Out of Time (Nine Minutes #2) (32 page)

“Yes, and something came to light in Blue’s last meeting with Grizz that angered Grizz again. That’s when Grizz sent for me. That’s why I actually went to see him before he was executed.”

“Why did you have to go see him? Why couldn’t you handle it on the phone?”

“I needed to have a sit-down with him. I needed to explain something and it had to be done in person.”

“Why?”

“Because he found something out that made me look deceitful. Even though it happened a long time ago, years before the gay thing, it was fresh in his mind, and I was not looking good.”

“What are you talking about? What did Grizz find out?”

“I need to tell you about Kevin.”

Chapter Fifty-Four

2000

Kevin. Blue and
Jan’s youngest son. Ginny swallowed hard. She used to babysit him and his older brother, Timmy, whenever Blue and Jan were in a pinch.

Ginny bit her lip and pressed on. “Is it true? Were there any tests done to prove paternity or anything like that? And I guess what’s more important: Do
you
believe Kevin is yours?”

“Yes. I do now. Jan tried to tell me he was mine, but I never believed it. Never wanted to, I guess. But Grizz showed me the pictures when I went to see him. He’s mine, Ginny. I don’t need a paternity test to prove it.”

They were both quiet a long moment.

“Leslie alluded to the secret, you being Grizz’s son, being put in the article Sunday morning when she called us on the phone. Grizz died two days before that. Whatever he was going to do to stop it, didn’t work.”

“Grizz died thinking it was handled. And it has been.” He put up his hand to stop her next question. “I know Leslie needed more convincing, Gin. I know it’s been taken care of, and I know nobody was hurt. He just never counted on her saying something to you before it was stopped.”

She nodded her head in understanding. She could see the relief on her husband’s face. They were making some headway with the secrets. The betrayals. The things that now seemed so easily explained away by Tommy.

Too easily?

Ginny knew there was still a lot more to tell. She could read her husband’s expression, knew what he was thinking. He thought she would be going back home with him tonight. But she knew she wouldn’t be. She still wasn’t ready. She still hadn’t decided what she believed and what she didn’t.

And whether she could live with any of it.

She gave him a level look. “Tommy, this hasn’t changed anything. All these secrets coming out. I still need time. You know that, right?”

He didn’t know what to say. He thought by sharing so much and being truthful, she’d come home. She’d realize it wasn’t all as horrible as she’d thought. But none of it was working.

He’d wanted to have this discussion in their home, needed to have this discussion in their home. Grizz had given explicit instructions about that. He hadn’t even gotten to the part where Jan blamed Grizz’s arrest on him. It was just too much information at once. He’d have to put that on the back burner until he could convince her to come home.

“No, Ginny, I
don’t
know that.” Tommy took her hands gently, but she pulled away. ”I know you’re taking in a lot of information, honey. But I don’t understand why you can’t come home to hear it. Why do you need to stay away from me? From our children?”

“Tommy, do not play the children card with me. Don’t even try it. This has nothing to do with our children, so don’t even attempt to go there. This is about our marriage. Maybe I can explain how I’m feeling in a way that you’ll understand. A way
you
can relate to.” She rushed on. The analogy had come to her this morning, and she liked it, “Let’s say you’ve been living in the same house for years. It’s not a perfect house, but it’s the only one you’ve known, and—and you love it and accept it because it’s yours. But many years later, you get a knock on the door. It’s some city official, and they’ve just realized your house was built on ground that is not stable. Something is wrong with the land it’s built on. You go and you pull out your original blueprint and you don’t see anything wrong. You have a legitimate design with an architectural seal of approval. You look back over it and see some things you could’ve changed to make it better, but it’s still a good house and you don’t want to believe it could’ve been sitting on some massive sinkhole this whole entire time that could swallow it up whole!”

“Gin, this doesn’t—”

“Let me finish! I know it’s not the same thing, but bear with me. A city official has just told you that the foundation you built your house on isn’t safe. You could be swallowed up in a second. So you start walking around your house and looking closer at all of the things you loved about it. And now that you’re looking at it, really looking at it up close, you see the walls were built using substandard products. They could crumble at any moment. Your roof and windows wouldn’t survive ten minutes in a bad storm. Maybe the paint on your walls contains harmful lead.”

Tears began to fill her eyes, and he did what she asked. He listened. “Your contractor betrayed you, Tommy. He cut corners at every cost, cheated you out of knowing what you were really living in. Every step of the way. Aren’t you
angry
? Aren’t you just furious? He tried to explain it away by telling you it was okay that you didn’t know. It was for your ‘own good.’” She laughed derisively, one tear spilling onto her cheek, and then another. “You could never have afforded to have the house of your dreams, the house he’d built, if he’d used superior building products. And he wouldn’t think of telling you he’d used low-quality materials to construct it. He reminds you that you would’ve never been happy in a house if you were worried it could collapse on you without warning. He did the right thing by not telling you what you were living in. He should be thanked and applauded for saving you from such distress. But you know what, Tommy? He never once considered how you would feel when that sinkhole, or should I say stinkhole, started to swallow you up.”

