Out of Time (Nine Minutes #2) (41 page)

“I fucked with them big time. I let them think they talked me into working for them where they could keep an eye on me. I tossed them an occasional bone to let them think I was theirs and I’d—”

Tommy cut him off. “Why didn’t they just threaten you, torture you, kill you?”

“They tried. I almost didn’t survive their first and only attempt at torture. It was then that I let them know I had something in place for their shit to go public. And it would only happen in the event of my death. It was the truth. I had it all set up to be released if I died. Fuck, they even protected me for a while. They must’ve been shitting themselves when I’d piss off a drug cartel bad enough for them to want to kill me. I played them like that for years knowing I could get away with whatever I wanted and they wouldn’t let me die.” He clenched his jaw. “That’s when I overplayed my hand. Thinking that when I got arrested for Kit’s kidnapping and all that other shit they’d get me out. Especially if I got the death penalty. They risked exposure with my death.”

Tommy nodded. Now some of it made sense. “But they didn’t,” Tommy finished quietly. “They didn’t come to your rescue.”

“No, they played me back like I deserved. They told me to make sure Kit and the baby were out of my life. It would be too obvious if my woman was waiting for me. They were right. I know a lot of men who were taken out because their women refused to move on. They made it apparent they were waiting for their men.” Grizz gave a bitter laugh. “Of course, I told them that if they even so much as laid a hand on her head I’d expose them, and I would have. But it backfired on me. I did what they said. I told her to marry you and I never told her why. I could never offer her an explanation without putting her in danger.”

Tommy didn’t know what to say.

“They let me rot in prison after I did what they told me, thinking they’d get me out. Shit, Grunt, I expected to be out in a few years under the guise of a false execution. I didn’t think I’d be away long enough for Mimi to remember you as her father. I stupidly thought I was going to get out and give them back their shit and they’d relocate me and Kit and the baby and leave us alone.” Grizz shook his head. “It all went to hell, though.”

“And it never occurred to you that I really loved her? That if your plan had worked you’d have been ripping her and Mimi away from me?” He understood Grizz, even had sympathy for him. But shit, it hurt.

”Honestly, Grunt? I was using you. I knew you loved her, but truthfully, I didn’t care.”

The only sound was their feet on the prison yard track. After a few minutes, Grizz added, “I’m sure you never suspected it, but I’m certain Cindy was a plant.”

“Cindy?”

“I’m pretty sure her father was a wannabe. Trying to get in with them by showing them he could help out. When I guessed it I wasn’t worried about it because there was nothing Cindy would ever learn from you. You never knew anything.”

“And now? Now that everything in those documents has come and gone, does it even matter anymore? Anybody could create a document to look like it was written in the fifties by some clandestine group with a secret name, and they could make it look like it was mapping out future world events. You said you even found pictures. These days, photos can be doctored. Anything can be done in hindsight.”

“It didn’t stop at the seventies, Grunt,” Grizz said softly. “It didn’t stop at the eighties or even the nineties. That document mapped out future events for the next seventy-five to a hundred years. This world is being controlled by forces that have been around forever and they plan on staying around. Fuck, man, they’ve named kids who haven’t even been born yet.”

It was dizzying. Tommy blinked. “How did they eventually figure out you had all this? You said they suspected it, but how did they confirm it?”

“I showed my ass. I was in my early twenties and had always kept an eye on the property where my sister was buried. It’s where I hid the shit after I got a license and could drive there by myself. I would occasionally call and inquire about the property. When I found out it had been sold and was going to be developed, I had her remains secretly exhumed and gave her a proper burial. At that time, I decided to look over the documents again. I hadn’t read them in years. I noticed a company name that had been in the news. I decided to buy some stock and made a ton of money. They noticed, and it only confirmed to them that I had what they’d suspected all along. They knew I wasn’t lying or dicking around with them. It was stupid of me.”

He told Tommy more details then. How more recently a new player, one with brass balls, had stepped in and decided he wasn’t going to let Grizz fuck with them anymore. Grizz had run out of time. They weren’t giving him any leverage. They wanted their shit back and they wanted it now. The NNG’s newly elected official made sure Grizz knew he could release what he had to the public and the NNG might falter temporarily, but not before they would let Grizz watch Ginny die a slow and painful death.

Tommy tried to show no emotion, but the thought of Grizz putting Ginny in danger made him angry.

“So it’s over for you, then? No more standoff?” Tommy tried to sound casual, but his throat burned. He swallowed thickly.

“No more standoff.”

“Too bad you just didn’t give it back when you were a kid. You know, before you actually understood what you had your hands on. But how would you have known what would happen?”

“I wish I had, Grunt. Believe me. But let me warn you: If they think for a second that you or Kit know any of what I’ve told you, you’re dead meat.”

“Then why are you telling me?” Tommy asked in disbelief.

