Page 64 of Nash Falls

“And at some point I won’t be here, so then it won’t beo-kayif you keep your head buried in your ass.”

“I hear you.”

His father didn’t even appear to be listening. “Nash is tired of cleaning up your messes. Who wouldn’t be?”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“You do whatever you have to do to keep him happy because there are shops out there that don’t give a shit about taking away one of my top people, and sooner or later they will make a play for Nash. So more salary, more bonus, more everything.”

“How much more?” asked Rhett sharply.

“Just make sure it’s more than you make, boy. And I will check. Now, get out of here.”

“That’s it? Really? Again, you never heard of a freaking text?”

Barton smirked. “What, and not spend quality face-to-face time with my only son?”

Rhett rose and turned to the door.

“One more thing,” said his father.

Rhett turned back.

“You keep screwing the man’s wife, you are going to get burned.” Barton shook his head. “I can understand your interest. I’ve wanted to jump Judith’s bones for years. But I’m far too smart to go downthatroad. There’s a lot of other ass out there, boy. Go after that and steer clear of her.”

“And who’s going to burn me? Walt? Highly doubtful.”

“Not Walt.”

“Who then?” Rhett sneered. “You? And give me a break. Like you never screwed the help’s wives.”

His father studied him for a long moment. “Okay, I guess you finally need to know. Not exactly my favored choice of timing, but I’m old, tired, and sick of your shit.”

“Need to know what?”

He looked his son over. “How’s the arm where they sliced and diced you? Still hurt? See, they thought you needed a lesson taught. Forcefully. They actually wanted to kill you, but I talked them out of that. So they cut up your arm instead. But you keep doing what you’re doing, your ass is done, and I’ll have no say in it. Understand me?”

Rhett felt as though every nerve in his body had just been set aflame.

His father picked up on this and smiled but there was nothing behind it this time except resignation. “Yeah, boy. If you ever think you know more than I do, think again. Now get out of here. As I said, I’m busy, with matters of importance, which obviously rules you out.”

Rhett left the room, rushed down the stairs, and then plopped into a chair set against a wall in the long hall.

This can’t be happening. He knows. He more than knows. He’s… all part of it. Which means he… got me into this… nightmare.

He got up, struggling to catch his breath, desperate for some… help.

Rhett hurried downstairs to the wing where there was an indoor gym and spa area that his father had built out for Mindy. It had a large fitness space, a hot tub, a lap pool, a steam shower, a sauna, a massage room, a hair and nail salon, and an immersion tank. He rushed into one of the bathrooms and did his line of coke, snorting it with a velocity powered by a burst of anxiety he had never felt before in his entire pampered existence.

I am so screwed. And my own father screwed me.

He turned and walked out of the bathroom only to see Mindy staring at him. She had stepped out of the adjacent sauna, lightly perspiring and with a towel wrapped around her.

“You look a little out of sorts, Rhett,” she observed.

Regaining his composure he answered, “And you look a little out of clothes,Mom.”

“Oh come on, I’m wearing more than when you were watching me all the way down the hall. And if you have complaints I can always put my itty-bitty bikini back on.”