He glanced across the tables to where Annie was sitting. He wanted to ask her to stay. To give them another shot at the relationship they never really tried. But what would she say if he asked? Nate had felt them growing closer, felt her letting down her guard, but would it be what drove her away?
This was definitely not what he’d had in mind when he hauled her to his suite and blackmailed her into helping him.
“Mr. Reed?” A voice chirped over his radio.
Nate unclipped it immediately and moved away from the crowd for privacy. “Yes?”
“Sir, we’ve detained someone in the security office. Gabe has requested your attendance.”
Nate frowned and cast a quick glance over to where Tessa had been sitting. She was still there, her flame-red hair giving her away. Richard, one of the senior security agents, was still watching her, and another security agent had taken Gabe’s place watching Eddie.
He breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll be right there,” he answered. Hopefully they’d get a break that wouldn’t involve his sister-in-law. That would make everything easier.
When he arrived in the security office, he found Gabe sitting at a table in the conference room with someone he didn’t recognize. The guy was short, thick through the middle, with pudgy fingers, greasy gray hair and a bristly beard. He was older, in his late fifties, maybe.
His eyes widened when he caught a glimpse of Nate standing in the doorway. He’d opened his mouth to argue something with Gabe, but froze, clamping his mouth tightly shut.
“Mr. Hansen,” Nate greeted Gabe officially. “Who do we have the pleasure of meeting with today?”
“Mr. Reed, this is Keith Frye. Mr. Frye was participating in the tournament downstairs. It seems our cards weren’t good enough for him and he felt it necessary to bring a couple of his own.”
“I just wanted to—”
“That’s fine, Mr. Frye,” Nate interrupted. “We understand. Some people prefer to use their own, especially when they’re better than the ones the dealer provides.” He turned to Gabe. “Do we have everything we need?”
“Yes, sir. The overhead camera has clear film of him slipping cards from his pocket into his hand. We’ll notify the authorities as soon as we’re done here.”
“Excellent.” Nate was pleased things were under control but slightly curious as to why he had been summoned up for something this trivial. Yes, he liked to know everything that went on in his casino, but Gabe normally handled things like this on his own.
“I’m not the only one!” Keith blurted out as Nate turned to walk out.
Now they were getting somewhere. Nate met Gabe’s grin with interest and returned. “Continue.”
“He said it might help me out.” He flipped a thumb in Gabe’s direction.
“Might,” Nate emphasized. “Let’s hear what you’ve got first.”
Keith looked down at his hands, nervously picking at his fingernails. “There’s this guy, Darrell. I don’t know his last name. A couple nights ago I was hanging out in the bar, having a few drinks, when Darrell and some other guy I don’t know sat down at a table near me.”
There wasn’t a Darrell on his list of suspects. “Do you know this Darrell guy?”
“No, but he had a blue dealer’s vest folded up beside him, and the guy he met up with called him Darrell.”
Nate clamped his teeth together to keep from yelling at the man in frustration. That was why. He was a dealer, not a player. He hated to think that one of his own employees was involved in something like this, but it was inevitable.
“So these guys start talking about the tournament and what they’re planning to do. They were sorta speaking around what they really meant, but I could follow along well enough. I pretended I wasn’t listening, but it was easy to hear with them sitting so close.”
“And?” Nate was anxious to hear the rest of this convoluted tale.
“And they sounded like they were plotting something. Arranging who was going to do what. Sounded like this Darrell guy was messing with the cards. That’s where I got the idea, you see? It sounded like there were several people in on it. Other dealers, other players. Even some chick.”
Nate perked up. “Some chick?”
“Yeah, she came into the bar later. They’d been talking about her on and off, but then this redhead strolls in and the other guy left with her.”
Nate’s stomach sank. A redhead. Every word out of this guy’s mouth seemed to put another nail into the coffin of his future with Annie. “What did the other guy look like? The one Darrell was talking to?”