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“If you’re offering. ”
“I am,” he said. “But you have to make me a promise. ”
“Why the hell would I do that? Vaughn?”
“Because I know how much you hate governments and corporations and rich fat cats,” Patrick said. “And we’ve got all three of those things looking for us now. They’re going to find their way to you, eventually, and I need you to do exactly what comes naturally—put up a fight. I’m not asking you to fall on any swords, but just don’t help them. Not right away. If you could forget about the truck, I’d owe you. ”
“Owe me what?”
“That half a million you lost on the Stinger deal,” Patrick said. “By the way, that was me. I took it and I burned your weapons contact. Sorry. The job was to close off the dealer, and I did it. And I wasn’t too wild about someone like you having the missiles, either, to be honest. But if you do this for me, I’ll get you the half million back, in cash, untraceable bills. ”
“Not enough,” Walt said. “I want a full million. Interest. ”
“For doing exactly what you always do, fight whatever comes at you? No. ”
“A million, or I pick up the phone and call the cops to tell them my truck’s been stolen. ”
“We could just kill him,” Bryn said. Her voice sounded light and cold, and utterly at odds with the beautiful sunrise and the twittering birds in the trees. “Kill him and dump his body in the ditch. Seems like karma. ”
“It does,” Patrick said, but he sent her a glance that let her know he was worried by what she’d said. And the way she’d said it. It worried her a little, too, but in a distant, arctic-ice-locked way. “But I think Walt understands there’s a better outcome to be had. ”
“There is if there’s a million on the table,” Walt said. Bryn had to admit that she would not have been that calm in his situation, with a knife at his throat and another at his back, and a woman who was evidently capable of resurrection calmly threatening to slice.
Patrick knew when he was beaten, even with the upper hand, and he shook his head a little and said, “All right. One million. Deal?”
“Why would you believe a thing I said? Considering how long you’ve been lying to me. ”
“I just do,” Patrick said. “Because I’ve lived behind those walls, and I know you care about those people. And I know you keep your word. ”
Walt hesitated, then said, “All right. My word on it. You take the truck, and you get me the million. I won’t tell whoever comes calling. ”
“It may take a while on the million. Seeing as we’re on the run right now. ”
Walt grinned. It looked maniacal. “I trust you, brother. Tell your bitch to stop poking that in my back unless she wants to buy me dinner first. ”
Bryn thought about pushing the knife home. Thought about it a lot. But she saw the clear warning in Patrick’s expression, and finally took a deep breath and stepped back. “I think this is a mistake,” she said, “but if you want to trust him, it’s on you. ”
“Then it’s on me,” Patrick said. “Let him go, Bryn. ”
Walt gave her a second, very long look. “Bryn. You don’t look much like a Bryn to me. ”
“What do I look like?”
“A dead woman,” he said. “Because I don’t forget. ”
She laughed. It sounded crazy.
The hackles raised on the back of her neck as she thought, I sound like Jane.
Patrick grabbed the shaking, exhausted Reynolds and shoved him into the truck, then took the passenger seat next to him. “You drive,” he said to Bryn. He nodded to Walt as she took her spot behind the wheel, with Reynolds sandwiched in the middle. “Good luck, brother. ”
“Be seeing you, Bryn,” Walt said, and aimed a finger gun at her. She managed not to bite it off. Just barely.
“I liked it better when he called me bitch,” she said, and threw the truck into gear.
They left him, and his compound of maybe-crazies, behind in a veil of dust.
Patrick said, very quietly, “Are you all right?”
