Griff and Milo repeated the entire conversation to Bodhi, Cade, Robbie, Remy, and Bogey while Luke was on video call.
“Brother, I think she got into some trouble at the casino,” said Griff.
“Damn. She must have something that those guys want. Stay where you are and wait. They’ll show up again. Open the blinds, that will tell them that someone is home. They just won’t know who.”
The team made themselves comfortable but after only an hour, they were already getting bored.
“Those men that scared the kids were looking for something,” said Griff. “I say we try to find whatever it was.”
“Let’s do it,” nodded Cade.
Splitting up, they each took a room of the house and carefully looked in dressers, closets, between the mattress and box spring. They even looked in the attic and then in the crawl space beneath the house.
In the backyard, it was just as the kids had said. The tools from the shed were strewn across the lawn, the rusted building practically falling over. The building was empty, so they decided to put the tools back inside.
As Cade’s big body stepped inside, the floorboards creaked beneath his huge weight. One of the boards popped up slightly and he frowned, turning to look at his brother.
“Bodhi, I think there’s something beneath this floor.”
Bodhi nodded as Cade stepped back. Carefully, they removed the floorboards, not knowing what they would find at all.
“A suitcase,” said Robbie staring over his shoulder. “There. It’s black so it’s hard to see.”
Bodhi pulled the bag up from beneath the shed, realizing it was much heavier than it should be. He set it down, unzipping it and opening the suitcase.
“Fuck me,” growled Bogey. “Casino chips.”
“Thousands of dollars’ worth of casino chips,” said Remy.
“More like millions,” said a man. “I believe those belong to us.”
Three men stood in the backyard, all three pointing handguns at the men. Bodhi stood to his full height next to his brother, Robbie, Remy, and Bogey doing the same.
“You’re big, mister, I’ll give you that. You and your friends. But you won’t stop a bullet.”
“Neither will you,” said Griff cocking his own weapon with Milo. They were standing at the backdoor, behind the three men. “Lower your weapons and toss them on the ground.”
The men had no choice, tossing their handguns.
“You like scaring kids, asshole?” growled Griff.
“We didn’t mean to scare the kids. We just want their mother.”
“Their mother is dead. Suicide.” The three men stared at one another, nodding.
“Listen, the chips belong to the casino. The woman, Clementine, she stole them.”
“Why? She couldn’t do anything with them unless she used them at the casino,” said Bodhi.
“I don’t think she thought all of that through. She’d come into the casino once or twice a week with forty or fifty bucks. At first she would just play the slots, then she started playing blackjack.
“She had a good bit of luck at first. She won a couple hundred, then a thousand, then she’d lose the next few times.”
“You were watching her?” frowned Cade.
“When a housewife wearing sweater sets with modest jewelry, no makeup and innocence tattooed on her face shows up in our casino, yeah we watch them. We’re not animals and we don’t want them to get into trouble.”
Griff and Milo lowered their weapons, nodding at the men.
