Page 16 of Calling His Bluff
“Wait, what about our money?” his brother demanded.
“She’s promised our money and more,” Wayne said.
Darwin shook his head. “And you trust her?”
“Leave me your phone number and I’ll let you know when the game is,” she said quickly. “It won’t be long before you hear from me.”
Wayne asked for her phone to put his number in, even as his twin tried to argue that she could disappear again with their money.
She pretended to search her pockets for her phone, but she’d already remembered where she’d left it. “Not sure where it is. Where are you staying? I’ll get word to you.”
-#-
Jack saw the Armstrong twins leaving the back of Seaside Vows. As badly as he wanted to go after them, he had to make sure that Josephine was all right. He parked in the alley. Finding the back door unlocked, his fear amplified.
“Josephine!”He’d started up the stairs to the apartment when he heard a noise downstairs. Quickly he turned andraced back down. He found her standing in the shop’s reception area among the poker supplies she’d bought. “Josephine,” he said like a curse, then repeated it like a sigh as he headed for where she was standing.
The moment he got close, he saw the red marks on her neck. He moved quickly to her, lifting her chin for a better view and swore when he saw that it was already starting to bruise. “What the—”
“I’m fine,” she said pulling away. “I took care of it.”
He shook his head, thinking about the woman lying on the rocky shore below the cliffs. It could have been Josephine. Next time it might be.
When he left the scene on the cliff, he overheard one of the cops say, “One witness said he saw her jump and other said she slipped and fell. One woman swore she saw her arguing with a man who pushed her.” The cop shook his head. “Who knows, but this area has the highest rate of suicides in the entire state.”
“Probably just got too close to the edge and fell,” the other cop said. “These sandstone cliffs are treacherous this time of year. One little slip and down you go.”
He swallowed at the memory and tried to assure himself that Josephine was just as she said, fine.
“I’m all right,” she said. He could feel her studying him. “Are you okay?”
He tried to shake off the image of the woman below the cliff and the Armstrongs leaving out the back of Seaside Vows. Josephine was fine. For the moment. He reminded himself that she hadn’t needed his help. Hell, she didn’t even want it.
“How exactly did you take care of the Armstrongs?” he asked, knowing he wasn’t going to like the answer.
“They’re coming to my first poker game. I promised they would win what they both lost and a little more.”
He swore. She was in trouble and he wasn’t sure how seriously she was taking all of this. “Six thousand dollars. How can you promise they’ll get that back and more if they are as bad poker players as I suspect?”
“I’m not going to cheat, if that’s what you’re worried about. Since you insist on being there, I thought the two of us could make it happen. Unless you’ve changed your mind.”
Jack shook his head. He wished he could change his mind about Josephine. But his mind had little to do with the way he felt about her. “You know I’ll help.”
“Good, then there is nothing to worry about,” she said as she stepped to him to place her palm over his heart. “I do appreciate you being here.”
He nodded, wondering how true that was. She hadn’t needed him with the Armstrong twins. She hadn’t needed him all the time they were apart. It didn’t appear that she needed him at all.
-#-
Josephine could tell that something more than the obvious was bothering Jack. When she told him she was going down to the pub to talk to Shane about her poker party she had planned, he’d said he’d catch up with her.
It wasn’t until she walked into the pub and heard about the young woman who had fallen from the cliff at the edge of town that she wondered if Jack had also heard about it.
“Quite a crowd had gathered,” Shane said. “Happens too often,” he said with a shake of his head as Jack walked in and took a stool next to her. “I saw you talking to the cops at the edge of the cliff. Pretty gruesome, huh.”
“Not something I ever want to see again,” Jack said, his gaze holding hers.Josephine felt the horror of it. Jack had been there. He’d seen the woman at the bottom of the cliff.She swallowed. He’d thought it might be her. No wonder he’d looked so frightened when he’d come into the shop looking for her.
“Did the cops tell you anything?” Shane was asking.
