“Door was locked, nothing looks out of place inside. At least on the main floor. Kirby-”
“Who would do this?” she asked, clearly at a total loss. “We don’t really have a lot of school-age kids around here. And certainly not any kind of gang problems. I mean…what, a hoard of Clemson’s maniacal kitties? What?” She looked back at the shredded quilts and sort of slumped in on herself. “These were antiques. They…you can’t replace these. I spent a full year hunting these down.”
She sounded more sad than pissed, though he suspected the latter would show up eventually. “Kirby, I need to tell you something.”
“I guess I shouldn’t take them down until Thad can come and file an official report,” she said, not hearing him, too upset by what had happened to pay attention to anything other than what was going through her own mind.
She had her arms wrapped around her middle, and Brett suspected that was as much to console herself as it was to ward off the rapidly cooling evening air. He wanted to hold her, console her himself, but he had to tell her first. She might not want him anywhere around her after he told her what he knew. Or suspected, anyway. He should have told her the rest of the reason why he’d left Vegas when she’d told him about Maksimov booking a room. He just hadn’t thought it really mattered.
He walked over to her and pulled her arms from where they were crossed. “Come here.” She walked into his arms, and that’s when he could feel her shaking. “Let’s go inside, okay? We’ll call the deputy and go ahead and heat up some food.”
“I can’t eat.”
“Okay. But let’s get out of the cold.”
She nodded against his chest and willingly let him steer her inside. He noted that she didn’t look back at the destruction. Once they were in the kitchen, she moved away from him and slipped out of her jacket, still clearly upset. It didn’t make him any happier to have to tell her the rest, but she had to know.
“Kirby, before you call Thad, there’s something I need to tell you.”
She had already started toward the cordless that sat on the counter, but paused to look at him. “Shouldn’t we get this reported as soon as possible? It will be dark soon and I’d like to see if he can get right over here and take a look. I mean, I’m racking my brain, but even crotchety old Clemson would never do something like this. And unless he’s breeding a whole new kind of barn cat over there, I don’t think they’re responsible, either.” Then her expression lightened. “Do you think it could have been some kind of animal? I mean, I can’t imagine what kind, but-”
“No, Kirby, I don’t think it was an animal. Not the four-legged kind anyway. I…I think I might know who did this.”
She started to respond, then stopped as the rest of what he was saying sunk in and snapped her mouth shut again.
“When I left Vegas, there were a few other reasons why I left.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “What? Are you saying someone is after you? Oh, my God, Brett. Why didn’t you-”
“I didn’t think it would follow me.” He crossed the room in three strides, but she folded her arms across her chest, barring him. He respected that. Hated it, but didn’t push. She deserved to hear the rest. “It hasn’t, actually. But now I’ve brought the world of poker here, and I guess that problem came with it. I’m sorry. If I thought-” He broke off as her expression changed from one of honest confusion and concern to that shuttered look he hadn’t seen in quite some time now. He silently swore and vowed right then that as soon as Thad was done here and he was reasonably certain Kirby was okay left here by herself, he was heading to the resort. Maks wasn’t going to touch another person he cared about.
“What kind of trouble?” she asked, a carefully blank tone in her voice.
“I-when I stopped playing, when I retired, not everyone was happy about it. I was the poster boy for a lot of big events and it drew money to the tables, both during the event itself and before and after, just from the publicity of it. I was the biggest name and the easiest money to be made, promotionally speaking. So I know it wasn’t a great day for promoters and casino owners when I stepped down. There aren’t many others with the easy name recognition that I had and it will likely be a while before someone dominates the sport.” He lifted a hand. “I’m not saying any of this to toot my own horn, just-”
“No,” she said quietly, “I know you’re not like that. Just…go on.”
“So, there were a series of…events. Set up to look like accidents, but after a while, it was too coincidental to have all those things happening to me. Or to people I cared about.” Her shoulders slumped then and he couldn’t help it, he grasped her folded elbows and tugged her closer. “Kirby, we could never prove anything; the police chalked it up to bad luck. The running joke was all the ridiculous luck I’d had during my career had flipped on me when I left the sport. But I-I didn’t want anything bad happening to anyone I cared about. And I needed time and some space to figure out what I was going to do. So I took off, figuring if it was one of the folks hounding me to come back, then they’d either follow me or let up once and for all.”
“Did anything else happen after you left?”
Brett shook his head. “No. Dan has kept an eye out and it all stopped as soon as I left. Word got out and people stopped calling. I haven’t had to deal with any of that fallout since crossing the Nevada state line. Which you can take as proof it was someone there, or maybe it was just bad luck.”
“But you didn’t think so.”
“No,” he said, “no, I didn’t.”
“What did Dan think?”
“I would have told you that Dan was the one supporting my decision to get out, only now I’m not as sure about that. I was working for him after I quit, which, as I told you before, is something I had done off and on since I was a kid. It wasn’t a permanent thing, just helping him and giving myself something to do while I figured out what I wanted to do next.”
“But now you think it was someone. And that they’re here. Because you’re playing again.” Her eyes went wide. “That Russian guy? Maks-whatever? You think it’s him, don’t you?”
“I don’t know what else to think. Kirby, honestly, you know I’d have never put you at risk like that if I had any idea-”
“Okay,” she said, cutting him off, obviously still trying to process the whole thing. “So, why do you think he’s behind it?”
“They were probably the least happy when I retired. I had done a few events for them when they’d started up, and it always went well for them. And for me, I won’t lie. So they leaned pretty hard to try and get me to continue on, at least with their events.”
“And you turned them down.”
“Flat. And then…things started happening.”
Her carefully controlled expression shook for just a second, but the fear he spied in her eyes was all he needed to see. “I’m going to put an end to it, Kirby. Once and for all. As soon as we report this to the sheriff’s office, I’m going up to the resort.” He thought about taking Thad with him, then immediately reconsidered. A small town local cop was not going to intimidate Maks. In fact, it was probable he was counting on that. As he was counting on the local female innkeeper not being able to bring much pressure to bear, either.
Well, Maks was about to learn that he was all kinds of wrong on that score.
“I’m going with you.”
“What? No. Not because I don’t think you can handle yourself and not because you don’t deserve a crack at him, but I understand the world we’re from. You don’t. And I can’t-” His grip tightened on her elbows. “I’m not putting you in the middle. I’ll leave here before I do that.”
“What, and keep running?”
He tried not to wince at that, but she was close enough. “No,” he said, and meant it. “If he’s left town, I’ll go back to Vegas after him. I’ll pull every string I have, cash every marker. But I’m done. All done.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. “This is all…a lot.” She gently disengaged her elbows from his grip. “I-I need to call Thad. And my insurance company, I guess.” She blew out a breath, then turned away from him and went to the phone.
Standing by and watching was possibly one of the hardest things he did, but she knew the story now, and how she wanted to handle things, both with Thad and between them, was up to her. Not that he didn’t plan on having any influence, but she’d been happy here, going along with her plans for the future. And yes, the lack of snow had
