Golden Trail (58 page)

So tomorrow, he was talking to Garret
Merrick even if he had to hunt the man down.

Good Girl

“Dave, I’m bein’ serious here, it takes much
longer for him to contact me, it won’t be good,” Layne in his chair
behind his desk, swiveled to look out the window toward Main as he
growled in his phone.

“I hear what you’re sayin’, Tanner, and all
I got for you is work it out with Roc,” Rocky’s father replied.

“Bullshit,” Layne hissed. “And that’s the
same bullshit Merry fed me.”

“Are things not good?” Dave asked.

“They’re fuckin’ great,” Layne answered.

“So maybe
you’ll
explain to
me
what your fuckin’ problem is,” Dave suggested, losing patience,
just like Layne.

“They were fuckin’ great before too,” Layne
reminded him.

“She’s not a girl anymore, Tanner.”

“Yeah, Dave, I lived and aged those eighteen
years right along with Rocky. And a week ago, I also held her in my
arms in the dark while she was beggin’ me to let in the light and
felt a fear so disturbing, swear to God, I still feel it on my
skin.”

Dave was silent and this silence was
loaded.

Layne filled the silence. “I need to know
what that shit is.”

Dave didn’t reply.

“I also need to know why both your kids
hooked up with people they instantly knew they wanted to spend the
rest of their lives with and then dropped them, without a word,
without a reason and didn’t look back,” Layne went on.

“Roc looked back, son, you’re together,”
Dave argued.

“I think you catch my point,” Layne shot
back.

“You need to work this out with Roc,” Dave
repeated.

“Jesus Christ, what’s the big fuckin’
secret?” Layne exploded.

Dave changed the subject by shifting blame.
“Last time, you let her get away.”

“Bullshit,” Layne clipped, with that
incendiary comment, his anger, already primed, was about to
detonate.

“You let her get away,” Dave reiterated.

“Wait, wasn’t that you who barred the door
the fifty fuckin’ times I came over, wanting to talk to her?”
Layne’s voice was sarcastic.

“Why are we talking about this? It’s water
under the bridge, you both have moved on and found each other
again,” Dave informed him, again shifting the point.

Layne brought it back. “Whatever that was
that I felt comin’ from Roc was not history. It was real, it was
now and it fuckin’ terrified her. She’s your daughter, man, does
this not worry the fuck outta you?”

“No,” Dave stated instantly. “No, it
doesn’t. Not anymore. Now that she’s got you.”

“God damn it, Dave,” Layne ground out.

“Can you explain to me why
you
won’t
talk to her about this?” Dave asked.

“Are you serious?” Layne asked back.

“Deadly,” Dave snapped.

“All right, I lost her once and I do not get
why, even though she explained it I’ll repeat, I do not get why.
This time my boys are in the mix. They like her; they think she’s
the shit. The longer they’re around her, the more they’re gonna
like her. Then they’ll fall for her, like their old man, hook, line
and sinker. The fact that I lost her once and the way you and Merry
are actin’ tells me I gotta tread cautiously. You know the
landmines you’re dodgin’, I have no fuckin’ clue and you’re not
givin’ me shit. I’m walkin’ that minefield blindfolded and any
second I can step on one of those mines. I’m stuck, Dave, I can’t
move. I move; I could fuck this up. You think I’d do anything,
anything
, to fuck this up? To fuck this for me, for my boys,
for
Rocky?
”

When Layne finished talking, he listened to
silence.

So he prompted, “Dave…”

“Give me time,” Dave said quietly.

“What?” Layne asked.

“I need to think,” Dave stated.

“Jesus, about what?”

“About if this goes bad, I tell you and fuck
it up with my daughter, how I’ll play that because, son, I don’t
have eighteen years.”

Layne’s neck muscles got tight and he opened
his mouth to speak but he heard Dave disconnect at the same he
heard the beep that indicated someone walked through the door to
the street.

Layne turned his head and looked at the
monitor.

“Fuck me,” he whispered, flipping his phone
shut and watching Astley’s girl toy, Marissa Gibbons walk up his
steps.

He straightened from his chair and was two
feet in the reception office when she opened the door and stopped,
hand on the handle, staring at him.

Layne crossed his arms on his chest.

