The Poker King Returns novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Green Book

The safe was in my father's office behind a painting of a heron.

I had known the combination since I was fourteen, and I had never once opened it without being told to.

Cade stood in the doorway while I turned the dial.

It was Monday afternoon, and the casino below us was quiet and half empty, with Bea running the floor.

The door swung open.

Inside were bundles of cash in rubber bands, a few deeds, a stack of tax folders, and a small green notebook with a cracked spine.

I took it out.

It was heavy for its size.

I opened the first page and saw my father's handwriting, cramped and slanting.

He had put a bar through every seven, the way he always did.

"Dates," I said. "Amounts. Names of people I've never heard of."

Cade came closer.

He looked over my shoulder at the page.

I felt him go still.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing."

"Cade."

"It's a ledger, Pamela. It's his private business."

"You went pale."

"I haven't slept."

It was a lie, or most of one.

I knew it, and I decided to leave it alone.

My father's heart was held together by a piece of wire, and I could not afford to find out anything today.

I closed the book and put it against my chest.

And then, for no reason, I started to cry.

It was not a pretty cry.

It came up from the bottom of my stomach, with a sound like something tearing.

"I can't do this," I said. "He's all I have.

"And the Wren, and Bea, and the bar, and the whole stupid bird on the sign."

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