“It’s good to see you, too, Walter,” said Shock. “And Judith? You told me she was okay?”
“She’s in protective custody. I killed three men who were going to kill her, and I did it by following your advice of using whatever was at hand, not fighting honorably, and doing what I needed to do to survive.”
“Only way this shit works, Walter, and don’t let nobody ever tell you different.”
“I sometimes wonder what my father would think of all this.”
“Well,Ican tell you. First, it would be a bigger shock to him ’bout who you are now than when I came out the closet. And, second, he would be as proud of you as he was of anybody.”
“You really think so, Shock?” said Nash uncertainly.
“Hell, Walter. You reinvented yourself to get the job done. No, you went even farther than that. You became the opposite of who you’d always been. You overcame every obstacle I threw at your ass. All the other guys I trained? They broke. Them muthers just quit. But you didn’t. So take it to the bank that your old man, who never quit nothing in his whole damn life, is either lookin’ up or down at you with a big-ass smile on his face.”
“Thanks, Shock, that means a lot coming from you. No one knew my father better.”
“Now, where do you see this all headed? Steers and everythin’?”
“I still want to bring down her empire and avenge Maggie, but . . .”
Shock looked at him funny. “But what?”
“You ever gone into a situation where you thought for sure you knew what someone else was all about? No gray, just black-and-white?”
“Hell, Walter, that’s what I did with your ass!”
“But you were wrong about me.”
“I prejudged you, sure. But how the hell you havin’ that problem with someone like Victoria Steers? She killed your daughter, man.”
“And I will hold her accountable for that.”
“But?”
“But having come to know her after all this time together. . .and I know this will sound. . .weird.”
“Just get it out in the open, son,” advised Shock, looking seriously apprehensive.
“But part of me feels sorry for her.”
Shock stared at him for a few moments. “All right, Walter, let me give you some advice.”
“Okay.”
“You may know the woman better now. And maybe there’re things in her past that made her what she is, made her do what she does. I get that. Evil folks are created in lots of different ways. We all have choices, but some folks have a lot fewer than other folks. And sometimes the reason has nothin’ to do with them, really, it’s how other people perceive them. For me it’s the color of my skin. But at the end of the day, Walter, you have to remember that Steers made her choices. And if push comes to shove, she will kill you if she perceivesyouas a threat to her. Just the way people like her are wired. You remember I told you about Peanut?”
“The most dangerous man you knew other than my father.”
“Right, and I also told you what made him dangerous.”
“He basically had no conscience and wouldn’t waste a second debating whether to kill someone. It gave him just enough of an edge to be pretty much unbeatable.”
“And with that, Walter, you just described Victoria Fucken Steers to a T. And don’t you never forget that, son.”
CHAPTER
51
ON THE WAY TO SHOCK’Straining facility Temple turned to Nash, who was driving his Range Rover, and said, “Mindy wants me to marry her.”