Marissa Gibbons swallowed then said, “Uh…
hey.”

“Hey,” Layne replied with clipped
courtesy.

“Uh… can we talk?” she asked.

“Talk,” he invited and didn’t move.

She stared at him, looked out in the hall,
stepped into the office and closed the door. Then she turned back
to him, her eyes skidding to the door to the inner office then back
to his.

“Could we, uh… sit down?” she requested.

“No,” he denied.

She hesitated, glanced to the floor then
back to him and asked, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee at
Mimi’s?”

“No,” Layne repeated.

She stared at him and this lasted
awhile.

Finally, she whispered, “You think I’m a
slut.”

“Is that what you came to talk about?” Layne
asked.

“Uh…” she began then faltered and
stopped.

“Listen, Ms. Gibbons, I don’t think anything
about you. You came here with somethin’ to say, say it. No
disrespect, but I’m a busy man.”

“I had to do it,” she stated.

“Had to do what?” Layne asked, confused at
her words, having started his day in Rocky’s bed and moved on to
handing the photos of Stew over to Colt which meant Stew’s days of
being a free man able to wear something other than a jumpsuit
became severely limited. Then having this brilliant start diminish
when he couldn’t find Merry anywhere and when he went back to The
Brendel to see there were window cleaners
and
the gardeners
raking leaves which meant he couldn’t stake out TJ Gaines’s
apartment so he could find a safe time to break in. He was still
pissed about his conversation with Dave and therefore he had zero
patience left.

“The movies, I had to do them, I was ���” she
started to explain.

Layne cut her off. “Listen, I don’t give a
shit about that. I been in this business a long time, people do
shit, shit they gotta do. I get that. You didn’t have to fuck my
woman’s husband though, not ever but especially not for the reasons
you did it. That’s not cool.”

Her eyes brightened and she took three steps
forward, saying, “But, I’ve heard about you and her, in the ‘burg
people talk about it. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had
the chance –”

“Maybe you’re right,” he cut her off and the
way he spoke, she stopped moving. “But you made her feel like
garbage. You made her the chump. You caused her pain. I’m glad
she’s rid of that asshole but I’m not down with that.”

“Then why?” Marissa asked. “I don’t get
it.”

“Why what?” Layne asked back.

“Why didn’t you… why did you…?” She stopped
and started again. “I got two hundred thousand dollars from him and
he let me keep the ‘vette. Mr. Glover told me what to say, how to
play it, he helped me get it.”

“Mr. Glover’s got a soft spot for people
who’re tryin’ to turn their lives around,” Layne returned.

She stared at him and as she did it, her
stare turned shrewd.

Then she whispered, “You do too.”

“Come again?”

“You have a soft spot too.”

Layne took a deep breath into his nose then
exhaled. What he didn’t do was reply.

Marissa Gibbons took the hint, nodded,
turned and walked to the door. She had it opened when she turned
back and locked eyes with him.

“I didn’t tell Social Services, but he
pimped me out too,” she announced and Layne felt his stomach turn
and his chest squeeze but she couldn’t know that so she went on to
say more shit he really did not want to hear. “Never, back then,
when someone was pumping away at me and I didn’t know anything but
that it hurt so bad, it hurt
so bad
that was all I could
think about, never did I think I’d have soft sheets and a fancy car
and beautiful clothes and live in a house right on a lake. I got
that shot and you’re right, I didn’t think about her, I jumped at
it. And you know what?” she finished on a question.

“What?” Layne prompted when she didn’t go
on, why he did
not
know.

“It was the same thing, some guy I didn’t
like pumping away at me, just in soft sheets and it didn’t hurt so
bad because I’ve long since discovered the wonders of lube.”

“Ms. Gibbons –” Layne started.

“One day,” Marissa said over him, “I was
suckin’ cock while someone was filmin’ and thinkin’ about this
social worker I had. She was young. She was pretty. She had a big,
honkin’ engagement ring on her finger. And she was nice, she cared.
She got me in a good foster home that I stayed in until they moved
out of state and I got lost in the system again because that social
worker got married and changed jobs and I was fucked… again. And I
was suckin’ cock and thinkin’ I’d rather be sitting at a desk,
wearin’ an engagement ring and makin’ sure girls like me didn’t end
up suckin’ cock. I started to find the path then lost my way.” She
held his eyes and finished, “Then you and Mr. Glover helped me find
it again.”

