There was no cheating necessary. We were smart as hell, but those around us couldn’t get past looking at our tits.
“I have to agree,” the older woman who had entered the restroom earlier said in a thick Italian accent. “You are both very beautiful women. I hope your gentlemen know how to treat you.”
“We’re single,” Devani responded as she stepped aside to let the lady wash her hands.
“Not for long, I say. Especially you over there.” She gestured to me. “That dress is almost indecent. It’s exactly something I would have worn in my day.”
She winked in my direction before she left the room.
Devani and I were quiet for a few moments before we burst out laughing.
“I want to be her when I grow up.” I rose from the chaise and walked over to the vanity area. “Who was she?”
“Isabella Ricci.”
“The card shark?” She was a legend in the poker world. A daughter of an Italian aristocrat who ran away with a gambler and became a notorious card player throughout Europe.
“Among other things.”
“I definitely want to be her when I grow up.”
“Don’t we all.” Devani leaned against the counter, looking me up and down. “This dress is beyond anything you normally wear. You’re here to play. Are you going to pay up? If a certain King asks a high price?”
There was no bullshitting her. She’d see right through me.
I thought for a second. “I’ll do what needs to be done.”
She smirked at my response. “Girl, you’ll do it, no matter what.”
I couldn’t deny it. When it came to Nik King, I was in trouble. But there was no way I would let him know it.
There was too much at stake. That man was my kryptonite.
Our past was part of a childhood I couldn’t forget. And he was no longer the kid I knew. He was all man. Dangerous for me.
“I should never have told you about our past. He’s a childhood dream I can never act on. No matter how tempting.”
“Who the fuck are you kidding? The energy between the two of you is intense. I saw it the other night. Hell, I’d have been surprised if the whole ballroom didn’t notice. If given the opportunity, you’re going to take it.”
“It’s a complication I can’t add into my life.”
“It’s inevitable.”
“For it to be inevitable, Nikhil King would have to show up tonight, and there is no guarantee he is going to show up.”
“Girl, I wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble if he wasn’t going to show up.”
I studied her for a second. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Dani, we’ve been friends for a long time. You know as well as I do, there are some lines we can’t cross. This is one of them. Just as you have secrets, I have secrets.” She looked at the clock on the wall. “You need to get out of here and meet up with Connor. It’s time for me to make my normal fashionably late entrance.”
“Call,” I said, throwing fifty thousand dollars in chips on top of the pile in the center of the poker table.
“Feeling lucky, Dayal?” the portly man with a thick Irish accent to my right said.
“Luck has nothing to do with it, Connor.”
Connor Danberry was a seventy-year-old gamer with a razor-sharp mind that could home in on an opponent’s weaknesses within a fraction of a second. He was also a retired Interpol agent and the man Devani had contacted to add my name to the list of invitees tonight.
Though, if I wanted to join a game at The Library, I wouldn’t need Devani’s help—a simple call or text from me to Connor would have done the job. Connor had lost a large pot to me the last time we played and he was itching to win some of it back. We had a friendly rivalry of sorts.
“Then are you trying to take out weeks’ worth of frustration at the table?”
“Possibly.” I gave him a noncommittal grin as I set my cards down.
“Fuck.” He pushed the pile of chips in my direction. “I’d normally tell you emotions are the fastest way to lose at the card table but you seem to be cleaning up tonight.”
“Aren’t you the one who taught me to use my emotions as a catalyst to take out my opponents?”
“Was it me or the man who’s staring daggers at me?”
I glanced over my shoulder in Rich’s direction. He tried to keep his normal stoic expression in place, but I noticed the slight curve at the corner of his lips.
“I’d say it’s up in the air.”
Rich and Connor were friends of sorts and had partnered on a few joint international assignments over the years. They had also taken on the role of being my protectors. And because they meant well, I let them. Plus, they had history with my parents. One they felt had prevented the early detection of my mother’s cancer and later had led to my father’s murder.
“If you win this next hand, I say it’s my doing. If you lose, then it’s his.”
“Would it really be considered a fair game since there are only two of us playing?” I glanced around us and studied the players at all the tables. They were all packed and occasionally players would glance in our direction. “You’re making it very obvious that you want to be alone with me. They’re going to get the wrong impression.”
“Does it really look as if I give two shits what anyone thinks?” He pulled out a cigar from an inside pocket of his suit jacket, stuck it in his mouth, and immediately an attendant came to light it. “Besides, our resident princess and three others are joining us.”
I knew Devani was the princess. When she said she was going to be fashionably late, she seriously meant late. And where the hell was Nik?
“Who are the other players?”
“You’ll have to just wait and find out.”
I almost frowned at his response, but instead asked, “Are you being cagey since you lost the last time we played?”
“Girl, I lost this time too. And for the record, I’m being cagey, as you put it, because it’s my prerogative. I’m old as shit and it’s my God-given right.”
“Fine, deal us another hand. The least I can do is take more of your money while we’re killing time.”
5
Nik
“All clear,” my driver and bodyguard Lake said as I entered the alleyway entrance of The Library around midnight.
Tonight, the tables were packed with high rollers of all types, from the Manhattan elite to those who ran the streets of the underworld. One thing most of them had in common was that they or someone they knew owed me or mine a favor. And then there were those who I called “the others,” who were allowed admission because they were useful in various aspects of my family business.
The scent of coffee and baked goods wafted through the air, making my stomach growl. I’d have to order something from the twenty-four-hour bookshop, cafe, and bakery that sat above the club and was owned by one of the King holdings.
The floor manager, Amir, nodded, ready to give me the details on everyone I’d have to meet and handle before I sat at my designated table.