Page 28 of Diamonds (Aces Underground #2)

MADDOX

A lissa is giving me some serious puppy-dog eyes.

I’d love to get a drink. It’ll settle my nerves—Chet really was acting stranger than usual tonight—but I can’t deny this woman anything.

I haven’t played a game in the Diamonds section since that night when I picked up Wade Gimble’s guests at the craps table. I didn’t win big at craps, but I did take home two beautiful women and fuck them both at the same time, so I ended up pulling through pretty well.

Of course, I hit the true jackpot when Alissa walked into my shop a few weeks later.

So I guess I’m returning to Diamonds.

I escort Alissa to the golden lights of the Diamonds section. One Blackjack table is open—manned by the same gentlemen. Shellby.

I extend a hand to Shellby as I sit down. “Nice to see you again.”

He bows his head. “You too, Mr. Hathaway.” He switches his focus to Alissa. “And I haven’t had the pleasure, Miss…”

She smiles at him. “Maravilla. Alissa Maravilla. I’m Mr. Hathaway’s guest for the evening.”

“And a lovely one at that.” Shellby turns back to me. “Will you and your lady friend be playing a game with us tonight?”

“Yes.” I hold a chair for Alissa and then take one for myself.

“I’m going to need a quick rundown of the rules,” Alissa says.

I lean in, lowering my voice. “It’s easy. Just aim to get as close to twenty-one as possible without going over. Face cards are worth ten, aces can be one or eleven. We play against Shellby here. You’ll get the hang of it.”

Shellby places a neat stack of chips in front of both of us.

I nod to him. “Let’s start small.”

Shellby deals the cards, his hands quick and deliberate.

“You’ve got a nine and a five.” I point to each of Alissa’s cards. “That’s fourteen. You should probably hit.”

She nods. “Hit me, Shellby!”

Shellby deals her another card—a six.

“Nice,” I say. “That’s twenty. You should stand.”

She follows my instruction, lightly tapping her fingers on the table to signal her choice.

I switch to my cards. I have a queen and a three. I tap as well, and Shellby slides me a seven.

“Twenty as well,” Shellby says. “Good play.” He flips his own cards—a ten and a six. He hits once, drawing a five. “Twenty-one. House wins.”

Alissa groans.

I chuckle. “That’s how it goes sometimes. Let’s go again, Shellby.”

This time Alissa draws an ace and an eight.

I lean in. “That’s either nine or nineteen. Play it smart.”

She waves her hand to stay.

I got two tens, an easy twenty, so I stay as well.

The dealer flips his hand—twelve. He hits and draws a ten, busting out at twenty-two.

A slow smile spreads across Alissa’s face as Shellby pushes chips toward her. “I won?”

“You won,” I confirm. “Feels good, right?”

She nods, excitement sparking in her eyes. “Let’s keep going.”

We continue playing. Alissa wins quite a few more times, but she’s a little shaky. She eventually spurns my help, wanting to play the odds on her own.

Fine by me. I can focus on my own game. I’m pretty good at Blackjack, but tonight I’m on a roll. Hand after hand, I play with precision. The chips stack higher and higher in front of me. The murmurs in the room shift as curious onlookers gather.

Alissa leans into my ear. “Do you think we should stop? We’re getting a lot of attention.”

I shake my head. “Never leave a table when you’re hot.”

The crowd ripples, and the spectators part slightly. A figure wearing a violent shade of red enters my peripheral vision.

I know from the skip in my heartbeat that it’s Rouge Montrose.

I turn toward her. Rouge is draped in a crimson velvet gown with a structured bodice, embroidered with gold filigree in the shape of playing card suits—spades, clubs, diamonds, but most prominently, hearts.

She moves with an effortless grace, her sharp eyes locking onto me with an assessing gaze.

“Well, well,” Rouge drawls, a knowing smirk curving her lips.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it would seem like the winds of change are blowing through Aces Underground this evening.” She grabs the deck of cards off our table and holds it up to the crowd.

“The deck is always shifting, the game forever changing, but power… Power must be claimed.” Rouge shuffles the deck and then seemingly at random takes a card out.

The crowd gasps.

Rouge flicks it forward with effortless grace, and the card lands in my waiting hand. “It is with my unquestioning authority that I declare Maddox Hathaway to be Aces Underground’s new King of Diamonds.”

I look down at my hand. Indeed, the card in my hand matches the title Rouge just gave me. I look up, my eyes wide, as a murmur ripples through the room.

Rouge’s sharp gaze drifts to Alissa. “And every king needs a queen.”

With a wicked smile, she lifts another card from the deck—sure enough, it’s the Queen of Diamonds.

