And now, another potential scandal that would be eaten up by the media could devour his shot at the respectability he knew the Colonel wanted to see. Unless Nate walked away quietly…but would that move make the Colonel proud? A man who put family above everything else?
Lost in thought, he barely heard Zeke call to him. When Nate caught up with his friends, Becker was bent over, hands on his knees, a little winded but victorious. He looked up and caught his breath with a grin.
“Must have been quite a night for you, Ivory. I’ve never seen you lose a race.”
“Or anything,” Zeke added, eyeing him carefully. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s right is a better question. Let’s eat, and I’ll tell you.”
A half hour later, at their favorite veranda table overlooking the beach, the three of them were still virtually alone in the beach deck of the resort restaurant. Comfortable that they had privacy, Nate told them everything and answered the questions he could.
“I hate to say this, especially because Frankie knows this woman, but I think it’s a scam,” Becker said, leaning back on the chair’s back legs and crossing his arms. “She smells cash.”
“But the kid looks like you?” Zeke asked. “Are you sure?”
“Freakishly,” Nate confirmed. “And I definitely remember meeting the girl whose picture Liza showed me. And I happened to check the ship log last night, and sure enough, we were docked in Key West in April five years ago.”
Zeke leaned forward. “If you got her pregnant in April, she’d have had a baby in January.”
“Of course Einstein knows that,” Becker joked.
Zeke ignored it, focused on Nate, always ready to use logic and math to solve a problem. “When’s this kid’s birthday?”
“I don’t know, but he’s four.”
“He would have had to have turned four last month if you have any possibility of being the father. Find out his birthday, and if the math works, get a test and…”
“And then start writing big checks,” Becker said.
“I told you she doesn’t want money.”
Becker snorted.
“Hey, Frankie didn’t want your multimillion-dollar offer for her land,” Nate shot back, not sure why he felt the need to defend Liza, but he did.
“Because she’s a Niner in her own right,” Becker replied, referring not only to the name of their rec softball team in New York, but also the qualification to be on it: nine zeroes in each player’s net worth. “Your little friend is a secretary in the County Clerk’s office living with a kid whose alleged ‘mother’ is dead.” He air-quoted to make his point, leaning closer as he gathered steam. “And she has some notebook with a fake story in it—”
“The beginning was true enough.”
Becker waved that off. “Maybe she was friends with some chick you nailed five years ago, and that girl died and Liza dreamed up this whole thing. She has access to all this legal shit. She’s probably figured out a con. Hey, it happens. It happened to Frankie’s grandfather.”
Nate had to nod. His family name was a golden ticket to some people who tried to swindle money.
“So, what’s your plan?” Zeke asked. “How did you leave it?”
“She gave me the kid’s DNA for testing.”
Becker looked skyward. “It’s probably your DNA, and it will ‘mysteriously’ match.”
“How the hell would she get my DNA?”
“With you? It’s probably on sale on the Internet.”
Nate fried him with a look. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”
“Sorry, but this time, I’m thinking you’re the idiot, Ivory. Sic some lawyers on her and make her go away.”
Nate shook his head. “If my family—especially my grandfather—got wind of a paternity issue? Shit. Nothing would give him more pleasure than to add to his troops, as he likes to refer to us.”
Zeke shrugged. “So a kid might be just the ticket to showing Grandpa just how legit you can be, right?”
“I thought of that,” Nate admitted. “But how shitty a move would that be, on every level?”
Becker’s shoulders moved in a silent chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Nate demanded.
“You with a kid. If you don’t think that’s funny, then—”
“Shut the hell up.”
Zeke held up a peacemaking hand. “Listen, you need a plan of attack,” he said. “A strategy to get through this.”
“And a lawyer,” Becker added.
“You’re right,” he agreed, more with Zeke than Becker. “First up, I have to find out more about this Carrie chick. I did try to find her after that night but only because she...” He shook his head, hating the admission. “Had a video camera.”
Becker moaned, dropping his head into his hand in disgust. “A sex tape, Ivory? That’ll really help us get more investors for this project.”
“It’s five years old and quite possibly—hopefully—destroyed by now. But at the time, I wanted to get it back, but I couldn’t find her or anyone who knew her. Now I have more information.”
“So cruise down to Key West and have a look around,” Becker said. “And take your new friend with you. Keep your enemies close, I always say.”
Nate nodded. The suggestion—even though it was Becker’s—made a lot of sense.
“And put her on the spot, test her a little,” Zeke suggested. “Find out what she’s made of and if she’d pull a stunt like this. She says she doesn’t want money, so what does she want?”
“I’ll tell you what you should do,” Becker said, leaning forward as if an idea had grabbed hold of him. “Offer her a job.”
“What?” the other two men asked in unison.
“No, I’m serious. That woman is plugged into the whole county system, and she can find her way around permits and waivers like no one else—she proved that with Frankie’s land.”
Frankie had introduced Liza as “the great unraveler of red tape.” “We do need someone on staff who can handle that,” he agreed, considering the idea. “But why would she want a job with me? She wants me to sign some form and disappear.”
“Just offer the job,” Becker said. “Make her an offer no normal County Clerk worker could refuse. Then you’ll see if she’s really serious about ‘making a good life’ for this kid.”