Page 87 of Diamonds

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.