Aiden, page 6
Aiden stood and approached the front door.
“Who’s at the door?” she asked.
He looked out and smiled. “The pizza is here.”
“And you just left him standing there?”
“I wanted to wait until Mountain here stepped aside, so I could make sure I got to the pizza first and got a piece.” And, with that, he opened the front door.
She couldn’t help but laugh. “He really does know you, doesn’t he?” she said, with a smirk to Mountain.
“That’s what you call a friend,” he muttered, as he sniffed the air when the pizzas came wafting in. “I sure hope you ordered enough to fill me.”
“Not enough pizza in the world for that,” Aiden quipped, with a smile. He carried in three large boxes.
“So you figure three is enough to at least get Mountain somewhat full?” she teased. She sniffed the air and stated, “Maybe I’ll have a piece too.”
“No maybe about it,” Aiden added cheerfully. “If you want to keep fighting the good fight, you have to keep up your energy, and that means food.” He handed her a box.
“I don’t need a whole pizza,” she said. “Besides, I like my pizza on a plate.”
“Have a plate. I don’t mind.” But Aiden had already opened the next box and pulled out a slice, which Mountain snagged right from Aiden’s hands. With a mock look of outrage at his friend, Aiden snagged the next one, which appeared to be even bigger.
Toby returned with a plate, sat down, and pulled one piece each from two different kinds of pizzas, placing both on her plate.
The guys watched her and nodded.
“Good. Get that belly full first,” Aiden noted. “So, that should be enough for you, right?”
In shock, she watched as the men devoured each piece in no time and realized that Aiden was seriously considering her ration of these pizzas. She immediately leaned forward and grabbed a third slice, just in case she had more of an appetite than she expected.
By the time she was full, after eating those first two slices, she was surprised that the bulk of the three pizzas were gone. She stared at the last few remaining pieces. “Good God, I forgot how much you eat,” she said, staring at her cousin.
He gave her an offended look. “Hey, I wasn’t alone in this pizza-eating contest, you know.”
At that, she had to nod. “And he put away a ton of food too,” she murmured, staring at Aiden.
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not as big as Mountain is, but I burn energy pretty fast. Now I need to go do some investigative legwork.” He looked over at Mountain. “You’ll stay here with her?”
“Nobody is staying here with me,” she snapped in a hard tone.
“Then nobody is going anywhere,” Aiden stated, sitting back down, “because you need an alibi for every step of the way from now on.”
She stared at him blankly. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, first off, let me go grab our bags from outside,” Mountain suggested, and, with that, he disappeared.
Aiden stared at her, waiting for her response.
She was considering more objections. And, indeed, her mouth opened and closed a couple times, but the words just didn’t seem to want to work.
He nodded. “It’s one of the best decisions you’ve made yet.”
Immediately her confused look turned into frustrated anger.
“Don’t even worry about getting angry,” Aiden told her. “We’re here to help. We’ll help whether you like it or not.”
“Good Lord,” she exclaimed, “I thought Mountain was hard to deal with.”
“Get used to it,” Aiden stated. “You’re my mission. Believe me. I have no intention of failing this op.”
She stared at him in shock. “What, I’m some sort of test?”
“Absolutely not,” he argued, “but, if you think I’ll let anything happen to you, you’re wrong.”
She sank into her chair. “Do you think my life is in danger?” she whispered in horror.
“It never occurred to you, did it?”
“No.” She frowned. “It still doesn’t make any sense that it would be.”
“Maybe not,” he agreed, “but we can’t take that chance. Right now someone is killing men connected to you, and a lot of hate is pointed in your direction.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that message I got,” she admitted. “I can’t go to work even. Although, as I’m charged with murder, I can’t imagine that’ll be good for business.”
“I can’t imagine that it would be considered good for business either,” he stated. “However, it’s a curiosity factor.”
She winced. “In that case, I’d rather not go to work, just to be gawked at and pointed at and talked about.”
He chuckled. “Doesn’t exactly make you feel better, does it?”
“No, not at all,” she muttered. She stared at him. “I don’t understand why you’re so happy-go-lucky.”
“What’s not to like?” he asked. “Everything is good in my world.”
“Sure,” she groaned. “Your world isn’t my world.” Immediately Aiden’s smile fell away, and she watched as he switched to wearing a concerned look on his face.
