Guns: The Spencer Book
Page 65
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“Well, you’re giving me a headache,” Ronin replies. “So just explain why the f**k we should care that Ashleigh’s sister is here. Is she the one behind the bike theft? Is she the one behind the sudden appearance of the new witness in the trial? Is she filing for adoption of your kid?”
“No, Ronin,” Ford says in his why are you on this team voice. “But she’s a wild card we can’t afford to discount. What if this bitch does something unpredictable?”
“As in what?” Ronin asks. “She’s gonna swoop in and save Ash from an out-of-gas car while we’re in the middle of the job? I’m not following.”
I have to bite back the cringe as Ford remains silent.
“OK, I’m back to surveillance. Spencer¸ you owe me for this. I am not recon for a reason.” The three quick beeps says the call has been ended on the other side.
“What’s he so f**king strung out about, Spence?” Ronin asks, turning to me. “It’s like he’s having a conversation with himself. I don’t get it. Is the new family compromising him or what?”
“I don’t think that’s it, Ronin. He’s just worried about Ashleigh doing this job. He doesn’t want her involved, but we’ve got no choice.”
“Yeah, well, this is the part I’m not getting. OK? It’s a pretty f**king simple job. Get dropped off in a taxi, fill up the tank with two gallons of gas. Start up the car. Wait for you and your crew to show up and distract everyone. Ford drives the bot out, Ash picks it up. She drives away. What am I missing?”
I wait a beat too long and Ronin is on to me. He starts shaking his head. “You better come clean, Spencer. I swear to God, if you two are keeping shit from me, I will flip the f**k out.”
“That’s not it,” I say calmly. “That’s not it at all. It’s just…” This is not a lying pause. Ronin taught me this pause. It’s an I don’t want to tell you the truth, but the truth is coming out anyway pause. “It’s just we’re not one hundred percent sure who all the players are.” And this is not a lie either. That’s the whole f**king reason we’re doing this job, right? To get the players lined up like soldiers.
Ronin’s brow furrows. He’s not buying it and like the inexperienced liar I am, I keep talking. “What if there’s someone else involved? What if Ashleigh’s sister is the one behind all this? What if all this has to do with Ford and not Rook? What if we’ve been targeting the wrong enemy?”
“You know something and you better f**king tell me right the hell now.”
“Ford thinks Ashleigh’s father is the one behind the stolen motorcycles.”
“But why?”
The fact that Ronin is still asking me for answers and not filling them in himself tells me he thinks I’m lying. I might not be the liar on the Team, but the liar has been one of my best friends for ten years. I know him. He knows me. We know Ford. And all of us can feel there’s something wrong with us right now.
“It’s a distraction, I guess.” I shrug my shoulders, but it’s lame and even I know it so I play my last card. “Ford never told you, and dude, I’m sorry for keeping it from you all this time, but Ashleigh’s family ties are big-time…” I search for the right word. “Big-time corporate mobsters, I guess. And the guy she was engaged to, Kate’s real father, that guy comes from the actual Italian mob. Not some low-life rank either. But like the f**king Godfather’s son.”
I wait for Ronin’s reaction but he rolls a hand at me to keep going.
“And the Godfather and Ashleigh’s father, Damian Li, they hate each other. They both do business in San Diego. Ashleigh left the US for college and met up with Tony, the Godfather’s son, in Japan. Tony joined the military, became a SEAL, and then got blown up on some mission. Stop me if you’ve heard this.”
I wait but Ronin is not amused because he has not heard this. Not one bit of it, and now that he realizes I have, he’s only gonna get angrier.
“Ashleigh went a little insane when the death of Tony and the birth of Kate pretty much occurred simultaneously, left Japan on this whacked-out road trip, and may or may not have tried to kill herself by falling asleep in a broken-down car during a blizzard. Ford unwittingly saved her, took her to LA thinking she just wanted to have words with the guy who left her hanging and pregnant in another country, not realizing Tony was dead, and then Ashleigh’s father came and forcibly took Kate, threatening to incarcerate Ashleigh in a psychiatric facility if she didn’t give the baby over to her sister to be adopted.”
“Shit. Holy f**k. Why didn’t Ford tell me?” Finally Ronin is processing.
“That’s not all, dude. Ford lied his way into Damian Li’s home, then married her on the spot using some legal loophole only California has, called a confidential marriage license. The woman who performed the ceremony is still hiding in Australia, that’s how terrified she is to face Li.”
“So,” Ronin says, finally ready to fill in the blanks. I do my best not to breathe a sigh of relief. “We’re not only dealing with corrupt FBI and politicians who think keeping girls as sex slaves is OK, but also a double-crossed corporate criminal, and maybe even a real-life mobster, both of whom are related to Ashleigh and Kate. Well, that’s f**king wonderful. And you guys didn’t think to tell me this earlier?”
I relax a little, because he’s playing along right now, but that doesn’t mean he’s on board. I’m dealing with our liar. And even though this was kept from Ronin and this is all one hundred percent true as far as I know, none of this shit is what Ford does not want Ronin to know. Or me, my nagging thoughts add, as if I needed anymore bullshit on my plate.
