Eagle, Kathleen (33 page)

Preston
Sweeney announced a break. "An hour for dinner."

***

Carter
stared at his brother, who was standing across the room like a mighty oak, being
perched upon by his friend Tims Hawk and Councilwoman Hazel Red Bird, probably
all atwitter over his clever shot. Who'd have thought the Big Gun would ever
score with words?

"Let's
go have a smoke."

Carter
turned. Darnell was already smoking, out his ears, but his eyes were as cold as
ever. Carter had hoped to disappear after the presentation and let Darnell dig
his own grave before the council. He might have saved the deal by agreeing to
sell the slot machines. In all fairness, there should have been a buyout option
on the lease, but when he'd pointed that out to Darnell and suggested giving
the tribe a deal on them, Darnell had laughed and reminded him that this was
not a charity operation.

They
headed for Darnell's car, which was parked on the street under a shedding
cottonwood. Darnell lit a cigarette, then stared at the front door of the
tribal building as he spat smoke and measured out his fury.

"What
the hell does he think he's doing? He's gonna flush this whole operation right
down the toilet. Does he know that?"

"I
don't know what he thinks or what he knows. I was surprised to see him at the
meeting. I thought sure he'd..."

"He'd
what?"

Carter
shrugged. He'd seen Reese's car at Helen's this morning when he'd passed, on
his way to the meeting. Scoring with more than words, was his big brother.
Which was why he thought surely the man would... "Lose interest. I
couldn't believe him, beating my father's old drum about the damn slot
machines."

"I
thought you said he burned your father's personal effects out of respect."

"Clothes
and stuff. I didn't know what he burned. I didn't know what was over there
besides ancient history."

"Every
time your brother refers to his father's papers, it comes off sounding like
pretty recent history. The leases on the slot machines, the percentage Ten Star
has coming off the top."

"Nothing
that hasn't been explained to them before."

"And
agreed to by both sides so you people could get something going here. Your
father caused us some problems, but your brother is a much bigger threat to us
than an old man living in the past. Your brother's a big fuckin' hero."

Carter
blew a long sigh. "I'll talk to him again." Nothing else he could
say, but nobody was listening to him anyway. Not Reese, not Darnell. Not even
Sarah.

"You'd
better find something that works on him better than talk." Darnell stepped
closer. "Look here, Ten Star has been taking good care of you all
along."

"I
know that."

"We've
looked after you, Carter. We've looked after Sweeney, Sweeney's brother,
Sweeney's secretary, who's also his cousin. We understand family values. Hell,
we tried to help your father out, too, but we just couldn't find any way to
please him."

Carter
stared hard at those blue doors. He wasn't going to ask. He refused to think
about that hit-and-run as anything but a hit-and-run. The bastard got away. Not
a damn thing anybody was going to do about it. He didn't need to look Darnell
in the eye when it was mentioned. He was scared enough already.

"You
know you're all going to be in deep shit if Ten Star isn't here to take care of
you anymore. What would you do without us?" Darnell took a deep pull on
his cigarette. He didn't expect an answer. "I don't suppose you could
think of a way we could please your brother?"

"I
said I'd talk to him again," Carter said, and Darnell snorted.
"You're not gonna bribe him, Bill, you know that."

"Bribe?
Who said anything about bribing anyone?"

"I
can maybe appeal to his—"

"Good
business sense obviously won't cut it. He doesn't understand our business.
Reason? Is he a reasonable man? Better yet, how about his personal life? I hear
he's got a kid nobody knew about."

Carter
stared at Darnell, surprised.

"Yeah,
the kid told me. Said he'd just met his father, who appears to be back with the
kid's mother, from what I saw when I met him at your house. This must have been
quite a trip home for your brother."

"Women
have been throwing themselves at Reese's feet for years. He's probably got a
kid in every town that has an NBA franchise."

Darnell's
mouth turned down as his brow went up. "Whatever. He's got kids, you've
got kids. Hey, I've got
grandkids.
You do what you gotta do to take care
of your own. You understand what I'm saying?"

"Is
'threat' another word you're not saying?"

"I
don't make threats, Carter, you know that. The people I work with know better
than to approach that stage with me. I don't have to deliver an actual threat.
It never comes to that." Darnell laid a heavy hand on Carter's shoulder.
"You make your brother understand that as long as there's money in it, the
management of this operation will be handled by Ten Star."

"I've
got nothing over him."

"You'd
better find something quick, because I've got plenty."

***

Carter
wasn't sure what Darnell's notion of "plenty" was. He inspired plenty
of fear in Carter because Carter had tasted the bait and climbed right into
Darnell's ass pocket, thinking he was following the smell of money. Money for
himself, for his family, for the tribe. It was big money, but he had a big job,
and he was good at it. He deserved big money.

As
the job had gradually taken on new dimensions, he'd adjusted. He'd had to,
because he owed. Oh, how he owed. Now, suddenly, the smell was making him sick.
Stink was what it was. But what could he expect, hanging around in some fat
guy's ass pocket?

It
was necessary to maintain the status quo. The casinos were doing well. Sooner
or later the tribe would see more profit. Ten Star was part of some nebulous
consulting business, and Carter knew it was connected. He wasn't sure how or to
whom, but he knew Ten Star was a small piece of some larger picture. He knew
Darnell wasn't making idle threats. And he knew he didn't want to die. He
didn't want his family harmed. Sarah and the kids were on their way to Yakima
by now. There was no way Darnell could touch them. Now all Carter had to do was
talk some sense into Reese before he got himself or someone else killed.