“And you’re right there,” he confirmed. “I’m not trying to make light of it, but I do know about these kinds of things, and that the sooner we can nip them in the bud, the better.”
“And you’ve got a magical formula to get the cops to back off?”
“Well, like I told you earlier, your alibi for the next murder.”
“Which murder may never happen, and how horrible to know another person has to die before I’m off the hook,” she muttered. She picked up her third slice of pizza and slowly worked away on it.
“Any chance of a coffee?” he asked, “or do I have to order that in?”
She nodded toward the kitchen. “Help yourself.”
He jumped to his feet and headed into the kitchen as if it were the most natural thing in the world. When Mountain returned with their bags, he headed upstairs and dropped them off in the nearest spare bedroom and then came back down, bringing his bedroll to the living room.
“There’s another spare bedroom upstairs,” Toby said. “You know that.”
“I do know that,” he agreed, “but one of us should be upstairs, and one should be downstairs. And I elect Aiden to be upstairs.”
She stared at him. “Why?” she muttered.
“Because he cares. He’s all heart, and you and I are still walking around each other like we’re on tenterhooks.”
“Yeah,” she noted, “it’s been a couple rough years.”
“And I wasn’t there when I should have been.”
“And I wasn’t there for you either,” she admitted, “when your family went through shit.”
“Still going through shit,” he stated in a quiet tone. “You have no idea.” At that, she stopped and looked at him. He held up a hand and shook his head. “No, I’m not talking until we get your stuff dealt with.”
“Yeah, and when would that be?”
“I’ll give Aiden maybe forty-eight hours,” he replied, looking at his watch, “because I don’t have much more time than that.”
“Good God, what are you talking about?”
“I’m waiting on information. As soon as that intel comes in, I’ll have to book it.”
She nodded, almost numb. “Okay. And where will you go?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “It’s better if you don’t know yet.”
She shook her head. “You know that doesn’t work for me.”
Just then, Aiden stepped into the living room. “Coffee is on.” Aiden stared at his buddy and frowned. “Uh-oh, … heavy talk again.”
She groaned. “Is there ever anything other than heavy talk with us?”
“Sure there is,” Aiden countered, “just not necessarily the kind of talk you want to have.”
“Absolutely not the kind of talk I want to have,” she whispered. She turned to her cousin. “Later.”
“Sure,” he agreed, “later.”
Another buzz came from Aiden’s phone. As the requested info kept coming in, his phone was slowing way down. He looked over at Mountain. “Did you bring in my laptop?”
Mountain nodded. “Upstairs on your bed.”
At that, Aiden bolted upstairs, snatched his laptop, and came down again with the charger in hand. “We’ve got a lot of incoming files,” he explained. “It’ll be easier to go through some of them on the computer.”
Chapter 4
“What files?” Toby asked curiously, walking over and handing Aiden a cup of coffee.
“Thank you,” he murmured, as he looked up at her with a bright smile.
She flushed and sat down again. “It’s the least I can do,” she noted, with a shrug.
He nodded. “Otherwise Mountain might get upset at your lack of hospitality.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “The day that Mountain got to dictate anything in my world was a long time ago,” she muttered.
“Still don’t quite know what happened between you two.”
“Just family stuff,” she replied, “and stuff that, in a way, we’ve already kind of worked through.”
“Good,” Aiden said. He moved to the coffee table and plugged in his laptop.
“You haven’t told me what files.”
“I have all the police files on the murders,” he told her. “The only way we’ll really get you off the hook permanently—so it’s not a stain on your public record—is to solve this.”
She sat down hard. “How did you get the police files?”
He looked at her innocently and replied, “Legit avenues. I asked for it, and I got it.”
“Sure,” she quipped, with another eye roll.
“Well, it’s true. Don’t believe me if you don’t want to. That’s fine,” he noted. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Says you,” she added.
Mountain sat down beside Aiden. “I’ve got my laptop too,” Mountain said. “Shoot me copies.” And, with that, the two men buried themselves in reading those files. “Really not a whole lot here,” Mountain said after a while. “As far as the cops are concerned, the connection to Toby is the fact that they were at your table.”
“Sure.” She groaned. “However, do you have any idea how many hundreds, if not thousands, of people go through my table on a weekly basis?”
