A Fighting Chance (48 page)

“I tak
e it you’ve done this before…” I say. Henry ignores me but the pressure of the gun increases.

“Stop here,” he says when we reach a thicket
, and I turn the engine off. The woods awaken with soft sounds: crackling branches and scampering, but there’s no sign of any other people. Even without Henry and the gun, the darkness here would be threatening. I can’t tell which way we came, and my car is completely buried under foliage. “Get out.” With the gun still trained on me, he exits the car, too
.
“Walk,” Henry orders, pointing at nothingness. It’s so dark I can’t even see my hands when I stick them out in front of me to make sure I don’t stumble over anything.

“Glory is a shit stain on the map, you know,” he says, shoving the gun into my back. “It’s a nothing little town. I see why you wanted to get out. You figured out your life was supposed to be better. So did I.
I deserved a bigger and better life. Why should Acevedo and Vega get to live like kings? I didn’t want no goddamn white picket fence and a nine-to-five.”

“Trafficking kids from Mexico to train them for unregulated fights back there seems like a wonderful alternative…” I mumble.

“You can be self-righteous, kid, but the truth is, you’re a fucking nuisance. I never wanted you, you know. Not for a single second. It was a goddamn fuck! Why couldn’t she just let it be that, huh? She had to parade you around like you were something precious, something made from love. You were a
fucking mistake
. The result of a broken condom. She wanted to see some good come out of that. She saw some good in me back then. But she was young. And I’m good at faking good. I’m good at faking a lot of things.” He shoves me forward suddenly, when we reach a point in the woods where the land dips down into a trench. I land hard, crouching, and he jumps in after me. From up where we were you can’t even tell this is here. He’s making it so that I won’t be found for a long time.

A sliver of moonlight cuts through the tree shade, and I can see him looking at me. He
pushes me backward a few feet and gestures for me to get down on my knees. “Carla was easy to talk to. She was beautiful and way too trusting. Way too blinded, thinking that there was good in the world. But I didn’t love your mother, Jesse. Maybe in another lifetime, maybe if I was a different person, I could’ve.” His eyes dash side to side as he rambles, but he doesn’t seem nervous, only jittery from his adrenaline. He’s just getting years’ worth of words off his chest. He’s still very determined to see me dead.

“The truth is, you are and have always been
unwanted.
You wasted your time trying to get me to notice you. All you’ve ever been is an annoyance to me. At least you were useful when you were earning me money at Perry’s. Could’ve been even more useful to me in Mexico. I figured I might as well use you if I
had
to deal with the fact that you were alive. But even that isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”

“You’re
really going to kill me…” I say, almost laughing.

He shrugs. “The legend of Henry Chance will only grow in the end as I build an empire. It’ll make a good story eventually, won’t it?
A
great
story. Only a
god
would be ruthless enough to kill his own son.”

“Pl
ease…don’t do it, Dad. Please, Dad. Don’t.” I hold my hands up. But he doesn’t speak again or flinch or hesitate. He just gets a better grip on the gun. 

Then he
pulls the trigger.

Click
.
Click. Click. Click. Click.

“What the fuck…” Henry keeps pulling the trigger, mystified that my brain matter isn’t currently ruining his good shoes
. Each time the gun clicks, his eyes widen in terror, which is ironic because I’m the one with the muzzle to my head (again). “It’s empty…” he whispers, looking at the gun like it’s an unknown object now.

I frown and shake my head. “Wow…
really
? You were going to kill me? Just like that? Holy shit, Drew was right. We expected you to go for the gun once you knew it was there and when you found out I knew everything, but I told her you’d have a change of heart along the way. Heh. You’re right about me. I’m sentimental as hell.” I stand up with a satisfied grin. “Just like my mom.”

Henry raises the gun again, still attempting to fire at me. “This was a goddamn setup.”

“Yup…” He’s too lost in his confusion to anticipate my punch, which sends him to the ground easily, and I put my foot on his shoulder to warn him that it’s better to stay down. “I’m a lot like my mother, but…it looks like I’ve got a little bit of you in me, too.”

My burner cell rings and I pull it out of my pocket.
Drew.
“Hey, baby…”

“Where are you?”
she asks in a panic. “I’ve been calling for, like, an hour. It wasn’t even ringing!”

“No idea. This asshole was planning to kill me in the most remote place ever. I can send you the coordinates from my phone, though.” I text it to her and she arrives a little over an hour later.

“Jesus, with everything we’ve been through, I’ve been waiting for something to go wrong. I can’t believe he actually fell for this and it worked!”

I knew he would be too shocked to have a real plan when he saw me because he wasn’t expecting me. I also knew he didn’t have a weapon on him
—thanks to Drew “suddenly” implementing a pat-down and search policy at Tickles for the safety of the girls— and I didn’t give him time to get one.

“
I forced him to improvise. And the asshole was actually going to kill me. Again. He didn’t even have any second thoughts.”

“So you’ve got this
all
figured out, huh?” Henry says, smirking up at me, but it’s just thin bravado masking his defeat.

