I felt like throwing my phone out the window and driving over it repeatedly. Blackmail was so blasé, and that was my place. I coerced people; people didn’t blackmail me. It was an outrage, what the hell was happening here?
“Eliza, what is it? Bad news I take it?”
I nodded, “You could say that, yeah.” I tossed him the mobile and put the SUV in reverse, pulling out of the dune.
It protested, but we got out after a bit of a struggle, and we returned to the road. Denny whistled and shook his head.
“I didn’t see anyone else, but I didn’t even see the guys at the warehouse, and they must have been watching us.”
“Yeah, it seems like a hell of a lot of people knew we were on the plantation.”
I smacked the steering wheel, a petty and stupid thing to do. For one, it hurt hitting the damn thing and for two, it messed with my steering. It always looked cool in movies, but in reality, it stung.
I turned to Denny as a thought occurred to me, “Could your hacker friend have sold you out to someone?”
He shook his head vehemently, “Not a chance, I trust Viv completely. She wouldn’t sell me out to anyone for anything.”
“Everyone is for sale Denny; you just need to know the right price.”
“Not Viv. Not in a million years and not for any amount or thing.” He said defiantly.
I sighed, I felt like that was all I was doing lately. He was certain, and I applauded the sentiment behind it. We all believed there was someone in our lives that was incorruptible, someone that would always be on our side.
But that was a lie, a sweet lie we told ourselves to make the world seem less dark. A little bit less of a shit hole. The truth was of course that almost anyone would sell you out, given the right thing offered. And for some, it was just as simple as money, sometimes not even a lot.
“Eliza, listen to me. I know you think everyone is out to get you and no one is trustworthy. But,” He paused dramatically and locked eyes with me, “trust me on this, please.”
I laughed, “Ok, I will believe you when you say Viv is unassailable. But I hope I won’t be throwing a told you so at you later.”
“Not going to happen, she is many things but she is one of the few people I trust completely.”
“Right, and I guess there’s an interesting story behind that.”
He grunted and nodded, “But not one you will hear now. I think you owe me first. We have time, and I would like to understand what the hell is happening.”
Talk about people one could trust, I trusted Denny and my instincts were warning me about that. I shouldn’t trust him, he was a conman first of all and secondly I didn’t know him. I knew facts about him, but I could hardly say I knew his deepest thoughts and worries.
A beautiful girl as a worry didn’t count really; Vicky was a sweet distraction no doubt. Viv sounded like someone far closer to him, and more about her would be good to know. But tit for tat and all it seemed now. Which was fair, I did upend his world and brought him into mine. And without a second thought. Fair’s fair and all that, and damn wasn’t I just a rolling ball of clichés all of a sudden.
“All right Denny, what do you want to know?” I said.
He was quiet for a long time, I had a fairly good idea where he’d start, but I wasn’t going to volunteer too much if possible.
“How do you know my family? Were you friends with my mom?”
I heard the pain in his voice, I might have been hearing it because I was expecting it, but it did make me sad.
“I did, not as well as I wanted to perhaps.”
He nodded, and I pretended not to notice the shaking of his hands. I knew that he would have attempted to link me to his mom, he desperately wanted a link to when she was happy. And it made sense that he would have thought I knew her in happier times when she was young. Long before she got ill.
I concentrated on the road in front of us, as did he. It was a kindness for both of us. His mom was a kind lady, and her kids were her life. She was the special kind of lady that everyone knew and loved.
Old school in the sense that she cared for her family had the best for them in mind. Loved cooking for them and knew everyone’s schedules and made sure everything happened when it was supposed to.
She got ill when Denny was still quite young; she still managed to take care of everyone and everything. Right until the day she dropped dead in her kitchen, leaving a young Denny frantically attempting CPR on her.
The young boy worked hard to bring back his mom; he didn’t know that she had been fighting her illness for far longer than anyone had believed possible. Her poor frail body couldn’t withstand any more.
Eventually, though I couldn’t help myself, I reached over and took hold of his hand. I squeezed hard, and he held on tightly, even though he didn’t know it, he was my family. And his pain was unbearable to me.
He cleared his throat and loosened his grip on my hand; I released it and took hold of the steering wheel.
I had to figure out who the hell A was, and how did he know how to get hold of me as well? I felt like sighing; it was getting to be a bad habit.
“So what are you going to do now? Meet with this A?”
“I think I will have to, I am no gardener, and I believe these plants will be high maintenance.”
“That brings me to the next question, what are they? What makes them so important?”
“Life Denny, they are life.”
I looked at him and his incredulous expression, “Have you ever wished you could live forever? And just what you would do to make that happen?"
My focus returned to the road, but I couldn’t help the bitterness that slipped into my voice, “Or what you would put up with to get even the slightest shot at it?”