Read Online The Gambler by Lois Greiman - Free Book Online

I sit in?"
    Her expression made it all worthwhile. All the pain. All the searching.
    "You!" she whispered in surprise, but Jude's welcome was not so benign.
    "Damn you!" he roared, lunging to his feet. But a table and three men occupied the space between them. Raven smiled with smug satisfaction.
    "Good to see you again, Fergusson," he said with a nod. "And you, too, Miss Charming."
    Her face, he noted with some satisfaction, was as pale as a silver dollar, and her eyes were just as round.
    Raven brightened his smile.
    "I'll kill you!" Jude growled.
    "Seems to be a family custom," Raven said. "In fact..." he began, drawing a cheroot from the inside pocket of his silver-embroidered vest, "that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about." From a mental file Raven pulled a possible scenario with casual aplomb. "Killing. Randall Grady, to be specific."
    Jude dropped like a fallen stone back to his chair. The blood drained in a rush from his face.
    Raven raised his gaze to Charm again, enjoying every moment. "I ain't no ghost. Though I can't blame you for that fact. Now we have us a little something to clear..." But Jude's breathing had become harsh and rattling, interrupting Raven's words.
    Charm dropped to her knees beside him, touching his arm as she examined his pasty face. "Are you all right?" she asked, but Jude was beginning to list toward the left. She teetered under his weight, trying to keep him from falling. "Help him! Please!"
    There was little Raven could do but assist, for Jude's three large opponents seemed nailed to their chairs, and surely a dead man could give him no answers. So, he rushed about the table to push the failing fellow to the right, balancing him there as Charm rose rapidly to her feet.
    "Have to lay him down," she murmured. "Here. Over here." She motioned toward a red settee.
    Raven wrapped his arms about the old gambler's torso and followed her, half dragging Jude along. In a moment the old man was propped up on the frayed, red velvet of the once elegant settee.
    "There now. You're gonna be fine," crooned Charm, immediately on her knees again. "Somebody get him some water. And hurry."
    From the table behind, two men bumbled away to do her bidding. Raven stood idly by, feeling ridiculously out of character and irritably impatient for his carefully planned revenge.
    Water was brought in a shot glass, carried hurriedly along by a lumbering grizzly of a man. Liquid sloshed generously across his coarse fingers as he panted to a halt by Charm's side. "Here y' go, miss," he said, pressing the nearly empty glass toward her.
    Breathing a word of thanks, she gently urged Jude to take a sip. But even that tiny bit of liquid seemed to be too much for the old man.
    "Is it your stomach?" Charm asked, leaning nearer her father.
    "I'm all right." His tone sounded ghastly, vividly belying his words. "Just get him the hell outta my sight before I kill 'im." He waved toward Raven, but his strength failed to sustain the lift of his arm. It fell limply over the edge of the settee as his lids dropped closed.
    "Jude?" Charm's tone was desperate and ragged.
    The old man's lips moved, and she leaned across his chest to hear him. "My gal," he whispered, trying to pat her hand. "So sorry. Shoulda learned who he was. Shoulda—"
    "Just rest for a spell." She forced a smile. "Everything's going to be fine. You'll see. Just rest. Then I'll get you to your room." Her voice wobbled slightly, and when she reached out, her hand did the same.
    Tears? Raven wondered. Were those real tears in her eyes? But no! He was forgetting her identity—and after all the pain she'd caused him. She was an even better actress than he'd realized. Not to mention the old man, who surely deserved some kind of award for his touching performance.
    "I'll have some answers first," Raven said. Remembering the pain the Fergussons had caused him, he stepped nearer the settee. "About—"
    "Have you no heart?" She looked up from the floor, and, indeed, in her