“Silence!” Rouge commands.
“Because it will always be what Rouge wants, won’t it?” I continue. “Rouge, who killed your friend in cold blood after you let me into the club.”
“I think we’ve heard enough.” Rouge raises the dagger once more and?—
Chet soars across the room, knocking the dagger out of Rouge’s hands and tackling her to the floor. I stand up and roll Lou and Carol off to the other side of the bed. They grunt as they hit the floor on top of one another—they’re old, so they might have fractured a few bones from the short fall—but they’re at least out of harm’s way for now.
“Kreuzer, now!” Rouge cries out.
The door to the bedchamber’s en suite bathroom bursts open, and a man I recognize as the King of Clubs barrels out toward Chet. But I stop him in his tracks, throwing a right hook to his jaw. He responds with an uppercut of his own to my chin, but I’m feeling no pain right now, and I land a side kick to his chest, knocking him back a few feet.
Another man walks into the room—the King of Diamonds—but Vanya leaps onto his back and gets a chokehold around his neck. Meanwhile, the King of Spades tries to sneak up behind Chet, but he quickly rams a knife into his throat, sending his body to the floor.
Chet then turns on the King of Diamonds, grabs him by the shoulders, and shakes him hard to get Vanya off him. Vanya tumbles to the floor and Chet takes the sides of the King’s head in his hands before snapping his neck. He crumples to the floor.
Now it’s the three of us against the King of Clubs, the burliest in the bunch. As Chet approaches, I sweep my feet under his legs, bringing him down to his knees. Vanya kicks him in the face, breaking his nose. Chet steps in and slits his throat in one fluid motion before leaping across the room and pressing the knife—still dripping with the blood of her fallen Kings—against Rouge’s fair-skinned throat.
Her lip quivers. “Et tu, Chet?”
“Et me, regina mea.” He presses the knife against Rouge’s throat. “But perhaps there is an agreement to be made here.”
My heart starts beating again. Fuck. Did I misread this?
Three Kings lie dead at our feet. Chet had no problem killing them. Why is he hesitating now?
“What are your terms?” Rouge hisses.
“I take the reins at Aces,” Chet returns. “I recreate it in my image, and someone else takes on the monotonous duties I performed.”
Rouge rolls her eyes. “No one can run Aces like I do.”
“Perhaps that’s the problem.” His grin widens. “Perhaps that’s why you’ve found yourself in this situation, Majesty.”
Rouge widens her eyes. For once, she’s been silenced.
Her eyes glisten with calculations as she darts her gaze around the room from Chet, to me, to Vanya, to the bodies of the three Kings, to Bianca, and then back to Chet. They almost glow with defiance.
And she pulls the final move in her arsenal.
She snaps Chet’s blade from her throat and plucks a second diamond-encrusted dagger from her cleavage. Before Chet can retaliate, she aims it at herself, eyeing Bianca.
“You can take Aces out of my cold, dead fingers, sister.”
And she plunges the dagger into her breast.
Blood spurts from her chest, and she slowly sinks into a sitting position on the edge of her bed.
“Rouge!” Bianca runs to her sister’s side, taking her hand. “What have you done?”
A final grin inches across her face. “No one will feel the beat of a Queen’s heart except for me.”
The light leaves her eyes, and she lies back on the bed. Dead.
Bianca throws herself over her sister’s body. She’s crying.
She hated her, but Rouge was still her sister. Bianca must be feeling a tangled mess of emotions right now. I rush to her side, throw my arm around her shoulders.
“It’s going to be okay, babe.”
