The Poker King Returns novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Note

Desmond Kray stood in the middle of the Wren with three of his people holding their hands in the air.

For a long second no one in the room made a sound.

Then he laughed.

It was the same polite laugh as always.

"You're all very excited," he said. "A device in a case. My lawyers will have it thrown out by Monday."

"Not this time," said the woman from the Board.

She nodded toward the front doors.

Two men in dark windbreakers had come in from the lot, with state badges on their belts, and behind them two Reno police officers.

"Mr. Kray," one of them said. "Desmond Kray. We have a warrant."

Kray did not look at the officers.

He looked at Cade, and the calm finally came off his face.

"You did this," he said. "You little waiter."

"I did," Cade said. "With help."

"You think a cheap casino and a girl in a vest can finish me?"

"I think a lot of people just did."

The officers took his arms.

The silver cufflinks glittered as they pulled his hands behind him.

He went across the carpet slowly, with the whole Wren parting in front of him, and nobody said a word.

At the end of the bar the nickel-slot woman stood up, very straight, with her cushion in her hands.

"Shame on you," she said.

It was the quietest thing anyone said all night, and it was the one he flinched at.

When he reached me he stopped, with an officer on each side.

"Miss Guffey," he said, in his old gentle voice. "This isn't over."

"It's over," I said. "Watch your step on the way out."

The doors closed behind him, and the Wren went off.

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