“I’m making
a gamble
,” I say, smirking back. “Like I said, I’m still your kid, like it or not. And here’s my biggest bet yet. I got a lot of what I know out of your business partner, Lincoln Voight, American ex-pat and old friend of yours—I’ve grown fond of calling him Mr. Also Missing Fingers. Well, Ramón got the info. You can probably tell by now that Alejandra’s dead. Ramón shot her in the head, like you wanted her to do to me. But I took her cell phone before he did whatever it is he did with her body. Now, no one except for a select few of us know she’s dead, but that could all change with an anonymous tip, and her bloody cell phone turning up at a Mexican police station, along with an eager-to-confess Lincoln Voight. Alejandra’s no two-bit criminal, and I’m sure some do-gooder cop is just looking to get a promotion and some commendations for breaking open such a
huge
case about human trafficking. Those two boys sweeping up at Murphy’s would
love
to talk about how you’re basically making them work for free while they train for your fights, I’m sure.”

“And you’re Alejandra’s American ties…”
Drew says, chiming in. “Her
business partner
.”

“
She’s hardly a business partner,” Henry says with a cocky look.

“But everyone’s seen her around Glory. You two know each other pretty well.”
Drew yanks his cell phone out of his pocket. “You see, here’s how the story goes…maybe you two have been communicating through burner cell phones, but you’re worried now. You’re not thinking straight about which cell phone you’re using because Alejandra’s missing and you can’t find her, so you start calling…” Drew places a call from Henry’s phone. “…And sending her text messages…” She ends the call and types on the screen. “‘Where are you? Need to talk.’ Quick question, Mr. Chance. You’re a convicted felon, right? Out on parole? If you go back in, you do the time you have left on your original sentence for the violation
and
then whatever else they convict you of, right? Is that how it works?”

“
What do you want? Money? I still have some of what you sent me,” Henry offers.

“
Not really. And the truth is, I really want to avoid a huge international incident because it’ll drag too many people into it. Ramón Vega is trigger-happy enough to kill you, if there’s even a slight chance that this might blow back on him. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going back to Glory, and you’re going to tell your son how much you love him when we get there. You’ll read him a story and tuck him in. Then this gun is going in your car, and I’m calling the police to report your parole violation, because you can’t have a gun as a felon—”

“You son of a bitch.”

“
You
brought us to this dark place, remember that. I don’t mean
here
, either. I mean
everything
you put us through. If you think I feel even the slightest bit of sympathy for you when I know, if not for an empty gun, I’d be dead right now, you’re as crazy as Alejandra was. So, you’re going to confess that you’ve had this gun for a while. It’s not dirty from what Ramón told me, so it’ll only come back to you. Plead to whatever they throw at you and quietly go to prison. Don’t even think about bringing my name up. None of the wire transfers for the money were ever in my name, and anything I did in Mexico is only a crime in that jurisdiction. If you can actually prove I did anything other than go spend a few months there. I have friends who’ll cover for me. A lot of them who’ll say I went there because I was concerned about what
you
were up to when you showed up on my doorstep
.
Your word against mine. You should take the deal I’m offering. You didn’t underestimate how far I’d go for HJ before; don’t start doing it now. I know very bad people now because of you.
Don’t underestimate me
.”

“
You want me out of my son’s life. You’re punishing him because I don’t love you?” His words sting a little, but Drew’s hand closes around mine.

“
Punishing
him?” she says, incredulous. “Punishing Henry Junior would be letting you stay in his life, knowing what you’re capable of, and your track record of using your sons to get ahead.” Her expression turns tender when she looks at me for a moment. “Mr. Chance,
you’re
actually
freeing
him, if you do this. You are freeing him from
you
. Give him a chance at a different life, one where he doesn’t have to carry the burden that comes with being your son anymore. It’s heavy and it’s painful and undeserved. Just do this one last thing and give him the opportunity to have a future he can chart out himself. It’s the least you can do.” She squeezes my hand. She’s talking about me, too.

“This isn’t about
my
revenge, Henry,” I say to him, “it’s about
your
redemption. Maybe your sentimental son, in spite of everything, thinks even
you
still
deserve some.”

**One Year Later**

I’m at an impasse
with an eleven-year-old, who isn’t showing any signs of breaking soon. Crossed arms, cold stare, and everything. “You’re really not going to talk to me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“‘Cause I don’t want you to go.”

“I know. You’ll see me soon, though, buddy, remember? We made plans. I put those dates in my calendar. Told Siri to remind me.”

But HJ’s not buying it. We’ve been standing in the driveway of the Chance house for twenty minutes, and he’s still frowning. It’s breaking my heart and I might actually change my mind about leaving, but then Drew slips her arm around my waist, and I remember why I am.
I lean forward until HJ and I are eye-to-eye, and I’m determined to get a laugh or smile out of him. “What did I tell you?”

“You tell me a lot of stuff, Jesse…” HJ takes off
the cap I gave him and folds the bill.

I snicker. “Okay, wise guy. What do I
always
tell you? What’s
our
thing?”

“Whoa…the Chance boys have a
thing?
” Drew asks. “Since when?”

“Tell her…” I urge him. “What do I always tell you?”

“Come on, tell me!” Drew asks.

Finally
,
the kid smiles. “Fine.”

“Oh. I see. A pretty girl gets you to talk?” Apparently
, I’m not the only Chance who has a weakness for Drew Hallisay.

His smile gets wider as his cheeks light up red. “You always tell me I’m your family.”

“And?”

“And you love me…
”

“
And?
”

“And
no matter where I am, and no matter where you are, both those things will always be true.”

“
Good. Now give me a hug and go help your mom get dinner ready.”

“Okay!” HJ flings his arms around my waist, and even though my heart is melting into
Hallmark
gooeyness, I try to keep it together in front of my girl. He hugs Drew next before he dashes up the sidewalk.