Page 6

FIVE

BET

ROYCE

N icolette isn’t going anywhere with Miles Haines.

I didn’t talk her out of it. I didn’t expect to. From everything I’ve learned about this woman, once she makes up her mind about something, that’s it. If she gives her word, she’ll go through with it.

If I can’t figure out how to keep that wallet from walking out of here with her tonight, she’ll fuck him for all the money I saw in that briefcase.

I don’t know where he got that cash from. It doesn’t matter. I know Haines. I know his reputation, both at the poker table and with the girls upstairs. He’s got money, plenty of disposable cash he throws around to see like a big shot, but the most I’ve heard him paying the girls for their time is a grand, tops. For ten? Something’s not right.

Add that to how sure he is that he has to take her out of the Playground? I’ve never been able to pin him down on our turf, but I’ve heard rumors about the sick and twisted shit Haines does when he gets a woman alone. No foreplay. Rough sex that includes blood play, with or without consent. Forced anal with the excuse of ‘it slipped’. That shit doesn’t fly with our girls upstairs, but if he leaves and someone goes with him?

Unless they come to us to fix the problem, what can we do? If I went to Devil and asked to eliminate anyone with questionably kinks, he’d point out that he’d be one of the first in line to go. Especially when Haines could just say that she wanted it, and for the kind of paydays he provides, his victims often do.

I’d need proof to off one of the big spenders here. Link might let it pass if I pushed it, but with all of this truce bullshit happening lately… Haines doesn’t just frequent the Playground. He’s a regular on Dragonfly turf, too.

So I can’t pull rank and stop her; not as her boss, and not as a Sinner. But I’d be a shit fixer if I didn’t have a plan within the next five minutes of how I was going to accomplish that.

Considering I pulled the idea of a big stakes poker game out of my ass, I’m an even better one than I thought.

Haines has no idea, but he’s already snared in my trap the second he joins me at the poker table at eleven-thirty. That Nicolette is milling around the quiet casino area to watch me pull this off?

That just makes this all the sweeter.

I’m keeping a close eye on the time. I have half an hour to knock the other three players out, then focus on Haines. Since two of the three are plants—prospective soldiers who want to be full-fledged Sinners—that’s easy enough. The third is a well-known gambler in Springfield, but I’ve played against him enough to know his tells.

He’s out even before one of the plants folds.

At ten to twelve, it’s just me and Haines. I lost a couple of hands deliberately in order to build up his confidence and add to the chips growing in front of him, but when the clock winds down and I realize it’s time I have here where I want him, I get ready to make my move.

The betting for the latest hand started out low. A couple of hundred before the ante went up to a thousand. We both buy in. Haines takes two cards. I take three.

I nod.

Haines smirks. High on the thought he’s walking out of here with Nicolette in a few moments, he’s probably looking to get some cash back from the amount he promised her.

Why else would he say, “Two grand.”

I could draw this out. Honestly? I’d rather see him squirm.

“I raise you.” A tiny crooked smile. “Ten grand.”

Haines’s eyes immediately drop to the floor. I know he’s looking at the case he has by his ankles. He waits a moment, then slowly fans out his cards again.

He blows a breath out through his long nose. “I’m in.”

“Put up the cash.”

“You know I’m good for it.”

I shake my head, swallowing my smile. This fucker’s making it too easy, but I don’t want to tip him off before I play my hand. “That’s not how it works. Put up or shut up.”

Haines works his jaw. “What about you?”

“What about me? I’m a Sinner.”

“So?” he demands.

Just like I thought he would. “You want to see my ten k? Is that is? You don’t think a Sinners’ word is good enough?”

“I didn’t say that?—”

Yeah, he did, but I don’t care. I made a display of looking around the faces gathered. I skip over Julio, landing on Killian who is standing behind me. I snap my finger, and he moseys on over to the table.

“Yeah, Rolls?”

“Go get me ten stacks.”

“You got it.”

