They’d find his body.
I’d make sure of it.
A warning to all of our enemies. Don’t fuck with a Shackled Son.
Picking up my one card I was now dealt, I bit down on the way I wanted to jump up, grab Tavi and take her to safety.
Looking around the table, Vegas made his tell to me. He had nada. It was down to me.
“Ryan?” Hardy urged the politician to begin. The beads of sweat on the top of his brow told me he had a hand, but it could go either way. He looked from me to Vegas, then to Hardy.
“Fold.”
He threw his hand down, and Hardy moved to Vegas. It felt like everything had stopped moving when Vegas put his three of a kind down. Damn.
I was going to need to work on figuring out his tells. That was a better hand than I thought he had. Hardy placed his cards down, a smug look on his face, like he’d won already.
There, in front of me, sat a full house. Fuck. That was a good hand.
“Guess she’ll be staying with me a little longer,” he said, as if he were speaking only to me.
“That’s only if my hand doesn’t beat yours, Bainbridge. That hand you got, it’s considered the fourth highest in rank. There’s still so many possibilities for me.”
Hardy’s smirk was wavering. “You can’t tell me you have a royal flush.”
“I didn’t say that, no,” I replied.
“Then that settles it. Good evening, gentlemen, there’s a party going on upstairs if you’d like to sample some of the goods.”
He stood, his gaze falling to Tavi for a moment, before he turned back to me. “Go on,Williams, show me your hand.”
I looked down at my hand, and then slowly, placed the cards facing up.
“Jesus,” Vegas shot out a breath. “Four of a kind. Mr Williams is the winner.”
Hardy’s smile died immediately, and he looked down at the cards in question, as if he couldn’t believe what he was looking at. Vegas stood, watching as Hardy crept back, toward Tavi, blocking her from my view.
“A deal is a deal, Bainbridge,” Vegas said. “Hand the girl over to Mr. Williams.”
“He’s cheated. Somehow he’s cheated.”
Slowly, the room emptied of the previous players, leaving us just in the room with Hardy and his associate.
“She’s mine,Maverick,” he sneered at me. “Mine, by way of the law, and by way of our child together. She’ll come back. She’s weak like that.”
“I don’t know what torture you put her through, Hardy, but I can tell you that woman is stronger than you think. Step aside before I make you.”
“You’ll never get out of here alive,” he warned. “I have guards everywhere.”
Hardy had backed up enough that he was now standing flush in front of Vegas, who had his revolver in his hand, under Hardy’s chin. I pulled my piece out and shot his associate between the eyes, quick, and clean. The sounds of the casino outside would have hidden the shot enough, but we had to move.
“Take him,” I told Vegas, who nodded and clocked Hardy on the top of the head. He fell immediately. Vegas and Chaos, who had been waiting outside, dragged him down the darkened corridor and toward a back entrance. I knelt in front of Tavi, smoothing her hair away from her face, praying she could see it was me.
“Tavi?” I said, trying to shake her slightly so she would focus on me.
“Not real–not here.”
God, she didn’t think I was real. Shadow was at the door with Reaper then, and I looked up at him, not sure what to do.
