Chapter 49

CHAPTER 49

H ASTINGS, AND TWO OF GLASS’S other men, stepped out of the bathroom and surrounded Devine.

“No worries, guys,” said Devine. “You can skip cleaning the room today and I won’t be needing turndown service, either.”

“Shut up and sit down,” barked Glass.

“And why should I do either one?”

Hastings and the men pulled their weapons and pointed them at Devine.

“Okay, I’ll give you ten minutes, but only because I don’t want any of you to get hurt.” Devine sat on the edge of the bed.

Then Glass did something unexpected. He ordered his men out of the room.

When they were alone, Devine said, “I’m listening?”

“What did you say to Betsy to make her pick you as her guardian?”

“It was a complete surprise to me.”

“Bullshit!”

“No, it’s the truth,” Devine replied calmly.

“You are going to tell me why, right this second.”

“Do you really think I want to be her guardian, Danny? Or that I consider myself capable of taking care of a twelve-year-old girl? Didn’t you see how shocked I was in the courtroom? I had no damn clue she was going to do that. I was certain she was going to say that she wanted you to be her guardian.”

Glass looked as if he was going to really lose his shit, and Devine suddenly wondered if the man was armed.

Instead, Glass rose from the chair and looked out the window.

Devine glanced down at the man’s pant leg and saw that the monitor was gone.

Danny Glass, a free man. For now.

Glass turned to look at him. Before he could speak, Devine said, “I was nice to her, okay? I took her out to buy a book and a Frappuccino. I listened to her. I didn’t judge her. I brought her clothes and some of her other things from her home. I guess those things count with Betsy. Not all that complicated, really, if you’ve just lost your parents and are scared and feeling vulnerable.”

Glass dropped down in the chair. He looked weak and defeated, two things Devine had never before seen in the man, in or out of uniform.

“This whole thing is so messed up, Devine, I can’t see a way out.”

“For who, you or me?”

“For everybody.”

“I need to understand the situation. Then I might be able to find a way out. For all of us.”

Glass snorted. “Right, like you’re looking out for me all of a sudden?”

“I’m looking out for Betsy . I actually believe you care about her. So if helping you helps her, I’m all in.”

Glass’s wall of opaqueness cracked just a bit and Devine, for the first time, might have glimpsed the real man behind it.

“I do love Betsy. I always have, always will.”

“But you just met her, right?”

“Not for lack of trying. Dwayne did not want me in her life. Ever since she was born, I tried to visit many times. And this was when I was still in uniform. I sent money, when I didn’t have a dime to spare. When I got out of the Army and was building up my business, I offered to pay for Betsy’s schooling. As the years passed, I offered to buy them a home, cars, set up a college fund for Betsy. Find Dwayne a good-paying job that would have allowed him to support his family. But he refused it all. Told me to stick my job offer where the sun doesn’t shine. Wouldn’t let me near Betsy. And I didn’t want to force it because I didn’t want Betsy—”

“—to hate you for that?”

“What can I say? She loved Dwayne, warts and all.”

“Why did he dislike you so much? Because of what you do for a living?”

Glass slowly shook his head, his expression becoming bitter. “I don’t think Dwayne gave a damn about how I made my money. If I’d been a cookie-cutter billionaire on Wall Street, it would have been the same result.”

“Why then?”

Glass shrugged. “Who knows? The guy was never playing with a full deck.”

“They were given an expensive car and a mobile home. Was that you?”

Glass shook his head. “No. I tried, believe me, like I said, but Dwayne wouldn’t do it. Not with me.”

“Who then?”

He spread his hands and shrugged.

“Come on, Danny, how could you not know?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t know, did I?”

“But you couldn’t do anything about it?”

Glass made no comment.

“I really need to know who’s behind this.”

Glass just stared at him and said nothing.

“Okay,” said a visibly frustrated Devine. “And your sister? How did she feel about you being in their lives?”

“Alice and I were always close. We communicated over the years. She actually let me send money and other things without Dwayne knowing. Not much, or else he would have caught on. But enough so they didn’t starve, since Dwayne couldn’t hold a damn job to save his life. But I made sure they never fell too low. I had people watching over them. I wanted to do more. A lot more. It made me sick how they were living hand to mouth because I could have given them… so much. I loved Alice, would have done anything for her. Our old man was a real bastard to her.”

“I heard that you protected her.”

“Who’d you hear that from?”

“Just someone who knew Dwayne and Alice well.”

Glass smiled knowingly. “Nate Shore and Korey Rose, right?”

“You know them?”

“Never met them. But my people did a deep dive on them when I learned they were close to Alice and Betsy.”

“And your conclusion?”

“They’ve got their own personal demons, but they’re both solid as rocks. And they care about Betsy. So I did nothing to persuade them to get the hell out of Dodge. In fact, unknown to them, I had people along the way who found jobs for them when they really hit rock bottom.”

“Wow, Danny Glass, the man behind the curtain manipulating everyone and everything. What a big heart you have.”

“Behind the curtain! That was the only role I was allowed to play with my own family,” growled Glass.

“Nate and Korey are pretty intimidated by you,” noted Devine.

“But you’re not, Devine. Why do I think you could’ve taken all three of my boys out right here if I’d allowed them to push it?”

