“I realize that. But you have them off of you?”
“Till next time. Unfortunately the reality is that this business of ours is established. People are going to talk. Customers as well as rivals. When that happens, we’ll have to stand prepared to take care of it.”
“What about this man? The one who cost you so much?”
“I’m going to cost him.”
Tran was silent for a moment. “I could take care of him for you.”
Victor took a moment to think about that. The offer came with subtext, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. For Tran to offer to reach across the Pacific Ocean to whack the Marine meant that he’d come into more muscle than he’d had before.
The offer also served to put Victor on notice that he wasn’t as insulated as he had been.
“No need,” Victor said. “I’m going to take care of this. I’m going to take the time I need to do it right.”
“I know you see this as a personal challenge,” Tran said. “But you can’t allow any harm to come to what we’ve got going on. We’ve worked too long and too hard to get what we have.”
“You just worry about your end. I’m going to take care of things here. You’ll see.”
“It would be better for you-and for what we’re doing-if you put this behind you.”
Victor couldn’t believe the suggestion had been made. “Put the murder of my son behind me?” His voice was cold and hard.
Tran hesitated for only a moment, then-showing that their relationship had changed over the years-said, “It wasn’t murder. I saw the news footage. He killed a man and tried to kill that Marine. I’m sorry for your loss, my friend, but he’d been given every chance to come out of that encounter alive.”
“He was my flesh and blood,” Victor snarled. “My family.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Victor tried to control the anger that threatened to break loose inside him. “Do you remember what happened when your family was killed?”
Tran’s voice was soft, but a hard edge rang in his words. “I do.”
“Me and you,” Victor said, “we found out who the soldiers were that killed your family. And they were American soldiers.”
It had been one of those incidents that didn’t come out of Vietnam until years later. The military and the media had worked together for a time to shut down all the atrocities that young American soldiers committed while they were overseas.
Everybody back home was so interested in the John Wayne image of the American soldiers, they didn’t think of what it had really been like to be there. There wasn’t a day most of those young men hadn’t been afraid. Never a day passed that sudden, harsh death hadn’t dogged their footsteps through that hellish jungle.
As a result of that fear, the quickness that death could reach out, and the merciless nature of the enemy they’d faced, a lot of soldiers had gone feral and become pitiless killers who saw only enemies in everyone outside their own group.
Chaplains and officers had tried to keep those young soldiers from becoming barbarians. Their efforts had broken down and failed on several occasions. Sometimes those chaplains and green second lieutenants got fragged by the very men they were trying to save.
“We buried your family, me and you,” Victor said. “We dug those graves with our hands and laid your family to rest. Then we found out who those men were… and we killed every last one of them.”
That had been a bloody business. They’d hunted the men down and ambushed them in the jungle. Some of them had gotten loose. It had taken four days to find the last one. Under Tran’s cruel skills, it had taken the man two days to die.
For just a moment, the smell of burned flesh filled Victor’s nostrils at the memory. He didn’t remember any good times from his tours in Nam. But he just hadn’t been able to escape the jungle till Uncle Sam had finally called him home. Even then, the jungle still lived inside him today. It was only a heartbeat away.
“I remember,” Tran said.
“You’d better remember.”
“But in the end, killing those men didn’t bring my family back.”
“I know that. But the idea of the man who killed Bobby Lee walking around breathing the same air that I do offends me.”
“Vengeance is for the young,” Tran said quietly. “We are older now. We know the things that matter. This business we’re doing matters. You’ve got a good life. You shouldn’t be thinking about throwing it away. I’m asking you, as your friend, to let this be.”
Irritation filled Victor. In the beginning, Tran had been the low man on the totem pole regarding the operation. He hadn’t had any contacts. Victor had provided everything.
Now that he had control over the product and thought he could easily pick up another distributor in the United States, Tran wasn’t quite as closemouthed about how the operation was conducted as he had been.
The thing was, Tran also knew what Victor was about. If Tran tried to freeze Victor out, Victor would go over to Vietnam and finish a final piece of the war.
“I can’t,” Victor said.
Tran sighed. “I was afraid that would be your answer.”
“Was there anything else?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“Then I’ve got a few things to do around here.”
“Of course. I just wanted to express my condolences and to check on you.”
“You just take care of your end of things.”
“If you need anything, you’ll call?”
“Of course,” Victor replied.
“Get some rest. You sound exhausted.”
Victor broke the connection and tossed the phone onto the desk. Then his eyes roved over the security monitors showing the street outside.
He zoomed in on the undercover police car parked in the alley across the street. Every time the Purple Royals gathered, Police Chief Tarlton put people there. It would have been comical if Victor had been thinking about the cops and not about getting revenge.
22
›› Intensive Care Unit
›› Presbyterian Hospital
›› Charlotte, North Carolina
›› 2308 Hours
Even with the pain medication coursing through his system, Shel knew someone was in the room with him. Fear bumped against his mind as he struggled to lift his eyes.
“Hey, Shel.”
Shel recognized the voice before he was able to focus. “Don.”
“I’m here.” Don’s hand settled on his uninjured shoulder and squeezed. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” Shel tried to nod, but the effort seemed to loosen his head, and he was afraid it would float away. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
“Waste of time,” Shel said. “I’m going to be fine.”
“That’s what Commander Coburn told me. But I’ve been saving up for a vacation. Thought I’d get out of town for a bit. See how the other half lives.”
Shel grinned. “I appreciate it. You doing okay?”
“A little tired. We got word late last night. I caught the first flight out this morning. I’ve been in airport terminals or on planes all day. Nobody flies straight through anymore, it seems.”
Shel rolled his head around and tried not to be obvious about it. Although he couldn’t imagine his daddy leaving the ranch, there was that possibility.
Don grimaced. “Daddy’s not here.”
“I didn’t think he was,” Shel lied. It was funny how much it bothered him that his father hadn’t come. He was a man, full-grown, blooded in a couple of wars. How old do you have to be before you stop looking for your daddy when you get hurt? He didn’t know. “I was looking for Max.”
“Max is fine. He’s sacked out in the waiting room with some woman named Maggie.”
“You got to meet Maggie?”
“I did.”
“Maggie’s good people, Don. You’d like her.” Shel hated the fact that pain meds also sometimes gave him a bad case of motormouth.
“She seems like she is.”
“She should be in a hotel, not here. When you go back out there, tell her to go on and that I’ll be fine.”