“I’ll pay the fuckers. Will that keep Tommy…Tommy and Diego safe?”
There was a silence on the phone that read to him that something big was coming.
“Tell me, Javi! What the fuck do these people want?”
“Gary, shit, man, they want blood.” Gary let his arm with the phone drop for a moment as he let it sink in, though he’d been expecting it. He knew the money would never be enough. When he got the phone back to his ear, Javi said, “They lost some men, I guess, when you broke Diego out of where they had him.”
“Yeah, I popped a few, and Diego got some when they were chasing me.”
“Yeah, well, they say we’re lucky they’re just asking for one. They want one of you to bring the money to them, and once it’s delivered, they’re going to kill him, whoever it is.”
Gary’s eyes closed. It was exactly what he’d expected to hear. “Yeah. Figured. I’ll handle it.”
“Gary, just because this is their demand does not mean that is what we’re doing! Don’t you dare go and sacrifice yourself!”
“If not, Javi, they’re going to hunt us down and kill all three of us and you know it, or worse, the minute any of you come out of hiding, you’ve got targets on your heads. They may not be the biggest cartel south of the border, Javi, but that makes them more dangerous. You know as well as I do that they will do whatever it takes to climb that ladder, and taking out American mob bosses and anyone associated with them is a big boost for their reputations.”
“I’m not losing you or anyone else to these mother fuckers, Gary. I’m ordering you to stand the fuck down! Let us handle this!”
He hated to do it, to leave what could be the last words with his friend contentious, but Javi wouldn’t accept his goodbye, no matter how he tried to say it. He lowered his arm again, and with his thumb, ended the call.
The next time his arm rose, it was to call Crowley. The phone rang twice and when Crowley answered, the smug sound of his voice infuriated Gary. “I knew I’d be hearing from you.”
“I knew you’d know all about what’s going on, too. Why, Crowley? We’ve worked together years, had each other’s backs. Why are you doing this?”
“You’ve gone soft, McIntyre. You’re no good to me now, and if I can make some headway with these Mexican fucks, I’m going to. You knew you’d meet your end like this.”
Gary nodded, clenching his jaw. Pushing aside all he wanted to say, he thought to get it over with. “Where do I take the money?”
“I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon with the directions. Can’t have you setting it up so you have men there, can I?”
So, it was him making all the plans, probably pushing for it. “I’ll be ready.”
“It was good working with you, McIntyre. Time to retire.”
He ended the call before he told Crowley what a piece of shit he truly was and tossed the phone to the bed. At the thick window, the world seemed skewed, out of focus because of the waves in the old glass windowpanes. It was like his life, out of focus, never seeing what was really there.
He hadn’t seen it with Tommy, what he had, until he didn’t have him anymore. And he’d feel the same thing with Diego, though not for very long. He’d be dead before the regret could eat his insides and cause the kind of pain he’d felt after leaving Tommy.
He had to get the money, so he made a rushed excuse and got in the van to drive to the bank, leaving Diego standing in the driveway, staring after him. At a bank in the nearest major city, he made arrangements to pull the two million from his account in the Caymans. For their rush and trouble, Gary arranged with the bank president to transfer an extra ten thousand, that assured it would go through quickly.
He stopped at a market to buy them some fresh food and when he returned, he faced two angry men. They’d figured it out. It was a good thing he’d also bought some sleep aids…
Tommy threw the van door open and started on him immediately. “I called Daniel and he told me what the fuck you’re planning.”
He’d known that would happen, and he knew the reaction he’d receive. “I changed my mind. We’ll figure something else out.”
Tommy smirked at him, disbelieving his words.
“I’m serious, Tom. Look in the van, no money.” He’d arranged to pick up the money a few hours before the drop. “I did buy some food, though, so take it in for me, okay?”
“Take it in yourself,” he spat before he walked off, heading again for the chapel.
Diego didn’t leave, however, but he didn’t fetch the bags either. “Gary, he may believe that, though I don’t think he does. I sure as hell don’t.”