Killian doesn’t hesitate. A good man who knows better than to question orders, I’m proud to have him on my crew. Having been filled in earlier on my plan, he doesn’t take too long, either; I need this game down at midnight, not before, not after.

At eleven-fifty-eight, he lays out ten grand on the table, then nods at me before taking up his spot by my side.

“Your turn,” I call.

“Come on, Rolls,” Haines says, now that I’ve called his bluff. “You know that money’s spoken for.”

I do. Why does he think I’ve gone to all of this trouble?

“I know,” I say simply before raising my voice. “You bought a night with one of our girls. Play me for it.”

When I hear the gasp, I know instinctively it belongs to Nicolette. I slide my gaze over, finding her by the table, holding onto her empty server tray. I’m not surprised she’s there. I told her to have Jessie put her in the casino on purpose, just so she could witness this game.

Witness it, and refuse to be the prize if that’s what she wanted.

I wait. I wait for Haines to refuse, or for Nicolette to say that she’s changed her mind. When neither of them do, I cock my head at my opponent.

“Here’s how it goes. I win this hand, I get the night with Nicolette. You win, you do—and this stack of cash. Deal? Or you can fold and gave’s over. It’s almost midnight. You call?”

Haines looks at his cards. He must really think he has something because, after only a moment’s hesitation, he retrieves the briefcase from under the table, tossing it haphazardly, knocking over the stacks of Sinners cash Killian lined up for me.

“I’m in.”

“Show ‘em.”

Haines does. Not bad. He has a pair of aces, ten high after that.

My turn.

I reveal four of my cards. “I have a king, a queen, two sixes?—”

Haines hand shoots out, aiming for the nearest stack in the middle of the table, greed making him a little too hasty.

“Hang on a second.” I flip my last card, pausing for dramatic effect. “Six of clubs. Three of a kind, Haines. Looks like I beat your pair of aces.”

I nod at Julio. He moves away from the table, signaling to Killian. Killian grabs Matt, the larger soldier coming between Killian and Haines so that they can gather that stacks of cash back up.

Haines is sputtering. Something about that not counting, that I cheated, that the money is his . That he needs it, that he’s talking the girl with him anyway?—-

Blah. Blah. Blah.

I won, and I have an entire crowd to back me up on that.

Ignoring the blustering wallet, I rise up from my seat. Leaning over the table, I wipe aside the cards, then grab the briefcase he placed when he made his bet.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him lunge for me. He still hasn’t noticed Julio behind him, so when he moves, my enforcer tackles him to the table.

I grin.

Nicolette is watching the entire scene with the most adorable look on her face. If I found her and she looked terrified at the prospect of spending a night with me, I would have dropped it. Given her the case, told her not to worry about any agreement she made with that asshole—or the bet I most definitely manipulated her into—and walked away while Julio and the other fellas handled Haines.

But then our eyes meet. She swallows, and I watch the motion down the slender column of her throat without any shield to the heat in my expression.

The heights of her tanned cheeks turn pink and I know in that moment that my life will never be the same.

Approaching Nicolette, I gingerly remove the empty serving tray from her grasp. Once I toss that to the poker table behind me, I heft up the heavy case, offering it to her.

“Go on. Take it.”

She doesn’t. Instead, she moves a small step away from me. “What? Why are you giving me this?”

I’d honestly second-guess what I was about to do if I really thought she wanted to put space between us. If I really believed that she would agree to a night with Miles Haines, then flinch at the idea of joining me in my bed.

But when she recovers her footing, leaning into me as though part of her recognizes that she belongs in my arms? That it isn’t me she’s unsure of, but the ten grand in my hand?

I make the biggest bet of my life: that Nicolette will be mine .

“Weren’t you watching? I won the hand.”

“I know?—”

“And that means I get my prize.” I press the handle of the case against her palm, waiting for her fingers to curve over it before letting go. “He promised you ten grand for a night with you. Here’s the money. But that night with you? It belongs to me.”

And so will she.