Golden Trail (59 page)

“They’re my grandsons!” she protested.
“She’s known them all of a month.”

“Yeah, and they’re my sons. I fell in love
with her in three weeks,
twice
. You do the math.”

She snapped her mouth shut, looked away and
sucked back some coffee.

Then she told the wall, “She’s going to hurt
you again.”

“Yes, she is,” Layne agreed and Vera’s eyes
shot to him.

“What?” she whispered.

“She’s got somethin’ in her, Ma. Somethin’
not right and I gotta help her get it out but I don’t know what the
fuck it is. I don’t even think
Roc
knows what it is. It made
her leave me eighteen years ago and I know in my bones it’s gonna
happen again, unless I sort that shit out, and all three of us are
gonna lose her. Now, you can play your games and piss me off, piss
off my boys, and cause a rift in this family because you’re bein’
stubborn or you can fuckin’ help me, ‘cause, Ma, she makes me
happy, I love her, I don’t want to lose her again and I need all
the help I can get.”

He watched his mother’s eyes change and she
looked the way she looked when he was eleven and took that huge
header on his bike, walked home with blood running from his knees,
his forearms and his temple and she cleaned it up with a hot, soapy
towel then wiped it with alcohol, blowing in between each
stroke.

And the way she looked at him, just months
ago, when he was in the hospital after getting shot.

“She’s got something in her?” Vera asked
quietly.

“She’s shit scared of the dark unless I’m
there,” Layne shared.

“Is this new?”

“No, I don’t think so, but it’s new to me.
She wasn’t that way before but she said it was because I was there.
And she isn’t that way now when I’m there. But if I’m not there,
and it’s night, the curtains are open and she cannot handle them
closed and when I say that, she
seriously
cannot handle them
closed.”

“Did you ask what scares her?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t answer. She just
started shakin’ and then I felt something comin’ from her and I
won’t go into details, Ma, but I been in some serious situations
and been in the presence of some serious people, and I’ve never,
not in my life, felt anything as nasty as that.”

She put her hand to her mouth and took a
breath before dropping it and asking, “Why do you think she didn’t
answer?”

“I don’t know, she just wouldn’t go
there.”

“What do Dave and Merry say?” Vera
asked.

“They don’t, they won’t talk about it.”

“What?”

“They won’t talk about it, Ma. At all. They
say if they do, she’ll cut them out like she cut me out.”

“My God,” Vera whispered. “What on earth
–?”

Layne cut her off. “I don’t know. I know two
things. She’s scared of the dark,
really
scared and she
won’t go there to understand why. And I suspect one thing, whatever
this is ties up with why she left me.”

“Did she explain that?” Vera asked
softly.

“Yes and no,” Layne answered honestly.

Vera’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“She explained it but she says even she
doesn’t know why she did it. She just knows it hurt, she wanted
that connection back, she fought against it and missed me for
eighteen years. Me gettin’ shot broke through.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Vera
observed.

“No shit?” Layne asked.

Vera’s back got straight. “Do you want me to
talk to her?”

Oh Christ.

Layne shook his head and stated firmly,
“Fuck no.”

“What?” Vera snapped. “Why not?”

“Ma, seriously?” And his mother had the
grace to look as guilty as she was.

“Okay,” she said. “So I won’t meet her after
school and invite her to manicures and confessions of the soul.
I’ll um… win her back and then… um…”

“How about you work Dave, I’ll work Merry
and one or the other of us maybe will figure out what the fuck is
goin’ on and find a way to get passed it,” Layne suggested.

“Dave isn’t my best friend,” his mother
reminded him.

“Yeah, you did that too. But you go over
there, wavin’ the white flag while carryin’ one of your pistachio
bunt cakes with that kickass icing that he always liked so much and
maybe
he won’t shoot you.”

Vera grinned then her grin wavered and her
eyes got bright with wet.

“One big happy family,” she whispered.

“One big happy family,” Layne whispered
back.

“Again,” she finished now trying to force
her smile.

“You missed her,” Layne said softly.

“She made you happy,” Vera bullshitted.

“Bullshit,” Layne called her on it. “You
missed her.”

She took in a deep breath then she
spoke.

“You know, Tanner, I was once head over
heels in love,” she told him. “Blind with it. Blind. Then he walked
out on me just like she walked out on you.”

