A chill went down my spine, and I stared at the phone, reading the words multiple times before replying.
Me: Poker game? With who?
Psycho Killer: Guess.
Fear sank deep into my belly, and I steeled myself. There was no way he was going alone. Antoinette’s warning flashed in my brain, and I huffed, realizing how quickly I’d abandoned the advice. I typed a reply.
Me: I’m coming with.
She said not to be alone with him. Technically, I wasn’t.
Chapter 31
Sebastian
The Deal
The poker table.
“Sit down, Shaw.” Fred stared me down from across the table, his friends snickering and hiding grins behind their cards. “Let’s play a game.”
Steeling my nerves, I pulled the chair out and took my seat at the table. A server in a tuxedo came to take my drink order.
“Whiskey on ice, please,” I told him.
“Whiskey on ice.” Fred whistled. “I’ll take one of those too, Tobin.”
I cleared my throat and reached forward, grabbing a cigar from the mahogany box in the center, next to the pot of chips. I glanced around the circle, taking in all my opponents. I recognized most of them because they worked in film.
Ben Willis, Seth Brundle, Jack Sawyer. All bastards. There were two men I didn’t recognize but was introduced to quickly. I nodded and mumbled hello to them.
“Frank Cotton, legal,” the man beside me with hair plugs said, offering me a lighter.
“Thanks, and I don’t think we’ve ever met,” I said to the man whose hair was styled with a giant wave and a smile too fake and too large.
“Christian Hughes, News Channel 9.”
I put the lit cigar in my mouth and tried to focus on my breathing. I could not let them see how fucking nervous I was.
“Now!” Frederick clapped his hands. “Let’s get back to the game. Sebastian, what’s your buy-in?”
“What’s the minimum for the table?” I asked, not looking him in the eye.
The table chuckled. Fred snickered. “Five, but each game is one.”
Five thousand dollars? I’d been to these before, and each table was different, but they were never this high. I usually stuck to the lower tables because I was a shit poker player. I looked up and saw the men staring at me, daring me to object. I pulled the cigar from my mouth, licked my lips, and rolled my eyes.
“Give me twenty.”
Twenty thousand was no drop in the bucket for me. I lived comfortably, and with each film I made, I was paid more than the last. Once I got paid forSimon Says Six: Six Six, twenty thousand would be nothing. There were murmurs around the table as Fred smirked and counted the chips, sliding them over.
“Good luck, kid.”
I’d need it. I hardly remembered the rules. But I hadn’t really been invited to play cards. I was here for them to see what I knew. And I was here to do the same. Tobin brought us our drinks, and Fred grabbed the deck to shuffle and deal.
Every few seconds, I fought the urge to flick my gaze back to where Evie sat on the other side of the room. I hadn’t wanted her to come, but she’d insisted. She didn’t realize what she’d done by coming, and I couldn’t tell her otherwise.
“So, who’s the hottie?” Brundle, a special effects guy, asked. “Your sister?” He raised his eyebrows in a hopeful way.
