Page 34 of Texas Hold Em’ (The Devil’s Luck MC #3)

CARRIE

T he night was cool, and my nerves didn’t help.

I shivered even wrapped up in a blanket Sam had brought out for me.

She, Suzie, and I sat around the coffee table on the back porch.

A candle burned between us and a bowl of chips sat untouched beside the flickering flame.

We each had sodas that we’d cracked open, but none of us had touched them.

We all gazed into the tiny dancing flame as the air filled with the scent of citronella.

Had they arrived at the landfill yet?

Was Bates already there, lying in wait?

Did he know I’d conned him?

Had I said something last night that tipped Caroline off, but she pretended to go along with it?

Sam stood up abruptly. “I’m going to find a deck of playing cards. I can’t just sit here. I need something to do.”

Suzie watched Sam disappear into the house before returning her gaze to the candle.

I felt compelled to reassure her. She looked as worried as I felt. “They’ll be okay.”

Her eyes flicked up to me and she bundled herself up tighter in her blanket. “Yeah… yeah, of course they will be. ”

I forced a smile. “I’ve seen Mason in action. He’s a fighter and he has proper motivation. They all do.”

Suzie nodded, but it didn’t look as if my words had reassured her. She nuzzled her chin into her blanket and sniffled. “I’m glad my brother has finally decided to trust you.”

Minutes before they left, Jackson had come up to me, shook my hand, and thanked me for what I did the night before. Apparently, Brody had given him a play by play earlier this afternoon and told him that I’d held my ground and followed through. Finally, I had Jackson’s full buy-in.

I no longer had to prove myself.

His approval might have felt better if it hadn’t come seconds before I watched Tex drive off to fight a madman.

Sam returned with a pack of playing cards. She sat down and began shuffling, but within seconds, she messed it up and the cards went flying.

Sam went to her hands and knees and started picking them up.

Suzie slid off her chair. “Here, let me help you.”

Suzie tucked the last cards into the box and set them on the coffee table while Sam pushed smoothly to her feet and suddenly swayed.

She took two hurried steps backward to brace herself against the porch railing before lowering herself slowly into the closest chair.

By now, Suzie was already on her feet and making a fuss, asking Sam what was wrong.

“I stood up too fast is all,” Sam said, waving Suzie and her concern away with one hand. “I’m okay.”

“I’m going to get you some water.” Suzie disappeared inside.

Even though both of the women were well versed in stressful evenings at home while waiting for their men to return—or not return—their nerves still showed.

I’d been sitting here thinking I was the only one of us coming apart at the seams, but Sam’s sudden dizzy spell after her need for a distraction reminded me that we were all human, and we were all in love, and waiting around like this sucked.

Maybe I could do my part and help distract them after all the help they’d given me over the past weeks .

“So how did you and Jackson, you know, start seeing each other?” I asked.

Sam glanced up at me with a creased brow, but she managed a smile before sinking deeper into her chair.

Suzie came out of the house with a glass of water and pressed it into Sam’s hands.

She drank thankfully, draining nearly half the glass in four steady gulps.

“He and the boys were regulars at my bar for a long time before anything ever came of Jackson and me. My father knew him better than I did and used to serve them and let them stay late whenever they wanted. Having them around back in the day used to be something that kept people safe. Now… well, now things kind of feel like they’re the other way around, don’t they? ”

Suzie and I both nodded absently.

Sam sighed. “I didn’t see him for five years when he joined the military. William took over as President for those years and I still saw the whole crew, Suzie sometimes too, but in those days, we never really liked each other.”

I tried to picture what they might have been like five years prior. Suzie would have been quite young, just becoming a young adult.

Sam laughed lightly. “She used to roll her eyes every time I walked into a room.”

“I thought you were a priss and wouldn’t be able to handle my brother, okay? In one sense, I was trying to look out for you. I thought he’d chew you up and spit you out.”

