and kids. Besides, what do we know about the kid? We haven’t seen him in a month of Sundays.”
“You can run him down at the station can’t you Drake?”
LYON
I stood and held my daughter, my firstborn as she cried her little heart out. I wasn’t sure where this was coming from. I’d barely understood half of what she said. But I got enough to know she needed me.
I realized as we stood there that it had been a while since we’d hugged; her mother thinks she’s too old to want to hug her old man. I was glad to know that that wasn’t the case.
Todd and Mancini had just left my office not long ago after we had a little sit down. I’d thought long and hard about whether or not I should tell the kid the truth, but he seemed to pretty much have made up his mind, so there is really no point now is there?
So I called Mancini from wherever he was in my house. He’d been on the phone ever since finding out about Mengele’s little friend, probably trying to recruit her or some shit. He’d come into the room all smiles as he put his phone away.
“I’m here what’s up?”
“Todd here had a question. He said he already asked you but you kept putting him off.”
“What question would that be?” Like he doesn’t know.
“He wanted to know if what you have him doing has anything to do with Caitlin? If she’s in some kind of danger.”
“I figured I’d leave that to you. I’m just the middle man after all.”
“My ass!” I turned my attention to the boy, “what we say here goes no further than this room. My daughter never hears anything about this.”
“You’re forgetting that Catalina already showed her that piece of paper.” Mancini reminded me.
“I didn’t forget, but she already knew about Friends of Alice, she doesn’t know about the rest of it. I can work around that. So, your word.” The boy nodded his head and sat forward in his chair.
“Your suspicions are correct!” I told him about the email and about the book that had her face in it along with so many others. I had to tread carefully with that one because of the Porters and that whole deal in the desert with their asshole son who’d harmed my wife.
I’m still not sharing that shit with anyone because it’ll put my boys in the shit along with me. Besides, there was no one left as far as I know to give a damn. The parents are in the drain pipes of their million dollar home in Arizona, at least bits of them anyway and the uncle is no more.
“Who are these people, where are they?” Oh he is pissed. He was no longer white knuckling the chair arms, now his fists were clenched tightly on his thighs. He didn’t ask why or how she came to their attention for which I was grateful.