The Gambler Read Free Page A

Jerry."
    Jerry, who in the fuck was this Jerry asshole? Calm down Andros; her eyes had flown to him just like that, as soon as the anger rose at her mention of another man's name on her lips.
    "Mr. Andros are you there, she wants Tom and Jerry, she watches them in the mornings. Jenna baby you're good?" The woman sounded disbelieving as though she'd thought her daughter was being tortured.
    Tom and Jerry, he couldn't believe he'd almost lost his shit over a cartoon character damn.
    The two women chatted forever before Andros decided it was time his little Jenna had breakfast. Taking the phone , he took it off of speaker and grilled her about her daughter's likes and dislikes.
    "But when are you bringing her home? This is crazy, nobody would tell me anything, I don't understand, why did you take my daughter?"
    “Because you weren't doing a very good job of taking care of her."
    "What, that's not true I love my daughter, why would you believe such a thing?"
    "I have no doubt that you do, she's obviously had care and that's the only reason you're not on my shit list, let's keep it that way shall we? Did you know your bastard son hits her?"
    "Alec, no he hasn't in..." She cut herself off when she realized what her words revealed.
    "But he said you took her to square a debt."
    "What kind of debt?"
    "A gambling debt, a game that you cheated on along with everything else."
    "I wouldn't sit down with that piece of shit at a dog fight. Your son lied to you, he fucking hit her in a room full of people , because she wanted to go to the fucking slot machines. He told you I took her to square a bet. I'm a fucking animal now? Lady you love your son?"
    "Of course I do, I love both my children."
    "Next time you see your boy you take a picture, remember what he used to look like." He hung up the phone and prayed for patience. Little Jenna had already moved on. Now she was rearranging the shit on his dresser. He took the time to watch her. He'd found that if he gave his charges enough attention, there was always meaning in everything they did. Sure enough she was making an asymmetrical design out of the odds and ends he usually threw there.
    It was when she came to a picture of Alice that he held his breath and waited. She picked it up slowly and stared for the longest moment , before running her fingers over the glass encased face and kissing it, before placing it front and center. When she picked up her head with that same look of sorrow he'd worn himself for so long, he couldn't help going to her and folding her in his arms carefully, so as not to spook her. She just melted into him like she'd been doing it for a lifetime.

 
     
    It didn't take gramps long to get to upstate New York from his place in Connecticut , and then it seemed like everybody showed up at the same time.
    Eileen was there with bags of stuff for Jenna, and his guards were there , as well as gramps' men. He hadn't thought of what to do with little Jenna while they were having their sit down, shit.
    He decided to take her to the kitchen with Sue, his cook and housekeeper , who came in early in the mornings. He knew he could trust the other woman with her, plus Willy will be around so he had no worries.
    "Stay here with Sue for a little bit okay little Jenna, I'm just down the hall in the study if you need me."
    She just nodded her head, as she was too busy watching her cartoon on the handheld tablet he'd just given her. From her reaction he was guessing she'd never held one, he had to figure out how to get her all the episodes of that shit streaming on there, because he was pretty sure he was never seeing it again.
    Back in the study , gramps was seated in a huddle with his advisors. The men all cleared their throats and sat back when he walked in and took his seat behind his desk. It felt strange not having her in his line of vision. He decided he'd have to see about some sort of monitor or something.
    Andros didn't have to dig too far into his psyche to figure out why