“I didn’t figure you would, but it’s true. Help me with the groceries.”
Diego, the saint that he was, did help him carry the few bags inside and he started on putting things away while Diego glared at him. “I get you’re trying to protect him, but losing you will destroy him, Gary. Do you get that?”
Actually, he didn’t. He knew the opposite, that losing him would give Tommy the chance to be happy with Diego, who was good and beautiful and everything Tommy deserved. “He’s not losing me,” he lied. “I told you, look in the van. No money. I’m sure Tommy told you that they don’t just want one of us dead, they want the money, too. No money, they’d still come after you.”
“Okay. So, you’ll stay here, with us. Agreed? Agree that we’ll figure it out and let Javi and Daniel keep talking to the Carrillo family. They’re much bigger than the Montellos. They can help us, Gary.”
“I know who the fucking Carrillos are, Diego. They own the west coast from Baja to Oregon. That’s a lot of territory. I get their pull.”
“If you go off and do what I know in my gut you’re going to do, it will break that man. If you can die with that on your head, then do what you think you have to do. I was under the impression you loved him.”
Diego walked away from him, and Gary felt his words, all hitting one at a time like he was being shot with each. They entered him and hurt like fire. Gary left the rest of the unloading to look for Tommy.
As he thought, he found him in the chapel. Tommy was sitting in the pew closest to the front and when Gary found him, he was wiping tears from his face with his arm.
He sat without a word, looking around the place, wondering why Tommy seemed to be taking sanctuary there so often. “This is beautiful.”
“The whole place is. But, yeah, this is…”
“I didn’t know you were religious.”
“I’m not.”
Gary wasn’t getting much conversation from him, but he was getting more than he’d expected. “I’m sorry, Tommy. I can’t seem to stop fucking things up when it comes to you and me.”
“Then stop fucking things up,” he reasoned, then rose to move away from Gary. He walked to one of the stained-glass windows, there he stopped, gazing up at it. Gary moved over to it as well, trying to see what he saw, and it struck him.
It was Michael fighting Satan during Armageddon. “The end times.”
“You know, I had a dream and you were the devil in the dream, like this window. And I realized it’s not me who thinks that, or Diego, or anyone else who truly knows you. It’s you that believes that.”
“Maybe because it’s true, Tommy. Maybe I’ve done things that are evil.”
“That’s not what you are, who you are. I see inside you, maybe farther inside you than you ever have. I knew you loved me long before you ever told me, and it was because you showed me. In these cool little ways, you showed me. Do you remember when we went to the bar that night to get a beer and that guy I went to high school with came over and started talking to me? You thought he was hitting on me, so you told him to fuck off and get away from me.”
Gary laughed sardonically and countered, “That was fucked up, Tommy!”
“Yeah, it was, but it also showed me that you were jealous of me. That anyone who got near me would be under your scrutiny. Possessive of me, like you wanted me all to yourself. Maybe it wasn’t th
e best way of showing it, but it showed it anyway.”
Gary’s heart couldn’t take anymore. “I’m going to get some sleep. You and Diego take the watch, okay?”
Tommy pulled him in, holding him. “I will always love you, Gary. That won’t change unless you do something stupid.”
Tommy walked off and Gary was left there to wonder if he was doing the right thing. He wanted to save the men, the two men he cared about. Like it or not, Diego was climbing into his heart. He’d saved Gary’s life when it would have been so easy to miss the driver of that Jeep. They would have caught up to Gary easily and killed him, clearing the way for Diego to be with Tommy.
But he hadn’t. Then…the poinsettia, the way he looked at Gary…
He went to the house and fell on the bed, staring at that damn flower, the gesture behind it taking up all the room around him, not letting him look away from it.
****
Diego was waiting for him around the corner, and as soon as he saw Tommy coming toward him, he shrugged a shoulder. “Well?”
