Page 6 of Dead Man's Hand

“Let me understand the problem here,” DJ said quietly, calmly. “You came after my sister to threaten her over debts run up by the deadbeat husband she is divorcing. Is that right?”

Titus narrowed dark eyes that were a little too close together. He dropped his hand below the desk. To buzz for security if needed? Or reach for a weapon? “I hope we can settle this like respectable gentlemen.”

DJ laughed. “We’d have to be respectable gentlemen.” He lowered his voice. “You need to leave Keira alone. What is it going to take?”

The banker smiled and leaned back in his large office chair, steepling his fingers on his round middle. Apparently, mentioning money made Titus less nervous. “Someone has to pay what’s owed.”

Grandville was enjoying this a little too much. He remembered him as a kid. To say there was bad blood between them was putting it mildly. Titus had always lorded it over him. Not that everyone in Butte hadn’t known that Titus was a Grandville. Who knew what DJ was?

Just the sight of his smug face was enough to make him want to leap over the massive desk and take the man by the throat. But it wouldn’t solve the problem. DJ had known the moment he heard Keira crying on the phone that he was going to have to come up here and pay them off. The very idea stuck in his craw because of his dislike for the Grandvilles.

“Settle for twenty-five.”

Titus shook his head. “Seventy-five with interest on the loan adding up every day—”

“Fifty thousand and I don’t throw you out that big window behind you,” DJ said.

“Diamond, you have always been a loose cannon.” Titus tsked. “All right. For old time’s sake, seventy-five and no more interest as long as this is handled quickly. By the end of the week.”

“And you never go near my sister again.”

The banker nodded, but DJ didn’t feel as if this was settled. “Do I need to say it? You never do business with Luca Cross again either.”

“Why do you care about him?” Titus asked, sounding amused.

DJ didn’t answer, afraid to voice his fear that Keira wouldn’t leave the man because she still loved him. Love was a fickle, foolish sentiment, one he avoided when it came to women. Family was another story, though, maybe especially family you didn’t share blood with.

“I’ll get your money. But you do realize that I’m going to have to put together a poker game to make it happen. That all right with you?”

Titus rocked forward in his chair, taking the bait quicker than DJ had expected. “I could suggest a couple of players with deep pockets I’d like to see cleaned. Let me know when and where.”

“You’re welcome to come play as well,” DJ said with a grin.

The banker laughed. “I’m smarter than that. And Diamond? I’ll need that money by the end of the week.”

As he turned to leave, the banker called after him, “So it’s true. You’re paying off your uncle’s debts, too.” Definite amusement in his voice.

DJ didn’t trust himself to look back. If he saw that self-righteous look on Titus’s face, he might just make good on his earlier threat.

As he left the building, he quit kidding himself that there was another way to solve this. He was going to have to pay, one way or another. He had the money in his savings account. Seventy-five grand wouldn’t even make a dent. He could pay Titus off and walk away, but the very thought turned his stomach. He’d told Keira to stay put in Whitehall until this was settled. She’d be safe there—as long as she didn’t do anything foolish like try to go to her husband.

DJ stopped for a moment as he tried to talk himself out of the plan that had come together the moment he’d walked into Grandville’s office and seen Titus sitting behind his big desk. His good sense advised him to just pay the debt and forget it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just about the money. It hardly ever was.

He made the call to the one person he needed right now. “Sadie?” He hated the way his voice almost broke. It made him admit how much he wanted her help, as if a part of him worried that he couldn’t do this without her, and that alone should have scared him. He’d come to depend on her. But even as he thought it, he knew it was a hell of a lot more than that. “I need you.”

“I wondered how long it would take before you realized that,” she joked.

“It’s my sister. Her bad-choice soon-to-be hopefully ex-husband’s fault. He’s taken off and left her holding the bag.”

“How heavy is this bag?”

“Seventy-five large.”

“I can be on the next plane. Where am I headed?”

DJ closed his eyes for a moment, relief and something much stronger making his knees weak. “I’ll pick you up at the airport outside of Bozeman. I’ll be the cowboy in the hat,” he said, needing to lighten the moment for fear he’d say something he couldn’t take back. “I really appreciate this,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “Thank you.”

“No problem, partner. I’m on my way.”

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