He
felt a little like a cat, pouncing on his brother when he came through the blue
doors. "Wanna grab a sandwich with me?" he asked as he fell into step
on the way to the graveled parking lot across the street. "I need to talk
to you."

"Talk
away," Reese said. He checked his watch. "I wanted to stop by Helen's
and let her know—"

"You've
gotta back off on this attack on Ten Star, Bro-gun."

"I'm
not attacking Ten Star. I'm defending our right to..." They'd reached his
car. "To mind our own business. Simple as that." Reese laid a hand on
Carter's shoulder. "And you'd have to play a big part in that, Carter.
You've got the education, the experience. The way I see it, you're our ace in
the hole. One of them, at least."

"We're
not ready to do this on our own."

"I'm
not saying we don't need to hire people. What I don't like about Ten Star is
that they don't seem to understand that they work for us. Their contract is
up."

"They
made a new bid."

"They're
proposing to do business the same way they've been doing it in the past, and
I'm saying it's time to look at new ways.
Better
ways, better for Bad
River."

"Reese..."
Carter had wedged himself between the big man and his car, and he felt trapped.
He felt small. He tried not to sound desperate admitting, "I owe these
guys."

"Owe
them what?" Reese glanced away for a moment. The answer was obvious, and
he obviously didn't want to hear it. But then he pinned Carter to the car with
a look. "How much?"

"I
don't even know anymore," Carter said honestly, and Reese rolled his eyes.
"No, it's—it's not like that. It's more like a debt of conscience, you
know? They've done a lot for me, given me... taught me; they've taught me a lot."
He grabbed his brother's arm before Reese could step back in disgust. "And
the thing about them is that, as long as we're all working together, we
couldn't have better protection than Ten Star."

"Protection?"

"You
know, from competing interests."

"Who
else owes them besides you?"

"We
all do. They got us started, and we gotta respect that." The remark drew a
grunt of disagreement from Reese, who had pulled away now, folded his arms,
taken an inaccessible stance.

Carter
pressed him further. "You know, back when this whole Indian gaming
business got started, nobody expected us to build casinos. Most Indian
reservations are out in the middle of nowhere. Bingo parlors, that's pretty
much what people were thinking. But now we're big business. We've gotta do business
the way this business is done." He tried to smile. "We're swimming
with the sharks now, Bro-gun."

"Sharks
in Bad River? Don't they need salt water?" Reese jeered, amusing himself
enough to clap a hand on his brother's shoulder, friendly again. "We come
from a landlocked country, little brother. What the hell would we be doing with
sharks? Did we import them in a tank? Is that what those casinos are?"

"Seriously,
Reese—"

"Maybe
they smelled blood, huh? Or blood money. The old man used to say that Black
Hills gold is pink because it's blood money. You believe that?"

"I
believe we're doing business with guys who'll joke about blood before they'll
joke about money."

"Man,
they sure came to the wrong place, didn't they? Don't sit 'em at the table with
the Indians, you'll have jokes"—Reese's big hands demonstrated ships
passing— "sailing right past each other's ears, you know? Clinkers
littering the floor, faces all granite." He was actually trying to get
Carter to laugh, and Carter actually wished he could. "Sharks aren't gonna
do well in our river, little brother."

"Right,"
Carter said with a sigh.

"If
you owe these guys money, you come to me."

"You
don't understand."

"It
sounds to me like you're letting them play their game on your court."

"This
is no game, Reese. That's what I'm trying to tell you, but you're just like the
ol' man. I can't talk to you, can't..." Carter shook his head. Mistake to
mention their father. Big mistake. "These guys don't play around."

Reese's
eyes hardened. "What happened to Dad?"

"He
got in the way of a truck." Carter took a step back, feeling as cold as
the look his brother was giving him. "And I'm trying to drag you off the
fucking road, Big Man."

***

Reese
couldn't ask Carter who'd driven the truck. He didn't want the answer to come
from Carter. He didn't want Carter to know. But Reese needed to know, and he
understood that the answer wasn't going to come from the Bad River Tribal
Police, not with guys like Gene Brown running scared.

Fortunately,
Dozer Bobcat wasn't running. He was headed for a meeting with an FBI agent from
Aberdeen. Reese would have gone with him if it hadn't been for the council
meeting. He'd asked his friend to stick his neck out by taking Reese's find
over the tribal police captain's head. "Drop my name if it'll help
any," Reese had said with a laugh.

Dozer
had told him it was no joke. He'd made Reese promise to meet him at the gym for
Law and Order Hoops Night. "And bring your boy."

Reese
liked that part. Bring
his
boy. He didn't have much time for lunch after
Carter had pitched him Darnell's line, but he stopped in to ask Sid if he
wanted to play basketball after supper. The boy did. And Helen offered Reese
supper. Reese glanced at the little table and grinned. Family supper. He went
back to the council meeting feeling like he was on top of the world. And he got
enough votes to table the gaming committee's recommendation to award the
management contract to Ten Star. All the doors were still open.

He
told Helen and Sid about the meeting while they ate their spaghetti and the
bread she had made from scratch. He left out the part about Carter and asked
instead whether they'd spent the whole day cooking. They took turns recalling
for him the things they had done: the visit to the school to see Helen's old
classroom, the stop at the powwow grounds, deserted now that the celebration
was over. At the mention of the powwow, Helen and Reese exchanged looks that
were loaded with sweet memories.

"Mom
said you guys went to the powwow," Sidney told Reese. "She said she
got to meet some of your— some relatives."

"You
will, too," Reese promised as he slid Helen a wink. "Tonight,
probably be some cousins there. Here at Bad River, they're all around you. And
we're always ready for a game of hoops, we Blue Skys." He grinned at his
son. "If you don't overdo the noodles."