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“Wanna know how much?”
Forty-Eight
ADRIAN
“This place looks phenomenal!” my father cried. He scratched at about three days worth of beard growth, moving through the garage with slow, measured paces. “Even better than when Tommy was running it!”
I couldn’t tell if he was being flattering or he actually meant it. There were a lot of things about my father I didn’t know, like how he liked his coffee or where he pulled the word ‘phenomenal’ from. Or even why he seemed to be walking with a slight limp. It occurred to me I hadn’t seen him walk since I was a kid. In my only real memories, he was young and strong and indestructible.
“And this place is part yours?” he asked.
“No. It’s Warren’s and Luke’s.”
“Bullshit,” Warren stepped in. He wiped the grease off his hands with a semi-clean rag before reaching out to shake my father’s hand. “Your son’s partnering up and throwing in with us,” he grinned. “Or didn’t he tell you?”
“He told me something like that,” the old man replied. “But why in the world are you moving?”
There was hesitation in his answer. Rather than come up with something — anything at all — Warren just looked at me and frowned.
“An opportunity came up,” I said. “Tons more space, over at the old drive-in theater.”
“The Starlight?”
Shit, I didn’t even know the place had a name. If it had, I’d never noticed. Absently I wondered if it had fallen off the marquee decades back.
“Yeah, well the price is right,” Warren said helpfully. “And although it’s a little out of the way, the location would pull in a lot of business from Greyridge.”
My father rubbed thoughtfully at his chin. “Stone Falls too.”
Damn, the old man knows his stuff,I thought to myself.I guess he’s been here long enough.
“That’s what we’re thinking, yeah,” I finally replied. “They sent over the contract last night. We were just looking it over.”
“So you’ve decided for sure then?” he asked, sounding a bit disappointed. “I just got out, and suddenly you guys are moving away?”
“It’s notthatfar,” I protested. “It’s just out of town.”
“And like Adrian said,” Warren chimed in, “we were running out of room here, so…”
He tried sounding confident as his voice trailed off, but my father was too shrewd. I saw his eyes narrow as he studied Warren’s expression. He wasn’t buying the answer.
“There’s a little bit of a turf war here too,” I admitted, “and it was heating up a little.”
Hey, if I was going to have a post-prison relationship with my father, I might as well start off with some honesty.
“Oh yeah?”
I nodded. “This place still does vintage renos, but a couple years back it started doing more standard body work to make ends meet. That didn’t go over well with the locals. Specially, Payne Collision.”
“Payne Collision…” My old man’s brow crossed for about three or four seconds before recognition dawned. “Wait a minute. John Payne?”
“His son actually,” said Warren. “But yeah.”
“What have they been doing?”
My father looked suddenly angry. It wasn’t a look I’d seen on him since… well… maybe ever.
“They’ve sent messages here and there,” I said, trying to shrug it off.
