I slid an envelope containing ten crisp Benjamins toward her. She opened it and pulled out the bills.

“Really?” I said. “You’re going to count the money at the table?”

“You gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.” She winked.

“That makes no sense at all.” I shook my head. “This isn’t a game.”

“Everything’s a game.” She quickly counted out the bills and stuffed them back in the envelope. Then she stuffed the envelope into her bra.

Nice touch, though I no longer found her as attractive as I had when I’d fucked her in New York. Sure, I was going to bed her last night, but now? I was just as glad I hadn’t. She was hot, no doubt, but I had someone else on my mind.

I took a drink of my water to soothe the dryness in my mouth. Too much drinking last night. Then I lifted my eyebrows, saying nothing.

“You have to ask,” she said.

“I don’t have to do anything.”

“If you want to know what I know, you have to ask.”

“I just paid you.”

“Pretty please?”

“Fuck it all.” I raked my hand through my hair. “Tell me, Nieves. What did you find at Rock’s place that you never told him about?”

She smiled. “You think I’m going to say his gun, don’t you?”

“I think I don’t have a clue what you’re going to say, and I wish you’d end the suspense.”

“I did see his gun,” she said, “but I didn’t take it.”

“Fine. What did you take, then?”

“So, it wasn’t so much that I took something as much as it was that I erased something.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Rock was kind of old-school,” she said. “He still had an answering machine and insisted on using it instead of the voicemail on his phone.”

Somehow, that didn’t surprise me. My oldest brother had done everything he could to escape his upbringing. Going old-school fit right into that mold. “So you heard a message and erased it.”

“Yes.”

“What did the message say?”

“You should already know.”

I let out a heavy sigh and rubbed my forehead. “You’re giving me a migraine, Nieves. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” she said, “that the message I intercepted was from you.”

“And…?”

“And what?”

“What the hell did the message say?”

“You can probably tell me.”

“No, I can’t. I hardly ever called my brother, and when I did, it was usually just to check in. I was the only one who communicated with him with any kind of regularity.”

“Except for that one time.”

I seriously thought about pulling my hair out, strand by strand. She was making me that crazy. “What one time?” I said through gritted teeth.