“Because I have to be sure they leave you both alone after I’m gone. They have to be certain you know nothing and you won’t be touched. I need to make sure you or Kit don’t say anything, not a single thing by accident that would even let them think you know any of this.”

“But we didn’t know any of this! And I’m definitely not going to tell her. Besides, how will they be able to verify that we don’t know anything without interrogating us?”

Grizz put his arm on Tommy’s shoulder. “They might even be watching us now. So you can in no way react to what I’m about to tell you. Understand? You just nod and laugh like I just said something funny.”

Tommy did as he was told, and with a smile on his face, he asked, “How, Grizz? How can they know for certain Ginny and I don’t know any of this?”

“Your house has been bugged for years.”

Chapter Seventy

2000

Tommy couldn’t even
begin to describe his anger after hearing Grizz’s last statement, but it all made sense now. The NNG could never be sure Grizz hadn’t shared his story all those years with his wife and son. He hadn’t, and the NNG should’ve known it. But Grizz was convinced Tommy needed to play out his part after the execution.

Tommy was supposed to take Ginny home after Grizz’s death and come clean about some horrible things. He was willing to do that.

“You have to give them something,” Grizz had told him. “You understand? Coming home like life is perfect will only keep them listening. They keep listening because you’re so fucking tightlipped. Nothing has ever come up about the gang, her life with me, nothing. It’s almost overkill, like you’re purposely hiding something.”

“We’re
not
hiding anything.” Tommy’s voice was low. “We live a normal, average life. I’m an architect. She’s an accountant-slash-soccer-mom. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“You need to give them something. My execution will be the perfect time to let it all out. You tell her everything you can remember about growing up at the motel.”

“No. I’ve spent years not telling her stuff. I don’t want to hurt her.”

“I spent years trying to protect her, too, Grunt. I was wrong. She was smart and strong enough to handle some truths. But she’s never been allowed to know this truth.”

Tommy had been prepared to tell Ginny some things after they’d wrapped up the phone interview with Leslie. He knew they’d be listening, and even though it would be hard for her to hear some things, he knew Grizz was right. He had to give them something.

What he hadn’t counted on was that Leslie would allude to the secret about him being Grizz’s son. He hadn’t counted on Ginny actually leaving their home, going to Carter’s. They couldn’t be listening if she wasn’t there to have any conversations. If not for this, he wouldn’t have hassled her to come home. He would’ve given her the space she needed. But he was desperate to move on with their lives, and he needed to give them what they wanted by dropping some small tidbits.

He could only pray that it would be enough for them to leave his family alone.

Grizz never said anything about the chess set. Tommy didn’t know if Grizz sent it or the prison did, and he still hadn’t figured what the missing king meant, if anything.

Now, as she slept, he held Ginny closer and tamped down his growing anger. They’d listened to everything that went on in his home. Every whisper, every laugh, every intimate secret. Then, to have to make love to her knowing they were listening? And to make it worse, they’d not been together for almost a month. They were both ready to explode with need, and he hated it. Hated
them
.

He should’ve been reveling in their lovemaking instead of grinding his jaw and making the appropriate moves and sounds for Ginny’s sake.

Chapter Seventy-One

2000, Northern Florida,

Three Days Before Grizz’s Execution

After the walk
in the prison yard, they casually made their way back to a room that may or not have been bugged. In the event that it was, Grizz had told him what they would be discussing. Just like he believed that Ginny and Tommy needed to give the NNG something to listen to, he believed he and Tommy had to do the same.

“Why did you even bother with me?” Tommy asked him as they entered the room. “Why did you take me from Karen’s that night? Why did you let me think for years that Blue was my brother? I’d still think it if I didn’t suspect Candy was my mother. I did some investigating after your trial. She was my mother, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, Candy was your mother, Grunt. She got pregnant with you and dumped you off on her mother and sister, Karen.”

“I knew that much. But how did you find out about me?”

“Your Aunt Karen showed up at The Red Crab with a picture of you when you were about seven or eight. It was a school picture. You must have been in foster care when it was taken because you looked good. Looked cared for.

“Yeah, that’s possible. I was in and out of foster care. Some good, some not so good, but I was fed.”

“Anyway, she insisted that you were mine. Karen said her mom had run off and she didn’t have the money to take care of you. Candy had been long gone. Karen said if I didn’t give her money she would pack up and not be there when you got home from school one day.”

“You gave her money based on a picture of me? If my mother was a prostitute, I could’ve been anybody’s kid.”

