Page 76 of Hidden Ties

She racked her brain if Sal had taken this woman back to his house but definitely didn’t remember her, and there was no fucking possible way you could ever forget a woman like the one who stood in front of her.

Ha-ha! He wishes!

“My name’s Valerie. Yours?” she said, laying the light stack of cash down.

“Sadie.” She took the cash and quickly turned the bills into chips. “It’s nice to meet ya. I haven’t seen a fresh face down here in a while, and it’s always good to see such a pretty one.”

“Aw, thanks. It’s nice to meet you, too.” Blushing, she took it more as a compliment from Sadie than she had with Amo as she watched her shuffle the deck with expert precision. While she did so, Sadie gave her a rundown of how to play the game and the rules.

“Think you’re ready?”

“Yep. I think so …” Valerie nodded as she began to deal the cards. It started off as a no-brainer for Sadie to explain what she should do by the book of basic strategy when Valerie was dealt a twenty and the house revealing a face card.

Waving her hand above the table, Valerie was trying to stand. “Like this?”

“You got it!” Sadie praised as she flipped the house card to reveal a six and then busted on an eight. “See? You’ll be a pro in no time.”

Giving Sadie a wink, she ignored the small laughter in her ear. “Well, I’ll have you to thank for that.”

While the hands went on, they got trickier, but Valerie stopped to listen to her coach, sure to take her time in making the rightcall when itcameto her. The hardest part was making sure no one wanted to sit down at the table with her and ruin her flow. She had to do everything she could to think of as a way to scare off the men, including letting them know that it was her time of the month and she might not make rational decisions at the moment.

While she talked with Sadie about her current blood flow, the last gentleman to sit next to her hadn’t even set the chips down on the table before he scrammed.

“Wow. You’re doing quite well,” Sadie told her appreciatively as the chips began to fill the table. The pit boss totally caught on to what Valerie was doing by talking about her period but didn’t seem to mind, enjoying the solo female company.

“Beginner’s luck,” she told her simply before moving on. “I’ll have to put you into my next video game. You’d make for a sick character design.”

Having heard all about her video game obsession, as she had now been sitting here for over an hour, Sadie’s hand fell across her cleavage. “I’d be honored. What’s this one about?”

“I think this time, I’m going to do more of a story campaign. ThinkLaw and OrdermeetsThe GodfathermeetsSons of Anarchy.”

“Sounds interesting.” Sadie smirked right before the house busted yet again.

When she dealt the next hand, Valerie had given her the sign to split.

“Are you sure you want to do that? The book doesn’t recommen—”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Valerie smiled sweetly.

Sadie split her tens, then dealt two tens to place on top of each hand, giving Valerie two hands of twenty. Doing this made the house bust as small cards flowed out next. However, the house wouldn’t have busted if it had drawn that first ten.

Giving her her winnings, the pit boss couldn’t believe the sheer luck. “Wow, that was something you just pulled off.”

“Beginner’s luck,” Valerie told her again with a shrug, about to change the subject she had been saved, when Amo appeared behind Sadie.

“Hey, Sadie, I keep getting complaints that there’s a woman asking men if they have any tampons or a pa—”

Neither Valerie nor Sadie could keep themselves from laughing, causing Amo to finally see who customers had been complaining about.

“I should have known,” he said, shaking his head at her. “You’ve been the bane of my existence since you moved in with S—”

“We’ll keep it down from now on,” Valerie choked out, stopping him before he could finish his sentence and not only completely embarrass her but ruin the fun by mentioning who it was she had moved in with upstairs. Amo was her new next-door neighbor who hated her with a passion; this time, it was so much sweeter with a view and a boyfriend. “I promise.”

“Okay, fine,” Amo conceded, understanding what she was doing, but he had to still put his foot down or Lucca would kick his ass. “You can play for another hour by yourself at this table, but that’s it.”

“Aw, thanks, Amo.” Valerie smiled at him but wished it had been less of one at his next words.

“You know, I could be a model for your game, too,” he suggested with a hell of a lot of confidence. “Matthias isn’t the only one around here with tattoos.”