“No, I’m not,” he said. “I came here to give you an ultimatum. I’m not leaving until you choose. Either I take you to the airport and put your ass on a plane to Moosehide, or you come play poker with me tonight.”
“Poker? Where, at the Glasgow?”
“No, in the Soo. At this guy’s house. You haven’t met him.”
“Since when do you go out playing poker?” I said. “Who’s gonna run the place?”
“We usually play at the bar,” he said. “Not the old crowd you used to play with. This is a new thing. You’d know that if you ever came by. Win wants to show off his new poker table, so I figured I’d let my son look after things. It’s called a night out, Alex. It’s what sociable people do sometimes.”
“Jackie, I really don’t feel like playing poker with a bunch of guys I don’t know.”
“Too much of a strain, I understand. Okay, I’ll help you get packed.”
“Knock it off. I’m not going to, where you’d say? Moosehide? Is that really a town in the Yukon?”
“I told you, Alex. One or the other. I’m not leaving until you pick one.”
“None of the above, Jackie. Thanks for the offer.”
“You’re gonna have to forcibly remove me,” he said.
“Since when do you use words like ‘forcibly’?”
“Poker or the Yukon, Alex. I’m waiting.”
What else was I going to do? I sure as hell wasn’t going to the Yukon, and I didn’t feel like forcibly removing him. So I chose poker. It seemed like the easy way out.
Little did I know.
The Hunting Wind: An Alex McKnight Mystery Page 28
