Page 52 of Duke

“Well, all I know is that I barely got us out the last time, and if Anselm is right and the pattern holds, they’re gonna show up here eventually. So…I guess I’m just saying sorry in advance for what might happen to your compound.”

“Yeah, well, it’s all just stuff. Keep yourself and this Temple of yours alive until we can get there. Stuff can be replaced, you can’t.”

“Awww, you’re makin’ me all mushy inside, boss,” I said. “Hey, is Thresh with you? I heard he had some fun. And who was that girl I heard talking? It didn’t sound like Layla.”

“Yeah, Thresh is with me, and no that wasn’t Layla. That’s Thresh’s new girlfriend. Her name’s Lola.”

I was stunned silent. “Thresh’s new who-the-what-now?”

Harris laughed. “Yeah, that was my reaction, too. She’s cool, though.”

“Huh. Weird.” I decided I couldn’t handle the idea of Thresh with a girlfriend, so I just wouldn’t think about it. “Where’s Layla, then?”

“I sent her and Sasha down to stay with Roth and Kyrie while this whole thing is going on. After what Thresh went through, I wasn’t taking any chances. She’s probably not gonna talk to me for a month, but better that than Cain getting his hands on her. Roth’s place in the Caribbean is a fortress, and I hired a bunch of extra guys to keep an eye the place.”

“She let you send her packing to safety?” I asked, incredulous.

Layla wasn’t exactly known for her practicality when it came to being safe; she preferred to be in the thick of the action, wherever Harris was, no matter the risk, and got…pissy, let’s say…when Harris tried to put her somewhere out of the way.

“It was a fight, but she went,” Harris said, and the tone of his voice told me how serious that fight must have been. “She hadn’t seen Kyrie in a while anyway, so I think that was what convinced her more than anything I said.”

“So what’s the plan, boss?”

“We’re in the air right now, headed your way. I’ve got Thresh and Puck with me, Lear is who knows where, and Anselm is there on the compound. I think you need to hang tight.”

“Have you thought about bringing Lear in?” I asked. “He can do okay, but the guys I’ve been tangling with are no slouches, Harris. I barely got away, and that’s with a shitload of fucking luck and experience.” I laughed. “I called him awhile ago from a non-secure line, and he hung up on me. He’s a space cadet when he’s working. Not sure he’d even hear the bad guys coming, Boss.”

“Don’t underestimate Lear,” Harris said. “He’s tougher than you think. But, yeah, I’ve been in contact with him, and he’s better off out there, wherever the fuck he is. What he lacks in combat experience, he makes up for in the ability to run and hide while still making himself useful. He’s digging for intel right now, so hopefully he’ll come back with something that’ll give us a plan of attack.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Can I talk to Thresh?”

“Sure.” I heard muffled sounds on the line, and then Harris’s voice, distant. “Yo, Thresh. Your boyfriend’s on the phone for you.”

Thresh came on, then. “You worried me, fucker.”

“Did you cry?”

“Nearly.”

I toyed with the charging handle of the rifle on the counter. “Heard you got yourself a girlfriend.”

“And I heard you like it in the ass, you twinkie.”

“You wish.” I hesitated a beat. “But for real. I thought we didn’t believe in that shit.”

“The right chick comes along…” Thresh trailed off for a moment. “I don’t know, man. I know it sounds like that sappy bullshit we’ve always made fun of, but dude, it’s real, and it’s no fucking joke. This shit just…changes you.”

“I think I might be tracking that myself, brother.”

“No shit?”

“It’s confusing, man. Like, the things I think, the shit I find myself doing and saying when I’m around her…it’s been literally a matter of hours, and she’s…”

“Under your skin, but not in an annoying way? Like suddenly everything seems to just revolve around her?” It was weird hearing Thresh talk like that. It was like…Ellen DeGeneres’s voice come out of Jerry Seinfeld’s mouth. Just…fucking weird. But goddamn if he wasn’t right.

I groaned. “Exactly.”

“Can I offer some advice? I’m going through the same thing, just a little further ahead than you are, it seems like.”