Part 63 (1/2)
”Don't lie to me, Wes.”
”I'm going to go out on a limb and guess-”
”Yes, it's definitely yours. Unless it's a miraculous conception.”
”That does seem unlikely, doesn't it?”
Wes couldn't figure out how he felt, never mind how he was supposed to react. Did she want him to be happy about it? He wasn't. Did she want him to be upset and worried about it? To his surprise, he wasn't.
All in all, he wasn't sure what he was.
”Do you intend to keep it?”
She looked at her hands. ”I do.”
”Then we're going to have to get something straightened out with your family. I'm not going to have a child I can't visit without getting my a.s.s kicked by a bunch of Yakuza goons.”
”That won't be a problem,” she said. She didn't say it in a way that meant there were no problems. Rather, he got the distinct feeling that she meant that things wouldn't get that far.
”What's that supposed to mean?”
”My father's going to have you killed.”
”Oh.” Between the coffee keeping him awake and the stillness of fatigue, Wes was surprised how clear his head was on the whole thing. Like he knew exactly what to do, only he didn't have a plan. Not really.
”You should leave. He won't chase you.”
”If you'll come with me.”
Minami shook her head. ”Then he'd chase you to the ends of the earth.”
”Then I'm not leaving,” Wes said, taking another scalding sip of coffee.
”You have to, Wes. This isn't a time to be stubborn. This is your life we're talking about.”
Wes let a breath out through his nose.
”Remember a minute ago? I mentioned I had things I don't like talking about?”
”Yes,” Minami started.
”I'm not from here, not originally. I'm from New York City. Born and raised there. I didn't come out west until I was twenty-five years old.”
”Okay.”
”I still have family back there. Not much family, and not close. But family, nonetheless. I have a sister. She's a dope fiend. Can't stay straight more than a few hours. I don't know how she keeps getting the stuff, and I don't really want to know.”
”I don't understand why you're telling me this.”
”I'm telling you because I need you to understand. She got mixed up with a crime family back there. Some f.u.c.kin' Russians. I got mixed up with them, too, to support her little girls. They're ten years old, now, I think. No father. Never in the picture for them. I don't even know who it was, to tell you the truth.”
Wes paused for a minute and looked at Minami significantly. She didn't have a response.
”I shouldn't have run off. I might have gotten a hero's reception with the family when I got out of prison, but I didn't want one. I wanted to be out of that life.”
”What did you do?”
”I robbed a jeweler's.”
”You don't seem the type,” Minami said, her eyebrows furrowing.
”You don't know what you're capable of until you do it. I was convicted in a court of law, served five years, and that's all that counts. As far as the court is concerned, 'the type' or not, I did it.”
”So...”
”So the point is, I abandoned those girls. They didn't have a father, and then they lost an uncle. A phone call every few weeks isn't the same d.a.m.ned thing. A few bucks in a trust fund isn't the same d.a.m.ned thing. A child shouldn't-”
Wes broke off. He could feel himself getting too hot for the conversation, but he couldn't stop himself, so the best thing to do was shut the h.e.l.l up.
”I'm sorry. I didn't know.”
”So what are we going to do?”
”I don't know,” Minami confessed.
”Fine. Then we'll go with my idea. We'll go talk to your old man. Face to face.”
”That's not a good idea,” Minami answered.
”It's fine, and that's how it's going to be.”
”I don't want you to get hurt.”
”Then I won't.”
Thirty-One.
Minami Minami had never heard a worse plan. Which only made it that much worse that she was here supporting it. She should have been trying to convince him to leave. Maybe he'd eventually listen to reason.
Granted that Minami had never been given even the slightest indication that Wes ever did anything reasonably, or ever listened to anyone talking sense to him, but the hope was always there, and she just had to keep trying.
But she wasn't trying, and as strange as it was to admit, she wasn't about to start. If she was going to get out of the Yakuza life for good, then she was going to have to run up against a confrontation some time, and Wes was practically begging to go to her house and confront some people.