Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(48)

“You know,” said Chase, “it’s a pretty sure thing the coroner won’t release the body yet. I’m with you guys no matter what, I just wanted to lay it out on the table. And assuming he’s out of jail, the body will be released to him, not to us.”

“Probably,” I admitted.

“So are we planning on sticking around until the funeral?”

“Not if he’s in town,” grumbled Creed. His hands tightened on the steering wheel and I imagined that he was picturing our father’s neck as his fingers squeezed. “I’m sorry but I can’t f*cking do that. I can’t shake his f*cking hand and pretend he’s a real father.”

“Never,” I assured him. “No one expects that.”

Creed relaxed a notch and nodded. “So what is it we’re going down there for?”

The tidy housing tracts that stretched out of Phoenix like a thousand prosperous arms were no longer in evidence. There was just road and desert and the occasional farm.

“We’re going down there to say goodbye,” I finally told him.

The barbed wire of the sprawling state prison, the signature Emblem landmark, emerged on the horizon just as my phone rang. I wasn’t at all surprised to see who the caller was. I hadn’t told him anything yet because I saw no reason to disturb him. Besides, this was our mess to handle, not his. But of course Deck had ears everywhere and some of them were attached to mouths that made it their business to tell him anything that might interest him.

“Cord,” he said and I could tell from the sound of his voice that he knew exactly what was going on.

“Hi, Deck. I should have called you.”

“Bullshit, I’m not calling now to scold you.”

“How’d you hear?”

“Doesn’t matter.

“Well, where are you?”

“About to board the first of a series of flights that will eventually land us back in Phoenix by tomorrow.”

I coughed. “You don’t have to do that, man. We’ve got this covered.”

“The hell I don’t have to f*cking do it.” He sounded pissed. Then I heard him exhale thickly. “I’m sorry. She was your mother. But she meant something to me too.”

“I know.”

Actually, I’d forgotten. But yeah, Deck had always had a special kind of attachment toward Maggie. He’d known her in better days, before drugs and Benton’s violence broke her. He’d been an awestruck five-year-old kid when Benton brought his radiant young bride home to the desert. I wished I’d known her in that time. She’d been an artist. She was the reason my hands worked the way they did when I decided to create something.

On the other hand, it was probably better I had no memory of Maggie Gentry’s golden youth. If I did then today would probably be even more painful than it was.

“The boys with you, Cord?”

I glanced back at Chase. “They are.”

“Good, that’s good. You guys need each other right now. Listen, I won’t say some lame shit like ‘Give them my condolences’. We all knew this day would come. But I’m real sorry it’s here anyway.”

“So am I, Deck. So am I.”

In the background I heard the sound of Jenny’s voice but I couldn’t make out her words. Deck answered her. “Okay baby, just a minute. Listen, Cord, we’re getting ready to board now. I’ll be mostly out of reach the next twelve hours or so but I’ll see you tomorrow. If I know anything about you three I would guess you’re headed to town.”

“We’re almost there.”

He was silent for a moment. “Stay cool,” he finally said. “Watch each other’s backs.”

I knew what he meant. He was telling us to watch out for Benton. There was probably good reason for Deck to say that. I couldn’t guarantee what would happen if we ended up in the same room as our father.

“Always,” I promised.

A pause. And then a cough. “I love you guys.”

That wasn’t something Deck said lightly. I didn’t say it back lightly. “We love you too, Deck.”

Creed and Chase weren’t surprised that Deck had caught the first flight he could find. Before I’d ended the call I’d nearly said something sappy like ‘Wish you were here’. A wildly inappropriate thing to utter when you were on your way to see about your mother’s remains. But if there was such a thing as a guardian angel then the three of us had long ago been gifted with a gruff, muscled, tattooed version who came to us as a wild cousin.

The sight of Emblem made us quiet. The last time we’d been here, only a week ago, it had been dark and somehow that made the landscape seem more benign. In all fairness it wasn’t a terrible place. Most of the people who lived outside the prison were honest, hardscrabble folks just trying to make their way. But for us it symbolized misery, fear and a desperate wish to escape the stigma of our last name. People assumed Gentrys were shitty because historically most Gentrys were shitty. That’s a dark cloud to be born under. Suddenly I thought of our young cousins, Conway and Stone, wondered how much the echoes of the past had touched them. I made a mental note to track them down and look in on them as long as we were down here today. We may as well try to squeeze at least one good thing out of this.

Gaps had said that if we checked in at the police station they’d put the call out and he’d head down there to meet us. Creed hung back a little, looking uncomfortable and Chase was glancing around uneasily so I led the way.