Both Mountain and Aiden nodded. “I can imagine, particularly if …” Aiden stopped and snorted. “Okay. So this is partly why your table so popular.”
She winced, knowing what was coming.
He looked up, studied her face, and nodded. “Somebody decided you were his lucky charm.”
“That’s just what that one customer called me,” she argued, wincing. “Definitely not my terminology.”
“No,” Aiden admitted, “but that meant everybody in the casino wanted to come to your table.”
“And that doesn’t make any of the other dealers very happy either,” she noted. “So it causes added trouble at work too.”
“Which just brings up more suspects.”
“Nobody will kill these winners because they’re jealous that I have more people at my table,” she declared, staring at him in shock.
“People do all kinds of shit for all kinds of shitty reasons,” he shared. “Would I think that would happen? No, but that doesn’t mean I’m not wrong.”
Mountain nodded at that. “And you’ve got a point. The fact that this was publicized and that your nickname was utilized, that would bring an awful lot of people to you, even if you didn’t know who they were.”
“In casinos, there are always a lot of onlookers. And that’s to be expected to a certain degree because, once people are winning, everybody wants to hang around. It’s like the gold dust might rub off on them.” Such a cynical note filled her tone that she winced. “Hey, look. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be a downer about this. Generally I enjoy my job.”
“And you’re good at it,” Mountain stated.
She nodded. “I’m good at it.”
“You don’t gamble?” Aiden asked.
“I’m not allowed to gamble.” At that, both men stopped and looked at her. She groaned. “I’m sure that’s another motive that they’ll tell you about whenever we talk about trying to clear my name.”
“And what’s that?” Aiden asked.
“The casino—where I now work—thought I was card counting one time,” she admitted.
“Were you card counting?” Mountain asked.
She gave her cousin a flat stare but didn’t say anything.
“You were?” Mountain huffed. “And here I told Aiden that you were brilliant.”
She shrugged. “Math for me is dead easy. I mean, it’s not even that I was necessarily card counting, but how are you not supposed to count cards when you can see them flying in your mind?”
“Right,” Mountain grumbled. “So, for you, the cards are a problem.”
“Exactly. Hey, once that skill is turned on, it doesn’t shut off. So I got hauled into the manager’s office, and, when they realized who I was, it was a case of never darken their door again because, as far as they were concerned, I was a cheater. Yet they offered me a job as a dealer, explaining that I should work for them and find other cheaters.”
“And you went along with that?” Aiden asked.
“Well, if I couldn’t play poker,” she explained, “I needed gainful employment, and I didn’t really want to be banned from all the casinos.”
“Do you still go?”
“Every once in a while,” she admitted, “when I need a little cash.”
“And that’s all you win?”
“Sure.” She nodded. “Anything other than that gets me into trouble. Doesn’t matter if it’s legit or not. I don’t get the opportunity of having somebody look at me and think it’s legit. I’m automatically considered a thief.”
“Interesting,” Aiden noted.
“Goes along with the territory.” Toby shrugged.
“And how did your father handle you being picked up for card counting?” Aiden asked.
She gave him another flat stare. “See? That’s another thing you know that would never be allowed in my world or in his. I’m sure somebody contacted him and told him, but, once I had the dealer job working at the casino, it seemed like my father didn’t quite know what to do with that and wasn’t sure if he should believe in the cheating rumors or not.”
“Did he ever ask you?” Aiden asked her.
She shook her head immediately. “No. Would I have lied to him? No. But I’m glad I didn’t have to get into that conversation because my parents wouldn’t have believed me anyway.”
“Nice family,” Aiden quipped.
“Not,” she replied. “The only good part of my family is Mountain.” At that, she looked over at Mountain and added, “It’s just that, when he’s in trouble and needs help, he’s not very good at asking for help.”
He looked up at her pointedly and said, “Yeah? And how good are you at asking for help?”
She flushed at that. “Well, you’re here now, so hopefully I’m getting better at it.”
He shook his head. “You still suck at asking for help.”
“Well, I can’t say that you’re getting any better at it yourself.”
“No, I’m sure not,” he admitted, “but, most of the time, I’m out there helping other people and don’t need assistance myself.”
“But everybody needs help some of the time,” Toby noted.
