J. Fynn - The Long Game

Without a backward glance to me, Tommy waved his goodbye to Ian and the pregnant hostess, then pushed through the heavy doors and disappeared. I stood next to my own stool, rolling the numbers around in my head. 1031. Ten thirty-one. The numbers were definitely familiar, as Tommy’d predicted, but damned if I could figure out why.

THE THUNDERING KNOCK jarred me from the sleep I hadn’t meant to fall into. I sat bolt upright on the sofa where I’d dozed and blinked, trying to figure out what had woken me. The pounding came again, rattling the door in its frame. I rubbed my eyes and squinted in the dim light.

Apparently, it had gotten dark sometime between leaving Tommy at the bar and now. Shit. I was going to have to hurry if I was going to make my bus.

Another knock.

“I’m coming! Christ.”

I reached for the knob and had barely turned it when the door burst open and Tommy barreled through, knocking me into the wall as he went past.

“Where is she, you lying sack of shit? I can’t believe I bought all that crap about how much you cared about her.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I tried to play catch up. Nothing about this made sense.

“Why didn’t you take the book when I offered it to you? Isn’t that what you came for?”

“It was, but—”

“What do you think you’re going to get out of me by taking her?”

I shook my head. I had to be dreaming. “Tommy, what are you—”

“What kind of coward kidnaps a nineteen-year-old girl? Goddamn it, Shay, tell me where she is. Now.” Tommy turned on me suddenly and grabbed my shirt in both hands. He slammed my back against the wall, and only the tips of my toes scraped the floor. “Tell me.”

I couldn’t do more than blink at him. She? Kidnap? “Tommy, I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did something happen to Spencer?”

“Like you don’t know.”

My mind switched from blank to panicked in under a second. I shoved him back and heard my shirt tear as patches of the fabric went with him. “I don’t. I left you at the bar and came straight back here. My bus leaves for New Orleans—” I checked the wall clock. “—in one hour.” I pointed to the ticket still on the table where I’d dropped it.

Tommy glanced down at the ticket, then back up at me. “Is that supposed to prove something?”

“I’m not sure what you want me to prove. Tear the place apart if you want, but she’s not here. What’s this shit about kidnapping?”

“What do you think? I got the voicemail message your friend left,” Tommy said. He shoved a hand into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulled a thin, black phone from inside. He slid his thumb across the screen, flicked at a small green icon, and held the phone up for me to hear. Judd’s voice was gleeful as it played through the speaker: “Well, hey there, Saint Thomas. I’d say it’s a pleasure, but to be honest, it makes me sick even to be talking to the recording of a dirty snake like you. But I guess sometimes we all gotta get down on our bellies, don’t we? See, the thing is, you have something I want, and now I have something you want. I would suggest you call me back at your earliest convenience. Assuming you ever want to see this tasty little daughter of yours again.” Judd paused. There was the unmistakable sound of a woman—of Spencer—sobbing. Then it was muffled again by a closing door. I was sure then that I would kill him. I didn’t care if it took me the rest of my life; I would snap his neck with my bare hands before I took my last breath. The message continued. “But Tommy, no rush. I’m sure Cherry and I can do something to pass the time.” I could practically feel his windpipe collapse under my fingers.

“You’re telling me you had nothing to do with this?” Tommy asked, though he’d clearly made up his mind already.

“Tommy, I swear I didn’t.”

“But you know who did.”

I hesitated. I might not have directly helped Judd, but I was the reason he was here. “Judd Sheedy,” I said. “He came up a few weeks after me to make sure I got the job done.”

“Michael’s youngest boy?” Tommy sounded incredulous. “You’re telling me he pulled this off on his own? That little asshat couldn’t keep the drool in his mouth the last time I saw him.”

“Still can’t. But he’s crazy as hell, and there’s no telling what he’ll do to Spencer if we don’t find him fast.”

“Do you have any idea where he might have taken her?” Tommy looked sick at the idea of asking me for help, but he was out of options.

“I don’t—” I stopped. My eyes flickered to the matchbook still on the table where Judd had left it.

Telling Tommy where Judd had taken Spencer was as good as drawing a line in the sand and then doing the long jump right over it, but I was out of options too. Spencer’s safety was the only thing that mattered. I walked to the table and slid the matchbook off of it, then turned it over in my palm. I tossed it to Tommy, and he caught it in one hand and looked down at it.

“How fast can you get us there?”

TOMMY DRUMMED NERVOUS fingers on the leather-wrapped steering wheel of his Lexus. “Are you sure they’re in there?”

“That’s his car.” I pointed to the black sedan in the spot next to us. “And the clerk says a guy matching Judd’s description checked in earlier today and hasn’t left his room since.” I stared at the green door through the windshield. Room 19. “They’re in there.”

Tommy lifted the ledger from the center console where it had ridden between us on the twenty-minute drive to the motel. It had been the longest twenty minutes of my life, spent imagining Judd’s hands on Spencer’s skin, the terror in her eyes. I forced the images away for the hundredth time and refocused on the motel door in front of us.

“So what’s your plan?” Tommy asked.

“I don’t have one,” I said as I popped open the door and stepped out of the car.

“Fantastic,” Tommy said and did the same.

I circled around the back of the car, doing my best to avoid the room’s front window. The thick curtains were pulled shut, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t watching. The more surprised Judd was to see us, the better chance we’d have at getting out of this alive.

“He has a gun,” I said over my shoulder, my back pressed against the brick wall outside Judd’s door.