Fuck. Jesus.
Fuck!

Layne hadn’t thought of it like that.

“Ma –”

“Then I had to watch it happen to you
and
feel it again because yes, I loved her and when she
left, I missed her. But she wasn’t gone, like your father, and
every time I saw her, it hurt even more.”

Layne stared at his mother.

Then he ordered, “Come here, Ma.”

She shook her head. “No. If I do, you’re
gonna be my sweet boy and make me cry and I don’t have waterproof
mascara on.”

“Come here, Ma,” Layne repeated.

“Tanner.”

“Get over here.”

She sighed, set her cup on the arm of the
couch, got up and walked to him. When she got close, Layne jumped
from the desk and folded his mother in his arms.

He knew she was crying even with her voice
muffled by his chest when he heard her say, “You know, you haven’t
hugged me since I got home.”

Layne bent and kissed the top of her head
and then said there, “I’m a shit son.”

Her head tilted back and her wet eyes hit
him, mascara running down, before she whispered, “No, not that,
never that, honey. Never.”

“Love you, Ma,” he whispered back, she
grinned and lifted her hand, patting him on the side of the neck
twice before her fingers curled around.

Then her smile got bigger and she stated,
“I’m glad we got this sorted out. Being mean is exhausting.
Especially when, at the same time, you’re over the moon that your
eldest grandchild has finally sorted out his head and your son is
with a woman who cheers on the Colts, helps his boy with his
homework and falls asleep on his chest and not one that screeches
her nonsense at the top of her lungs at every available
opportunity. So, I’ll warn you now, if you ever think of reuniting
with Gabrielle, I will not offer to be your receptionist. I’ll have
you committed.”

Layne smiled down at her. “Not thinkin’
that’s in the cards, Ma.”

“Thank God,” she breathed, still smiling,
she took her hand away and smeared her mascara across her face.

“Maybe you need a mirror,” he suggested and
she jumped from his arms.

“I knew it!” she cried, whirled and rushed
into the bathroom.

Layne looked at the closed bathroom door
while counting them down. That was two problems covered, his Ma and
Astley. Then he walked back into his office thinking, his mother
wanted to help out, he’d let her. She could do the books. He had
checks to cash, invoices to send and bills to be paid. He was going
to spend Monday doing it. Now, Vera could spend Friday doing
it.

He didn’t make it to his desk when he heard
the beep, looked to the monitor and saw Ryker walking up the
stairs.

“What the fuck?” he whispered to himself,
quickly rounded the desk, pulled his nine millimeter out of a
drawer and shoved it in the waistband of his jeans at his hip.

He was back in the outer office by the time
Ryker came through the door.

“Yo, bro,” Ryker greeted.

“Ryker,” Layne returned, hoping his mother
was adding a whole new layer of makeup.

Ryker looked around the office then back at
Layne. “Dig the digs,” he commented.

“Thrilled you approve,” Layne replied.

Ryker’s eyes dropped to Layne’s gun then
went back to his and he smiled his big, ugly smile. “Nine
millimeter? Take that as a compliment, bro.”

Layne cut to the chase. “You here for a
reason?”

Without delay, Ryker walked in, skirted
Layne and went into his office. Layne stood where he was, eyes on
the bathroom door, counting to ten.

He found this didn’t work and he followed
Ryker into his office to see him lounging in one of the two chairs
in front of Layne’s desk.

Layne rounded the desk, pulled out his gun
and set it on the desktop, close, as he sat down.

“Well?” he prompted.

“Thought we could go out, get a beer, play
some pool,” Ryker replied and Layne stared.

Then he asked, “Come again?”

“Pool. Beer. Women. We both got hot babes
but that don’t mean we can’t look.”

“Not sure what keeps you in motorcycle boots
and leather jackets but it’s four o’clock in the afternoon and I
got two growin’ boys so I gotta work for a living,” Layne
replied.

Ryker smiled his big, ugly smile again and
stated, “Yeah, been askin’ ‘round about you. You’re like King Dick.
The top of the Private Dick Heap. What you charge, bro, you could
work three hours a day and still feed those two powerhouses.”

“I worked three hours a day, Ryker, wouldn’t
have clients to pay those fees,” Layne returned.

