Nash looked down at his former boss. Such a little man in so many ways. But this was getting him nowhere. He let go of Temple and the man collapsed to the ground for a few moments, rubbing his shoulder and trying to catch his breath. “You. . .you could have broken my shoulder.”
“I could have done a lot of things, Rhett. Desperate men do, you know. Crazy shit. Real crazy.”
Temple slowly rose, rubbing at his shoulder. “You don’t sound like your old self.”
“I’m not Walter Nash, Rhett, not anymore. I can put you in contact with Shock. But you’ll need to be willing totransformyourself. And there’s no guarantee Shock won’t kill you in the process.”
Still wincing with pain, Temple shrugged and said resignedly, “What choice do I have?”
“Depending on what Shock says, we’ll get you out of here and on your new journey to freedom.”
“You know, it might be better to make it look like I died. I’m betting that’s what you did with Judith. You went back to your old house after Angie saw you leaving my place. You killed those guys that Ryder sent there. And you and the FBI covered it all up, right?”
“That’s quite a leap of logic,” replied Nash, without answering the question.
“I don’t really care. But if Steers thinks I’m dead, she won’t bother coming after me.”
“We can arrange for your death, sure.”
Temple apparently did not like the way Nash had said that. He drew closer. “But justfakedying, Walt. Not the real thing. See, I know you hate my guts. I know you blame me for all this shit. You heard me with Judith. You heard me with the detective. I did my best to frame you.”
“What should I expect from a guy who would throw his own father off a balcony?”
Temple took a step back. “That’s bullshit. Wait, did Mindy tell—”
“Nobody needed to tell me anything, Rhett. Barton never would have kicked the bucket early, cancer or not. And the cops said he was murdered. And I know I didn’t kill him. So that just leaves. . .you.”
“Good luck proving anything,” snarled Temple.
“Well, through DNA the cops can easily prove that baby is yours, not your father’s. There’s a motive right there.”
Temple held up his hands in mock surrender. “Look, we both just need to take a deep breath and realize we have bullets in both our guns, symbolically speaking for me. The smart plan is to work together, not against each other, right?”
“Maybe.”
Temple’s expression changed. “And for what it’s worth, I knew nothing about what they were going to do with Maggie. I hated that it happened. She should be alive. I’m. . .I’m so sorry that she’s not.”
“I actually believe you on that point.”
“You do?” said a startled Temple.
“Yeah, or else I would have already killed you. By the way, I told Mindy to leave with Mandy so you couldn’t beat her up anymore.”
“Look, I lost my temper once with her.”
“It looked like more than once.”
“I’m. . .I’m not proud of what I did. But she’s still there. I. . .promised not to touch her again. And I won’t.”
“Well, if you do, I’ll beat your brains in.”
Temple let out a nervous laugh, saw that Nash was not joking, and said quickly, “Give me a call after you talk to this Shock dude, okay?”
Nash watched him hurry back to his Porsche and drive away.
“What did he want?”
He turned to see Steers staring at him from the open front door.
