Page 52 of Never and Always
“No.” Tessa stepped forward. “We were hoping you could help us.”
“Depends.”
I touched Tessa’s arm and pushed through the others. “I’m looking for my brother. He’s in trouble and…he has a gambling problem.”
The woman’s face went cool. “Don’t know anything about that.”
“We know you run card games out the back,” Sierra said.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” I assured her. “I just need to find Chance.” I held up my phone.
She looked at the screen and her face hardened. “That’s your brother?”
I tensed. “Yes. He was here?”
She sniffed. “He was. Played a few games, and ended up five K in the hole.”
“He lost five thousand dollars,” I said woodenly.
“He did and he skipped out without paying. I had to cover it, so I didn’t end up with unhappy clientele. So, you find him, tell him I’m looking for him.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
“Not your fault.” Her gaze stayed on my face. “Honey, that boy might be easy on the eyes, but he needs to grow up. You always pull him out of the fire, he isn’t going to stop dancing with the flames.”
“You aren’t the only one he owes, and I don’t want him to get hurt.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And I don’t want my mother and grandmother to get upset.”
“Admirable, but life is life. Shit happens, and when other people are creating the shit, you don’t have much control over that.”
Not exactly a life lesson I could put on a mug or T-shirt.
I opened my handbag, reaching for my wallet. “I’ll pay you back the money he owes you.” I couldn’t easily come up with a hundred thousand, but this woman was a local businessowner, so I could help her out.
The woman shook her head. “Not you who owes me, it’s your brother. You find him, tell him he needs to pay me back or work it off.” She circled behind the bar, clearly done talking with us.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
She met my gaze again and jerked her chin up. “Don’t take his bad choices on, trust me.”
As we walked out of the bar, I felt a little sick.
“Hey.” Tessa wrapped an arm around me. “It’s going to be all right. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but it will.”
I nodded, but didn’t believe her.
We reached Sierra’s car and piled in. I sat in the front passenger seat, staring out the windshield. Allie and Tessa got in the back.
“Okay, next stop is the Black Nugget.” Sierra started the engine.
We drove in silence to the next bar. She pulled into a parking spot just down from the Black Nugget. This one looked even seedier than the Red Moose.
What were we doing? I was dragging my friends into a seedy bar, maybe putting them in danger.
“Listen, maybe we should?—”
Someone stepped up beside the car and rapped their knuckles on the glass. Someone stepped up on the other side of the car and yanked the driver’s side door open.
I looked out the window…