He gave her a warm smile. “So true.”
She flushed yet again, now realizing that, as far as he was concerned, they were talking about her. In a few minutes, she looked over at Aiden, who was involved in the files. “Anything interesting?”
“Lots interesting,” he replied, “absolutely nothing that ties this to you.”
“You mean, outside of the fact that these dead gamblers were at my table at some point?”
“Your table, yes, and that you have no alibi, but that’ll go for a tremendous amount of other people in this city.”
“Well, not those at the tables,” she noted. “A lot of dealers and dozens of other casino workers are on shift at any given time.”
“So, if they wanted to,” Aiden said, “the police could pull the video cameras, and they could double-check where these people were at other people’s tables at the same time, correct?”
She shrugged. “Good luck getting the video cameras.”
At that, Aiden brought up a Chat box on his laptop and typed away.
She looked over at Mountain and frowned.
Mountain shrugged. “We have access to stuff.”
“Says you,” she scoffed. “Access to good stuff or is it illegal access to stuff?”
“Not against the law,” Mountain declared. “Anything that the cops have, we’re entitled to.”
She shook her head. “You know I don’t really think that’s true.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’d never do anything to jeopardize your case.”
She frowned. “Maybe not, but I’m not sure that other people won’t.”
He stood at her side and studied her face for a moment. “I’m not sure what that means.”
“I just feel like other people, potentially Moscow’s father, are manipulating all this,” she suggested.
“Absolutely he is, and there’s a good chance that the cops are trying to make you fit their murder pattern,” he stated. “But, once we have video feeds to debunk everything they say about you,” he explained, “then there won’t be a legal leg to stand on.”
“And what about an illegal leg?” she asked.
Mountain nodded. “We always have to consider that. How much does Moscow’s father hate you?”
“You have no idea,” she replied.
“Then he’s somebody we’ll look into further.”
At that, Aiden raised his head and confirmed, “I’ve already asked for a full rundown on your father-in-law.”
“Don’t call him that,” she snapped. He stared at her, and she immediately shook her head. “Sorry, but that’s definitely a touchy subject with me.”
“But you did legally marry Moscow, right?”
“Who’s at the door?” she asked.
He looked out and smiled. “The pizza is here.”
“And you just left him standing there?”
“I wanted to wait until Mountain here stepped aside, so I could make sure I got to the pizza first and got a piece.” And, with that, he opened the front door.
She couldn’t help but laugh. “He really does know you, doesn’t he?” she said, with a smirk to Mountain.
“That’s what you call a friend,” he muttered, as he sniffed the air when the pizzas came wafting in. “I sure hope you ordered enough to fill me.”
“Not enough pizza in the world for that,” Aiden quipped, with a smile. He carried in three large boxes.
“So you figure three is enough to at least get Mountain somewhat full?” she teased. She sniffed the air and stated, “Maybe I’ll have a piece too.”
“No maybe about it,” Aiden added cheerfully. “If you want to keep fighting the good fight, you have to keep up your energy, and that means food.” He handed her a box.
“I don’t need a whole pizza,” she said. “Besides, I like my pizza on a plate.”
“Have a plate. I don’t mind.” But Aiden had already opened the next box and pulled out a slice, which Mountain snagged right from Aiden’s hands. With a mock look of outrage at his friend, Aiden snagged the next one, which appeared to be even bigger.
Toby returned with a plate, sat down, and pulled one piece each from two different kinds of pizzas, placing both on her plate.
The guys watched her and nodded.
“Good. Get that belly full first,” Aiden noted. “So, that should be enough for you, right?”
In shock, she watched as the men devoured each piece in no time and realized that Aiden was seriously considering her ration of these pizzas. She immediately leaned forward and grabbed a third slice, just in case she had more of an appetite than she expected.
By the time she was full, after eating those first two slices, she was surprised that the bulk of the three pizzas were gone. She stared at the last few remaining pieces. “Good God, I forgot how much you eat,” she said, staring at her cousin.
He gave her an offended look. “Hey, I wasn’t alone in this pizza-eating contest, you know.”
At that, she had to nod. “And he put away a ton of food too,” she murmured, staring at Aiden.