“Marissa,” Layne murmured and she lifted a
hand and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“You know anyone that wants a nearly new
‘vette, I’m sellin’,” she declared, turned and walked out, closing
the door behind her.

One second elapsed, Layne muttered, “Fuck,”
then he dropped his arms and followed her.

When he was standing on the landing outside
the door, he called, “Marissa.”

She was mostly down the stairs but on
hearing her name, hand on the banister, she turned and looked up at
him.

“Don’t lose your way again,” he warned and
her face, which had filled with expectation, closed off.

“Right,” she muttered and started to turn
away but stopped when Layne spoke.

“You start thinkin’ of goin’ that way, I’m
not goin’ anywhere for awhile. You find me, I’ll buy you a Mimi’s
and talk you out of it.”

And that’s when Layne witnessed it. What
Astley saw in her. What he wanted. It wasn’t the hair, the similar
features. It was her mouth getting soft, in doing so it changed
everything about her. She didn’t speak with her eyes like Rocky did
but it was close to what Rocky could give with just one look and it
was nice.

“Soft spot,” she whispered, turned and part
walked, part skipped down the rest of the steps and out the front
door.

The door didn’t close all the way before a
hand was on it, pulling it open and Layne saw Vera move into the
doorframe, her head turned to watch Marissa walk away.

Layne looked to the ceiling and implored on
a mutter, “Kill me.”

“Hi honey!” Vera called.

Layne looked down at his mother. “What are
you doin’ here?”

“I’m so glad I caught you in the office,”
she stated, walking up the stairs, carrying a white cup with brown
cardboard wrapped around it, she stopped, looked at her cup and
then looked up at him. “Do you want a coffee? I just stopped in to
get one and then decided to try your office and –”

“Ma, what are you doin’ here?”

She started walking again, muttering,
“Yeesh. Someone’s in a bad mood even after having a meeting with a
pretty girl.”

Jesus. That shit was going to hit Rocky
next.

“She’s an ex-porn movie bit player who just
fleeced Jarrod Astley for two hundred K. She’s pretty but she’s not
my type,” Layne informed her, his mother stopped two stairs down
from him and her mouth was hanging open.

Then she whispered, “Porn?”

“Ex-porn. She’s straight now. So, now that
we got that sorted, I’ll repeat, what the fuck are you doin’
here?”

“You say the f-word too much, Tanner Layne,”
Vera snapped.

“Ma,” Layne growled.

She looked at the door then to him. “Can we
go in your office?”

“Will that make you tell me what you’re
doin’ here?” Layne countered.

“Yes,” she answered.

Layne sighed. Then he walked into his office
and his mother followed. He went straight to the reception desk and
sat on it. She went straight to the couch and settled in like they
were going to shoot the shit for the next hour.

“Ma,” Layne prompted.

“I’ve had
the best
idea,” Vera
announced.

Layne suspected he wouldn’t think it was the
best.

“You gonna share?” he asked when she said no
more.

“I’m going to sell my condo in Florida, come
home and be your receptionist!” she declared with a little bounce
on the couch. “Isn’t that
great?
You won’t have to pay me
much and I’ll get to –”

Layne interrupted her. “That’s not gonna
happen.”

Her face grew confused. “What? Why?”

“How many reasons do you want?” Layne
asked.

“
All
of them,” she shot back.

“Okay, first, the shit I do, see, photograph
and investigate, you do not wanna know, you do not wanna see. If
you can’t handle the f-word, you can’t handle my job. Second, I’m
done with your shit in regards to Rocky. I told you when you came
home that you didn’t learn to hide your attitude, which you
haven’t, I’d show you the door. I’ve been patient and I’m letting
you know, now, straight out, I’m not gonna be patient anymore. You
pull one more stunt with Rocky, I’m done, you’re out.”

“Tanner,” she whispered.

“I’m bein’ straight with you, no joke, do
not push me on that, you won’t like the consequences and if you do
it when I’m not around, but Jas and Tripp are, I’m tellin’ you
straight about that too, you won’t like the consequences of that
either.”