I followed Talon out the door. “Tal?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Joe. I tried. I guess I’m not ready.”
“It’s okay. We’ll go.”
“No. We came all the way out here. You have questions you need to ask. Take as long as you need. I’ll be outside getting some fresh air.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I just need some air.” He shook his head. “Your strength, Joe. It’s humbling.”
“What?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
“The way you deal with him. You own that room, that table. You own him. You’ve always been that way. You’re not scared of anything. You never have been.”
Wow. This was what my brother thought of me? Unbelievable.
“I’m scared of a lot of things, Tal.”
“You sure as hell never show it. You faced off Tom Simpson and Theodore Mathias unarmed. Twice.” He shook his head. “Fucking amazing. I’ve always looked up to you. Always. You’re a good man, Joe. A strong man who always tries to do the right thing. That’s why I want you for my best man. You’re the kind of man I want to be.” He cleared his throat. “Now go on back in there and get the information you need. I’ll be fine. I’ll text you if I go anywhere.”
He walked off before I could answer. Was that really how Talon thought of me? After I’d let him down twenty-five years ago? I wasn’t worthy of his praise. But I’d deal with feeling unworthy later. I walked back into the prison and into the visiting room. Larry still sat at the table. I sat back down.
“Your brother doesn’t seem to have a lot of guts,” Larry said.
“If you mention my brother again, I will have your throat slit in your sleep tonight.”
That sobered him up a little. “What is it that you want now, Steel?”
“Information, Larry. The usual.”
“I don’t know where Simpson and Mathias are.”
“Funny enough, I actually believe you. My questions concern someone else. Wendy Madigan.”
“I don’t know anything about Wendy Madigan.”
“You were in the future lawmakers club with her.”
“So?”
“I have a lot of questions about that club and what you did there. But I won’t go there yet. You told me once that Wendy wasn’t who she seemed to be. I need you to elaborate.”
“Figure it out yourself.”
“I’m serious, Uncle. I will have your throat slit tonight. I can pay those guards off to do anything, and if they don’t want to do it, they’ll have one of your fellow prisoners do it.”
Larry sighed. “Might make my life a whole lot easier, to tell you the truth.”
Time for a different tactic. I needed Larry alive. If his impending death no longer scared him, I needed to find something that would.
“I can smoke Simpson and Mathias out. They’ll make your life miserable.”
Yup, that got him. He paled and clenched his hands onto the sides of the table, his knuckles whitening.
“Look, just answer one question for me. What the hell was the relationship between Wendy Madigan and my father?”
“They were lovers. You already know that.”