Page 50 of Nash Falls

“We’ve already taken steps to see that they’re taken care of.”

How?thought Nash.Bullets to the head and body bags dumped in a landfill?“That’s very good of the firm,” he said, now nervous that Rhett might find out he’d been shopping himself at other firms. But maybe they had been told to say nothing by the FBI unless they wanted an IRS audit for the next ten years.

When Nash drove through the gate to his community, the guard, a pudgy man in his forties named Rolf, stepped out and said, “Mr. Nash, a guy came here saying he was your father’s friend and that you asked him to meet you at your house. I let him through.”

“I gave no such permission.”

Rolf took a step back. “Oh, um…”

“What was his name?” Nash asked sharply.

Rolf said nervously, “He didn’t give a name.”

Nash was more than a little put out. Why bother having a damn gate and paying a guard if anyone could just bullshit their way in? “What did he look like?”

Rolf told him and said, “Do you know him, sir?”

Through clenched teeth Nash said, “I know him.”

“So it’s okay?”

“Oh, we’ll have to see about that.”

CHAPTER

24

SHOCK WAS ASTRIDE HIS HARLEYin the driveway of Nash’s home.

Nash parked by the motorcycle and got out of the Rover.

Shock eyed him calmly. The man had been a frequent guest in the Nash home while Nash was growing up, and he had found Shock impossible to read. His father had told him that Shock was the best poker player he’d ever seen.

He was the same way in combat, Ty Nash had told his son.I joined up but he got his ass drafted over to Nam, though if he’d been white he would have gotten a deferment because he was married and attending college.

His father had also told Nash that Shock had adapted quickly to the toils and dangers of the war.The man could go from cracking jokes one second to cracking necks the next, and calm just as quick, his father had said.

Nash had known that his father was not easily impressed and feared no one. But Shock was the only man he knew who had captured his father’s full respect. His unpredictable nature had also sometimes made his father anxious.

Normally, the Army doesn’t like that feature in its soldiers, his father had once told a thirteen-year-old Nash after Shock had visited them.But our second lieutenants were getting killed so fast we had to lead ourselves. Andbeunpredictable, because nobody had our backs.

Nash said, “Come looking for the world’s biggest prick? Sorry, he doesn’t live here.”

“Nice what you did with Rosie and her ma,” rumbled Shock. “I saw her after you did.”

“It was a test from my father.”

Shock got off the bike and approached. Nash took a step back. It just seemed the smart thing to do when confronted by a man the size of Isaiah York.

Shock came to a stop a couple of feet from him and said, “And you passed.”

“Why wouldn’t my father just tell me what to do? That was more like him.”

“Maybe you read him wrong.”

“Don’t think so. He wasn’t subtle in that way.”

Shock looked up at the imposing house. “Can a workin’ man get a beer in a place like this, or do you only serveChardonnay?”