Sam lifted her chin proudly. “And it turns out he just loves me more than anything in the world. I’m the one who chewed him up and spat him out.”

Suzie giggled and got comfy in a chair beside Sam. “You can say that again. My brother thinks the sun shines out of your ass.”

Sam blushed and grinned, a proud and content young woman, and as I watched, her hand fell to her stomach. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. At first, I thought she might still be feeling a little off balance and therefore nauseated.

At first, I thought it was just a coincidence that she rubbed in a slow and affectionate circle .

Sam caught me staring at her hand and immediately did something to keep both hands busy. She sipped her water and watched me over the rim.

I tried to move on without bringing attention to it. “So Jackson came back from Syria and you guys hit it off pretty quickly?”

Sam nodded hurriedly. “Mhm. I saw him the first night he came back to town because, well, he’d just found out about his brother’s death, you see.

” Sam reached over and put a hand on Suzie’s wrist. She gave the other woman’s arm a comforting squeeze as she spoke of William.

“He was really struggling. Every man expects to lose brothers when he goes to war. He never expects to lose the one at home while he’s away. It rocked him. Changed him forever.”

Suzie couldn’t meet my eye. “It changed all of us forever. It started this whole mess.”

“Anyway, I guess things started off between Jackson and me because I had a bar I let him into after hours where he could process and have peace and quiet. And food. He wasn’t eating.

I don’t think it even occurred to him in those first few days to eat.

But I made sure he had a meal a day. Truth be told, I don’t know why I really latched onto him in the beginning.

I suppose I was hurting too. I’d lost my dad and felt alone for a really long time. Jackson made me feel seen.”

Her hand was back on her stomach. I frowned. Sam turned bright pink.

Suzie seemed to catch onto what was happening and stammered to change the subject.

“So uh, what about you and Tex? What’s the game plan after tonight?

” She spoke like everything would go perfectly well tonight and the men were only down at the end of the street buying liquor and cigarettes.

“Are you guys going to go your separate ways? It’d be a shame. I think Tex really likes you.”

I had a gut feeling he really liked me, too.

“We’ll have things to talk about,” I said, trying to avoid looking Sam in the eyes.

There was something going on there. I’d been around my fair share of friends back in Austin who were hiding pregnancies.

Sure, they might have said and done all the right things consciously, but there were unconscious habits and instincts that went under their radar—like a fond touch of their belly, a wistful gaze at a newborn baby, nausea, dizziness.

Sam and Jackson were going to have a baby.

“Well, I kind of hope you stay,” Sam said.

I blinked. “You do?”

Sam laughed at my genuine surprise. “Yes, I do. Suzie and I are totally outnumbered here. There is too much testosterone. Besides, Tex needs a woman like you to keep him in line. And based on everything that’s gone on, I think they all need you.”

That might have been the nicest thing any of them had said to me.

Sam reached over and grabbed my hand. “You’re a badass, Carrie. You saved Mason’s life. You kicked ass last night to orchestrate a plan that has the potential to save us all. We’d all be better for it if you stayed.”

My throat felt a little tight. I cleared it and looked away, afraid my emotions would get the best of me. “Thank you, Sam. That means a lot.”

“And,” she added, “it might be nice to have someone else around who can keep my secret.”

Unintentionally, my eyes swept to her stomach.

Suzie bit her bottom lip. “We can’t say anything to anyone.”

Were they crazy? “Jackson will want to know,” I said.

“This news is incredible! After everything that’s happened, I’m sure he feels like he’s been kicked while he’s down for the last five years.

But to find out he’s going to be a dad?” I cupped my cheeks in my hands as a warm fuzzy feeling spread through me. “Why don’t you want to tell him?”

Sam shifted forward in her seat and leaned forward.

“Carrie, this is very important. I don’t want Jack to know until Bates is out of the picture.

He already has too much on his plate worrying about keeping me, his sister, and the MC safe.

He has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

I should know. He lies in bed staring at the ceiling countless nights, contemplating everything he’s lost and what he still might lose before this is over.

