Page 42 of Poker
“I’ll do some checking with my contacts. Might be easier for me to flush out your enemies.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“In the meantime, you focus on Meri and her acquaintances. Experience tells me it’s a man, but I suppose it could be a woman.”
That thought hadn’t occurred to me. “Thanks again. Call me if you find anything.”
“I will.”
After disconnecting that call, I make another.
“It’s fucking late,” Crow snarls after three rings.
“And it’s fucking important,” I snap.
The rustle of sheets comes through the line, and a few seconds later, it’s followed by the sound of a door shutting, which tells me he got out of bed and left the room, so he doesn’t wake Addison.
“I’m listening,” he finally says.
I fill him in on the note that was left on Meri’s windshield and my phone call with Esteban. He’s quiet as I speak, but I know him. His mind is anything but quiet.
“You called Esteban before you called me?” he asks when I’m done speaking.
Shit.
“I did,” I confirm.
Crow sighs. “I get it. Meri’s your girl, and you’re pissed. But next time, I’m your first call, got it?”
“Understood.”
“Besides, I coulda told you it wasn’t him.”
“I didn’t really think it was.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“You don’t wanna take it to the club?”
“Oh, we’ll be taking it to the club,” Crow says. “But right now, I’m asking you.”
“Esteban suggested that we look into any man in her life. I think he’s right. We can rule out me and anyone in the club, but what about people from Ballinger’s or her games?”
“I agree. I’ll talk to Grady and see if he’s okay with us being more present at the bar and if there’s anyone he can think of as a threat to Meri. As for the games, that’s your domain. You can have some of the guys handle security for them until this is over, but how do you think she’ll feel about that?”
“I think she’ll be fine. I’m more worried about her security team in case it’s one of them.”
“I’ll have Tracer dig a little deeper into them. He hasn’t found anything yet, but who knows?”
“Okay. I’ll discuss all this with Meri when she wakes up. It took her forever to fall asleep, so I want to let her be.”
“We’ll figure this out, brother,” Crow assures me. “Nothing will happen to her.”
“I know.”
“Look, try to get some sleep. There’s nothing you can do right now, and you’ll be no good to her exhausted.”
“Yeah.”
