Page 7 of Tangled Lies

I hated the way his eyes lit up.

“We do not get attached, Jett. Never.”

He nodded absently, but he was still watching her even as he followed me back into the main room.

We went back to playing poker without anyone saying anything. I was fucking bored. That’s what I told myself as my eyes kept finding Margaux. She didn’t have any idea who I was. She didn’t even seem to know that someone else was here; she should know.

Another of my invitees got up.

“Gentleman, it’s been a pleasure, but I have a plane to catch first thing in the morning.”

I nodded to the judge who had lost nearly every hand in the past two hours. He was never going to win, but I would have appreciated a challenge.

I cracked my neck. If shit didn’t get more interesting soon, it was just going to be the four of us at one table. No thanks. I spent enough time with these fuckers.

“Anyone else calling it a night?”

Another local politician and one of the rich pricks who had tried to fuck over my father also stood up and tucked their tails.

“It was a pleasure, gentlemen.”

I stood to follow them out, stopping them at the door.

“I trust you will be holding up your end of the bargain, then?” The guy I addressed paused and turned to me.

They pulled off their masks, not that they had hidden who they were from me or my boys. The masks were the illusion of secrecy. I already knew who was here.

This had been our little game. A web weaved, and they’d all come buzzing in.

“Yes. I lost. I’ll have the deed sent first thing tomorrow.” The local politician wasn’t losing much, not like the judge, really. Just a warehouse with strategic access I wanted.

The way the three men shifted, I moved aside for Knox. The menacing fucker that he was really had a way with his presence. No one could look away from him, and I’d guess it was more about the fact they didn’t know what he might do with the lighter he was currently flipping open and close, lighting as he went.

“Sleep tight little, pawns. Don’t let the bedbugs bite,” Knox said and shoved one of them out the door with the other hurrying after him. Their useless bodyguards tucked tail and ran.

Laughter drew our attention to the main room.

“Hey, princess, want a ride?”

I rolled my eyes.

Jett.

I nodded to Knox and we turned back.

“Fuck you.” Carrow was reaching for the woman he’d been making out with or ignoring at any given moment all night. I watched him eye Margaux as Jett reached for her.

“So, what do you say, pretty girl? I promise you, my dick’s much better than his.”

Her eyes widened behind that mask, but recognition of her fiancé wasn’t there.

“Fuck this. You can have her,” Carrow said tugging at his stand-in woman.

I shrugged.

“Let them go.”

I turned at the movement, watching Margaux pause her retreat with a drink in hand, her eyes following everything closely. Something I’d never noticed when she’d been with her uncle is just how much she saw. Perhaps she wasn’t the pathetic little minion I’d pegged her for. The way she tossed back the drink she held added to that little bucket of surprise that was starting to fill with all the unexpected things that were the former Harrington heiress. Now she was just the senator's niece, demoted to something worthless when her parents died.