Page 264 of Affair
All.
Gamble had to make sure.
“Do you know what I’m saying?” he asked, hoping to god he did.
Poe went there.
“He was murdered?” he asked.
Gamble nodded.
“He took the key, and they were looking for it. From what I heard them saying, they think it was with his things that were sent home, and you have them.”
Poe was confused.
“How would they know I have his things? I went home and picked them up, and I’ve not been back. They weren’t sent to me. They were sent to my parents.”
That sat there.
Gamble stared at him, willing him to put two and two together.
He saw when he did.
The lightbulb went on, and Poe pieced it together.
“Wait. They knew I had his things because they went to my parent’s home?” he asked.
Gamble slowly nodded.
In that moment, Poe’s heart was thundering in his chest. The look on Gamble’s face said it was bad, and he knew what would be the worst-case scenario.
He went there.
“Are my parents okay?” he asked. “I just talked to them last week.”
Oh, he was aware.
Now, he had to be the one that broke this man’s heart into a million pieces.
“No, they aren’t okay, Poe. I overheard them talking about it.”
Suddenly, Poe had tears in his eyes.
“Gamble, Mate, are they dead?” he asked, his lower lip quivering when he said that last word.
“I’m sorry, Poe,” he whispered. “They said they killed them looking for the crypto key.”
That’s when the tears started falling.
Gamble sat there, and he saw the man’s world being blown apart. He knew what it was like to lose your family. Storm took his daughter away from him, and he knew that feeling of your whole world bottoming out.
“I’m sorry,” Gamble said.
Poe just sat there crying.
He lowered his head, and Gamble could see the tears dripping onto the leg of his pants.
“I can’t believe this,” Poe whispered. “My whole family is gone. I’ll never see them again.”