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not as big as Mountain is, but I burn energy pretty fast. Now I need to go do some investigative legwork.” He looked over at Mountain. “You’ll stay here with her?”
“Nobody is staying here with me,” she snapped in a hard tone.
“Then nobody is going anywhere,” Aiden stated, sitting back down, “because you need an alibi for every step of the way from now on.”
She stared at him blankly. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, first off, let me go grab our bags from outside,” Mountain suggested, and, with that, he disappeared.
Aiden stared at her, waiting for her response.
She was considering more objections. And, indeed, her mouth opened and closed a couple times, but the words just didn’t seem to want to work.
He nodded. “It’s one of the best decisions you’ve made yet.”
Immediately her confused look turned into frustrated anger.
“Don’t even worry about getting angry,” Aiden told her. “We’re here to help. We’ll help whether you like it or not.”
“Good Lord,” she exclaimed, “I thought Mountain was hard to deal with.”
“Get used to it,” Aiden stated. “You’re my mission. Believe me. I have no intention of failing this op.”
She stared at him in shock. “What, I’m some sort of test?”
“Absolutely not,” he argued, “but, if you think I’ll let anything happen to you, you’re wrong.”
She sank into her chair. “Do you think my life is in danger?” she whispered in horror.
“It never occurred to you, did it?”
“No.” She frowned. “It still doesn’t make any sense that it would be.”
“Maybe not,” he agreed, “but we can’t take that chance. Right now someone is killing men connected to you, and a lot of hate is pointed in your direction.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that message I got,” she admitted. “I can’t go to work even. Although, as I’m charged with murder, I can’t imagine that’ll be good for business.”
“I can’t imagine that it would be considered good for business either,” he stated. “However, it’s a curiosity factor.”
She winced. “In that case, I’d rather not go to work, just to be gawked at and pointed at and talked about.”
He chuckled. “Doesn’t exactly make you feel better, does it?”
“No, not at all,” she muttered. She stared at him. “I don’t understand why you’re so happy-go-lucky.”
“What’s not to like?” he asked. “Everything is good in my world.”
“Sure,” she groaned. “Your world isn’t my world.” Immediately Aiden’s smile fell away, and she watched as he switched to wearing a concerned look on his face.
“And you’re right there,” he confirmed. “I’m not trying to make light of it, but I do know about these kinds of things, and that the sooner we can nip them in the bud, the better.”
“And you’ve got a magical formula to get the cops to back off?”
“Well, like I told you earlier, your alibi for the next murder.”
“Which murder may never happen, and how horrible to know another person has to die before I’m off the hook,” she muttered. She picked up her third slice of pizza and slowly worked away on it.
“Any chance of a coffee?” he asked, “or do I have to order that in?”
She nodded toward the kitchen. “Help yourself.”
He jumped to his feet and headed into the kitchen as if it were the most natural thing in the world. When Mountain returned with their bags, he headed upstairs and dropped them off in the nearest spare bedroom and then came back down, bringing his bedroll to the living room.
“There’s another spare bedroom upstairs,” Toby said. “You know that.”
“I do know that,” he agreed, “but one of us should be upstairs, and one should be downstairs. And I elect Aiden to be upstairs.”
She stared at him. “Why?” she muttered.
“Because he cares. He’s all heart, and you and I are still walking around each other like we’re on tenterhooks.”
“Yeah,” she noted, “it’s been a couple rough years.”
“And I wasn’t there when I should have been.”
“And I wasn’t there for you either,” she admitted, “when your family went through shit.”
“Still going through shit,” he stated in a quiet tone. “You have no idea.” At that, she stopped and looked at him. He held up a hand and shook his head. “No, I’m not talking until we get your stuff dealt with.”
“Yeah, and when would that be?”
“I’ll give Aiden maybe forty-eight hours,” he replied, looking at his watch, “because I don’t have much more time than that.”
“Good God, what are you talking about?”
“I’m waiting on information. As soon as that intel comes in, I’ll have to book it.”
She nodded, almost numb. “Okay. And where will you go?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “It’s better if you don’t know yet.”
She shook her head. “You know that doesn’t work for me.”
Just then, Aiden stepped into the living room. “Coffee is on.” Aiden stared at his buddy and frowned. “Uh-oh, … heavy talk again.”
She groaned. “Is there ever anything other than heavy talk with us?”
