My voice is feather light. “No, I won’t.”
C leans forward, his hand resting on his cards. “No?” His gaze moves to Trick. “Trick?”
Trick’s hand covers mine to stop me from looking at my cards. “C, don’t play. I’ll pay you back your stake. Re-deal, Laurelyn. ‘Vil, in or out?”
“Fucking in.”
“No re-deal. I’m in too,” C says.
Trick moves his arm to the back of my chair and leans in to whisper in my ear, “If you’re cheating, that promise I made—”
“Don’t. Please don’t renege.” My voice is soft, pleading. I lean back, putting my hands in my lap. “You said no lies. No broken promises. You made me believe you.”
He exhales like it’s his last breath and closes his eyes for a moment. “You can trust me. I promised you’re safe. You’re safe.”
Putting my hands on his cheeks, I kiss him. Then I turn to Connor. “Trick asked me to play, and I tried to say no. But he’s hard to say no to, so I agreed to play on the condition that there would be no consequences if I won all the money. He promised because he didn’t know what kind of player I am.”
“Did you cheat last hand?” C asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t think I’ll need to cheat to beat him tonight. Maybe though.”
“And of course if Anvil or I spot you cheating you don’t have to worry, because the slayer of bud vases over there has laid down the law that he’s the only one who will deal with you if you do something bad?”
“Right. That’s the part he’s really upset about. He can’t protect us both at once.”
C smirks. “There’s still no cheating at a C Crue table. If I catch you cheating, you’ll be in trouble. And you, Trick, and I will have to figure out how to resolve that.”
“‘Vil, switch seats with me,” Trick says.
Anvil gets up and swaps with him. We play the hand, and I win, but then Trick collects the cards and throws them in the trash and sets a new unopened deck in front of Connor.
“C, you deal all the hands from now on.”
C smiles as he unwraps the new deck, and I try not to react. Now that Trick’s been alerted to the possibility of cheating, it will make it harder to even distract him during an honest game. I should not have shown off. Then I notice Anvil’s wide grin and glance at him.
“Good work,” he says, extending his hand to shake mine again.
I hesitate for a moment, not sure if he means I’m finished but it was a good effort or what he means.
Finally, I shake, my hand being swallowed up in his massive one. “That last hand, I just had lucky cards.” I lower my voice. “I don’t know if—”
Anvil leans close, his huge muscles straining the seams of his clothes. “You made him play defense.” He nods at me with a meaningful shrug of his brows. “You won more than the hand.”
I lick my lips and give a small nod, encouraged beyond measure since C and Trick are now gunning for me and that makes me feel like I’m in over my head.
When I glance back at Trick his expression is fixed on Anvil and it’s openly hostile. The only time I’ve ever seen him look that way was at a party where he got into a fight with the boyfriend I had after him.
Anvil simply smiles back at Trick.
“I’m uncomfortable. Maybe we should stop playing?” It’s just a game, and it’s already gotten out of hand. I don’t want to lose, but I also don’t want C or Trick furious at me for the foreseeable future if I manage to win.
Trick says nothing. C deals the cards. Anvil jots some foreign words on a notepad. My heart hammers, so I take a couple of calming breaths and a sip of my ginger juice mock-tail, which I’ll never look at the same way again.
The game is brutal. I don’t always get the cards I need and I have to force myself to focus, but at times I’m in a good rhythm. C and Anvil are good players and I don’t know their style of play, so I watch the way Trick reacts to what they do until I understand them.
Trick goes all in at one point to knock C out of the game. We both chip away at Anvil until he’s out too. Between dealing, C walks around, drinking and watching us. Anvil sits back in his seat, drinking and smiling.
I’m ahead, so when I think I’ve got the hand to beat Trick, I go all in. He folds. Connor stalks over and, as he gathers the cards, he looks at mine.
