Page 17 of Don't Bet On It
“I just didn’t want you getting worked up,” Zach explained. “My father has become… unhinged … as of late. When he showed up at the casino, he surprised us all.”
“I wasn’t surprised,” Rex muttered.
Zach pretended Rex hadn’t spoken. “He was threatening to make a scene, so Tallulah and one of the dealers tied him up in the storage room and left him for Rex.”
“What?” Olivia was rightfully flabbergasted.
“Was that dealer Ronan?” Zach asked me.
I opened my mouth, debated, then decided it couldn’t possibly hurt to tell the truth. “Yes, he was the one who decided to tie him up. We found zip ties in the closet, so it wasn’t that hard.”
“Okay.” Olivia rubbed her forehead. “I think I’m going to have to hear the whole story.”
Since I didn’t appear to have a choice in the matter, I laid everything out. Rex had only heard parts of the story, so he laughed when I described sitting on Ryder so Ronan could bind his ankles and wrists.
“Oh, that’s priceless,” Rex said with a laugh as I was wrapping up. “I need to pull the video from the cameras in there so I can watch that.”
“We’ll have a full viewing,” Zach agreed. “With popcorn.” He smiled then realized Olivia was frowning at him. “I didn’t want you getting worked up, baby. I just thought it was better this way because you wouldn’t be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” Olivia fired back. “I’m mad.”
“Well, you have a right to be mad. We’ve got security personnel stationed at every door to the casino now, though. If he tries to come back, he won’t get inside.”
That seemed like an impossible undertaking to me. I didn’t voice my opinion. “I think it’s nice that you want to protect her,” I said to Zach instead. “You’re a very good husband.”
Rather than thank me for my sentiments, Zach gave me a dirty look. “You’re not getting out of this. I might be in the doghouse, but you’re not out of trouble either.” He used hispuppy dog eyes on Olivia—the ones she said she couldn’t resist—and then focused on me. “Spill the beans on Ronan.”
I was caught, and everybody knew it. On a world-weary sigh, I held out my hands. “I don’t know what to tell you. I was as surprised as anybody when I saw him.” That was the truth. It didn’t compute for him to be working at Stone Casino. I was still digging to figure out why. “When I asked him about it, he just said he didn’t want to work for his family.”
“Do you believe him?” Zach was serious.
“I have no reason not to believe him.”
They tried to make it look casual, but the expressions Rex and Zach shot one another were impossible to miss.
“You’re not going to fire him, are you?” I felt sick to my stomach at the possibility.
“He shouldn’t be here,” Zach replied. “His father is one of our chief competitors.”
“He’s a good worker, though.” I was assuming that. I didn’t actually know. “Maybe he and his father have cut ties or something.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No. He did help wrestle down your father, though. I wouldn’t have been able to do that myself.”
Zach fell quiet, contemplative.
“On top of that, the news that Ryder was here hasn’t been made public,” I pressed. “That means Ronan didn’t sell the story when he could have. He also didn’t send it through those bougie gossip channels that all the casino owners use.”
Zach smirked. “Bougie gossip channels?”
“How would you refer to them?” I challenged.
He tilted his head, thought about it, then shrugged. “That fits. I don’t disagree with your take on this. It’s weird to me that he’s here, though.”
“He wasn’t hiding.” Why I was arguing so vehemently for Ronan was beyond me. I simply couldn’t be the reason he got fired. What if he really did need the job? I understood, more than most, what it meant to live in fear of losing the very roof over your head. Was that unlikely for Ronan? Yes. Still, I couldn’t shake the belief that he didn’t have the Stone family’s worst interests at heart. He was minding his own business. “I saw him talking to you the other day,” I said to Rex.
“I was talking to him,” Rex agreed. “When I thought he was somebody else.”