Silence filled the air. He didn’t know what to say. She was right. Both he and Grizz were guilty of letting her live a life based on secrets. How much better would it have been if they had told her certain things as they’d happened instead of letting them all swallow her up now? He wasn’t being fair and he knew it. He tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.

“I’m only asking you for time, Tommy, and I think it stinks you aren’t even willing to give it to me. After
all this.
” Her tears were gone now, replaced by the cold anger. “You are being selfish, and I’ll be honest, Tommy. At this moment, I find that, that selfishness, a million times more repulsive than the fact that you slept with Jan.”

He didn’t get a chance to respond. Just then, she broke into a huge lopsided grin, staring at the sliding glass door that led into the house. “I didn’t hear a car pull up!”

Tommy turned to see what she was looking at.

“Surprise! Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!” Jason walked out on to the deck, and Ginny enveloped him in a big hug. “Aunt Carter and Aunt Casey said I could help take care of the animals tonight. Why is your nose red, Dad? It looks like it was bleeding. Why was your nose bleeding?”

“Bumped it on the barn door, Jason. Nothing to worry about,” Tommy quickly said, forcing an over-bright smile of his own.

Carter and Casey had followed Jason onto the back deck. Quietly closing the sliding door behind them, Casey mouthed, “Sorry—he missed his parents.”

Ginny and Tommy knew she was right. Poor kid had spent a couple of days at the Reynolds’ while they were at the prison, and no sooner had Ginny picked him up to come home than she left for Carter’s. Then Tommy had left after one night, replaced by Carter and Casey. He would start suspecting something soon. And God only knew what was going on inside Mimi’s head. Ginny wrung her hands; she couldn’t help but worry about her oldest child.

As if reading her mind, Carter chimed in, “Mimi’s at someone named Courtney’s house. Hope that’s okay. Casey talked to her parents and they said it was fine.”

“No, that’s good. She’s okay with them.”

Carter answered the unspoken question. “She hasn’t even asked.”

Ginny nodded. She supposed she should be grateful.

Carter took Jason by the hand. “C’mon, I need help with the horses.” Ginny could see Jason was only too happy to help. Carter called back over her shoulder as they walked down the deck steps and headed for the stalls, “If I had one ounce of his energy I could finish my chores in ten minutes.”

Tommy hadn’t said anything since the girls brought Jason home. He looked at Casey. “I know you just got here with him, but I really need another hour with Gin to talk. Do you think he’ll notice if we sneak out to have dinner somewhere?”

Ginny started to object, but Casey wouldn’t hear it. “He’ll be fine. He’ll be out there with Carter for at least an hour. We’ll keep him busy. Go.”

Tommy looked at his wife. “You up for dinner out somewhere?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t showered, but I am getting hungry.”

“You’re fine, honey. Just thrown on some jeans.” He didn’t want to have to deal with other men staring at his wife’s long legs. They looked sexy in shorts with her cowboy boots. He never wanted to admit it, but he had inherited Grizz’s tendency to be jealous.

After Tommy cleaned up, he talked quietly with Casey while Ginny changed into her jeans.

“Bumped it on the barn door?” Casey smirked. Tommy didn’t answer her.

Ginny came out of the bedroom then. “All ready.”

He followed her to the front door.

“So, where are you going?” Casey asked casually.

Ginny knew in her heart it was wrong, but she couldn’t help herself.

“Tommy is taking me to meet his boyfriend, Allen.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

1980

“
Are you sure
you can go? Why don’t you let someone else go?” Grizz asked Kit as they stood in the small living room of number four.

“I’m fine. The nausea isn’t as bad as it was,” she said as she looked up into his green eyes. They looked worried.

“What if you feel sick while you’re driving? You know what? Give me your keys. I’ll drive you.”

“Grizz, you are overreacting. I think I can handle a drive to the grocery store. Just the fact that I’m feeling like I can cook again must mean the worst has passed.” She cringed when she thought about how the smell of any kind of meat cooking made her want to empty her stomach. But she hadn’t thrown up in three days. That was something. Maybe the morning sickness—or in this case, the all-day sickness—was finally gone.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the mouth. “I love how much you love me, and I love you even more, but it’s just the grocery store.” She laughed at herself. “Hey, I made a rhyme!”

He pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. “There is no way you could love me more than I love you, Kitten. And, if you really are feeling better, maybe you can stay here for a little while longer,” he said in a teasing tone.

