He shoved his hand in his back pocket and slapped some bills in the opened palm she'd stretched over the car door.

Her fingers curled around it and her hand moved away as she asked, "Do you want anything?"

"No, and you don't either."

Her head tipped to the side just as her hip hitched the opposite direction.

"I don't?"

He knew that tone too. It was the danger tone.

"Lex, I'd like to get to Carnal before Christmas."

When he started speaking, her head jerked for some reason and she waited a second before she responded.

"We'll be there before Christmas."

"Not if you drink another two liter of coffee."

"It wasn't two liters, Ty!" she snapped loudly.

"Just pay for the gas," he ordered.

"We need snacks," she informed him.

"We don't need snacks."

"Okay, let me rephrase, I need snacks. We're on a road trip. It's a moral imperative to have snacks, the worse for you, the better," she explained.

"Christ," he muttered.

"Do you want anything?" she asked.

Had his wife been in another dimension the last thirty seconds?

"You seriously askin' that shit?" he asked back.

She stared at him through her shades. Then she decided out loud, "I'll stock up, just in case."

Then, before he could say a word, she strutted away.

He put the phone to his ear to hear Tate flat out laughing.

He waited for him to stop and then he waited for him to talk.

And when he talked he said, "I fuckin' love this."

Walker remained silent.

Tate didn't. "You two take that show on the road?"

"There a reason you're callin'?" Walker returned.

"Yeah, but first, with what I heard, I'm guessin' you're on your way to Carnal."

"You'd guess right."

"How far out are you?"

"Depending on what snacks Lexie hauls back to the Charger, we could be there in a coupla hours, we could be there next week."

"Good news," Tate muttered through a distracted chuckle.

"The reason you're callin'," Walker prompted, moving to the gas cap.

"Right, how much time we got before she comes back?"

"We're in the middle of fuckin' nowhere but still, she's in a building where there's shit to buy so probably a lot," Walker answered as he jerked the nozzle out of the gas pump and fed it into the car.

"Didn't know you'd be home so soon so this could wait but while I got you, might as well give you what I got."

Walker pressed the buttons on the pump, got the zeroes on the display then pulled up the handle and set the lever. Then he turned his back to the car and leaned into it, scanning the area, finding the SUV, clocking the driver, clocking that he knew the driver and controlling his blood pressure when he saw who it was while saying, "Talk to me."

"Last coupla days, got a lot of info on Alexa Berry."

"Walker," he corrected automatically.

Silence then through an obvious smile, "Walker." Then, quietly, "Congratulations, man."

"You sayin' that means the shit you got isn't shit that's gonna suck," Walker noted.

"Opposite in regards to Lexie."

Walker bent his neck, studied the toes of his boots and listened.

Jackson spoke. "She's got a juvie file. Considering her history, not surprising. Nothin' big. Vandalism. Disturbing the peace. A couple of times picked up for shoplifting. Started when she was around twelve, ended abruptly when she was fourteen."

Around the time Ella Rodriguez entered Lexie's life and gave his wife her first taste of having a motherly-type woman who gave a shit.

"Right," he muttered.

Tate went on, "Found out what happened after the Granddad died, home for girls then foster care."

Walker knew that so he didn't respond.

He heard Jackson take in a breath. Then he asked cautiously, "You remember that ballplayer Ronnie Rodriguez?"

"I know about Rodriguez," Walker told him as he heard the lever disengage, he yanked out the nozzle and shoved it back into the pump.

More caution with, "Lexie forthcoming about his chosen profession?"

"Pimp. Drug dealer. Occupational status changed when he took seven, two to the face."

"She was forthcoming," Tate muttered. "The news I got for you, and it surprised the fuck outta me, I got a call from a vice cop, Dallas PD. Don't know this guy, didn't ask for the call. He heard I was snoopin' and he called me wonderin' why."

Walker felt that barbed sensation at the back of his neck and his eyes went back to his boots but he didn't see them. He was focused on Tate.

"What'd you tell him?" he asked.

"The truth," Jackson answered. "That she married a good friend of mine, that friend had been jacked in the past and I was taking his back."

"You give this cop a name?"

"No, considering his interest in your new wife."

The barbs pressed in.

"What's this fucker's name?"

"Detective Pena. Angel Pena."

Fuck.

"You get a bad feeling about this guy?" Walker asked.

"No, but she's not my wife. She was then fuck yeah."

Fuck.

Walker looked from his boots to the horizon still not seeing anything and he shared quietly, "She hasn't mentioned him."

"Reckon she wouldn't. Don't think he's on her radar. But she sure as fuck's on his. He's taken an interest in Alexa Berry now Walker. The good news is, this was a natural progression seeing as he had an interest in Rodriguez before he caught sight of your wife."

"Explain," Walker rumbled.

"He had a lot to say about Rodriguez. Gotta tell you man, heard about her association with him, wasn't pleased to hear those two were paired and you were in Vegas marrying her. That was until Pena called and gave me the full brief on Lexie, who, by the way, he's surprised as fuck to find out is in Vegas gettin' hitched."

Walker didn't like that. Not at all. Some vice cop who knows Lexie enough to be surprised. Some vice cop who hears someone asking around and gives a shit enough to pick up the phone.

He didn't fucking like it at all.

Tate continued, "He liked Rodriguez. Had a lot to say about him and a lot of what he said was good."

At this news, news that took him off guard, Walker pulled in a deep breath but didn't speak.

Jackson went on, "Said he didn't get why Rodriguez was in the game, never understood it. Talked to him often. At first it was because he sensed Rodriguez would flip, wanted to groom him to become a CI then he did it because he sensed Rodriguez might straighten his shit out. They struck up a relationship. Rodriguez gave him time but not info and during these times Rodriguez shared he had a variety of pressure from his family and his woman to leave that life. Pena took an interest in him, sought out Lexie and tried to work with her to work Rodriguez."