“Sure there is,” Aiden countered, “just not necessarily the kind of talk you want to have.”
“Absolutely not the kind of talk I want to have,” she whispered. She turned to her cousin. “Later.”
“Sure,” he agreed, “later.”
Another buzz came from Aiden’s phone. As the requested info kept coming in, his phone was slowing way down. He looked over at Mountain. “Did you bring in my laptop?”
Mountain nodded. “Upstairs on your bed.”
At that, Aiden bolted upstairs, snatched his laptop, and came down again with the charger in hand. “We’ve got a lot of incoming files,” he explained. “It’ll be easier to go through some of them on the computer.”
Chapter 4
“What files?” Toby asked curiously, walking over and handing Aiden a cup of coffee.
“Thank you,” he murmured, as he looked up at her with a bright smile.
She flushed and sat down again. “It’s the least I can do,” she noted, with a shrug.
He nodded. “Otherwise Mountain might get upset at your lack of hospitality.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “The day that Mountain got to dictate anything in my world was a long time ago,” she muttered.
“Still don’t quite know what happened between you two.”
“Just family stuff,” she replied, “and stuff that, in a way, we’ve already kind of worked through.”
“Good,” Aiden said. He moved to the coffee table and plugged in his laptop.
“You haven’t told me what files.”
“I have all the police files on the murders,” he told her. “The only way we’ll really get you off the hook permanently—so it’s not a stain on your public record—is to solve this.”
She sat down hard. “How did you get the police files?”
He looked at her innocently and replied, “Legit avenues. I asked for it, and I got it.”
“Sure,” she quipped, with another eye roll.
“Well, it’s true. Don’t believe me if you don’t want to. That’s fine,” he noted. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Says you,” she added.
Mountain sat down beside Aiden. “I’ve got my laptop too,” Mountain said. “Shoot me copies.” And, with that, the two men buried themselves in reading those files. “Really not a whole lot here,” Mountain said after a while. “As far as the cops are concerned, the connection to Toby is the fact that they were at your table.”
“Sure.” She groaned. “However, do you have any idea how many hundreds, if not thousands, of people go through my table on a weekly basis?”
Both Mountain and Aiden nodded. “I can imagine, particularly if …” Aiden stopped and snorted. “Okay. So this is partly why your table so popular.”
She winced, knowing what was coming.
He looked up, studied her face, and nodded. “Somebody decided you were his lucky charm.”
“That’s just what that one customer called me,” she argued, wincing. “Definitely not my terminology.”
“No,” Aiden admitted, “but that meant everybody in the casino wanted to come to your table.”
“And that doesn’t make any of the other dealers very happy either,” she noted. “So it causes added trouble at work too.”
“Which just brings up more suspects.”
“Nobody will kill these winners because they’re jealous that I have more people at my table,” she declared, staring at him in shock.
“People do all kinds of shit for all kinds of shitty reasons,” he shared. “Would I think that would happen? No, but that doesn’t mean I’m not wrong.”
Mountain nodded at that. “And you’ve got a point. The fact that this was publicized and that your nickname was utilized, that would bring an awful lot of people to you, even if you didn’t know who they were.”
“In casinos, there are always a lot of onlookers. And that’s to be expected to a certain degree because, once people are winning, everybody wants to hang around. It’s like the gold dust might rub off on them.” Such a cynical note filled her tone that she winced. “Hey, look. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be a downer about this. Generally I enjoy my job.”
“And you’re good at it,” Mountain stated.
She nodded. “I’m good at it.”
“You don’t gamble?” Aiden asked.
“I’m not allowed to gamble.” At that, both men stopped and looked at her. She groaned. “I’m sure that’s another motive that they’ll tell you about whenever we talk about trying to clear my name.”
“And what’s that?” Aiden asked.
“The casino—where I now work—thought I was card counting one time,” she admitted.
“Were you card counting?” Mountain asked.
She gave her cousin a flat stare but didn’t say anything.
“You were?” Mountain huffed. “And here I told Aiden that you were brilliant.”
She shrugged. “Math for me is dead easy. I mean, it’s not even that I was necessarily card counting, but how are you not supposed to count cards when you can see them flying in your mind?”
“Right,” Mountain grumbled. “So, for you, the cards are a problem.”
