Colorado 03 Lady Luck (17 page)

“He’d partnered with a dealer,” Walker told
Tate.

“
Yeah, Peña explained all about Duane
Martinez.
All
about
him.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Far’s Peña could tell, Rodriguez propped up
Martinez. He mighta had some cracked respect from Peña but still,
Peña said Rodriguez wasn’t the sharpest tack when it came to
relationships. Apparently, this Martinez guy is downright blunt
when it comes to everything. Rodriguez didn’t have enforcers.
Rodriguez did time. Rodriguez was an athlete. Rodriguez could take
care of himself and his girls and he did. Personally. Peña says
Martinez used the association with Rodriguez as a shield. He says
he has no evidence Rodriguez dealt dope, never had any and he
looked deep. He had his stable, he stuck to his stable. But
Martinez and Rodriguez were tight, brothers from the ‘hood and
Rodriguez gave his brother protection.”

“Went down doin’ it,” Walker muttered, his
eyes sliding to the station seeing Lexie at the counter, yammering
and smiling at the clerk who was smiling back in a way that, Walker
suspected, she went on for two minutes longer, the man would get
down on a knee no matter the diamonds on her left finger.

“Maybe not,” Jackson said into his ear and
Walker’s gaze went unfocused.

“Maybe not what?”

“Martinez inherited Rodriguez’s stable.”

Walker felt his chest start to burn.

“What?” he asked quietly.

“
Peña has no proof but everyone knew who
did what with those two. And Rodriguez was well-liked by everyone
but other pimps. The tragic hero. Losin’ his scholarship was part
of it, he was famous in his ‘hood and not livin’ the dream didn’t
make that fame fade just changed its nuance. Further, this guy was
a badass. Acted as his own enforcer, never got bested. That kinda
reputation holds a lot of sway. That said, according to Peña, he
was just a nice guy. His word was gold. He was a diplomat. A
peacemaker. A master at balancing while standin’ on a fence. There
was a sit down; he was often called on to mediate. People trusted
him. He was solid. A rival dealer needed to take someone out, he
wouldn’t aim for Rodriguez even if he was providing protection for
his brother partially because Rodriguez was well-liked and this
would be unpopular, mostly because Martinez is
not
well-liked.”

Walker kept his eyes locked on his wife as
he asked, “Peña thinks Martinez ordered the hit?”

He asked it but he knew. He knew men like
Shift. He knew. That piece of shit would do it and still cry at the
funeral.

“That’s the word on the street, according to
Peña. Murder never solved but that shit spread wide and Martinez
moved up the ranks. You gotta be one cold motherfucker to take down
your brother in order to take over his stable. He recruited
soldiers and got a different kind of protection. But Peña says
there’s more. Says Martinez was resentful of Rodriguez’s success on
the basketball court then his respect on the street and his way
with his girls, especially seein’ as he hit the game late, after he
came back from Indiana and Martinez had been in the game for years
by that time. Says Rodriguez was blind to that shit. Wouldn’t hear
a word against Martinez and that was what Peña was using to sever
the ties and get him to go straight. Peña is convinced Rodriguez
stayed in the game to have his brother’s back. Rodriguez never
explained why those were ties that bind and why they bound him so
tight he’d risk losin’ his woman and family but he figures
something in their history connected them and Rodriguez was the
kind of man who took loyalty seriously. Unfortunately, Martinez was
not.”

Walker watched Lexie push through the door,
juggling two, white plastic bags filled full with what he suspected
was not apples and bananas and a cardboard container holding two
huge-ass beverage cups at the same time flicking the arms out on
her shades and shoving them on her face.

“Lexie’s comin’,” he warned Tate.

“Right,” Tate replied.

“Fast, tell me if I got a problem with
either Peña or Martinez.”

“Shits me to say it but yes to both. First,
Peña says that he’s got the feeling that Martinez has got some hold
on Lexie and he’s been in contact with her the last few years after
Rodriguez went down, offering help, keeping an eye on things. She’s
been, he reports, uninterested and Peña thinks she’s got her head
in the sand and just wants to move on with her life clear of that
shit. He’s worried about it and he’s in the position to know if he
should be worried. Now, whether Martinez’s reach goes outside
Dallas, that’ll take me makin’ a few more calls.”

