He knocked on Evie’s door. “Got a minute?” he asked his sister.
She looked up from her laptop.
“What’s up?”
“I need your help. You should have been in the planning meeting.”
“You found me when you needed me. It’s all good.”
God, she was frustrating.
“Do I need to beat the shit out of O’Malley. I can take him.”
Her eyes were dry, but too dry if that made sense. She stared at him hard. “No. He’s an asshole. He made his position clear. I’m something to mess around with. Goody for me. Now, what do you need, Big Man?”
“I need some way to lure Mom out of the house while we go in to visit with Dad.”
Evie tapped on the top of her laptop, clearly considering the problem. “If what Piper said was right, you have to do something to get her to think she has some free play at the casino.”
“Free play?”
“Yeah. Like she gets to play five hundred dollars of free play at the slots or something. Knowing our mother, she’d call to confirm. So, you’d have to make it legit.”
“Clint could do it.”
“Yeah, he could,” she said sadly.
“You could come down and tell him your idea yourself.”
“Nah. Thanks for letting me be a part of it, though.”
“I’m going to hit him.”
“Don’t bother. It’s not like anything happened. I just expected better of him. I was wrong. I’m always wrong.”
“Now I’m definitely going to hit him.”
“Get out of here,” Evie said with a sad laugh.
Drake took the stairs three at a time and was in the study in a heartbeat. He was extremely careful not to meet Aiden’s eyes, if he did, he would hit the bastard. He dialed Clint’s SKYPE number again.
“Yo,” Clint answered, this time Lydia’s face filled the screen as well.
“Hey, Lydia.” Drake smiled. “Hopefully, between the two of you, you can do this. My mom plays at the nearest Indian Casino. Evie was saying that if she got some free play, meaning some free dollars at the slots, she would be enticed to leave the house. Can you arrange that and have the casino call her?”
Lydia damn near bounced up and down. “That’s not a problem. I’ll figure out where she has a player’s club card, and then arrange it.”
“A player’s club card?” Drake asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Clint answered. “My soon-to-be-wife knows all. How soon do you need it?”
“I’ll tell her that it needs to be redeemed in three hours. How’s that?” Lydia suggested.
“That’d be perfect. But-”
“But what?” Clint asked.
“It’s nothing.”
“No, say it,” Lydia demanded.
“I said it’s nothing, drop it.”
“Consider it dropped. Anything else?” Clint asked.
“That covers it. Thanks, Lydia.”
“No, thank you, this will be fun. Clint doesn’t let me have computer fun anymore.”
“We play League of Legends,” Clint protested
“Oh God.” Drake put his head in his hand. “That’s not a game. Call of Duty is a game.”
“Good-bye, Drake,” Clint ended the call.
Drake turned to his team, concentrating on Darius and Mason. “Sounds like we have three hours before we leave.”
“Trenda was baking a cake.” Darius smiled. “It was chocolate.”
“With chocolate chips,” Aiden chimed in, he opened the door and left with Darius hot on his heels.
“Is everything all right?” Mason asked.
“I’m not sure Aiden played by the rules?”
Mason lifted an eyebrow.
“Evie’s hurting, and it’s because of Aiden. She said nothing happened, but I’m not so sure.”
“You’re going to have to talk to the man.”
“Oh, I’ll talk to the man.”
“Yes, I’m sure you will, but remember, I’m still going to need you to work together.”
Drake grimaced. “I hear you.”
As they walked out of the room, he still couldn’t help being worried about his mom driving the twisty roads in the snow towards the casino. What a fool he was.
***
They got the message a half hour later that Wanda Avery had told the casino she would be on her way. The snow wasn’t coming down as fiercely, just soft flakes, which made Drake feel better.
Seven o’clock on a Friday snowy night in February ensured darkness, but it still meant that there would be people in the neighborhood.
“We’ve got to go in so that there isn’t gunfire,” Drake said.
“Agreed. We don’t want stray bullets going through to other houses.”