If I tell him I’m pregnant, he might not be able to keep his fear at bay. It’s better he doesn’t know. ”

The thought of keeping something so huge from the President scared me. “Won’t he be furious that you lied?”

Sam shook her head and leaned back. “No, he’ll understand why I did it, and he’ll be free to celebrate and look forward to fatherhood when that time comes rather than be filled with worry over losing it all.”

I supposed it made sense, but a terrible question rolled around in my brain.

What if Jackson died tonight and Sam never got a chance to tell him he was going to be a father?

Had she thought about that? Did it weigh on her? Was it a risk she was willing to take—a burden she was willing to carry for the rest of her life?

“I know what you’re thinking,” Sam said before sipping her water. “He’s coming home tonight. I’ll have my chance to tell him, and when I do, it will be perfect.”

Suzie smiled. “Exactly.”

Their confidence shook me because I didn’t feel it.

Not even a little bit. I’d been eye to eye with Bates.

I’d looked into the deep, empty pit of his soul and felt the whispers of evil in their depths spilling over into my heart.

I’d felt true fear in his presence, and I’d felt the weight of truth of all his wrongdoings and bad deeds as I breathed in his cigar smoke.

He would kill Jackson if he got the chance tonight. He’d do it however he could pull it off. Bloody, clean, quick or long and torturous, he’d see it through. And the Devils were already down one man. If William had still been alive, they’d be one man stronger.

He would have been an uncle.

I got to my feet. Sam and Suzie looked up at me. “I have to go,” I said.

“Wait,” Sam breathed.

“No.” Suzie got to her feet.

But I wasn’t listening. My decision had been made.

There was no way I could sit here on this deck twiddling my thumbs when I knew for a fact I could be useful tonight.

I could fill the place of a man who would fight tooth and nail to protect his brothers.

I was just as capable of helping them, of saving them, and of riding with them.

And if they didn’t want me there?

Fuck ‘em.

This was my plan. My design. My fight.

I had every right to be there.

“I need to borrow a ride,” I said as I strode down the porch steps.

Both women hurried after me as we made our way to the shop.

“Where does Grant keep the keys to the bikes he’s working on?” I shouldered open the side door to the shop and flicked on the lights. They buzzed overhead as they warmed up, and I surged ahead, weaving through the bikes, checking if keys were in ignitions. They weren’t.

“This is crazy,” Sam said.

I put my back to them, lifted the back of my T-shirt up, and showed them two pistols tucked into the back of my jeans.

“I never really had any intention of staying here tonight. I shouldn’t have let Tex convince me to stay.

For all I know, they’re already in over their heads.

But I can help them. You’re going to have a baby, Samantha.

A baby. Jackson needs to come home tonight.

He needs to. If I can be another set of eyes on the ground to make sure that happens?

Well, then I’m damn well going to make sure I’m there. Now tell me, where are the keys?”

Sam’s eyes glistened with tears. Suzie marched forward. For a moment, I thought she was going to let me have it, but she pulled a set of keys from her pocket and dropped them into my palm. She took me by the shoulders, spun me around, and pointed to a mean-looking bike sitting near the bay doors.

“You can take mine,” she said. “It was William’s. It’s fast as hell on straightaways, but it’s not built for cornering, so don’t go into them with too much speed.” She continued listing off things I should and shouldn’t do on the bike as she opened the bay doors.

I rolled the bike out onto the gravel. “Don’t worry. I’ve ridden enough to know what I’m doing. And hey, Sam? ”

Sam looked up. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she looked pale.

“Your secret is safe with me,” I said.

She smiled thinly. “Be careful, Carrie.”

The engine of the motorcycle roared to life as Suzie pulled open the metal gate on the side of the house. I pulled out into the street, leaving the women staring after me. Wind whipped at my cheeks and the fear I’d felt on the deck blew away.

Now that I’d taken back control, fear had no place in my heart.

It was time to get shit done.