“You wouldn’t be wrong,” Devine said quietly. “Did you ever speak to your sister, try to reason with her? Didn’t she want Betsy to have some stability, some normalcy in her life?”

“Alice was a sweet, sweet child who grew into a beautiful woman. But what Alice lacked was a backbone. If Dwayne said it, then Alice did it. It’s the only thing I didn’t like about her. It was all I could do to convince her to let me send her small amounts of money, and some clothes and other stuff. So, bottom line, there was no way I was going to be fully in Betsy’s life.”

“You mean while they were alive?”

Glass’s features turned angry and the man who intimidated the hell out of most people suddenly emerged, dark and deadly.

“If you think I had any hand in what happened to them… to Alice…” His voice broke and he quickly turned away.

Devine saw the man shudder violently, and then rub viciously at his eyes before turning back, but keeping his gaze downcast.

Had Danny Glass just shed tears? thought Devine.

“Well, if you think that, you’re full of shit,” finished Glass.

“But their deaths did open the way for you to become Betsy’s guardian and then potentially adopt her. That was not possible while her parents were alive.”

A wet-eyed Glass barked, “You don’t think I know how this looks?”

“I think you know exactly how it looks. And I also think you had good reason to kill Dwayne. He was keeping you from what you wanted.”

“I would never have done that, for two reasons.”

“What?”

“Alice and Betsy. They loved the guy. I was never going to take him away from them, no matter how much I wanted to. If I had, Alice would have known. She…” He didn’t finish and looked down at his loafers.

“Some men tried to kill me when I went to the town of Ricketts, to find out what happened to your sister and her husband. You know anything about that?”

“Whether I do or don’t, Devine, it doesn’t matter.”

“Surprising admission coming from someone like you. I thought you always mattered.”

“In my world, I do. But I’m not in my world right now, am I?”

“What world are you in then?”

“Your world, Devine. I’m in your fucking world.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, until I can get custody of Betsy, you have to protect her, with everything you have.”

“Does she have enemies?” asked Devine.

“ I have enemies. Lots of them. Which means she has enemies.”

“Then she’s your Achilles’ heel? That’s why the FBI is guarding her?”

“Half-ass guarding her, you mean. One lousy middle-aged burned-out agent. I had six guys surrounding that hotel, followed them wherever they went. When you went to the burger place, they were there. And the bookstore.”

Devine thought back to the first time he’d visited Saxby and Odom at their hotel. He thought he’d heard the creak of a door, the sound of a footfall, the presence of someone.

Danny’s army protecting his niece.

“Why did the FBI go light, then, if it was so important?” he asked.

“Because apparently, you feds don’t talk to each other. I don’t know how the hell you get anything done. I don’t know how the hell you were able to lay the RICO shit on me. You’re like a bunch of snotty kindergartners running around with scissors.”

“Not all of us.”

Glass appraised him coolly. “You gave me all that credit for the shit that went down in Iraq. But we both know you had just as much to do with the outcome as I did. Only I was a grunt and you were an officer. You wrote me up for the commendation and the medal, and you got a pat on the back.”

“I wasn’t in the job for medals, Danny, and neither were you.”

“Amen to that.”

The two men fell silent for a bit.

Devine broke it. “Why did you have your sister’s and her husband’s remains cremated?”

Glass jerked up. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Someone in Ricketts told me that you had ordered them cremated.”

Glass stared dead at him. “Who told you I did?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter, Devine, to me. They… they burned up Alice? I… I never got a chance to say goodbye to… her. To bury her properly.” Glass shook his head clear. “Just one more damn thing to blow up in my face.”

“Then let me give you another one. Perry Rollins said he had some dirt on you. He wanted to sell it to me. Then he got gutted in a men’s bathroom at a bar.”

“I already told you I knew nothing about that.”

“But were you lying or telling the truth?”

“Don’t push it, Devine.”

“So who’s after you, Danny?”

“Some people.”

And Devine finally had corroboration as to why, according to Nancy Fine, the RICO suit had really been dropped.

“And these people are even more dangerous than you are? And so you cut a deal to deliver them to us, in exchange for the prosecution against you being dropped.”

By not answering, Glass answered this question.

“Only they discovered you were ratting them out and now they’re coming for you. And Betsy.” He paused. “So that’s who killed Alice and Dwayne? Your enemies?”

Glass glanced up at him. “Maybe.”

“You don’t know?”

“Like I said, Devine, this is not my world. I’m a little out of my depth.”

“If it was your enemy, why leave Betsy alive?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Danny. You’ve always been a smart guy. Always one step ahead. So how about now?”

“I have my theories. Theories that I don’t want to think about right now, because they might make me do something I will regret. But I can tell you this—the feds did me no favors today.”

“They withdrew the charges against you!”

“But they can bring them again if I don’t toe the line. They are forcing my hand when I don’t need my damn hand forced.”

“Meaning?”

“Some folks will now believe I’ve agreed to cooperate. Which ups the ante all around.”

“Putting you in more danger, you mean?”

“It puts Betsy in more danger. She’s the last wild card in the whole deck.”

“So what now?”

Glass rose. “ Now , you take care of Betsy, Mr. Guardian . Anything happens to her, you get the same a hundred times over. And I’ll fucking do it myself.”