Page 175 of Nash Falls

Ryder suddenly looked both confused and fearful, and Nash could understand why. Victoria Steers certainly would not want three of her men in the custody of the FBI.

“But Judith Nash has been eliminated,” Ryder pointed out. “Let’s not overlook that.”

“Seems to me like you sacrificed two knights and a bishop to gain a rook,” interjected Rhett. “Admit it, Lynn, it’s a shitshow. And it doesn’t get us any closer to finding Nash.”

Before Ryder could say anything in response, her phone buzzed. She looked at the text. After she read it she glanced up. “Shewishes to see us, Mr. Temple.”

Rhett turned a shade paler. “Where and when?”

“Who are we talking about?” asked Nash, though he well knew.

“We are to go to her. In Hong Kong.”

“Who?” Nash demanded again, but Rhett held up his hand.

“Why does she want to meet?” he asked Ryder.

“She has been made aware of the latest developments and wants to hold a council of… war. She requires your presence.”

Nash said, “Mr. Temple. I need to come with you.”

“No,” said Ryder sharply. “Only Mr. Temple is allowed.”

Rhett said forcefully, “No. If he doesn’t go, I won’t, either.”

“She said—” began Ryder.

“I don’t care, okay?” blurted out Rhett. “My father was murdered. Maggie and Judith Nash are dead. Nash himself is God knows where. And now your guys are missing. There’s a rat somewhere. I feel it. I’m up to my neck in shit right now, lady, and you’ve done nothing except make things worse. So it’s both of us, or you can fucking go alone.”

Ryder stared hard at Rhett, as though she believed her gaze alone could slay him. Then she drew a breath, tapped in a message on her phone, and sent it off. Thirty seconds later the reply dropped into her inbox.

“It is approved,” she said. “Her jet will fly us to LA and then on to Hong Kong.”

They all went to pack and get ready.

Nash sent a secure message to Morris about all of this and got a reply back.

Please do not get on that damn plane.

Nash’s reply was just as quick.

Please take care of Judith. And if I don’t make it back, tell her I tried my best.

After the refueling stop in LA, Steers’s sleek jet charged into the sky.

Nash stared out the window as he left America beneath him. He reflected for a few moments on what it must have felt like for his father, at the tender age of eighteen, to be flying halfway around the world to fight in a war where someone you knew would die pretty much every day, and your own odds of survival were never very good.

Nash seriously doubted he would be coming back alive fromhiswar. Yet he also doubted that Victoria Steers and Rhett Temple would be among the living if he had any say in it. And he would do all he could to make sure he did.

I know I’m tilting at windmills, although my enemies are anything but imaginary. But sometimes an eye for a damn eye may be the best you can do.

Yet if the hell he had endured had taught Nash anything, it was that the only things that really mattered to him were his family. It was an easy thought to articulate, but far harder to actually live day in and day out. Now he regretted every second he had been on the road for business and missed anything happening in Maggie’s life, because he would never get an opportunity to have a second chance with her.

Just like with my father.

And after seeing Judith descend into the depths of despair after losing her daughter, Nash understood that his cold, focused, andaloof nature might very well have driven his wife into the arms of someone like Rhett Temple.

I failed the people I was supposed to take care of. But I may have gotten a second chance to make restitution, at least in a small way. And I will sacrifice everything I have, including my life, to make it right. Or as right as I can make it, because nothing will bring Maggie back. And Judith will never be the same.

But I will try my best.

And I’m Ty Nash’s son.

So bet against me at your peril.