The Poker King Returns novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Saturday Night

By noon on Saturday, the whole of Reno knew the Poker King was alive and carrying drinks at the Lucky Wren.

Somebody's cousin had filmed the takedown on a phone, and by lunch it had four hundred thousand views.

Our parking lot filled by two o'clock.

I stood behind the bar at the Roost and watched strangers in team jackets point at the black vest.

"You should be furious," Bea said, lighting a cigarette she was not allowed to light.

"I am."

"You look like a woman who got properly fucked."

"Bea."

"I'm fifty-eight. I know the look. I'm just saying the man's worth the trouble."

I decided not to answer that.

At six o'clock Cade came downstairs without the vest.

He wore a plain white shirt, sleeves rolled, and he walked straight into the poker room.

The room went quiet.

Six tables of strangers and regulars turned to look at him, and a man in the corner said, very softly, "It's him."

Cade sat down at the five-ten table.

"Is this seat open?" he said to the dealer.

"For you? Mister, it is now."

I ran the room that night with one eye on his table.

The players around him were nervous and loud.

He treated every one of them as if they were his oldest friend.

He lost a small pot on purpose to a retired postman, and the postman laughed so hard he had to take off his glasses.

At ten o'clock a man I did not know took the seat on Cade's left.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Poker King Returns from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.