“You didn’t think to mention that before now?” Tommy said in a harsh whisper.

“Would you be doing anything different?” I shot back.

“Knock,” Tommy said.

I wrapped my knuckles against the door, then covered the peephole with my thumb.

After a moment, a voice came from inside. “Who’s there?”

Tommy and I both flattened ourselves against the building in case he looked through the window when he couldn’t get a view through the peephole. “Management,” I said, disguising my voice. “Problem with your card.”

The chain on the door rattled, and the knob turned. “I didn’t use no—”

I threw my weight into the door, and it banged open, sending Judd stumbling back. Tommy followed me inside and closed the door quickly. I scanned the room. A terrified Spencer was huddled at the top of the far bed, her knees pulled to her chest and her arms clinging to the headboard. She wasn’t tied up, as far as I could tell, and her jeans and t-shirt were still intact. Thank God for small favors.

Judd regained his balance quickly and aimed his gun at my chest. “Nice of you to finally show up,” he said, in a tone too friendly for our current circumstances.

“You know, Prince, I’m getting awfully tired of you pointing that gun in my face.”

“It’s true?”

Every head swiveled to look at Spencer. She still crouched against the headboard, but now the fear in her face was replaced by angry disbelief.

“Are you all right, sweetheart?” Tommy asked.

“It’s true?” she asked again, ignoring her dad to keep her eyes locked on me. “You know this guy?”

I exhaled a deep sigh. Tommy might have decided not to tell her the truth about me, but Judd had apparently not been so considerate. “I know him,” I said.

Spencer flew from the bed and charged toward me. She thrashed at my face and chest with her fists, and a small part of me wished Judd had tied her up. I took several steps back, trapped between her and the wall, and lifted an arm to shield my face. But I wasn’t going to stop her. I deserved everything she did to me and more.

“You bastard. You lying bastard!”

“All right, darlin’.” Judd laughed. “As much as I’d love to see you beat the shit out of him, the men have business to discuss.” He grabbed her by the arm mid-swing and tossed her like a rag doll onto the closest bed. Tommy took a step toward him, his face creased with rage, but Judd turned the pistol in his direction and brought him up short. “Uh-uh. I wouldn’t do that, friend.”

“You touch her again, Judd, and you’re going to need more than that peashooter to keep me from killing you,” Tommy growled.

Spencer didn’t move from the bed, but Judd’s manhandling hadn’t slowed her tongue any. “So it’s true. You’re working with him?” she asked, her eyes still boring into me like knifepoints.

“No,” I said but thought better of it. “Yes. Kind of. We’re both here for the same reason. But this…” I swept an arm around the room. “This wasn’t part of my plan.”

“What was your plan then? To get me into bed to get closer to my dad?”

I winced and looked at Tommy. He was still watching Judd and his gun, and I hoped that was enough distraction from what his daughter had just announced. I turned back to her. “I came for a book. That one.” I pointed to the book in Tommy’s hand. Judd’s eyes followed and locked greedily onto the ledger. “That’s it. I just wanted the book back.”

“A book,” she said, practically spitting the word back at me. “You did all this for a stupid book?”

“It’s not… I can’t really explain it, but it’s important to someone in my clan and they want it back.”

“Your clan!” I could tell by her expression I wasn’t helping my cause.

Judd laughed again. “I tried to explain it to her too, but I don’t think she’s as smart as you said, Buffer.”

The muscle in my jaw twitched as I bit down on my response. There were only so many battles I could fight at once. “I’m not a transfer student from Loyola. I’m not even really enrolled at Balanova. I’m from a Traveler clan in Louisiana, and I came up here to settle a score. That’s the whole story.”

“What does this have to do with my dad?”

Okay, maybe not the whole story. I looked at Tommy again, and this time he looked back. It was bad enough that Spencer had to find out everything about me; I wasn’t about to dump all of Tommy’s history on her too.

Once again, though, Judd decided to do the honors. “You mean you never told your little girl all about the trouble you caused, Saint Thomas? I’m surprised at you. You know what the Good Book says about liars.”

“Shut your mouth, Judd, or I’ll shut it for you,” I warned.

He moved the gun to me again. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Dad?”

I heard Tommy’s long sigh but couldn’t take my eyes off Judd’s gun to turn and look at him.

“Go ahead and tell her, Tommy,” Judd coaxed. I wanted to tear his lips from his face rather than look at his smile a second longer, but the gun in his hand kept me where I was. “I, for one, would be very interested to hear you try to explain this.”

“Before you were born, I was a member of the same Traveler clan. I was a conman, and I was good at it.” Tommy paused, and when he started again, you could tell how hard it was for him to spit out the rest of his story. “Twenty or so years ago, I was running a scam with another Traveler named Jim—his dad.” Tommy indicated me with his head. “I had a bad feeling about it from the start. Something was off about the mark. I tried to talk Jim out of it, but it was a bigger score than either of us had seen and he wanted it. Turns out I was right. When the mark realized what had happened, he went ballistic, came after us with a shotgun. Jim was killed, and I knew I had to get out. I couldn’t keep living the way I was.”

It felt like all the oxygen had left my body. Tommy hadn’t killed my da. He’d gotten himself killed for the sake of a big score. Just like Jimmy Boy had said. Now I was staring down the barrel of a gun because of my own goddamn ambition.

I finally tore my eyes away from the pistol to look at Spencer. The devastation on her face was much harder to take than the anger that had been there a moment before.