Tommy fished the Gary’s phone from his front pocket and said, “I got it. Let’s get started.”
Chapter Fourteen
With the plans made, Tommy went back to a few of the places he’d explored, the things he found coming in handy. In the far garage, the one closet to the road, he found three old cars, really old, big steel boats from the fifties and sixties, but they had no tires and one didn’t even have an engine.
Beside them, however, were three old dirt bikes. Tommy, back in his thieving days, was always in charge of getting the vehicles and motorized items working perfectly to be able to sell for a better price. The dirt bikes were old, they hadn’t been used in possibly a couple of decades, but he found all the parts he needed right there in the garage.
Diego found him on the cracked concrete floor, dust and grease covering him. “Do you think it’ll run?”
“I think so. Look up there on that shelf and hand me a couple more spark plugs.”
Diego felt around on the shelf that was a little tall for him and brought down a box covered in Spanish, but he looked inside and nodded. “Got 'em.”
Tommy took the three Diego handed him, hoping at least one would do the trick. “There’s gas in the cans over there by the mower. Since this place isn’t overgrown, I’m guessing it’s been mowed recently, so the gas should still be good.”
“Tommy, he could still get killed. No matter what they come up with for us, Gary is placing himself in danger.”
He knew that, he knew all of that, and as much as he didn’t want to think about it, he couldn’t seem to get it off his mind. “Yeah, but hopefully we’ll stop him from dying.”
Taking the phone back to Gary later, after erasing the recent calls, he found Gary sleeping, so he lay the phone on the floor, as if he’d lost it from his pocket, and was about to leave when he stopped, staring at Gary.
Ruggedly handsome. That was how he’d described Gary to people who’d never met him. Perhaps when he was younger he may have been a little more refined in his looks, but after years of experiencing the hardest parts of the human experience, it showed in each line on his face, each white hair through his growing beard.
His hard chest rose and fell shallowly, that hard chest he’d lay his head on every night, listening to his heart beating and taking peace from that. It was as if as long as that heart was still beating strong and sure, everything in Tommy’s life made sense. All he’d gone through, all he’d pulled himself away from to be a better person was worth it, because Gary was in the world and loved him.
For Gary to throw that away made Tommy feel as if he was throwing Tommy away, too. No matter what happened, Tommy felt connected in every way to Gary. What was worse, though, was that Diego was sucked into him too, falling in love inexplicably, being they were so different.
“Don’t you die, you fucker. I’ll never forgive you.”
Once he’d whispered that, he left the room and found Diego in the kitchen making them dinner. “Did you talk to Javi again?”
“He’s on board. He’s as pissed at Gary as we are.”
“Did you know they used to be fuck buddies?”
Diego chuckled and shook his head. “No. I sure didn’t. Makes sense. They worked together, right? While I’m sure there are plenty of gay mercs, I doubt they advertise much. Once you find another one, you stay close and use them for sex.”
“I guess. It made me jealous at first.”
Diego lay the knife down and turned to him, taking him into his arms. “Yeah, I know jealously. How jealous are you going to be if what you were trying to do actually works?”
Tommy’s eyes widened at the words. “What?”
“Making out with me, getting me turned on and let me guess, you did the same to Gary? I think you were trying to turn us on so much that we gave in and fucked each other.”
Tommy couldn’t believe it was so obvious. “I can tell you are hot for each other. After you fuck, maybe you’ll see there’s more to each other than sex.”
“I already know that. It’s those parts of him that have nothing to do with his dick that turns me on so much. Part of it is how much he cares for you. I know that feeling.”
Tightening his arms around Diego’s waist, he mumbled against his chest, “You don’t mind then?”
“That you can’t decide? Would you mind if I was having a hard time with that, too?”
Tommy looked up at him to see if he was kidding and it was immediately apparent he wasn’t. “Really? Already?”
“It didn’t take me long to figure out how I felt about you, either. He’s a good man that doesn’t know it. I have this intense urge to show him that he’s wrong about himself.”
