Page 125 of Nash Falls

“Long time ago.”

“Andhecame up with the name?” When Shock nodded, he asked, “How did he take it?”

“He said, if I could find a man dumb enough to have me, to go for it. See, I was married at seventeen and had my first child right after. Got three more, bang, bang, bang. Then years later, my wife Libby died in a car accident. We still had some of our kids at home at the time. Your daddy had helped me set up my business, like I told you before. He come and helped me with the kids when he could. My folks were back in Mississippi and so were Libby’s. So it was hard. But we got by. I wasn’t the best father in the world, but I did what I could. Then, when the last child was grown and gone?”

He turned and looked at Jackson. “Well, I called your daddy and he come to see me. We talked. Well, mostly I talked and I told him… who I was. Who I really was. And that’s when he hugged me andsaid, ‘You just give me the biggest shock of my life. But in a good way, so’s from now on I’m gonna call you Shock, in a good way.’ And that was that.” He hugged Jackson tighter. “And me and Byron been together a long time now. And it’s been good. Real good,” he added with a smile. But his smile faded. “Your daddy’s first wife, Gloria, killed herself. You knew that, right?”

“But I don’t know anything else about it. He was in Vietnam at the time.”

“I was with him in Nam when he got word that she was dead.”

“Do you know any of the details, or why?”

Shock shook his head. “No. Your daddy never shared anythin’ with me ’bout it, really, but the man was in pain. We grew up with Gloria in Mississippi. She and Ty were tight in high school, but nothing serious. Then he went home on leave, and came back married. Surprised me, all right. Then a year later, she was dead.”

“My God,” said Nash.

Shock patted Jackson on the shoulder. “Now, I asked Byron up here to help with your trainin’. Take it to another level, so to speak. He played college ball, too, former Special Forces. Saw combat in Desert Storm, and the Second Gulf War; man can do it all.”

Jackson appraised Nash. “Isaiah said you’re working hard. You ready to work harder?”

Part of Nash wanted to say no, he wasn’t. He actually wanted to leave and give himself up, hire a good lawyer, and fight it in court. But the image of his daughter’s picture on senior prom night came back to him with the impact of a streak of lightning colliding with a tree.

So he said, “I’ll do whatever I have to do, Byron, to get to where I need to go.”

CHAPTER

60

RHETT POURED OUT ONE MOREglass of wine and looked across the dining room table in his penthouse at his widowed stepmother.

“So, Min, you want to finally tell me what’s on your mind?”

“I might have a problem that you could help with.”

“Okay. What’s in it for me?”

“Ten percent of my inheritance.”

“Make it a quarter and I’m listening,” replied Rhett.

“You shit, you haven’t even heard what I need.”

“So tell me. And it’s still a quarter.”

“Your father put a provision in the will that conditions my inheritance on a certain event occurring.”

“What event?”

“That I’m pregnant.”

“That’s not possible. I told you that, Min.”

“But Iampregnant, Rhett.”

“Come on, don’t bullshit me.”

She touched her stomach. “I’ve already seen my ob-gyn. She confirmed it. I gave that information to the lawyers, which meets one of the criteria. And the child’s father is a Temple. I told the lawyers that, too. And it was the truth.”