Free Duke City Hit by Max Austin Page A

headlights died and the Cadillac’s door popped open.
    “Who’s that in there?” Vic called. “You got company, my boy?”
    Ryan wasn’t ready for the two of them to meet, but he had no choice now. When Tina opened the door, Vic practically pushed Ryan inside. The door closed, shutting the three of them in the room together.
    Tina must’ve been in bed already because the covers were mussed. She was holding a paperback book and she set it on the dresser so she could shake hands with Vic.
    “Tina Castillo.”
    “It’s my extreme pleasure, Miss Castillo. I’m Victor Walters, but please call me Vic.”
    He was standing too close, a big wolfish grin on his face. Tina flushed at the attention.
    “If I may say so, you’re a beautiful young woman.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Hey, Vic,” Ryan said. “You can’t hit on my girlfriend.”
    “No?”
    “Bad form.”
    “Really?”
    “Really bad.”
    Vic flashed his smile at Tina. “Sorry, my dear. I’m new to fatherhood. I’m still learning the rules.”
    “That’s quite all right. It’s nice to meet you.”
    “Let me just say that Ryan has very good taste in women.”
    “Vic—”
    “Okay, okay. I’m doing this wrong. I get that. I’m leaving now. Let you two have some privacy. But we’ll all get together soon. Get to know each other.”
    “That would be lovely,” Tina said.
    Ryan groaned.

Chapter 19
    Tina Castillo couldn’t have stopped smiling if she tried.
    “So that was him, huh?”
    “Sorry that was awkward,” Ryan said. “I hadn’t told him about you yet.”
    “Clearly. Why not?”
    He slipped out of his motorcycle jacket, stalling. It always tickled her to see him dance around the truth. She knew ways to make him tell.
    “I wasn’t sure the old guy could take another surprise,” he said as he draped the jacket over a chair. “A son suddenly turns up? That’s a lot to take in. I kept worrying he was gonna clutch his chest and keel over.”
    “He seemed in pretty good shape to me.”
    “You were checking him out?”
    She smiled. “For his
age
.”
    “He sure was checking you out.”
    “Guys that age can’t help it. They’ve got to flirt. It’s their way of being polite.”
    He snorted.
    “Be happy I like the way he looks. You’ll look just like him when you get to be that age.”
    “Think so?”
    “I can’t believe the resemblance. Those eyes. Your mother must’ve seen him every time she looked at you.”
    Ryan went into the bathroom and turned on the water in the sink. Started washing his hands. His back was to her, but she only had to move a little to see his face in the mirror.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “I just wasn’t sure I wanted you to meet him yet.”
    “He seemed perfectly fine.”
    “He’s in kind of a dodgy business.”
    “Bail bonds?”
    “He deals with criminals all day. It’s like handling newspapers. The black ink comes off on your hands.”
    Tina glanced at his leather jacket, the way it hung crooked on the back of the chair. The weight of the pistol in the inside pocket. She knew it was there,
always
knew it. Ryan never explained why he needed a gun. Just told her it made him feel safer. She wondered every day if she’d fallen in love with a criminal.
    “How was dinner?”
    “It was okay.”
    He sat on the end of the bed and bent over, untying his boot.
    “ ‘Okay’?” She couldn’t help herself. “You finally have dinner with the man and all you can say is it was ‘okay’?”
    He didn’t look up at her. Started on the other boot.
    “We uproot our lives,” she said. “Abandon our apartment. Sell off our possessions. Drive to
Albuquerque,
where we stay in this
beautiful
motel for three weeks, so you can find the father who never even knew you existed. You finally work up the nerve to meet him for dinner. And then you tell me it was ‘okay.’ I think I’m entitled to a little recap.”
    She was standing over him now, hands on her hips. He finally looked up,