Out of Time (Nine Minutes #2) (40 page)

Chapter Sixty-Nine

2000

It felt good
to be in Tommy’s arms again. Ginny hated to admit it, but early in their marriage there had been times she’d been making love to Tommy when she would think about Grizz. She’d felt like she was committing adultery against Grizz.

But now, even though she mourned Grizz and would always love him, she felt she was able to give herself over to Tommy without feeling like she was betraying Grizz. His death, although extremely painful, had provided some closure.

Ginny burrowed deeper into the crook of Tommy’s arm.

“I need to spend some time again at Carter’s, Tommy.” Before he could object, she added, “Not now. Maybe when we get back from our cruise. I need to clean out the garage.”

She felt him relax. “Let’s do it before the cruise, honey. I’ll go and help you.”

“No, I think I should do this myself.” She snuggled closer. “Besides, when we get back from our trip, you’ll go back to work and the kids will be in school. I’ve been thinking about it a little. I’ll start by putting the cars and motorcycles up for sale. Then I can tackle the guest room above the garage. It shouldn’t be too hard. Grizz really didn’t have a lot of personal stuff.”

“Ginny, I don’t know if you should do this alone. Going through all those things—it could be really tough. Tougher than you realize.”

“I won’t be all alone. Carter will be around taking care of her animals. I’ll let her know if I need her.” She turned to gaze up at him in the darkness. “Tommy, I think this is something I have to do without you. You have to understand that. I know you do.”

“Yes, honey,” he said and kissed her forehead. “I understand.”

She fell asleep almost immediately. Tommy lay in the dark for a long time listening to the sound of her breathing. He told himself he had a clear conscience now. At least as clear as it could be for someone who had lived the life he’d lived. All the lies and deceptions over the years had given him a false sense of self-righteousness. When you told yourself, convinced yourself, you were doing something for the good of someone you loved, it didn’t seem so bad.

He’d told Ginny in great detail about his last meeting with Grizz in prison before the execution, leaving out only the things they’d both agreed she shouldn’t know. Things too dangerous for her to know. He’d made the hard decision not to tell her about Sarah Jo’s part in her rape, which had led to Moe’s suicide. He didn’t know whether that was the right thing to do or not, but it felt right. As much as he wanted Sarah Jo to pay for her brutal dishonesty, he felt telling Ginny about Jo’s real reason for moving out of the country would have only caused more pain. He was afraid one more revelation would break her.

He had to admit to himself: his wife was strong. Stronger than he’d ever realized. She could’ve handled knowing about Jo, and maybe one day he would tell her. Just not today. Chicky had been right to keep that journal from Grizz. It had probably saved Sarah Jo’s life.

He thought more about his last meeting with Grizz, right before the execution. Tommy thought he’d have to convince Grizz he wasn’t the one who’d gone to Jan about taking down Grizz, Blue and the gang along with them. But to his surprise, he didn’t need to do any convincing at all.

**********

“I know it wasn’t you. But Grunt, I was pissed.” Tommy and Grizz stood in the alcove to the prison yard, the hot sun blazing beyond the covered overhang. It was three days before the execution.

Grizz huffed out a breath, then
kicked at the cement slab. “You have to remember what that fucking reporter had told me about the billy club. I talked to you, we worked it out, I didn’t like it, but what was I going to do? Have you killed and leave Kit alone? But then Blue waltzes in with pictures of his kids, says one is yours. Tells me Jan said it was you behind my arrest. It all came back how you manipulated me that night. Other nights, too. Admit it, Grunt. It looked bad for you. Real bad.”

Tommy nodded. It did look bad.

“But I know why you did what you did. You did it for her.”

Surprised, Tommy stared at Grizz. “Always, Grizz. It’s always been about her. Look.” He exhaled sharply. “You’re going to the table soon. I have no reason to hide anything from you. I know you think I set you up. I know you think I fucked Jan.”

Grizz put his hand up. “Stop right there. I don’t give a shit about Jan, and I know Blue doesn’t either. When she told us it was you who set it all up,
that’s
what pissed me off. But just for a second. Nobody double crosses me—”

“I didn’t double cross—”

“Shut the fuck up for a minute and let me finish. I know it wasn’t you. Okay? How many times do I have to say it? You were a kid when you pulled all that bullshit. I can’t blame you for being in love with Kit. I’m still in love with her myself. I’ve done a lot of things that would make another man cringe. The only thing I ever did that twisted my gut into pieces was telling her to marry you. To stop coming to see me. To make sure my daughter never knew me. I get it, kid. I get it all, and I understand it. I don’t like it, but I accept it. Because I love her.”

“You can stop calling me kid,” Tommy said with a smirk. “I’m as big as you.”

Grizz ignored that last comment. No one was as big as him. “I’ve had a lot of time to think in here, Grunt, and the more I thought, the more I wondered how Blue’s slutty wife could’ve pulled it off. I could’ve kicked myself in the ass for not thinking about it sooner. I was pretty certain I’d been right in my thinking the first time.”

“Who? Who was it?”

“That little prick, Matthew fucking Rockman. Rockman is responsible for bringing that shit storm into my life, and thanks to him, I’m going to the table in a couple of days. Can’t do anything about it now but trust Blue to handle it.”

Tommy blinked. Matthew Rockman? He had a quick flash of the guy. The young attorney who suggested to Ginny that she use Carey Lewis’s firm for Grizz’s defense.
That
punk was the one who’d caused all the dominoes to fall?

“So, we good now?” Grizz was saying to Tommy.

“I’m good if you’re good,” Tommy answered, relief evident in his tone.

“Wanna take a walk around the yard with me? I want to hear everything about my daughter and grandson. I want to know everything about them before I die.”

