“Gus?”
“We haven’t discussed the FBI task force woman who told the pimp Calhoun where we were all staying,” Gus answered. “I’m sure Muerto is mulling her over in his mind since we still have signings to do in Seattle, and Great Kate will be in the city for a few more days winding down the task force loose ends.”
“Muerto! You can’t kill an FBI agent.”
Silence.
“Muerto!”
“You wouldn’t be so forgiving if our visitors had tried to kill you and Jean while Gus and I were in Seattle,” Nick muttered finally.
“Let’s go with that logic since this is about Jean and I. We’ll take votes from the two of most concern to you. The Momster votes no. Jean?”
Silence.
“Jean!”
Jean folded her arms over chest while staring straight ahead. “She’s an FBI agent, Mom. She’s supposed to protect people. Because she’s stupid, and Dad had to get her replaced with Grace and Tim, she told killers where to find us. I’m not voting. Let Dad decide. He knows stuff we don’t.”
“Jean’s right, Rachel,” Gus added. “Give Muerto a chance to consider this on his own. He knew to be watching for those cretins in case that FBI broad was as vindictive as he figured she was. He can’t help it he’s right all the time in the wrong way.”
“It’s my curse,” Nick pouted comically with hands hiding his face while Deke growled and pried under them with his nose. “I am doomed to see the worst in people and have them prove their low character true.”
“Cut the comedy act,” Rachel directed. “You win. Let’s enjoy the rest of our day and night. I feel like I’m about ready to pop. If my intuition is right, Quinn will be arriving pretty quickly after we get home. I’m going in the pool and float around like a beached whale, belly up.”
“Oh great… I’ll have to go into therapy for a year to get that word picture out of my mind.” Jean fended off the Momster’s grab for her ear with a yelp. “Hey… no pinching the ear. I’m going to look like Dumbo the Elephant by the time I’m twelve.”
*
Gus and Nick sipped their drinks in the cabana while Rachel and Tina swam in the pool. Jean had dumped Nick for the company of two girls near her own age.
“You’ve considered Calhoun and his buddies will be missed, and someone will be around to ask you questions, especially when their vehicles are found outside of Centralia, right?”
“I couldn’t do anything about the vehicles’ GPS systems, but hopefully law enforcement won’t be trying to track their travels as an afterthought. I stripped their phones, and busted them to pieces. I sent scans of their ID’s to Paul so he can be kept in the loop. He knows what Great Kate did. I’ll probably let him handle her behind the scenes. Without confessing to murdering three thugs in cold blood, I can’t very well do anything in the open about Kate. I’ll let Grace and Tim know what she did, so they can steer clear of her in the future. We’ll leave it to the ‘regular federal authorities’ for now.”
“Good thinking,” Gus replied. “You can always tie that loose end later. She doesn’t pose a threat, does she?”
“I don’t know, Gus,” Nick admitted. “Although I suspected her to be that petty, even I was surprised when Calhoun and his boys showed. I made sure it was her that tipped him off before he died. We have a couple hundred grand more to play with too, but I’ll have to wait until I can transfer the money from his accounts to a neutral account somewhere. We’ll have time, but I’ll get it done in the next couple weeks. I doubt they’ll find those three any time soon though.”
“When we get home, I’m looking forward to the Muerto Matchmaker gig. I thought it was nuts to tangle with the Kaders again, but when I saw John’s face after you mentioned hooking him up with Cala, I figure it will be worth it. How many of those assholes do you think we’ll have to kill before they stop messing with her?”
“Who knows? Maybe two or three. I plan on staging this so John can be heroic, and maybe scare the crap out of the Kaders that do make trouble. Avoiding dead bodies with those psychos is anyone’s guess though. Man, this is nice, Gus. Since Dom came early, we should be able to do the remaining signings without any after action problems.”
“You do realize you just doomed us, right?”
“Payaso. You are the most negative creature on earth.”
“No, but I’m partnered with him.”
Chapter Fifteen
Death and Life