Take Me If You Dare by Candace Havens Read Free Book Online Page B

understanding. “Damn. She knows. God, can nothing go right tonight? She’ll be royally pissed that you didn’t find me dead.” The unexpected response confused Mar.
    Jackson grunted from his seat.
    “I don’t think that’s true,” Mar continued. “She was quite worried when she called the agency. I happened to be in the area and promised to follow up.” Mariska didn’t like the man, but his wife and child deserved answers.
    “When she finds out I gambled away the second mortgage she is most definitely going to wish me sixfeet under.” Gladstone raked a hand through his hair. “And I don’t blame her. I was on such a roll and I thought I was going to really do it this time.”
    “It never happens,” said Jackson, his voice low and gravelly as he turned to stare Gladstone directly in the eyes. “You need help, and you need to know that there never is a this time or a next time. You might win once or twice, or hit a lucky streak for a few hours, but when you don’t know when to stop you end up losing it all. Every time.”
    “You don’t know that,” Gladstone spit out bitterly, the acid in his tone unmistakable. “I was doing okay tonight. I lost focus. That all-in play at the end—”
    “Saved you a lot of heartache,” Jackson interrupted. “I know what I’m talking about. My dad spent a great deal of time at the track before he died.”
    For a few seconds Jackson’s confident mask lifted and she saw the vulnerable boy underneath. A child hurt by the people who were supposed to protect him. She had to consciously keep her hand from touching his brow so that she could soothe away the hurt she glimpsed there. A beat later the confident, steely mask returned.
    “I don’t have a problem. It’s a run of bad luck,” said Gladstone. “I know what I’m doing. I had an off night at the tables, it doesn’t make me some loser with an addiction like your dad. ” The last word spewed out of his mouth full of hate.
    Mar never wanted to punch a guy so bad as she did right then.
    “Yes, it does. And you’ve been at those tables for two days at least.” Jackson didn’t back down. His voice hada hard edge of steel in it. Mar was grateful the words weren’t directed at her. “I can tell from the way you’re talking that this isn’t the first time you’ve done this. You can’t see it, but you’re about to lose everything that is precious to you. The mortgage aside, if you keep gambling, your wife and child aren’t going to stay in your life. You need help.”
    “So that’s what all this is, some kind of intervention? Thanks, but no thanks. You can let me out on the corner.”
    Mariska’s eyebrow went up. “I’m beginning to wonder why your wife wants a deadbeat like you back home.” It might be a harsh thing to say, but the man needed a solid dose of truth. She had no compassion for idiots who only thought about themselves and left their families to suffer their mistakes. “You’re lucky we found you. If you borrowed money from those guys, your life would be even more complicated. You didn’t, by the way, borrow any money?”
    Gladstone glanced out the window, not bothering to answer.
    “Let me tell you something about these types of casinos,” Jackson interjected. “They are run by the Thai and Russian mafia. That big guy who stepped in front of me at the table was Russian. They take your money and offer markers when you run out.
    “Then you wake up the next morning after being sleep deprived for three days straight, you realize it wasn’t so much bad luck as a huge screw-up because you find yourself having to pay forty percent interest on a huge loan.”
    Holy crap. Mar knew it would be bad but had no ideait would be that much. Jackson must have come across this kind of thing in his line of work, or maybe with his dad. He did seem to know what he was talking about.
    Gladstone stared at his hands as if they were the most interesting things in the world.
    “When you can’t pay, and