Page 9 of Monsters in the Dark

At any rate, the last thing that Lonnie was going to do was cause trouble for himself by making up lies that involved any O’Brien. Plus, it took a lot for Lonnie to cut someone off at his gaming tables. After all, it was the way that the man made his living, so he had a long leash when it came to his regulars. However, it appeared as if Kenneth Swanson had overstayed his welcome almost everywhere at this point. Even though all the syndicates operated out of Port Townsend, our tentacles extended to the entire state, so he was stupid to believe that he could run.

Like most gamblers, Kenneth lived in the fallacy that chasing your losses was a good idea, which it wasn’t. The lights in Las Vegas were kept on because of the losers, not the winners, and if that didn’t tell you something, then you were probably too stupid to exist.

“I want him found,” I said unnecessarily. “Tonight.”

“And then?”

I glanced over at Noah. “Then I want to have a chat with him before I end him,” I told him. “If he’s flapping his lips, then it sounds to me like he’s desperate to be an example for others.”

“You can’t collect money from a dead man,” Noah remarked pragmatically.

“You also can’t collect money from a man that has none,” I retorted. “And it’s obvious that Kenneth Swanson is done for at this point.”

“I can have someone at his home and work, but I can’t see him being in either of those places,” Desmond said. “He’s gotta know that those are the two places that we’d look first.”

“Which is why he might be there,” I reasoned. “Reverse psychology and all that.”

“Hey,” James called out. “Are we going to play, or what?”

“We’re talking business,” I called back, shutting my brother up.

“Should we be checking out Lonnie’s place?” Desmond asked.

I shook my head. “Nah,” I answered. “If Lonnie’s already cut him off, then he’ll look somewhere else to scratch his itch.”

“He could be headed to Jersey,” Noah suggested. “If he’s run dry here, it’s possible.”

“Or he could be running in other territories,” I murmured as I tried to put myself in the place of a gambling addict. While I had a lot of vices, I wasn’t addicted to any of them, so it was kind of hard to identify with that kind of dependency.

“That’s possible,” Noah said. “He might feel safe if he thinks that we can’t or won’t go after him while in Kotov or Sartori territory.”

“Find him,” I ordered again. “I don’t want him getting away.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Desmon replied, knowing that I was serious.

When he walked away, Noah stayed behind, saying, “Even if it’s not the full amount, we can still get what we can out of him before you kill him.”

No longer caring about Kenneth Swanson’s debt, I asked, “Do we know if he has a girlfriend or something?” I ran Kenneth’s background check inside my mind, and there’d been no mention of a girlfriend, but that’d been months ago. “He might not have had a girlfriend when he first came to us for a loan, but maybe that changed.”

“It’s possible,” Noah replied. “But you’d have to be a real piece of shit to involve an innocent woman in your bullshit like that.”

“Why are you assuming that she’s innocent?” I asked. “If a girlfriend does exist, then it’s quite possible that she’s just as shady as he is.”

Noah grinned. “You got me there.”

“Are we going to play or what the fuck?” Cathal called out, and it really felt like I had four fucking kids sometimes.

“Blind us out if you assholes can’t wait five minutes,” Noah told him, feeling the same eldest sibling stress that I did.

Eyeing my cousin, I said, “I want him found before he wanders into someone else’s territory. The fuck if I need Kotov or Sartori thinking that I can’t handle my own shit.”

“You’re not lying,” he agreed.

“Okay, let’s go clean these fucking kids out,” I said, jerking my head towards the table. “It’ll shut them up until next month, at least.”

“Easier said than done,” Noah snorted. “They’re all corrupt little bastards.”

I laughed as I finally made my way to the table. The dealer was already set up, and all we had to do was draw for the button at this point. We always all started out with a ten-thousand-dollar stack, which didn’t last long when you considered that the blinds were one-hundred and three-hundred. Still, there was plenty more cash where that came from, and even though we were all related, we paid up. There was no mercy at this table, and that’s what made it so much fun.

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