California Fire And Life

135

The next afternoon.

The sun is high and hot over a landscape burned black. Ashes still float in the mild breeze.

Jack sits waiting in the front seat of a used pickup in the parking lot of Dana Strand Beach. Letty sits beside him. She chews on a broken fingernail.

"He'll be here," Jack says.

She nods and goes back to chewing her nail.

Five long minutes go by, and then Jack sees the black Mercedes snake around the curve of Selva into the parking lot.

"Here they come," he says.

The Mercedes pulls alongside. Dani gets out, nods, and then Nicky gets out of the car. Jack gets out of the truck. They meet between the two cars.

"We have a deal?" Nicky asks.

"You have your money, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then we have part of a deal."

Nicky nods.

Then he hands Jack the signed papers terminating his parental rights over Natalie and Michael. Tom Casey drew up the papers, so Jack is confident they're airtight. He checks Nicky's signature and says, "Looks okay to me."

Nicky walks back to the Mercedes. The door opens and the kids come out, blinking in the harsh sunlight. Natalie has Leo under her arm. Nicky puts his arms around their shoulders and says, "Daddy's going to be very busy for the next little while so you're going to stay with Aunt Letty for a few months, all right?"

They nod and hug him and there are a few tears.

Letty comes over and Nicky ushers the children over to her.

"Take good care of them," Nicky says.

"Kids, go wait in the car for Aunt Letty, okay?" she says.

When they're gone, she says, "In six months I adopt them."

"As you wish."

Letty looks hard at him.

"What kind of man trades his own children?" she asks.

"That's what Mother asked me," Nicky says. "She is devastated."

He pauses for a second, then adds, "But alive."

He walks over to Jack.

Nicky laughs. "Our deal is concluded then? Jack Wade, who doesn't do deals?"

Nicky gets the $50 million. Jack and Letty agree never to seek or aid any prosecution. Jack agrees to walk away from everything he knows about Nicky, California Fire and Life and all the rest of it. Sandra Hansen gets her snitch.

Olivia Hathaway gets paid for her spoons.

"It was an accidental fire and an accidental death," Jack says.

"I just wanted to hear you say it," Nicky says. "So, it's over."

"It's history," Jack says. "As long as you never go back on any of it."

"You have my word."

He offers his hand.

Jack says, "Go to hell."

"Are you so sure," Nicky asks, "that I'm not already there?"

Jack and Letty stand and watch the car drive away.

She says, "And he gets away with murder."

"And two kids get a life," Jack says. "That's a deal you'd make every time, right?"

"Yup."

Some deals, Jack thinks, you just have to make.

Part of life, knowing when to settle.

Letty asks, "Will you be coming out tonight?"

"No."

"This weekend?"

Jack shakes his head.

Letty asks, "You aren't coming, are you?"

"Part of the deal," Jack says. "They want me gone. Out of the state."

Out of the country, too. Past subpoena power. They want a little insurance for their part of the deal, Nicky and Cal Fire and Life. They get their money, they get my silence, they get back to business as usual.

And I get gone.

And if you really get honest, you know it's for the best, Jack thinks. The kids are hurt and confused enough. They don't need to deal with a new "Daddy" in their lives. They're going to have a tough enough ride. They need Letty's undivided attention and that's what she's going to want to give. They don't need some Mommy-Daddy Insta-Kit laid on them.

Letty says, "That's a hell of a price, Jack."

"Worth it, though."

He nods toward Letty's car.

"Worth it," she says.

She squeezes his hand. "I love you, Jack."

"I love you, Letty."

She lets go.

"Come tell them goodbye, anyway."

Jack walks over to Letty's car. The kids are in the front seat, the dog stretched across their laps.

"So you guys are going out to the country, huh?" Jack says. "Going to ride horses?"

A couple of tearful nods. Brave smiles.

"Well," Jack says, "take care of your Aunt Letty for me, okay?"

He gives Letty a peck on the cheek and a quick hug and gets into the truck. Starts it up and kicks it into gear before he has a chance to look back.

Fires up a Dick Dale amp; His Del-Tones tape.

Drives past the new sign set at the entrance to the Strands.