Nick shook his hand. “Please don’t cross me, Paul. It won’t go well for you.”
“I know. I have never run across a record as successful as yours, Nick… ever. I wish we would have treated you better. Your survival instinct is second to none though, which is why we’re here in this lounge speaking to one another. I share a missing cog in my makeup similar to yours. It has not interfered with my work, but like you I am ambivalent to the point I would have to research what caring actually means. I’ve chosen my path, and grown into the acting role professionally I have now. How did you ever do this family thing?”
Okay… the cards are on the table. “You don’t have a family I take it?”
“I tried once with a woman who understood my shortcomings. It wasn’t enough for her. She didn’t owe her existence to me though. Is that what made it possible for you with Rachel and Jean? I studied your flight with them across country while in the crosshairs of three different well-funded factions. I won’t pretend to know how you pulled it off, Nick, but was that what made it possible?”
I’m Dr. Phil once again. Maybe I should be on Oprah. “Perhaps I’m not as cold hearted a prick as you are, Paul.”
Both men enjoyed that sendup for a minute.
“In answer to your question… yes and no. I don’t understand it myself, so explaining it to you is one step beyond. Sharing a long string of life and death situations certainly played a part in it. Hell… maybe I’ve pretended so long, that this family gig has become the real thing. I know this: I won’t walk away. If someone threatens any of them, including Deke the dog, I will kill until the threat ends, or I do. Just between us psychos, it’s impossible to put a label on it. Are you looking for something beyond the job? Is that what this is about?”
Gilbrech shrugged. “Yeah… it is. I recognized from your file and psych evaluations you are like me. The intriguing part is this family you make work.” Paul paused, but then went on. “I want to feel something. I’m taking a chance here in the midst of a dangerous domestic op to quiz you about your damn family ties. I know you think I’m nuts, but I don’t know any other way to broach the subject, or anyone else I could actually ask.”
Nick gazed back toward the table where the people he loved sat joking with each other. “I’d like to give you a formula for it, Paul, but I don’t have one. Something clicked inside with my bunch. At first I told myself it had to do with using them as cover for missions overseas. Then after running around the country with people trying to kill us, I started to realize I’d miss them if they were gone, and here I am. I don’t advise you to try my way of acquiring a family, boss.”
“How the hell did you get stuck in the middle of that school debacle? I can understand the complexity of a road trip from hell, but why didn’t you walk away from the school thing?”
“You mean turn my back on a school full of kids while some nut-bag shoots my daughter’s teacher to death?”
The two men stared at each other for a couple of minutes.
“Oh… you’re waiting for me to react emotionally to that heartwarming scenario?”
“Okay… maybe we are more alike than I thought.” Nick grinned. “Jean asked me to save her teacher. It’s the second contract I’ve taken on her behalf.”
Gilbrech’s brows furrowed as Nick’s admission did not compute, then he started laughing like hell. “I…I’m going to die alone.”
Gilbrech’s statement then set Nick off.
*
“What do you think those two are laughing about, Uncle Gus?”
“God only knows, kid,” Gus answered. “They seem to be getting along okay. In Nick’s strange universe that’s funny enough to laugh over.”
Rachel watched the two men from a different perspective. “They’re bonding. I think I know why, but I’m not sure I care to know what triggered it.”
Tina reached over to pat Rachel’s hand. “Gomez has a new friend, sweetie.”
“The Terminator doesn’t have many friends. Counting Gus, that makes two,” Jean said.
“You’d be surprised, Jean,” Gus replied. “He has friends all over. They just aren’t the kind that stop over for a beer.”
Chapter Nineteen
Best Laid Plans
“This suite is gorgeous.” Rachel inspected the room in a state of disbelief. “The view of Central Park is breathtaking. I’m almost glad there’s still snow all over. How do you like this, Jean?”
“I think Deke likes it.” Jean gestured at Deke, who was looking out the floor to ceiling window at Central Park’s snowy landscape.