Nick jogged to them. “How long were you all standing there?”
“From the time you told them about the polar bear and seal, Dad,” Jean answered, elbowing Sonny who was about to say something. “Not now, I told you.”
Nick was not amused. “First off, the confrontation was not a joke, Momster. You bunch should have been a quarter of a mile away by now. You heard them. If things went badly, they would have been on your backs. What was that all about?”
Rachel started laughing with Jean joining in and Sonny smiling. “Those posers had as much chance of being able to come after us through you as the proverbial snowball in hell. Every one of them flinched when you put the first guy down like a used condom. The guy with the hat saved their lives.”
“All true, Rach,” Nick admitted, walking alongside of them again, “except for what I tried many times to caution you about: unintended consequences. You knew I had a few pops. If I slipped a notch, you’d be in a battle for your life now with the kids. Deke would do what he could, but they had guns.”
“They didn’t try to use them on you though, Sir,” Sonny remarked with Jean tugging on his jacket. “There were four of them left to take you… but they didn’t. Would you have been able to take all of them?”
Nick shrugged. “Yeah… unless I tripped and fell off the pier. The difference is they hesitated every moment. They hesitated after I put their man down. They hesitated when they knew I was armed, and they would have hesitated when they tried to draw their weapons. I would have shot them all in the head before they could have cleared whatever place of concealment they carried their weapons. If any of them had killed before, it was by accident or they shot their victim in the back or from behind a tree. I think the guy with the hat has been in the service overseas. He knew he was getting trapped into a gunfight with a bunch of guys more likely to shoot each other than me.”
Sonny wasn’t through. “Don’t you get scared?”
“Yes, but not of combat. I fear losing the people I care about through something I’ve done. It’s a bit easier to focus away from the fear with Rachel, Jean, and Deke. They would be dead if we weren’t together. I figure the four of us as always on borrowed time anyway. We had people wanting us dead only fate on our side prevented from succeeding.”
“Fate, and the most deadly man alive,” Rachel said. “Are you sure we should be telling Sonny any of this?”
“Sonny’s made his choice. I believe him to be a lot like Jean. He sees flaws in people, accepts them, and moves on. Sonny knows I’m more than a novelist. We’ve let him into the inner circle. He knows things happen around our family and friends that will be deadly. I’m not a scoutmaster. I gave him the opportunity to leave us in the rear view mirror. If he’s going to be with us, he’ll have to know the details of why the less he knows the better, and to never share what he does know with anyone else.”
“I’m sorry, by the way, for not doing what I should have done,” Rachel admitted. “It was stupid. You’re right. Anything could have happened and I’d be facing them with only Deke between us and death.”
“You’re forgetting you had Viper and Cracker here at your side,” Jean stated. “We have our knives.”
Rachel gasped. “You gave ten year olds knives they can throw? I thought the throwing knives in a nice case you claimed was a sport would be the only knives thrown and under adult supervision.”
“I…I didn’t think it was any big deal. They’ve learned to use the throwing knives like a couple of professionals. Naturally, it takes a lot more practice to throw a balanced folding knife. They mastered the art in no time at all. They would have been better off with the knives than without them. Yes… I know… I’m going to hell.”
“Right there with you,” Rachel said. “Regular people will be wondering how the hell we ever kept custody of ten year old Jean. Maybe we should head to the hotel. Taxi, right?”
“Absolutely,” Nick answered. “No need to get cocky. My guess is the only reason they were hanging around that high class boat has to do with some illegal substance arriving or the goons paying off their supplier. I may go back later and take a look.”
“Why the hell would you do that?”