“No, Ronin,” Ford says in his why are you on this team voice. “But she’s a wild card we can’t afford to discount. What if this bitch does something unpredictable?”
“As in what?” Ronin asks. “She’s gonna swoop in and save Ash from an out-of-gas car while we’re in the middle of the job? I’m not following.”
I have to bite back the cringe as Ford remains silent.
“OK, I’m back to surveillance. Spencer¸ you owe me for this. I am not recon for a reason.” The three quick beeps says the call has been ended on the other side.
“What’s he so f**king strung out about, Spence?” Ronin asks, turning to me. “It’s like he’s having a conversation with himself. I don’t get it. Is the new family compromising him or what?”
“I don’t think that’s it, Ronin. He’s just worried about Ashleigh doing this job. He doesn’t want her involved, but we’ve got no choice.”
“Yeah, well, this is the part I’m not getting. OK? It’s a pretty f**king simple job. Get dropped off in a taxi, fill up the tank with two gallons of gas. Start up the car. Wait for you and your crew to show up and distract everyone. Ford drives the bot out, Ash picks it up. She drives away. What am I missing?”
I wait a beat too long and Ronin is on to me. He starts shaking his head. “You better come clean, Spencer. I swear to God, if you two are keeping shit from me, I will flip the f**k out.”
“That’s not it,” I say calmly. “That’s not it at all. It’s just…” This is not a lying pause. Ronin taught me this pause. It’s an I don’t want to tell you the truth, but the truth is coming out anyway pause. “It’s just we’re not one hundred percent sure who all the players are.” And this is not a lie either. That’s the whole f**king reason we’re doing this job, right? To get the players lined up like soldiers.
Ronin’s brow furrows. He’s not buying it and like the inexperienced liar I am, I keep talking. “What if there’s someone else involved? What if Ashleigh’s sister is the one behind all this? What if all this has to do with Ford and not Rook? What if we’ve been targeting the wrong enemy?”
“You know something and you better f**king tell me right the hell now.”
“Ford thinks Ashleigh’s father is the one behind the stolen motorcycles.”
“But why?”
The fact that Ronin is still asking me for answers and not filling them in himself tells me he thinks I’m lying. I might not be the liar on the Team, but the liar has been one of my best friends for ten years. I know him. He knows me. We know Ford. And all of us can feel there’s something wrong with us right now.
“It’s a distraction, I guess.” I shrug my shoulders, but it’s lame and even I know it so I play my last card. “Ford never told you, and dude, I’m sorry for keeping it from you all this time, but Ashleigh’s family ties are big-time…” I search for the right word. “Big-time corporate mobsters, I guess. And the guy she was engaged to, Kate’s real father, that guy comes from the actual Italian mob. Not some low-life rank either. But like the f**king Godfather’s son.”
I wait for Ronin’s reaction but he rolls a hand at me to keep going.
“And the Godfather and Ashleigh’s father, Damian Li, they hate each other. They both do business in San Diego. Ashleigh left the US for college and met up with Tony, the Godfather’s son, in Japan. Tony joined the military, became a SEAL, and then got blown up on some mission. Stop me if you’ve heard this.”
I wait but Ronin is not amused because he has not heard this. Not one bit of it, and now that he realizes I have, he’s only gonna get angrier.
“Ashleigh went a little insane when the death of Tony and the birth of Kate pretty much occurred simultaneously, left Japan on this whacked-out road trip, and may or may not have tried to kill herself by falling asleep in a broken-down car during a blizzard. Ford unwittingly saved her, took her to LA thinking she just wanted to have words with the guy who left her hanging and pregnant in another country, not realizing Tony was dead, and then Ashleigh’s father came and forcibly took Kate, threatening to incarcerate Ashleigh in a psychiatric facility if she didn’t give the baby over to her sister to be adopted.”
“Shit. Holy f**k. Why didn’t Ford tell me?” Finally Ronin is processing.
“That’s not all, dude. Ford lied his way into Damian Li’s home, then married her on the spot using some legal loophole only California has, called a confidential marriage license. The woman who performed the ceremony is still hiding in Australia, that’s how terrified she is to face Li.”
“So,” Ronin says, finally ready to fill in the blanks. I do my best not to breathe a sigh of relief. “We’re not only dealing with corrupt FBI and politicians who think keeping girls as sex slaves is OK, but also a double-crossed corporate criminal, and maybe even a real-life mobster, both of whom are related to Ashleigh and Kate. Well, that’s f**king wonderful. And you guys didn’t think to tell me this earlier?”
I relax a little, because he’s playing along right now, but that doesn’t mean he’s on board. I’m dealing with our liar. And even though this was kept from Ronin and this is all one hundred percent true as far as I know, none of this shit is what Ford does not want Ronin to know. Or me, my nagging thoughts add, as if I needed anymore bullshit on my plate.
