Chapter 22

"Here pity only lives when it is dead - Virgil"

-Dante Alighieri, Inferno

I didn't want to believe that Arthur was in The Broken Shoe. I had drunk the whole bottle of tequila throughout the poker game with Devlin, and now I was finishing the second one. I suspected that my brain was playing tricks on me, that Arthur was just a mirage, someone my twisted mind had created for me. However when I walked up to him, touching his hard chest, his arms, and that handsome face, I was certain that this wasn't any kind of demonic trick. He was truly standing in front of me, looking completely relaxed.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, swaying from one side to the other.

"Waiting for you, beautiful. I've been watching you for a while. It's impressive. How long have you been playing poker?"