Page 7

Max

Hailey walks past me, carrying a tray of drinks. That dress hugs every curve of her body, and honestly, my eyes have been on her all night. I'm sure I'm being too obvious. A couple of times, she glanced at me and then quickly looked away, blushing.

I don't know what it is about her that's making me obsess. Her looks? Her mysterious past? The way she seems unsure of herself when she wobbles in those heels? Maybe I'm still in shock from the Sam situation. Hopefully, a good night's sleep will fix this crush I'm developing.

Nick has taken over dealing, so Dad sits next to me on the couch.

I glance down at my freshly bandaged hand, clenching and unclenching my fist. It still hurts, but more importantly, it looks unprofessional, so I don't think I'll be dealing cards tonight.

This is going to be a pain in the ass if I have to throw punches any time soon.

"How is that?" Dad asks.

"Not bad." I drop my hand, not wanting to appear weak.

"You know, I got bit on the ankle once. I think I was around your age." He laughs, shaking the ice in his glass of bourbon. "You only make this kind of mistake once. I bet you'll be extremely aware of people's mouths from now on when you’re roughing someone up."

My mind drifts back to Hailey as Dad rambles on. She looks incredible tonight, with that wavy blonde hair and those blue eyes. Although she has no experience, she's caught on quickly, and everyone seems to like her.

Dad places his hand on my shoulder, bringing me back to reality. "Hey, at least you're a lefty."

I nod as Hailey bends over the table to hand someone a plate of appetizers. Blood rushes to my groin, and I wonder what's wrong with me.

"And don't tell your mother about this," Dad laughs. "She always blames me when things like this happen."

I glance at the large bandage on my hand. "I'm visiting you guys this weekend for dinner. Can't hide it that soon."

"I know, I know. I'm just kidding."

I turn my attention back to the game. With how much these people are betting and our ten percent rake, we're going to make a small fortune tonight.

It took us years to build a large enough list of players to host multiple parties a week.

It wasn't easy, considering most of the ultra-rich live outside the Midwest. But we're good at what we do: knowing how much credit to extend to these men if they don't have enough cash on hand, de-escalating potential fights and arguments, and making them feel like royalty.

Hailey enters the room again. I notice she's limping, probably a side effect of the six-inch heels she's wearing.

She hands out a couple of beers, then gets to Jason—a real estate developer who has given us nothing but trouble every fucking night.

He's the reason we've been cycling through so many girls, and if he weren't so rich, we would've banned him already for his behavior.

But he's reckless with his gambling and has never asked us for a loan.

Dad refuses to kick him out because of this.

She sets a glass of whiskey next to him, then he slides his chair out and pulls her onto his lap.

There's a look of shock and discomfort on her face before she masks it with a forced giggle.

I clench my fists at my sides and glance over at Dad, knowing he won't order Nick or me to do anything about this.

Jason grabs an ice cube from his drink and shoves it into her mouth. I bolt up, but Dad immediately pulls me back onto the couch. "Give it a minute," he hisses in my ear. "Think about the money."

"What's that in your mouth?" Jason asks.

"Ice?" The word comes out garbled.

"Very good," he says sarcastically. "And did I ask for my whiskey on the rocks? "

What the fuck? That’s his usual order. She didn't mess anything up.

Her eyes widen, and she looks toward me for a second, then back to Jason. "I must have misheard you. I'm sorry."

"Go get me another one." He shoves her off him, slapping her ass as she walks away. She looks like she wants the earth to swallow her whole, while the bastard smirks at us.

"I'm going to go check on her," I whisper to Dad and get up before he can stop me. I walk through the hallway toward the kitchen where I figure she went to fix another drink.

When I round the corner, I can sense she's upset as she picks up a bottle of liquor. "Hey," I say softly to get her attention.

She turns around, her blue eyes wide with fear, her face red with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry," she stammers.

"Sorry? You didn't do anything wrong. I came here to check on you."

"It was my fault. I was so stupid for getting the drink order wrong." Her hands shake as she pours whiskey into a glass.