Ryker shrugged, “Suit yourself.” Then he
leaned forward and asked, “So what we workin’?”

Oh shit.

“We?” Layne asked back.

“Yeah,” Ryker lounged back in his seat,
“we.”

“I think I told you already I work
alone.”

“Now you work with me.”

“I skipped a part,” Layne informed him.
“How’d that happen?”

“Baranski’s out of your
old
old
lady’s house. That happened because of me. You think I do somethin’
for nothin’?”

Fuck.

“And payback is we partner up?” Layne
asked.

Ryker shrugged again. “Sure, when I’m bored
and I’m bored,” he answered. “So what we workin’?”

Layne heard the bathroom door open and Ryker
shot out of his chair, his hand going behind his back, he pulled
out his .45.

Fuck!

“Honey?” Vera called.

“In here, Ma,” Layne called back and then
said low to Ryker, “Stand down.”

Ryker relaxed and shoved his gun back right
before Vera hit the door. She looked up at Ryker and her mouth
dropped open.

“My,” she breathed, “you’re a big boy.”

“Ma, this is Ryker. Ryker, Vera Layne,”
Layne introduced.

Ryker grinned his ugly grin and stuck out a
meaty hand. “Ma’am.”

Vera took it and shook it, placing her other
hand on top, saying, “Ryker. Is that your first name or your
last?”

“Both,” Ryker replied and her eyebrows shot
up.

“Both? You’re a one name man?” she asked and
Ryker let go of her hand.

“Yep,” Ryker answered and Vera’s eyes shot
to Layne.

“How neat!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never met a
one name person before!”

Ryker turned his ugly smile to Layne.

Layne sighed.

Then he suggested, “Ma, how ‘bout you get
your coffee, get your ass to the grocery store and buy a beef
tenderloin for dinner.”

Vera stared at him and then stated firmly,
“Beef tenderloin is for special occasions, Tanner, you know
that.”

“Like you makin’ up for bein’ a bitch to Roc
for the last week, an occasion like that?” Layne replied. “It’s her
favorite, or, when
you
used to make it, it was.”

Vera was silent before she whispered, “Oh,
right.”

Layne smiled at her to take the bite out of
his earlier words. “Don’t forget the horseradish sauce and you can
come in tomorrow and do my books.”

He watched his mother’s face light up.
“Really?”

Jesus, only his mother, the nutcase CPA,
would be excited about doing books.

“Yeah,” Layne said.

“Fantastic!” she cried then turned to Ryker
and announced, “It was a pleasure to meet you,” she leaned in,
grinned and said like she and Ryker shared an in-joke,
“
Ryker.
”

Then she disappeared.

Layne looked to the monitors to watch his
mother walk down the stairs as Ryker resumed his seat.

“Your Ma was a bitch to your babe?” Ryker
asked and Layne’s eyes cut to him.

“Long story,” Layne mumbled.

“Bro,” Ryker grinned.

You understand my vision of justice,
Ryker had said.

Layne stared at him but he didn’t spend much
time doing it before he made a decision.

“You know TJ Gaines?” Layne asked.

“Who?” Ryker asked back.

“Youth Minister at the Christian Church,”
Layne answered and the grin faded from Ryker’s face and Layne
watched it go scary.

“Don’t know what that is,” Ryker said
quietly, his voice lethal. “Just know that shit ain’t right.”

“Have you heard something?” Layne asked.

“Everyone in the ‘burg is whisperin’ about
it,” Ryker responded. “No one likes it but no one’s got a handle on
it.”

“Well, I’m lookin’ into it and now you are
too.”

Ryker’s grin came back. “What you got?” he
asked.

“Nothin’. Just an apartment at The Brendel.
Don’t know if he lives there or if he visits someone there. Unit K.
Apartment three. I need to know when I can get in so I need someone
watching it. You need to get me intel on who the occupants are, how
many there are, when they come, when they go and when I can get in
to do a clean sweep. I don’t wanna toss the place. I need time to
do it right but I gotta know when that time’ll be.”

“Brendel’s the ‘burg’s Fort Knox. Even pads
on The Heritage don’t have that kind of security. And even if I
manage to hang out and take notes which, bro, I don’t know if you
noticed but I’m not exactly the kinda guy who fades into the
woodwork, especially at a place like The Brendel, ain’t no way
you’d get in.”