“Exactly. Hey, once that skill is turned on, it doesn’t shut off. So I got hauled into the manager’s office, and, when they realized who I was, it was a case of never darken their door again because, as far as they were concerned, I was a cheater. Yet they offered me a job as a dealer, explaining that I should work for them and find other cheaters.”
“And you went along with that?” Aiden asked.
“Well, if I couldn’t play poker,” she explained, “I needed gainful employment, and I didn’t really want to be banned from all the casinos.”
“Do you still go?”
“Every once in a while,” she admitted, “when I need a little cash.”
“And that’s all you win?”
“Sure.” She nodded. “Anything other than that gets me into trouble. Doesn’t matter if it’s legit or not. I don’t get the opportunity of having somebody look at me and think it’s legit. I’m automatically considered a thief.”
“Interesting,” Aiden noted.
“Goes along with the territory.” Toby shrugged.
“And how did your father handle you being picked up for card counting?” Aiden asked.
She gave him another flat stare. “See? That’s another thing you know that would never be allowed in my world or in his. I’m sure somebody contacted him and told him, but, once I had the dealer job working at the casino, it seemed like my father didn’t quite know what to do with that and wasn’t sure if he should believe in the cheating rumors or not.”
“Did he ever ask you?” Aiden asked her.
She shook her head immediately. “No. Would I have lied to him? No. But I’m glad I didn’t have to get into that conversation because my parents wouldn’t have believed me anyway.”
“Nice family,” Aiden quipped.
“Not,” she replied. “The only good part of my family is Mountain.” At that, she looked over at Mountain and added, “It’s just that, when he’s in trouble and needs help, he’s not very good at asking for help.”
He looked up at her pointedly and said, “Yeah? And how good are you at asking for help?”
She flushed at that. “Well, you’re here now, so hopefully I’m getting better at it.”
He shook his head. “You still suck at asking for help.”
“Well, I can’t say that you’re getting any better at it yourself.”
“No, I’m sure not,” he admitted, “but, most of the time, I’m out there helping other people and don’t need assistance myself.”
“But everybody needs help some of the time,” Toby noted.
He gave her a warm smile. “So true.”
She flushed yet again, now realizing that, as far as he was concerned, they were talking about her. In a few minutes, she looked over at Aiden, who was involved in the files. “Anything interesting?”
“Lots interesting,” he replied, “absolutely nothing that ties this to you.”
“You mean, outside of the fact that these dead gamblers were at my table at some point?”
“Your table, yes, and that you have no alibi, but that’ll go for a tremendous amount of other people in this city.”
“Well, not those at the tables,” she noted. “A lot of dealers and dozens of other casino workers are on shift at any given time.”
“So, if they wanted to,” Aiden said, “the police could pull the video cameras, and they could double-check where these people were at other people’s tables at the same time, correct?”
She shrugged. “Good luck getting the video cameras.”
At that, Aiden brought up a Chat box on his laptop and typed away.
She looked over at Mountain and frowned.
Mountain shrugged. “We have access to stuff.”
“Says you,” she scoffed. “Access to good stuff or is it illegal access to stuff?”
“Not against the law,” Mountain declared. “Anything that the cops have, we’re entitled to.”
She shook her head. “You know I don’t really think that’s true.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’d never do anything to jeopardize your case.”
She frowned. “Maybe not, but I’m not sure that other people won’t.”
He stood at her side and studied her face for a moment. “I’m not sure what that means.”
“I just feel like other people, potentially Moscow’s father, are manipulating all this,” she suggested.
“Absolutely he is, and there’s a good chance that the cops are trying to make you fit their murder pattern,” he stated. “But, once we have video feeds to debunk everything they say about you,” he explained, “then there won’t be a legal leg to stand on.”
“And what about an illegal leg?” she asked.
Mountain nodded. “We always have to consider that. How much does Moscow’s father hate you?”
“You have no idea,” she replied.
“Then he’s somebody we’ll look into further.”
At that, Aiden raised his head and confirmed, “I’ve already asked for a full rundown on your father-in-law.”
“Don’t call him that,” she snapped. He stared at her, and she immediately shook her head. “Sorry, but that’s definitely a touchy subject with me.”
“But you did legally marry Moscow, right?”
