Page 23 of Texas Hold Em’ (The Devil’s Luck MC #3)

JAMESON

T he guys settled into comfortable places in Grant’s shop.

Mason leaned against the cabinets on the far wall beside Jackson and Brody.

Abel nursed a beer while perching on an old shop stool with a peeling seat.

Beside him, Gabriel sat inches off the floor on a crawler, his long legs stretched out in front of him as he rolled the crawler back and forth, back and forth.

Abel shot him an irritated glance. “Joker, will you fucking sit still? This isn’t grade school.”

Gabriel looked up innocently from where he rolled on his crawler. “Who shit in your cereal this morning, Snake?”

Abel rolled his eyes to the ceiling and drank more beer. “This is serious.”

Knox stood with both hands in the pockets of his club jacket. His bored expression suggested this was the mood Abel and Gabriel had been in all damn day.

Nobody seemed willing to start the conversation off. We all knew why we were there, which was to talk about the plan. Not the Friday-night plan, but the bigger, higher risk plan of stopping my heart and convincing Bates I was dead .

For the first time since I proposed the idea, I felt a flutter of nerves in my gut.

I cast a glance over my shoulder out the bay doors of Grant’s shop.

Up on the porch, Carrie sat with Suzie and Samantha.

She was in the corner of one of the outdoor sofas and she’d drawn her knees all the way up to her chest. She’d had a hard time leaving the house this morning to come here.

After our afternoon and night together yesterday, she’d begged me once more not to do this, but when she saw how fixed I was on the plan, she relented and agreed to tag along.

“If I can’t talk you out of it,” she’d said, “the least I can do is be there to make sure nobody talks you into anything even dumber.”

I’d told her to calm down and that she was clearly obsessed with me, but if she wanted to come and play my babysitter? Well, that was just fine by me.

She’d slapped my shoulder and called me an ass.

Currently, she had her head tilted to the side as she listened to a story Suzie was telling animatedly.

Her hands moved with enthusiasm and her expressions shifted from one emotion to the other.

From where I was standing, it was pretty obvious that Suzie was doing her best to keep Carrie distracted from what me and the men were talking about.

I’d have to thank her for that later.

“Tex.”

I turned back to the group of men and found Jackson staring expectantly at me.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

Brody chuckled. “Crushing on the Ranger for real now, huh?”

I rolled my shoulders. “We have more important things to talk about.”

“She looks stressed,” Knox said, leaning to the side to peer past me and get a look at Carrie up on Grant’s porch. “Is she getting cold feet?”

“You mean colder feet than she already had?” I asked. “No, she can handle it.”

Jackson pushed off the cabinets and stood with his arms crossed. “Let’s stay on subject. We have a lot to get through today. First order of business. Tex, are you sure you want to go through with this? Say your piece now. There will be no shame in changing your mind.”

Shame? Perhaps not. At least not from my brothers. But me?

I wasn’t one to turn my back on a chance like this.

“I want to move ahead with the plan,” I said with finality.

Jackson studied me quietly for a moment, and I wondered if he’d been hopeful I would back out. “So be it,” he said. “How are we going to make this work?”

All eyes slid back to me.

I held up both hands innocently. “Hey, boys, I’m the one getting my heart stopped. Nobody said anything about me being the master planner.”

Brody chimed in. “The entire plan has to center around us being able to stop your heart and start it back up within that six-minute window. If we can trim it down to four? Even better. But to start, let’s focus on the main event, which is me being with you with my defibrillator.”

Knox shifted uneasily and tugged at the front of his shirt, cooling himself down even though it wasn’t too hot of a day. “Suddenly this feels a little too real for comfort.”

I knew what he meant. The mention of the defibrillator made me a little sweaty around the collar, too.

Brody nodded his understanding. “It’s not going to be easy, especially considering there’s going to be a lot of activity between the last heartbeat and starting it again.

Bates, or one of his associates, will have to be present to confirm it for themselves.