"Hailey, I don't care if you filled that glass with your own piss. He shouldn't have touched you that way."

She gives me a weak smile and tries to walk past me. I have the impulse to grab her arm, but I figure that wouldn't help after what just happened. "Wait," I say.

She bites her lip and keeps her eyes on the floor.

"We rarely tolerate this behavior from guests, but my father wants us to bend over backwards for these people. We host a lot of different poker parties, but these guests are the richest gamblers we know. I promise this kind of shit won’t happen again, and I can have Savannah deal with him the rest of the night. "

"I can handle myself. I can do this job," she says, snapping out of her insecurity and narrowing her eyes at me.

Oh great, I've offended her. I should have stayed in the fucking poker room.

I let her walk past me and follow her back to the game. Jason thanks her sarcastically, then she moves to sit near Savannah. I plop down next to Dad again.

"She okay?" Dad asks.

I grunt a yes.

"This is why I hate having new girls."

"We wouldn't need to keep hiring new people if we cracked down on his behavior," I hiss.

"Is it hard to find a pretty girl desperate to make easy money? No. Is it hard to find a multi-millionaire willing to gamble significant portions of his life savings? Yes."

I roll my eyes. He brushes this off, but I'm expecting Jason to really hurt someone one day. Since we haven't been doing anything, he's only grown creepier and angrier. And clearly, his coke habit is getting out of control too.

An hour or two passes without incident, and I get bored and tired. I grab a Red Bull from the kitchen to keep myself awake and sit next to Nick, since Dad has taken over the table.

Jason downs the rest of his drink and shakes the empty glass at the girls, snapping to get their attention .

"I'm sick of this fucking prick," I mutter under my breath.

"I'm just waiting for the day he goes into debt," Nick says.

"He’s too rich and well-connected. I doubt he ever will," I scoff.

"I know, but this guy is a fucking idiot. We might get lucky and need to pay him a visit one day."

Savannah stands up to help him, but Jason stops her and points to Hailey. "I want her to do it."

Hailey smiles at him. I'm sure it's fake, but she's pretty good at hiding her discomfort.

She gets up to serve him another drink. When she comes back into the room, my eyes follow her until she reaches Jason's smug face.

He grins at the drink placed in front of him.

"Can I get a kiss with that? To make up for last time? "

Her eyes lock on mine, and I quickly shake my head.

"Come on," he grabs her waist and pulls her closer.

"Hey!" I bark, standing up. "Hands to yourself."

Jason slowly turns his head to face me, his entire demeanor oozing entitlement as he glares.

"She's a whore," he says, as if stating a mundane fact.

Hailey crosses her arms over her chest and drops her head toward the ground. Her legs are shaking.

“The fuck did you just call her?" I growl.

"A whore. She doesn't know how to make a fucking drink, but she's hot. I assume you guys brought her here to mess around with us. "

The other poker players roll their eyes and drop their cards on the table. They hate this guy as much as I do. Why the fuck do we let him play? If I was in charge…

I take three steps toward him, then hear my father's voice. "Easy, Max."

I snap around and glare at him. "I'm not tolerating this anymore."

Dad glares back, keeping his gaze steady. I raise my eyebrows. I just need a slight nod from him, and this bastard will get acquainted with my fists.

But he shakes his head.

My jaw tightens, and I look at Hailey, noticing the tears in her eyes.

"Say you're sorry," I tell Jason, ignoring Dad's orders. I can feel his eyes burning into my back.

Jason rolls his eyes and takes a gulp of his drink. He looks at Hailey. "Sorry, I misunderstood the situation. But you know, when someone looks like a whore and acts like a whore, I get confused is all."

My body reacts before my mind does, and the next thing I know, I've pulled him off his chair, and he's beneath me.

"Max, stop," Dad barks, but it's too late now. He'll have to rip me off him.

I land my first punch on his nose and hear it crack. Forgetting it's injured, I use my right hand to punch him in the eye. My hand screams in pain, but I ignore it and keep hitting him with both fists .

