“On your orders,” I remind him. “After you set a trap for him.”
“Yes, but that particular trap was your idea,” he reminds me. “And it was brilliant.”
“Still your orders.”
“True, but I’m not the one sniffing around his daughter.”
“You better not be,” I say.
Instead of throwing a punch at me, he cackles.
“My point is that her father is going to think this is another scheme by you. Another way to—”
“I’d never use a woman to keep anyone in line. Eden has nothing to do with anything we have with her father, and I’m not going to let that stop me.”
“What happens if she finds out?” he asks.
“There’s no reason why she should. He won’t tell her, and neither will I. This doesn’t make him look good either,” I remind Dax. “He lied to his wife and almost lost their home. I didn’t make him do that.”
He raises both hands and says, “Okay, but I don’t think you’ve ever dealt with an emotional female.”
“How many have you dealt with?” I’ve never seen him with a woman, but that could be intentional. Maybe he doesn’t want his worlds to collide, but I spend a lot of time with Dax, and he’s never mentioned one.
“Now, that’s none of your damn business,” he says with a playful tilt of his voice. “And I can’t believe a mean fuck like you will know what to do with her. Rose’s daughter, for fuck’s sake. Of all the women on earth.” He cackles again. “The irony. He’s finally going to put a bullet in your gut, and he’s going to enjoy every second of it.”
“He’s the least of my problems,” I toss out, not giving a fuck about the sheriff or his objections. It’s already a done deal. I’m giving his daughter some time to get used to it, but I’m not naïve. Her family will be a problem. Not for me, because they don’t matter, but for her.
Then
I don’t gamble. I’m too disciplined for that, and I have no desire to lose. Not when I came from nothing and had to fight for every scrap that I have. But just because I don’t play doesn’t mean I don’t know how. I’m just not one for much risk. That’s Dax’s game, and even though I came up with the plan, he’s the executioner.
Dax Hunt has the best poker face I’ve ever seen, and it’s not only when he’s playing the high-stakes game. He’s a contradiction in every way. His height and frame are a direct contrast to the friendly demeanor he presents. Except for when he’s playing poker.
It was over for Sheriff Rose before he set foot inside this place the first time. We laid the trap, and he walked right in. I’m happy it will be overafter tonight because it took longer than expected to find his Achilles’ heel. Unbeknownst to him, he led us on a wild and costly goose chase.
The initial dive into his background revealed that he has been with his wife since they were kids. According to our intel, they’ve been together since junior high. After high school, he joined the army, while she attended college. Rose did four years and did not re-enlist. Instead, he came home, and they got married and started a family.
I also learned that for one week a year, he takes a fishing trip with his brother out of state. The cynic in me assumed he was with another woman. Not only did I follow him, but I hired a private investigator to tail him the entire week. I didn’t do it myself because I’m noticeable. At my height and with my tattoos and demeanor, I’m easily identifiable, but I wanted to be nearby in case something was discovered.
If he were with a woman, I’d want to see it with my own eyes. I was certain that’s what it was because why would two men choose to spend an entire week together fishing?
It was a waste of my time and resources because the good sheriff did not lie about his plans. They fished and ate together, and I was left irritated and confused.
Then Preacher did a deeper dive, and we found the sheriff’s weakness. We learned that the couple had been to marital counseling, and Preacher hacked into the therapist’s files. That’s where we discovered the source of their discourse. The good sheriff struggles with gambling and was in the red for fifteen thousand dollars at one point. According to the files, it wasn’t his first slip-up, but it was the first time his wife had threatened to leave him. Unbeknownst to anyone else, she did leave, but not for long. The spineless wimp went crawling and begging after a few days, and while in therapy, he vowed he would never gamble again.
Theirtherapist kept meticulous notes. Aside from gambling, Sheriff Rose is a Boy Scout. There’s no mention of infidelity on his part. He spoke highly of his wife and admitted that she was the only woman he had ever been with.
I remember calling him a pussy whipped idiot when I read that part. Preacher warned me about being a cynic.
We almost missed the most interesting and surprising part of those meticulous notes. We did find infidelity, but not on the part of Randall Rose.
While Rose was in the military, Serena attended college out of state. They had committed to being a long-distance couple, but Serena met a man in college and had a relationship with him for years, all behind Randall’s back. Two years before she left him over his gambling, she had another affair with the same man. She admitted to the therapist she was lonely after Eden left for college, so when the man reached out to her, she agreed to see him. Her guilt over the affair is what caused her to forgive her husband for his gambling so quickly.
They stopped attending counseling after six months, and true to his word, Randall Rose stopped gambling until a few weeks ago, when he stepped into the trap we had explicitly laid for him.
He made every mistake imaginable. He played too many hands. He had no strategy and failed to study the game. He lost big last week, and instead of walking away, he went full tilt and made aggressive moves out of frustration. The man is a degenerate gambler who has no business in this room. It would have been easier for him and me if he were cheating on his wife, but I guess he’s too good for that.
Dax shows his hand and drops his poker face. The smirk says it all. Sheriff Rose does the same, and I shake my head sadly at him. Foolish, foolish man. He puts his head in both hands in resignation, and I walk away from the security room. I stroll in, stand behind Dax’s chair, and wait. After what seems like alifetime, the man looks up, and our eyes meet. I can see the moment he recognizes me.