“True. But a couple of things made me believe it. First, I thought you looked like me at that age. Second, your birth date was telling. It lined up with a time when Candy was off the streets and staying with me and Anthony in the garage apartment. Red had been trying to get her off the drugs. He dumped her on me and Anthony. Made her a prisoner. We had to take turns not letting her out of our sight. When we weren’t there, Red would stay with her. She definitely wasn’t hooking. Axel was spending a couple of months in juvie so he wasn’t around. He wouldn’t have slept with her, anyway.” Grizz gave Tommy a knowing grin. “But me and Anthony banged her every chance we got. She was willing. Used it to try to convince us to let her back on the streets. We were young and horny little shits. Red let her leave after he thought she was clean.” Grizz shrugged. “I never saw her again. Not until that night she came to the motel looking for you.”

Tommy just stared. He didn’t say anything.

“You sure as hell ain’t half Indian.” Grizz blurted out. Then he shook his head and added, “Hell, maybe you’re not my kid. Maybe I assumed wrong all these years.”

Tommy frowned. “You didn’t assume wrong,” he said softly. “I thought early on
you
might’ve been my older brother, not Blue. But I didn’t suspect you were my father until we heard the testimony about Candy at the trial. I started digging further then, getting nowhere. It took years to be certain. It wasn’t until about a year ago, when they found Moe, that I thought to have some tests done.” He waited a beat. “Mimi and I share the same DNA.”

Grizz didn’t say anything, just nodded. Tommy thought he saw a flicker of satisfaction pass over Grizz’s face, but he couldn’t be sure.

“So why did you have to kill her when she came to the motel that night?” Tommy pressed on. “All you had to do was tell her to lie and say somebody else was my father and that Blue was her brother or something. Why did you kill her?”

“Didn’t want her stirring up shit. Didn’t want anybody to know you were my kid.”

Tommy laughed. “Come on. Who would’ve cared if I was your kid?”

Grizz stared at him seriously. “I had good reason to kill her. You don’t know how many enemies I’d made over the years who wouldn’t have thought twice about coming after you to get to me. I was saving
your
life when I killed her.”

“Yeah, whatever, Grizz.” He was playing along now, just like Grizz had told him to. Just in case they were listening. Grizz had explained during their walk that Candy’s sobriety had actually caused her to start digging into her father’s death. She’d started remembering some things Red had said.
They
had caught wind of it, telling Grizz that if she ever showed up, she needed to be eliminated. Immediately. She was a threat. Grizz was following an order. He was honest with Tommy, though, admitting he’d felt no remorse in killing her. It was just part of the job.

Now in the room, Grizz slammed a hand on the table. “Dammit, Grunt, listen to me. I know you waited a long time to be with Kit
.
Do you want that to dissolve? Do you want to stir up all the bad shit that I used to be involved in? Blue will stop Leslie from putting in her fucking article that you’re my son.” He ran his hand through his hair and mumbled to himself, “I still can’t believe I let you talk me into it. Fuck! You told me Kit said she needed the closure and I wanted her to have that. I knew the stupid bitch didn’t work for the big magazine she claimed to. I figured it would just fizzle out. I almost didn’t do it until Kit called me.”

This last statement caught Tommy’s attention. He was going off script here. “Ginny called you?”

“Yeah, I had already spoken to you and I was still chewing on it when I heard from her. I almost fucking dropped the phone when I heard her voice. She told me she really needed to do this interview. She felt she hadn’t completely healed from all of those years with the gang, from seeing and knowing the things they did. It was important to her, but the reporter needed more. Needed to talk to me, too, to see she was telling the truth in the interview. Kit was very matter-of-fact. Said I owed her.”

“Grizz, Ginny never called you.”

“Don’t tell me she didn’t call me,” he growled. “I fucking talked to her.”

“Before that, when was the last time you spoke to Ginny?”

“She called me to tell me you named your boy after me. When was he born? Ten years ago? We talked for less than a minute back then.”

Tommy sat there shaking his head. “I cannot believe this. I cannot fucking believe this.”

“What can’t you believe?”

“It’s not your fault. I’ve mistaken them on the phone, too.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“It was Mimi,” Tommy said. “You were duped by Mimi.”

Grizz leaned back and looked at Tommy hard. “Are you fucking kidding me? How do you know that? Why would she do that?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but I’ll find out. She was working Ginny on our end, too. After Leslie came around, Mimi acted very interested. Told her mother maybe it would help her to forget the past. To give the interview as a way to have closure on the gang life. Mimi has withdrawn from us the past few years. Typical teenage stuff, I guess, but I know Ginny saw the article as a way to bond again.”

Grizz got very serious. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit. You figure out what the fuck that was all about and fix it. I trusted you with my child. I’ve stayed away for fifteen years believing that you were on top of it. You’re telling me now that Leslie got the interview with me and Kit thanks to
Mimi
? My time is almost over. You get this fixed, Grunt. You hear me?”

“Yeah, I hear you. It could be nothing, but I’ll make sure I get to the bottom of it.”