We have no way of anticipating how long they’re going to stay with the body, or what they’ll want to do to confirm death.

” The shop seemed to echo with a sharp silence after Brody said the words “the body.” My body.

“We’re going to have to be prepared for anything. ”

“You mean Carrie will,” Jackson said, his tone sharp with an edge. “She’s the one who’ll have to be there because she’s the one who will communicate with Bates.” His eyes slid to me. “It won’t be one of your brothers watching your back, Tex. It’ll be the girl. Does that still feel right to you? ”

I nodded. “I trust her.”

“You trust her enough to handle this shit in four minutes?” Abel asked.

Gabriel nodded up at Abel. “What he said. Even if she has the best intentions, she might not be able to keep a cool head when the time comes. She might blow the whole thing wide open, and guess where you’ll be champ? Belly up with no heartbeat, that’s where.”

Abel pointed down at Gabriel. “What he said.”

I knew I’d be met with resistance today, but it got under my skin nevertheless.

“Listen, I know I’m taking a risk. There’s no beating around the bushes about it.

But it’s my risk to take. And Carrie? She has a more level head than the rest of us when shit gets real, okay?

I’ve seen her in action. When the time comes, she’ll get through it. ”

And she’ll get me through it, too.

The men grumbled, except for Mason, who nodded his agreement. “We have to move on from doubting her. Carrie is a Texas Ranger, just like Tex used to be. She has grit. Wits. She has everything she needs to do this right.”

I nodded my thanks to the Vice President before looking around at the group.

“I think we need to keep things simple. When the time comes, Carrie will reach out to Bates and tell him the job is done.” The Job referred to my murder, and the men all nodded their understand so I could continue.

“She’ll send him a picture of my body on the burner phone he gave her.

Like Brody said, Bates is going to want to make sure I’m really dead, so he’ll either come himself, or he’ll send someone.

In order to maintain our four-to-six-minute window,” I shot Brody a glance, who held up four fingers, noting once more his preference, “we’ll have to stage the picture Carrie sends of my death when I’m still breathing.

Carrie and Brody will be on site, so once they’ve stopped my heart they’ll have to stage me to make sure I match the picture exactly. ”

It felt fucking odd talking so nonchalantly about my own death like this.

“I’m following,” Jackson said. “Continue.”

“We can’t plan for how Bates will want to ensure Carrie has fulfilled her end of the deal.

He might come to us, or he might ask her to bring me to him.

Either way, we have to have Brody with us.

Either he’ll have to tail us or hide somewhere on site if this all goes down at my apartment.

Once Bates confirms I have no pulse, he’ll ideally leave me with Carrie.

She might have to come up with something on the spot to ensure he does.

As soon as he’s gone, that’s where you come back in, Brody. ”

Nobody said anything for a long stretch of time.

Brody finally spoke. “There’s a lot of room for error.”

Grant nodded. “What if Bates wants to tie rocks to your ankles and toss you in Pyramid Lake? Or shoot you in the head for good measure?”

I shrugged. “Then I’ll be gone and you all will have to see things through on Friday.”

Knox frowned. “Fuck, man.”

“What do you guys want me to say?” I looked around at all of them.

“I never said this was ideal, but it’s what we’ve got, and I for one am fucking sick of Bates running around this city like he owns it.

I’m sick of getting bad news like hearing about poor Tracy getting murdered.

I’m sick of William’s murder being brushed under the rug.

This shit ends this week. I’ve made my peace with my part of the job. It’s time you all do too.”

Nobody looked at me. Instead they shared uneasy glances with each other until all their attention eventually landed on Jackson, who still stood with his arms crossed at the back of his shop.

Jackson met my eye. “If Bates wants to move your body, Carrie will have to tell him he can’t have you yet, and she’ll use your corpse to lure the rest of us out to the landfill on Friday night. If we want to bury you, we’ll have to come get you.”

Silence permeated the shop, but I heard Jackson’s words for what they were—his approval.

I grinned. “There it is.”