“Let me go to the grocery store and maybe I’ll make it worth your while when I get back,” she teased back.

He became very serious then. He gently took her face in his hands, rubbing her cheek with his right thumb. “I’m only teasing, you know.” He nodded toward the bedroom. Without waiting for her to answer, he added, “As much as I love making love with you, Kitten, it’s not about that with you. It never has been.”

His brow creased as he tried to come up with the words that could describe how much he loved her.

As much as she wanted to hear the words, she knew how difficult this was for him. She smiled and grabbed his wrist, slowly turned it so her lips met the inside of his palm. “I know, Grizz. I know.”

He was so overprotective. It was just the grocery store. Her heart swelled with love for him as she grabbed her purse and keys. Soon they would be moving into their new home. They were going to have a baby, and to top it off, Grizz was going to be finished with the gang. She couldn’t have been happier.

He reluctantly let her go and watched as she walked out the door. He stepped to the window, and his eyes followed her as she strolled down the motel sidewalk, disappearing around the side of the office.

It was then that he noticed a car. Chowder was talking to the person behind the wheel. He squinted to see if he could make out the driver. He watched Chowder step back from the driver’s side of the car and point to the highway. He must have been giving a lost motorist directions. It wouldn’t have been the first time an unsuspecting traveler had accidentally turned into the motel.

As the car made its way around the pit and started to pass in front of number four, Grizz stepped back from the window so he couldn’t be seen. But not before he recognized the driver.

What was Matthew Rockman doing at the motel?

Immediately, Grizz went to the telephone and dialed a number. “I have someone I need you to check out.”

Less than a week later, Grizz pulled into the overgrown parking lot of an abandoned building in an older section of Hollywood. It looked like it had been some type of factory in better days. His contact had run a check on Matthew Rockman, then set up this meeting for him.

Two minutes later, an expensive luxury car pulled up next to him. The man got out and slid into the passenger side of Grizz’s car.

“What do you need, Grizz?” The man, Carey Lewis, was dressed in a pricey, well-tailored suit. He reeked of confidence, expensive cologne, and maybe a little arrogance. Grizz was the only person he would ever meet in this type of circumstance. He wasn’t a cloak and dagger kind of guy, but Grizz was different. He required special attention and he paid well for it. Carey had three ex-wives, five kids, and a twenty-two-year-old girlfriend. He was only too happy to comply.

Grizz handed him an envelope. “There’s a kid coming out of law school soon.”

“You need me to give him a job?”

“No,” Grizz said slowly. “Not a job. I need you to get close to him, though. It’s still too early to tell for sure, but I might need you.”

“What’s his name and what do you need me to do?” Carey asked.

“His name is Matthew Rockman.”

“Okay, sure, Matthew Rockman. Do you know any more details? What kind of law he’s studying, anything like that?”

“It’s all in there,” Grizz nodded toward the envelope now resting on Carey’s lap.

“Okay, what else? What do you need me to do?”

Grizz looked at Carey hard. “You need to earn his trust.” He paused. “And when you’re certain that he trusts you implicitly—”

Carey waited. “Yeah, what?”

“You need to make certain he thinks you hate me as much as he does.”

**********

After the meeting with Carey, Grizz drove to The Red Crab. He went inside and headed for his office. Chicky spotted him out of the corner of her eye and signaled him that she needed to talk to him. He switched directions and started walking toward her. He liked Chicky. She was one of the few women he’d slept with who he might actually consider a real friend.

He remembered how Chicky, who used to go by Rhonda, had tried years earlier to rope him into some kind of relationship. He never minded that she offered her body. It was when she tried to make it into something more that she used to piss him off. He was relieved when she set her sights on someone else. He even smiled when he remembered how Chicky had eventually passed the torch to Willow and how hard Willow vied for his love. How did that whore think he could possibly even like her, let alone love her?

Then his smile faded as he recalled something else. The night Monster had brought Kit to the motel. How Willow had lunged for her. And later, Willow’s involvement in Kit’s rape. He should’ve broken her fucking neck that very first night.              

Chicky interrupted his thoughts. “Hey, Grizz. Listen, just wanted you to know Guido’s been looking for you. He stopped in here earlier and said he’s been paging you and calling everywhere he can think of.”

Grizz grabbed the pager off his belt and looked at it. “Didn’t get a page from Guido.”

Just as he said it, the pager went off, displaying a digital number with “911” next to it. Urgent. He headed for his office and dialed the phone.

“It’s me.”

“It’s about time, boss. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for hours!”

“Page just came through. What’s so fucking important?”

“There’s something you need to know. Her mother, your wife’s mother—”

“What about Kit’s mother?”

“I think she’s looking for her.” Guido took a breath. “Actually, I think she’s looking for you.”