My Stepfather Sold Me at the Card Table, and the Man Who Won Me Never Looked My Way novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: What the Crew Ran

"The crew you hold is the crew that ran it," I said.

I said it to Cormick across the length of Enid's kitchen, with the bottle on the table between us and the stove ticking.

He did not step toward me again.

He stood where he had stopped, with his hat in his hand and snow melting on his shoulders.

"Say the rest," he said.

"The pills went out in your boxes, on your books, through your pawn yard," I said. "Under the old man's roof, and then under yours."

"Aye."

"You've eaten off that book for seven winters."

"Aye," Cormick said.

"You knew the name, and you sat there."

"I did."

He did not defend himself.

I had been braced for it, for the quiet reasons a man gives, and I had my answers ready for every one.

He gave me none to answer.

He stood with his big scarred hands hanging and took each sentence as if I were handing him something to carry.

"You asked me on the desk what you weren't being told," he said. "That was it."

"You said not tonight."

"I did."

"You had three nights," I said.

"I had nine years." His voice cracked. "I'd have taken a tenth, God forgive me, before I put that on your face."

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