“It’s frustrating, I’ll warn you about that. I’ve tried.”
“Maybe it’ll take two to get it accomplished.”
Tommy touched his lips to Diego’s, the soft sweet kiss he loved sharing with the man. It made him feel so loved and cherished. Against those lips he vowed, “I’ll love you both the best I can.”
“I don’t doubt it a bit, Tom.”
The next day, Tommy saw how Gary was avoiding them. They made sure to avoid being in any of the outbuildings that Gary could trap them in, Diego keeping watch outside the garage while Tommy worked on the bikes.
When the afternoon rolled around, Gary was in the kitchen, making margaritas. Tommy’s instincts were screaming at him not to drink it, but it would be hard to avoid it and not let on that they didn’t trust him.
Diego solved the problem easily. “I have the first watch, and Tommy the second. We don’t need alcohol.”
“One drink isn’t going to hurt you,” Gary reasoned.
Diego took the pitcher and placed it in the ice box. “No ice, so it’ll be too strong anyway. How about Tommy and I go get some ice from town?”
Gary’s eyes narrowed at Diego and he pushed him in the chest, growling, “Go fuck yourself, college boy. Too good to take a fucking drink, then don’t.”
The anger was a cover for his frustration, but he also used it as a ruse to go.
“I’m going for a fucking drive and I’ll get you two pussies some ice. Fuck!”
They watched him go and Tommy pulled out his phone. “I guess it’s on.”
“Yeah,” Diego whispered. “I fucking hope this goes down like we expect.”
“Me too.”
****
Gary drove to the bank, a lump in his throat that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times he swallowed. He knew what it was, of course. It was Tommy and Diego, and their nagging and concern.
The thought of them hurt so badly, he nearly told the bank president to take the money and put it back into his account. Having it in his hand, the heaviness of two million dollars, it was nothing to the weight that was on his chest. Finally, when he had something to live for, two somethings to live for, he was going to die. It made sense, payback for his fucked-up life.
Getting back in the van,
he caught sight of an ad for one of the drinks Tommy loved. He didn’t think he’d ever noticed before, but to see Tommy with a diet Mountain Dew, the green bottle, the way he smiled around the lip…
It hurt. It hurt so much he didn’t know if he could do it. The alternative, though, was having the two men that dominated his heart to continue on the run or be killed. That was no kind of choice.
He started to the edge of the town and his phone went off. Once he looked to see who was calling, he was relieved and hurt at the same time to see it wasn’t Tommy.
“Yeah, Colonel Cunt, I’m here. I have the money.”
“Good soldier.”
“Where the fuck am I going?”
The colonel grew quiet on the line, but Gary heard paper crinkling. He was old school, Crowley, and didn’t like keeping anything in computers or phones. It was paper and notebooks for him.
“San Miguel de Allende. Go there, park on the corner of Mesones and Relox and I’ll call back with further directions.”
The call ended and Gary let out a long breath. The sky was falling, like the old tale. He felt like the sky would crack and pieces were going to start raining down on his head. Or maybe that was what he wanted to happen.
He got on the highway and headed to where the GPS told him to go. Like that robotic voice, he felt his humanity slipping away, stuck on autopilot and only going through the motions. He’d learned that years before, when going into a mission that could end his life or force him to end the lives of others. Disconnect, make a clean break of the line that connected the head to the heart.
In his head, he knew what to do. It was autopilot, after doing the same thing a hundred times, to save other people.
He shook his head hard, swerved a bit on the highway and finally pushed the thoughts of Tommy and Diego from his mind. They were better off without him. He’d made the right decision. He set his mind to it and then turned his thoughts to the job.
His last job.
His hands weren’t shaking like he thought they might. He’d gone into battle unsure he’d come out the other side before, so it wasn’t too surprising. This time he knew for sure, but it made no difference. He’d always known he’d die at the end of a gun.
Tug of War (Legacy Book 5) Page 12