Peña was right. Shift fucked Lexie. Huge.
The question was, setting up Lexie for what she was doing for
Walker, did he think he was done with her?

Walker would have to explain to him that he
was.

Lexie was halfway to him, smiling bright,
her hips swaying as she walked not having any idea just how much
and for how long her world had been controlled by a piece of shit
motherfucker. And now that she was free, he hoped she’d die not
knowing it.

He jerked up his chin to her and muttered
into the phone, “The cop?”

“Wasn’t in the same room with him but gotta
say, his interest was borderline unhealthy. It magnified when I
told him she was tyin’ the knot. Though, she’s in Colorado with you
and he’s not on her radar so there’s fuck all he can do.”

That wasn’t true and Walker knew it. You got
on the bad side of a cop, the reach was long. He knew it because
six years ago, he experienced that reach stretching from Colorado
to California.

Lexie was at the passenger door looking over
the roof at him and aiming the straw of one of the drinks to her
mouth. She captured it between her lips and sucked as her head
tipped to the side.

“A second, baby,” he murmured to her,
watched her release the straw as her mouth got soft, she nodded
then juggled her shit as she opened the door and started to fold
in. To Tate he said, “He seem frustrated or pissed at this
news?”

“Nope, just interested. Maybe relieved but I
couldn’t tell. I don’t know dick about this guy, still, he’s
holdin’ a torch and that torch is burnin’ bright. Since I don’t
know him, don’t know if he doesn’t give a shit he gave that up or
if he’s also not the brightest bulb. Could make a few calls, get
some inside information and do it on the quiet. See what you got on
your hands.”

“Run with that.”

“Right. You want me to look into
Martinez?”

“I’ll deal with him.”

Silence then, “Ty –”

“That time I spent in Dallas?” he asked then
didn’t wait for an answer. “Became acquainted with him.”

“Right,” Jackson said making guesses that
were probably not accurate.

“It’ll be cool,” Walker assured him.

“Okay, brother.”

“Lexie’s back and we gotta hit the
road.”

“How much shit she buy?”

“We’ll hit Carnal next week,” Walker
answered and Jackson chuckled.

Then he muttered, “Full of shit,” and
finished, “I’ll see you tonight at Bubba’s.”

“Bubba’s,” Walker agreed. “And Tate?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks, brother.”

“You got it.”

He heard the disconnect, flipped his phone
shut, shoved it in his back pocket, returned the gas cap, angled
into the car and shut the door.

“Fritos or Cheetos?” Lexie asked before his
ass was fully settled in the seat and he turned to her.

“Neither.”

“Okay. Pork rinds or CornNuts?”

“Babe, please tell me you didn’t buy pork
rinds.”

She grinned at him then declared, “Barbeque
flavored.”

He shook his head and faced forward,
twisting the key in the ignition.

She transferred the cups into the cup
holders while he pulled out, telling him, “I got you a Coke.”

“You gonna bitch when I toss it out the
window?”

“Yes,” she replied instantly.

He sighed but only to stop himself from
smiling.

“Everything cool on the phone?” she asked
quietly.

“Yeah, good. Tate, a friend of mine in
Carnal. You’ll meet him, good man.”

“Good,” she said, now her sweet voice was
soft and, having dumped her bags to the floor, she nabbed the
iPod.

Walker braced.

Five seconds later, 50 Cent’s “Disco
Inferno” filled the car.

“Baby,” Walker whispered to the windshield
through a smile.

And it was a smile that his wife caught, the
first one she’d ever seen and he had no idea that seeing it meant
that for the next two hours she gave him Outkast, Eminem, Jay-Z,
House of Pain and Snoop Dogg somewhat losing her way playing some
TLC, Beyoncé and Black Eyed Peas but he didn’t complain about the
last.

At least none of them sang about a man
called Amos Moses.