"He explain to you the interest?" Walker asked.

"Yep. Called him an ace pimp, you believe that shit though the way Pena said it, even after all this time, sounded like he couldn't believe that shit either. Pena said the man treated his girls like gold. From the start, a john jacked them up, that john got a visit. Another pimp tried to lean on them, that pimp got a visit. He protected their turf, gave them a high percentage of their take, they got roughed up or knocked up, he took care of their medical bills and he never took freebies. Girls all over Dallas leavin' their men to join his stable, he took all comers and beat back the pimps who came lookin' for them. When he died, far's Pena knew, he had fifty-seven girls in his stable."

Jesus. That was a lot of women.

And Walker was not feeling good hearing that Lexie's claims were true about Rodriguez. He'd convinced her different. And apparently he'd been wrong.

Jackson kept talking. "Rodriguez and Lexie told Pena that he steered clear of Lexie and when I say that I mean they didn't live together, never got engaged, she didn't take any of his earnings, most of the time they met it was on her turf so he rarely brought her around his business. Not only didn't she take money from him, neither did his family. It was separation of family and business, strict. This caused Rodriguez to be conflicted seein' as he was doin' that shit to provide for Lexie and his family. So his main motivation for doin' it wasn't a motivation. This is what confused Pena, seein' as he kept doin' it and, from what both Rodriguez and Lexie told Pena, the pressure he was gettin' to stop was far from light. By his report, Lexie threatened to end it with Rodriguez about once a week. How he talked her around, Pena didn't know but he did. And Pena was even more confused that he went down and he went down not because of the girls but because of dope."

"He'd partnered with a dealer," Walker told Tate.

"Yeah, Pena explained all about Duane Martinez. All about him."

"What's that mean?"

"Far's Pena could tell, Rodriguez propped up Martinez. He mighta had some cracked respect from Pena but still, Pena said Rodriguez wasn't the sharpest tack when it came to relationships. Apparently, this Martinez guy is downright blunt when it comes to everything. Rodriguez didn't have enforcers. Rodriguez did time. Rodriguez was an athlete. Rodriguez could take care of himself and his girls and he did. Personally. Pena says Martinez used the association with Rodriguez as a shield. He says he has no evidence Rodriguez dealt dope, never had any and he looked deep. He had his stable, he stuck to his stable. But Martinez and Rodriguez were tight, brothers from the 'hood and Rodriguez gave his brother protection."

"Went down doin' it," Walker muttered, his eyes sliding to the station seeing Lexie at the counter, yammering and smiling at the clerk who was smiling back in a way that, Walker suspected, she went on for two minutes longer, the man would get down on a knee no matter the diamonds on her left finger.

"Maybe not," Jackson said into his ear and Walker's gaze went unfocused.

"Maybe not what?"

"Martinez inherited Rodriguez's stable."

Walker felt his chest start to burn.

"What?" he asked quietly.

"Pena has no proof but everyone knew who did what with those two. And Rodriguez was well-liked by everyone but other pimps. The tragic hero. Losin' his scholarship was part of it, he was famous in his 'hood and not livin' the dream didn't make that fame fade just changed its nuance. Further, this guy was a badass. Acted as his own enforcer, never got bested. That kinda reputation holds a lot of sway. That said, according to Pena, he was just a nice guy. His word was gold. He was a diplomat. A peacemaker. A master at balancing while standin' on a fence. There was a sit down; he was often called on to mediate. People trusted him. He was solid. A rival dealer needed to take someone out, he wouldn't aim for Rodriguez even if he was providing protection for his brother partially because Rodriguez was well-liked and this would be unpopular, mostly because Martinez is not well-liked."

Walker kept his eyes locked on his wife as he asked, "Pena thinks Martinez ordered the hit?"

He asked it but he knew. He knew men like Shift. He knew. That piece of shit would do it and still cry at the funeral.

"That's the word on the street, according to Pena. Murder never solved but that shit spread wide and Martinez moved up the ranks. You gotta be one cold motherfucker to take down your brother in order to take over his stable. He recruited soldiers and got a different kind of protection. But Pena says there's more. Says Martinez was resentful of Rodriguez's success on the basketball court then his respect on the street and his way with his girls, especially seein' as he hit the game late, after he came back from Indiana and Martinez had been in the game for years by that time. Says Rodriguez was blind to that shit. Wouldn't hear a word against Martinez and that was what Pena was using to sever the ties and get him to go straight. Pena is convinced Rodriguez stayed in the game to have his brother's back. Rodriguez never explained why those were ties that bind and why they bound him so tight he'd risk losin' his woman and family but he figures something in their history connected them and Rodriguez was the kind of man who took loyalty seriously. Unfortunately, Martinez was not."

Walker watched Lexie push through the door, juggling two, white plastic bags filled full with what he suspected was not apples and bananas and a cardboard container holding two huge-ass beverage cups at the same time flicking the arms out on her shades and shoving them on her face.

"Lexie's comin'," he warned Tate.

"Right," Tate replied.

"Fast, tell me if I got a problem with either Pena or Martinez."

"Shits me to say it but yes to both. First, Pena says that he's got the feeling that Martinez has got some hold on Lexie and he's been in contact with her the last few years after Rodriguez went down, offering help, keeping an eye on things. She's been, he reports, uninterested and Pena thinks she's got her head in the sand and just wants to move on with her life clear of that shit. He's worried about it and he's in the position to know if he should be worried. Now, whether Martinez's reach goes outside Dallas, that'll take me makin' a few more calls."

Pena was right. Shift fucked Lexie. Huge. The question was, setting up Lexie for what she was doing for Walker, did he think he was done with her?

Walker would have to explain to him that he was.