Honor Bound (Honor Bound 1)

“…and yeah, her boyfriend is, was, supporting her.”

“I don’t understand, Tony.”

“I talked her into going to El Tigre. It’s my fault.”

“And somebody took a picture of you and showed it to her boyfriend,” Clete said. “And he got sore. And dumped this girl, the one you’re not in love with, and now she’s telling you you’re going to have to support her?”

“No,” Tony said firmly. “She didn’t say anything like that at all. I know what you’re thinking, Clete. But she’s not playing me for a sucker, Clete! Absolutely not!”

Sorry, but that’s exactly what it looks like to me.

“Then what’s the problem, Tony?”

“This guy guaranteed a loan for her father—her father owns a restaurant—and now he’s going to the bank and telling them to cancel the guarantee. And her father’ll have to pay off the loan, and he doesn’t have the dough, so they’ll take the restaurant. And the house upstairs.”

He probably still believes in the tooth fairy!

“How much, Tony?”

“Thirteen grand. Maybe a little more.”

Does he really expect me to come up with thirteen thousand dollars?

Yes, he does. He believes in both the tooth fairy and in the universal goodness of man.

“Tony,” Clete said, as gently as he could. “Have you thought how this looks to mè? I know, you say she’s not that kind of a girl, and that you’re not in love with her, but it looks to me like she’s playing you like a violin.”

“Forget I asked,” Tony replied, with both anger and hurt in his eyes.

“Tony, have you considered that it’s at least a possibility—I mean, this isn’t some girl you’ve known for years. You just met her—that as soon as you give her the money, she says ‘Muchas gracias’ and goes back to her boyfriend?”

“I told you it’s not like that. And she didn’t ask me for a dime. I had to pull the story out of her.”

Yeah, sure you did. While she looked at you with big, tearful eyes and a few well-timed sobs.

“And anyway, I wasn’t going to ask you to give me the fucking money, just help me get it in a hurry down here from my bank in Chicago. I got fifty-three grand in the bank.”

“Where’d you get fifty-three thousand dollars?” Clete asked in surprise.

And is the girl you don’t love and is absolutely not playing you for a sucker aware you’re got fifty-odd thousand dollars?

“Three of it was my college money, and my grandfather left me fifty grand when he died. I figured, since you know people here, you could help me get thirteen grand down here, maybe fifteen, just to be sure.”

As sure as Christ made little apples, he’s being played for a sucker; but I can’t convince him of that.

So what do I tell him?

He stuck with you. Loyalty is loyalty, and it works down as well as up. This guy is on your team. So what you do is try to help him. If you can minimize the damage, fine, but you help him.

“Tony, I’ll tell you what I will do. You come up with the facts. Your girlfriend’s name, her father’s name, the name of the bank…all the information you can get out of her. I’ll check it out. If it checks out…”

And I’ll be goddamned surprised if it does!

“I got it right here,” Tony said. He dug into his white hospital uniform trousers and came out with a thick wad of paper.

“You can’t keep those…” Tony said.

Why am I not surprised?