Tommy hesitated. The yard? Was Grizz setting him up? Were there guys waiting in the yard to jump him?

“Are you allowed to take visitors in the yard?”

“I’ll be dead in a few days. They let me do what I want. C’mon.”

Reluctantly he’d followed Grizz out to the yard. It was empty and had an oval track, much like the track Ginny used to jog on back at the motel.

It was there that Grizz told him everything. Everything from the very beginning. Grizz started by explaining why he wanted to talk outside. Apparently, even with his clout, the prison still might have ears, and he had to be certain nobody would hear what he had to tell Tommy.

Grizz told him not to be surprised when he was questioned about Jan’s upcoming murder. Tommy should’ve been surprised, but he wasn’t. This was Grizz.

“When Blue was here last, I told him I would signal someone in the viewing room as to whether or not to take you down. I believe what you’ve told me today, so I’ll signal accordingly. It’ll all play out like I planned, but you need to know I have things in place that look like it might lead to you, but they won’t. They’ll only look like Rockman’s sloppy attempt to frame you. I’m only doing it so you can offer up some more information that will further implicate Rockman. Got it?”

He then told him the real reason he’d been sitting on death row all this time. What he had been involved in since he was a kid. What they wanted from him.
They
had nothing to do with Grizz’s arrest. That was all Matthew Rockman, but
they
let it happen to see where it would go. To see if they could use it to their advantage.
They
didn’t have a name. In fact, they did, but Grizz wouldn’t offer it up to Tommy. He didn’t need to know it, but for the sake of this explanation he would refer to them as the NNG. The No Name Group.

The FBI thought they were reporting to the White House when in fact, Grizz was certain based on names he’d learned many years ago, they were reporting to people even more powerful than the United States government. An organization more secret and connected than the CIA. Actually, the NNG was more powerful than
any
government. Privately elected within their own ranks, they came from all different walks of life—politicians, educators, CEOs, philanthropists. They were the ones calling the shots. They made sure the correct person was in the Oval Office. They controlled the world’s economy. They did it all.

And yet a nobody biker from South Florida had something in his possession that scared them shitless.

“What did you find that freaked them into letting you think you could bring down the people that ran the world? You know this sounds farfetched, don’t you, Grizz? I mean, come on—people who ‘run the world’?” Tommy made air quotes.

“This is the part Kit can never know. This is the part that will offer you an explanation. It’s the least I can do for you, and you need to be able to handle what I’m telling you.”

Tommy frowned, then nodded at him to continue.

“I told you about my little sister. How I killed my parents and made my way to Fort Lauderdale. But that was just the beginning.”

As they made their way around the prison yard track, Grizz proceeded to tell Tommy the rest of the story. The motel. Pop’s accidental death. What he’d found after Red and his guys showed up. He told Tommy everything.

“A bag of counterfeit money with the plates to make more? Was that supposed to finance something?” Tommy’s eyes were wide.

“Yes, but I didn’t find out the rest until I was older. I burned almost a million dollars that night in the pit. I thought I’d stumbled across plates to make counterfeit money. I hadn’t realized these had been real plates, real money. Real plates that were in the possession of the NNG. No wonder they were so fucking wealthy. They owned the fucking mint, Grunt.”

Tommy exhaled sharply. This was far bigger than he ever expected. “How was Red involved?”

“Red was undercover FBI. He was good friends with Candy’s father, Tom. That’s who she named you after. Tom was Secret Service, although his family never knew that. They always thought he sold insurance. Maybe he was undercover Secret Service, if there was such a thing back then. I really don’t know. Anyway, the Secret Service is responsible for sniffing out and dealing with counterfeiters. That’s probably what Tom thought he’d stumbled on. The NNG used their power to have Red, Tom’s friend, put on his trail to get that bag back. But it wasn’t the money they were after. There was something in the bag I’m not even sure Tom knew about. But I sure did. I found it.”

Tommy slowed to look up at Grizz, but Grizz tugged him along, mumbling under his breath, “Keep walking and don’t act surprised. This is supposed to be a friendly goodbye chat between father and son. We need to look like we’re clearing the air so I can die a happy death.”

“Got it.” The sun was bright as they walked. Bright and hot. “So what’d you find?”

“A big fat document, that’s what I found. Neatly typed, a logo and everything, very official looking. Names, dates, events. There were small explanations, notes under each one. It was basically an outline of major world events.”

“Events? Like what?”

“The Berlin Wall. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Vietnam War. Names of men who would be president. Watergate. The gas crisis. AIDS—”

”What’s the big deal about that, Grizz? Everybody knows those things. You didn’t stumble on any big secrets. Pick up a fucking history book.”

“You’re not as smart as I’ve always given you credit for, Grunt. You’re hearing me, but you’re not really listening.” In a very low voice laced with anger, Grizz continued. “I found this document in the fifties. The Berlin Wall wasn’t built until 1961. The Cuban Missile Crisis was in 1962. This letter said who would be president, who would assassinate him and who would assassinate the fucking assassinator. Said there’d be a president who would fall in a scandal called Watergate. That was in 1972. It said there would be a gas shortage. That they were working on a virus that would eliminate what they called ‘the undesirables.’”

Tommy’s jaw dropped as what Grizz was telling him actually sunk in. “You’re telling me that you saw a map of our future? Like, a Nostradamus document or something?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And even though I was just a kid, I knew it was important. I just didn’t know how important. I don’t think Red even knew what I’d found. He died thinking it was a counterfeit operation. He was obsessed with that bag of money and his hunch was right that I’d found it. He convinced the FBI that I could be an asset. They didn’t even know the entire truth about what I’d found. They always thought they were reporting to some White House official, and maybe they were, but that official was reporting to a higher power.”

“And you used this knowledge to keep them at bay? To let you get away with so much for so many years?”