Page 104 of Nothing to Win

“All of them?”

“Hey, between Tripp and my guy, it’s possible they’ve tapped every female there.”

“Tripp’s been very respectful.”

Roxie sighed.“That’s the big secret, he always is.Alice raised her boys right, believe you me.Tripp’s been respectful.How about Gault?”

“On the disrespect scale, everyone has to get in line behind my brother.He’d be quite happy for me to get this deal for the Sears on my back.”

“He’s a dick and you’re better than that.Stronger than that.You stood up to them for Brogan.”

“For Shanna.”

“Don’t worry, honey,” Roxie said.“Tripp is there.”

Glancing around, that got her thinking.“Yeah, somewhere.He got a call and disappeared a while ago.”

“Call from who?”

“I don’t know.”And she wouldn’t ask.“Think everything’s okay?”

“If something bad happened, I’d know.”

“Would you tell me?”she asked.

“Depends what it was.”

If nothing else, she couldn’t fault her friend for honesty.“I’ll see Tripp at the drinks thing tonight.There’s a lot of required drinking.”

“Drink whatever you want, Tripp won’t let anyone take advantage.”

“Do people believe you about him?”

“About Tripp?What about him?”

“The way people see him—”

“People who don’t know him.”

“Right—” Her phone buzzed, another call: Shanna.“Rox, Shanna’s calling, I—”

“Go, answer it.Be careful and call me later.”

“Thanks.”She hung up on one friend to answer the other.“Shanna?”

“Gia!Oh my God!”

That wasn’t informative.“Everything okay?Are you okay?”

“I—we—” Shanna let out a long breath.“He found him.We think he found him.”

“Jarrod?You found Jarrod.”

“The PI, in Mexico.He thinks it’s him.We have to go down there.”

“We have to go down there?”she asked.“We have to go—why do we have to go to Mexico?”

“Someone must ID him and the PI says he’s mixed up in—he might not walk away with a stranger.Please, Gia, I know it’s a lot of money, but—”