Then, knowing his point was made in a way even Dewey understood it, he moved on. “Got eyes. I know I lost the tail.”
And he did. Three weeks ago. Just after Keaton saw top-to-toe the talent Walker had in his bed and the boys assigned to tail and do the drive-bys of the condo took in planters and deck furniture. They had eyes and ears everywhere. Walker and Lexie at The Rooster, the Italian place in town, the Toyota dealership. No doubt they looked into Lexie and no matter her relationship with Rodriguez, their lives had never mixed and they couldn’t do smack with speeding and parking tickets. She was clean.
Message received was that Ty Walker was cowed, moving on, keeping his head down and nose clean, not about to fuck his future, especially since that future included Lexie and he had no doubt they’d all had their look at Lexie.
It wasn’t a play, it was real. But seeing the results, it was a play he should have thought of though, if he did, he wouldn’t have gone for it thinking they wouldn’t be that dumb.
Then again, he forgot they were half-idiots.
And also, he had no idea he’d walk out to the miracle that was Lexie.
“What I’m sayin’ is,” Dewey kept talking, “word ‘round the Station, they’re convinced you’re movin’ on. They’re leavin’ you be.”
This news was good but Walker didn’t respond.
Dewey kept going. “Ty, they leave you be then you can just… be. Haven’t seen her, hear she’s somethin’. Got that, got a job, got your life back. There’s only one year left on your sentence, one year you gotta live on parole. More than a month a’ that is gone. Maybe signs are sayin’ you should just be.”
“You do time?” Walker asked a question the answer to which he knew.
“Yeah,” Dewey told him the answer he knew.
“Was it fun?” Walker asked.
“Ty –”
“You earned yours and it wasn’t fun, Dew. I did not earn mine. Do not fuckin’ stand there and counsel me about just being.”
His friend studied him then he repeated quietly, “Ty, you push, they’ll push back.”
“Can’t push back if they’re paralyzed.”
“You think a dozen men the last twenty years have not had your same idea, half of them brothers, you’re wrong. They all got smacked down.”
“None of them were as motivated as me.”
This was true. He knew. He knew many a biker or black man in and around Carnal had taken their hits from Arnie Fuller and the Carnal PD. Knew they tried to hit back. Knew they failed.
He also knew he was not them.
None of them were jacked near as badly.
Dewey studied him again then said, still talking quietly, “I’ll keep ears and eyes open. Anything you need to know, I’ll get word to you.” He paused then offered, “Freebie.”
“No shit?” Walker asked and Dewey, being Dewey, grinned.
Walker did not grin back.
Instead he reminded him. “Three weeks today, Dew.”
Dewey’s grin faded, he nodded then he replied, “Three weeks.”
Walker turned away and went to his workout bag. Dewey disappeared back through the window. Summer, long days, it was early evening, still light. Even so, no one would see Dewey. He could be a shadow standing in the middle of a field at noon. With that kind of talent at hand, him still getting tagged made him all the more stupid.
Walker bent and grabbed his bag, moving out of the locker room into the gym. The instant he hit it, he did a scan. It was automatic. He clocked everyone there, knew who’d arrived since he went to the locker room, who’d moved stations or machines, in or out of rings. Years of playing poker successfully, he’d learned to notice a shift of the eyes, a twitch of the finger, the way a man would move the cards around in his hand or what it meant when he didn’t considering what he would eventually turn over. This served him well inside and he’d spent five years polishing this skill, facial expressions, the set of shoulders, the clench of fists, a man’s gait, his position in a room, in the yard. Anyone sent down with half a brain used their time to hone this skill or they didn’t last long. Seeing as Walker’s was already amplified, he could read a man and gauge a room at a glance.
Second nature.
This freed him up to set the meeting and the frustrations it caused aside. He had other contacts but considering his first choice was Dewey, he wasn’t fired up to connect with his second runner up. The other choice was, without a tail, start digging himself. Risky and time consuming, time he’d have to take away from Lexie, something he did not want to do. An elevation in risk that could conceivably take him away from Lexie, something he really did not want to do.
Thinking about Lexie made his gait quicken. Workout done. Pain in the ass meet with Dewey over.
Time to get home.
A home without Ella, Bessie and Honey.
The last two weeks had been insane. When he told Tate that Lexie would want to pack it all in, he had not been wrong. But she wasn’t the only one who wanted to pack it all in, all four of those women didn’t want to waste a single breath.