Everyone is shouting around me, but I tune it out.

I feel Nick try to pull me off, but I throw my elbow. He dodges, allowing me to continue pounding this fucking cokehead.

His face is a bloody pulp, and he's not even trying to fight me off anymore. I don't even know if he's still conscious, but I keep going.

Two sets of arms grab mine and pull me off him.

The room spins around me, and I struggle to catch my breath.

Hailey and Savannah are holding hands, staring at me with wide eyes.

Edward clutches his chest, making me worry he's having a fucking heart attack.

Don, the poor guy closest to all this, vomits on the floor.

There's blood splattered on his shoes, but I'm guessing his stomach got upset at the sight of Jason lying unconscious on the ground with his face caved in.

His cheekbones look broken. Half his teeth are missing. His nose is flat. One of his eyes is swollen shut.

Jesus, how long was I on him? I thought I only landed a few punches. I really lost control.

We're either going to have to finish him off or take him to the hospital.

"Take care of it," Dad says to Nick. "Get everyone out and assess the damage. I'll be down soon."

He drags me upstairs to one of the bathrooms as if I'm an unruly child .

I don't fight him as we get away from everyone. I know I deserve to get my ass handed to me for losing control like that.

He pushes me inside the bathroom and slams the door behind us.

I take a seat on the edge of the tub as he stands above me, frozen, finger pointed in the air. His face shifts from anger to shock to worry, then back to anger.

"What the fuck was that?" he demands.

"I don't know. One minute I was standing there, the next he was on the ground with a bloody face."

"You ignored me. Directly. In front of everyone. If you weren't my son, do you know what I'd do to you?"

I shake my head.

He swears and kicks the cupboard under the sink, denting it. He runs his hand through his hair. "I mean, this isn't like you. When your brother did shit like this, I didn't bat an eye. But you? You were always mellow. Not a pussy or anything. But calm. Collected."

"I'm sorry," I mutter. Not for Jason, but for the fact that I directly ignored orders. I'm too shocked to handle anyone right now.

He leans against the counter, face in his hands. I look down at my blood-stained hands and turn on the tap to wash them.

"You haven't developed a coke habit or anything, have you?" he asks.

I shake my head. "Never touched that stuff. I don't even drink much anymore. Just smoke a bowl some nights. "

He sighs. "Well, maybe you need more of that. Or less. I don't know. Something isn't right with you."

The water turns pink as I wash the blood away. I got most of it off, and now I'm working on cleaning under my fingernails.

"Is it the money?" he asks.

I look over at him, not sure what he's talking about. "What?"

"The ten million you owe me? Has that been stressing you out all day? Do you not have it or something?"

"No, no, I have it."

He blinks at me. "Well, you better figure out why you freaked out like that."

I nod. "It's been a rough day. You know, with Sam?"

“Mother fucker, I knew you wouldn't be able to handle that," Dad mutters to himself.

The words sting, though I know it wasn't killing Sam that drove me to this. It was Hailey. Whenever Jason touched the girls without their permission, it pissed me off, but something about Hailey being taken advantage of made me explode.

There's a knock at the bathroom door.

"Who is it?" Dad asks.

"It's me," Nick's voice replies.

The door opens. Nick glares at me in a way I've never seen before.

"He's dead.” I feel Nick’s intense stare, but I squeeze my fist and keep my eyes fixed on the floor.

"Really, Max? You should have taken the fucking night off if you felt this unstable.

How are we going to pay off our loan to Alexei?

I just bought that property in Florida. I needed the goddamn money! "

He storms out of the bathroom.

I bury my face in my hands. It's painful because I know everything Nick and Dad have said is true. I really fucked up.

Dad sighs. "Nick and I will figure out what to do with the body. It's your mess, but I can tell you can't think straight right now. Can you take care of cashing out the girls tonight?"

I nod, hoping he'll leave and give me some time to cool down.

"Good. We're not done talking about this, but I'll leave you alone for the night."