* * * * *

Lexie

I rode the high of the beauty of Ty’s smile
for at least an hour then my mind reminded me of Ty calling me
“Lex” in that casual but immensely sweet way, a name no one called
me, a name that was all his so I rode that for the next half hour.
After that, I rode the high of the last couple of days, a high so
high it felt like I could coast it forever.

Even though these things filled my mind as I
endeavored to find as much hip-hop and R&B for Ty as I could on
my iPod (I liked it but I couldn’t say I was often in the mood for
it so the selection wasn’t all that great, something I needed to
rectify), I still managed to see the stunning beauty of Colorado
most especially when we drove by the Colorado National Monument,
something I decided we had to come back and take a closer look at.
I also wanted to go back to Moab. Driving around in a car was one
thing but, although I was nowhere near an outdoorsy type of gal, it
was the kind of place you had to get out and walk around in order
to see as much of it as you could pack in, something we didn’t have
time to do.

I was riding so high on all things Ty; it
came as a surprise when we passed the sign that said, “Welcome to
Carnal”. When I saw it, my mind instantly cleared and I came alert,
looking around Ty’s hometown.

It wasn’t what I expected. One long main
street, starting with the tidy, flower-festooned Carnal Hotel
(which, regardless if it was tidy and flower-festooned, it was more
of a motel then a hotel) on the left and ending with a big
mechanics garage on the right with residential areas leading off
the main street which were compact rather than sprawl.

Ty was jeans and tees but he was also suits
and cufflinks so I knew his hometown could be anything. Still, I
didn’t expect it to be what it was. Small, seemingly quiet but
obviously populated and not a single building had been built in
this decade or the last or the one before that.

I liked that.

It was also surrounded by tall Colorado
hills which were surrounded by taller Colorado mountains, neither
of which I had seen except in pictures before that day and both of
which I instantly loved.

The town was ordinary, settled, you’d drive
through it and probably not pay much attention.

And I liked that too.

Ty drove us by the mechanics where the town
and the residential area abruptly died away with only a few houses
dotting the valley. About a half a mile out of town, he turned left
and drove into the hills where, after a short while, we hit thick
pine and aspen. Not too long after that, he turned right into a
road I wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t turned there. Another
short drive that was all pine and aspen on both sides broken
intermittently by boulders, this suddenly opened up to a
development that was far newer than the town we’d just driven
through.

Whoever planned and built it, they did it
with care. It was a bunch of three and four story buildings dotted
up a steep, winding incline, all an attractive red-brown wood and
lots of windows, all with abundant decking to enjoy the views, all
with their own short, private drive at the mouth of which was a
mailbox. The houses weren’t close together but they were also not
far apart. Quite a few of the pine trees and aspens between the
houses had not been disturbed when they built so they provided even
more privacy. Every single one was taken care of but there were a
few that really were taken care of with big planters and flower
boxes filled with blooms and trailing or spiking greenery, a couple
of flagpoles with American flags, some with decorative accents on
the outside like iron Kokopellis, terracotta suns and fancy outdoor
lights and some with very attractive deck furniture.

It was awesome and I figured that Maggie and
Wood lived there and we were there to pick up the keys to Ty’s
condo. This meant I’d been right to take extra time getting ready
that morning. If I was coming home like Ty was, I’d want to see
family and friends right away. I figured Ty would want to do that
too and I would be with him when he did so I wanted to look good
for him when his posse met me.

He drove to the very top of the development,
turned left into the private drive of the last of the houses in the
development, this one a little bit more removed from the others and
having pine and aspen at its sides, one side a steep decline that
eventually led to another house, the other side leading into
nothing but the steep, heavily wooded incline of the hill.

He stopped the Charger in front of a large,
two car garage and beside the garage was an open space and on top
of all of this were three stories with a large-ish deck jutting out
over the open space. The open space was big enough to park another
car or, maybe, snow mobiles or ATVs. There was a set of wooden
steps with open slats inside the space, these positioned beside the
garage.

I released my seatbelt and leaned forward,
tipping my head back to look at the tall building, seeing the
wraparound deck and noting that, if that wrapped around the front,
it would have a spectacular view to Carnal and the hills and
mountains beyond.