Alissa looks up at me, her mouth agape.

What does this mean?

* * *

“Mr. Hathaway, you’ll have to work your way up through the deck before you can land yourself a Queen.”

I took those words as a challenge. I felt something electrical that first night at Aces Underground, and it sure as hell wasn’t the Three of Spades. Don’t get me wrong. She was a hot little fuck, and sex is always fun, but it was Rouge Montrose who commanded my attention.

Her power, her authority. The way everyone in the room looks to her when she speaks.

And she knew my father. She might know what the hell this river of tears shit means from the file I was given at his funeral.

I have a feeling Rouge Montrose holds a lot of this city’s secrets.

So I kept returning to Aces Underground. Every weekend, as soon as I closed the shop.

I never slept with another server—I didn’t care for the power dynamic—but I met several women who I took to bed. I even dated a few casually.

But the goal was to work my way up to Rouge. After all, the Hathaways were dragged over the social coals during the last few years of my father’s life. I assumed that what Rouge meant was, for her to sleep with me, I’d have to prove myself a powerful figure among the societal elites.

And bedding the well-to-do women and mistresses of Aces was hardly a chore.

I have a good feeling about tonight. The club isn’t as busy as normal, so it’s easier to get Rouge’s attention. Her full attention.

I’m in the Diamonds section. I don’t go very often—I don’t like playing with my money—but Rouge seems to hold her money closest to her heart after her power. She tends to be drawn toward anyone who’s playing particularly well. Probably to make sure she isn’t getting screwed.

I don’t intend to screw Rouge, at least not in that way.

She’s outside of her office near the Hearts section, talking to her sister, Bianca.

Bianca is extremely talented. Used to work as an actress in New York City before she came back home to Chicago as the full-time singer for Aces.

But she’s painfully shy offstage. Always looking down, never making eye contact with the person she’s talking to.

She’s acting that way with Rouge. Head bowed, shoulders slumped.

Bianca’s a beautiful woman. And for an insurmountable price—much more than any of the servers—Aces patrons can take her behind the velvet curtains too.

The thought is tempting.

But she’s not the Montrose I’m after.

I’m after the grand prize. The top of the deck.

The Queen herself.

Rouge wraps up her conversation with her sister, and I cut in between them.

“Rouge.”

She eyes me. “Mr. Hathaway. A pleasure to see you tonight, as always.”

I take her hand, kiss it gently. “The pleasure is all mine.”

“Are you enjoying your evening here at Aces?”

“I am.” I narrow my gaze. “Are you enjoying yours?”

She grins. “Every evening at Aces is a new gamble, Mr. Hathaway. A new opportunity to explore the weird and the fantastic.” She turns away. “But I must attend to ? —”

I grab her hand. “Rouge. You didn’t answer my question. Are you enjoying your evening?”

She crinkles her eyes, showing creases in her vivid red eye shadow. “What do you mean to ask me, Mr. Hathaway?”

“Years ago, Rouge, when I first came to this club, I asked you what your price was. You told me that I had to work my way up the deck before I could take you.” I shrug.

“I now own a successful business, built from the ground up, a complete departure from the life my father wanted for me. I drive a beautiful Rolls-Royce and dress in the finest fashions I can get my hands on. And I’ve taken many beautiful women to bed.

Women with power and stature.” I sear my gaze into her. “Does that make me worthy of a Queen?”

She cocks her head, her expression unreadable. “And it’s true that you never intend to return to the political sphere? You’ve spurned that lifestyle entirely in favor of your personal passions?”

I nod. “My father even left me a trust. Ten million dollars, payable to me if I go to Yale, pursue a degree in political science. I haven’t touched a penny of it. And I never will. My girlfriend, Laurie, broke up with me over it. Even then, I stood by my shop.”

“An admirable quality.” She subtly glances over both of her shoulders. “I want one thing to be very clear, Mr. Hathaway.”

“And what’s that?”

She gestures to the Diamonds section. “We offer many games of chance here at Aces Underground, as I’m sure you know. Poker, Blackjack, baccarat. But my favorite card game is one that we do not offer here at Aces.”

I grin. “Go Fish?”

She sniffs. “No. Solitaire.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“Solitaire. The game for one. The name of the game itself comes from the French word for ‘alone.’” She grabs my arm, runs her hand up and down it sensually.

“Mr. Hathaway, I would love to escort you to somewhere more private, somewhere we can explore each other in the ways of our primal ancestors. But I want it to be understood between us that when we are through, Solitaire will remain my game of choice.”

I blink.

It takes a second, but I figure out what she means.

This is a one-time thing. She’s not looking for a relationship.