Page 40 of The Gambler
“Damn, didn’t they just do her husband?” It’s a sick fucking world.
As if he didn’t have enough to worry about, he started worrying about why she hadn’t asked for her mom. Usually his treasures were creatures of habit, but she didn’t seem to have too many set wants.
Except for her shows, her games and chocolate, she seemed pretty comfortable doing whatever. It made him wonder how many fucking shoot-outs and shit she’d been around. Better not go there, he’d killed practically everyone involved already, finding out now that there was even more shit that he needed to avenge her for would only make him crazy since the enemy had already been obliterated. Well, except for the parents.
“What about the bitch that was here?” It still galled him that she’d gotten so close; he ought to kill her just on principle. He didn’t like knowing that he’d been so lax. It goes to show how uninvolved and disassociated he’d become over the years.
Looking back on some of the risks he’d taken, he knew he was on a collision course with danger. Now with Jenna in his life he had to change all that. Now he wanted to live for a long fucking time, which meant changes, lots of changes.
“She’s still in her place; you want us to grab her?”
“Nah, if there’s a need I know where she is.” He hadn’t found anything that would justify ending her; she hadn’t given them anything in the two years she’d worked for him, because he’d never given her anything to share. It must’ve been very frustrating on their end. It looked like all he really had left on his plate was the senator and then he could get down to the business of spoiling his wife.
Chapter 24
He went to find her and stood in the doorway, just watching her as she sat singing to the butterflies. She never ceased to amaze him. She sung like an angel, was a card shark and he was pretty sure a thief and who knows what else; and she made love like she was born to it. Perfect.
She must’ve sensed his presence because she reached out her hand for him without even looking in his direction. She was too busy staring up at the butterflies as they swarmed around the cocoons the men had hung in the room. He couldn’t wait to take her down to visit his place. She would be good for the others, and maybe they her, he was sure she’d love that. Having her, finding her, made him want to do so much more than he had been in the past. Some might say he’d done enough, but there was always more. He’d just been going through the motions; he knew that now.
It had become an obligation when he’d never intended it to be; it was meant to be a joy. Seeing her, her potential, he was reminded once more of just how amazing she and others like her really were. He’d gained much over the years from his association. He could probably credit them for keeping him from going completely insane; or for saving the world from a vigilante, because for a time there, he thought he’d spend the rest of his life shedding blood.
Now in just the blink of an eye she’d changed all that. And she called him Angel.
He sat next to her silently, content just to sit and hold her hand as she sang her lullabies, her voice lulling him into a state of peace. “Jenna?” She turned to look at him.
“Alice, how did she…was she happy?” He felt the burn in his gut that was always there whenever he thought of his sister. She got a look of sadness and he was sorry he brought it up. She’d been sitting here so peacefully in her little paradise and he’d fucked it up.
She took his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. “Alice fine Angel.” He kissed her hand and took it back in his holding it against his thigh. He gazed off at nothing in particular; there were so many things he wanted to ask her about the dream, or vision, or whatever it was that she’d had, but he didn’t know where to begin. She didn’t seem any worse for wear because of the experience, but he didn’t want to push her too hard. She took out her phone and started that speed shit again and he wondered how the hell she could get her fingers to move that fast.
He picked up his phone when it chimed. “She does does she?” She told him that his sister loves him and worries about him. Weirdest fucking conversation he’d ever had, and with the fuckwits he sometimes had to deal with, he’d had some doozies.
She nodded her head and went back to typing. This time it was to inform him that he had to be happy because it’s what Alice wanted and she Jenna was going to take care of him. “You’ve got that wrong little flower, I’m going to take care of you.”
“Jenna do it, Alice said.” He decided not to argue with her since she had her mutinous face on.
“Okay we’ll do it together okay?” They went back to sitting in silence for another few minutes, but he couldn’t seem to leave it alone. After shutting it away for so long he suddenly wanted to know everything there was.
“Jenna, how did you know me?” He wasn’t sure that she would understand the question and when she took too long to answer he was about to tell her not to worry about it, but she went back to typing again.
‘Alice told me, a long time ago in a dream. She said one day my Angel would come for me.”
“You’re pretty smart aren’t you pumpkin?” He rubbed her head playfully.
“Jenna very smart.” He bet; he was pretty sure she was smarter than him. It’s something he’d learned from spending time with his other treasures, how smart they were. It was only dimwitted assholes who never took the time to be with them that missed that. The little cons were smart as fuck though he’d learned over the years, some of them exceptionally so. Maybe it was a good thing that the world didn’t know that.
“But how did you recognize me?” Her mother had said she’d seen his picture and called him her angel. She couldn’t have known what he looked like, he was pretty sure Alice didn’t take a picture of him wherever she went, and she’d told him of Jenna with her dying breath, so the whole thing was confusing. She shrugged her shoulders.
‘I knew.’ That’s all she wrote and he decided to drop it for now, because he was never going to make sense of it. He let her sit and enjoy her new hiding place until it was lunchtime. “Come on baby time to eat.”
For all of the next day he spent his time formulating a plan to get to the senator. He had no idea if these people had guards on them twenty-four seven, had never had any need to get that close to politics. Gramps assured him that unless she hired her own shadow there wouldn’t be any at her home. That was good enough; he didn’t need the added headache.
Jenna was still pouting because he refused to fuck her the night before, he hated that she felt rejected, but there was no way he was going to hurt her and he knew it would if he took her again. In the end she was satisfied with the hour or so he’d spent with his head between her thighs; that’s the only way he could get her to go to sleep.
Gramps had left to go back to his place but promised her, after she made such a fuss, that he’d be back later. She finally asked for her momma and he let her call the other woman who was in a room one floor down, monitoring the conversation the whole time. He’d already decided what was to be done with her, he just needed more time and space between them to be sure that it wouldn’t affect Jenna too much in the future.
By nightfall it was time to go and he wasn’t sure what to do with Jenna. They had about a five-hour flight to the senator’s place in the mountains. She’d watched him get dressed while she sat on the bed chattering away at him. He made the mistake of telling her where he was going and she decided she was getting dressed too.
“No Jenna you stay here.” She shook her head and continued rummaging through the closet for something to wear. Shit, he knew he would have a fight on his hands, but there was no way he was taking her into unknown territory.