The one thing Grizz didn’t tell Tommy was that after Jason had been born, he’d stopped running his own surveillance on Mimi. He’d been able to see some pictures of her growing up, but he’d stopped when Kit moved on with her life and had another baby. The pain was too unbearable.

“Good. And you have to give me something else.” Grizz was now going back to the script they’d discussed in the yard. “You asked me to believe it wasn’t you who set me up. I do. You asked me to understand your deceptions when you were younger and you wanted to be with Kit. I do. I’m giving you that. But I’m telling you that I am going to my death, giving you the freedom to move on with the woman I love. The
only
woman I have ever loved. Now you have to give me something. Just take care of her and my daughter.” He paused then, looking at Tommy hard. “And my grandson. Take care of all of them. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, Grizz. I can do that.”

“And one more thing,” he quickly added. “Tell Kit— Ginny—I’m sorry. Okay? Tell her I’m sorry for a lot of things, but I’m not sorry for loving her. I’ll never be sorry for that. And she’s not responsible for me being here. She probably thinks it’s because of Jan finding her wallet, but it’s not. I’m here because of the things I’ve done. Not because of her.”

In their bed now, Ginny let out a big sigh. Tommy shook his head free of the memory and pulled her closer. Her scent was intoxicating. He held her in his arms as he breathed her in, remembering how he had loved her from the very first glance. Up until a few weeks ago, she’d thought it was when she was brought to the motel. Then when he’d told her about being with Grizz a few times to check on her, she’d thought it was when she dumped lemonade on Curtis Armstrong’s head. He smiled at that memory.

Then he carefully removed her from his arms and silently made his way downstairs to his office. He flicked on the light and went to his desk. He pulled out a drawer and released a hidden compartment. Then, very quietly, he took out a small box.

The same box he’d had in his dresser the night Grizz came for him. The same box he had kept for the past thirty-two years.

**********

“Hey, new kid? Is it true you don’t have any real parents? That you’re on loan to some loser family who shaved you bald because you were full of bugs?”

There was a round of laughter. Tommy just stared at his library book and pretended not to hear them. It was 1967. He was eight years old.

“Maybe he has bugs in his ears, too, and can’t hear us,” another one piped up. More laughter.

Tommy continued to read his library book and refused to look up. It was morning recess and he was sitting on the ground with his back against a tree. He’d only been in this new school for a day. He didn’t think his foster parents were losers. They were nice people, and he didn’t blame them for shaving his head. He was actually relieved.

He stared at the pages of his book and continued to ignore them. Before he knew what had happened, they swiped it from his hands and pulled him to his feet by the front of his shirt. His first thought was, please don’t rip my new shirt.

But before he could react, the bully had let go of him and was stumbling backwards. Tommy managed to gain his footing. All he could do was stare.

He hadn’t seen her approaching. She was taller than him and had her back to him as she stood over the boy she had just shoved to the ground. With her hands on her hips she said to the boy, “Stop being such a bully, Arthur. Maybe
you
should try reading a book once in a while.”

Before Arthur could get to his feet, there was a shout from several yards away. “Guinevere! Get over here this minute.”

The girl looked at the three bullies and reluctantly marched toward her teacher.

One of the bullies looked at Tommy. “Better watch your back. Won’t always be a scrawny girl around to fight your battles.”

Before Tommy could reply, Arthur and the other boy had already started walking away. They called over their shoulder, “C’mon, Curtis, we’ll get him later.”

“Guinevere,” Tommy said out loud. He picked up his book and headed for the line at the water fountain.

The rest of his morning wasn’t too bad. He enjoyed his studies and some kids even gave him nice smiles. He wondered which class Guinevere was in. Maybe he would see her in the lunchroom. His class was quiet. They were working on their multiplication tables. He rushed through it very quickly and realized he hadn’t used the restroom all day. He’d been too nervous to go when they went as a class. He stood and slowly approached his teacher.

She looked up with a kind smile. “Yes, Thomas?”

“May I use the restroom, ma’am?”

She nodded and asked if he knew where it was. He told her he did and quietly left the room.

He had left the boys’ room and was heading back to class when he heard her name. Two teachers were talking in a classroom. He slowed down before he passed the door.

“I can see Guinevere is at it again,” one said with amusement in her voice.

“Yes, she does seem to have her nose in everything lately.”

“What’s the latest crusade?”

“Potholders. She’s making potholders to sell because she wants to buy Kenny Schultz new shoes. He’s wearing his brother’s hand-me-downs and they’re too big. He keeps tripping over his own feet.”

Tommy heard the sound of a desk drawer being pulled out.

“Where did she get the money to make potholders? Isn’t she from a needy family herself?” the other teacher asked, bewilderment in her voice.

“I think one of the cafeteria ladies gave her a potholder kit. Said her neighbor’s granddaughter got it as a gift and didn’t want it, so the neighbor asked her if there were any kids at the school who might want it.”