“We’re just friends,” I say weakly, feeling uncomfortable because the room has gone quiet and everyone is now listening.
Eliza gives Ro a stern look. “Look what you did! You made Gia think you’re ashamed of her.”
“If I was gay, I’d have no problem telling you!” Ro insists for at least the tenth time since bringing me over to her parents’ house for the first time right after we became roommates. “I like men, Mom. Preferably tall and capable of fidelity. Gia likes men, too.”
Everyone in the room looks at me, and my cheeks burn. “It’s true,” I say with a nervous laugh. “I’m Team Penis. Or penises, I guess. But not…I mean, only one at a time.”
Oh God. Why do I say such awkward things in social situations?
Lance’s wife Mindy saves me, wrapping an arm around me from behind and saying, “I’m Team Food. Why don’t you guys come help me chop veggies for the salad?”
“Yes, let’s chop veggies,” I say, giving her a grateful look.
We walk into the tiny kitchen, the refrigerator covered with photos of Ro and her siblings. The garlicky scent of Eliza’s marinara sauce makes my stomach rumble.
“Team Penises, huh?” Mindy asks with a grin as she passes me a well-worn wooden cutting board.
“Yeah, I should probably have a jersey made or something,” I say, reaching into a colander for a cucumber and smiling wryly as I hold it up. “My mascot here.”
“Should we leave you alone with your mascot?” Ro asks with a snort.
“Can you peel that and chop it into bite-sized pieces?” Mindy asks me, moving on from the penis joke at last. “And Ro, can you peel and chop those carrots?”
“Sure,” I say at the same time Ro says, “Yep.”
“How’s work, guys?” Mindy asks us.
She’s a stay-at-home mom expecting her second child, so she says she lives vicariously through us. She really means Ro, though, because I don’t talk much about how I make money. Not that there’s much to tell.
“A drunk guy got past security while I was backstage the other night,” Ro says as she chops. “He offered me all the cash he had for a blow job, which was eight dollars. I told him to fuck off and get this—he pulled out a checkbook and asked if he could write me a check for one.”
“Ewww.” Mindy wrinkles her nose in disgust.
I’m used to these stories from Ro. Since moving to Vegas, I regularly encounter sleazy men who seem to think anything goes here.
“The security guys got there and tossed him out extra hard,” Ro says. “The guy was so wasted I don’t think he even felt it, though.”
“Felt what?” Eliza asks, walking into the kitchen.
“Oh, nothing important,” Ro says.
“Are you going to all your classes?” Eliza asks sternly. “Keeping those grades up?”
“Of course, Mom. I’m not letting my 4.0 go.”
“Good girl.” Eliza puts an arm around her daughter’s shoulder and gives her a quick hug.
The small gesture makes me think of my own mom. She’s not a soft, motherly type, but she’s still my mom. She never got over me choosing to be with my dad over her after the divorce. Even though she’s a very flawed person, I should make time to go home and visit sometime.
“How about you, Gia?” Eliza asks me, giving me a quick side hug, too. “Are you doing okay?”
I smile gratefully at her. “Yes, I’m good.”
“Still working on your poker game?”
“I am.”
No one—not even Ro—knows how much money I make playing poker. My father raised me to keep things like that close to the vest. Ro knows I make enough to support myself, but her parents worry I’m going into debt chasing a dream.
“And you’re okay on money?” Eliza asks me.
“I’m good, thank you.”
Ro’s parents are middle class, but the way they’ve accepted me into their family, I have a feeling they’d offer help with money if I needed it. I always wished for a family like this when I was growing up, with family dinners and time spent just being together.
My dad was a poker junkie, though. And now I am, too. I’m already itching to get back to a table tomorrow night.
Because I am chasing a dream, but it has nothing to do with the amount of money I win. It’s about what that money will allow me to do. I’m out for revenge, and nothing will distract me from getting it.
Chapter Five
Maverick
“Want to go out tonight?” I ask Pike as I walk into the main locker room area, a towel secured around my waist after my post-practice shower.
He gives me a wry grin. “Do you mean actually go out, or do you mean search poker rooms for that woman who’s probably not even in Vegas anymore?”
“Yes or no, dickhead?”
“Yeah, I’ll go. But seriously, give it up, man. We’ve checked pretty much every poker room on the Strip.”
“So we’ll go off-Strip.”
He shakes his head and grins. “I don’t care where we go, as long as I can play some cards.”
“You guys going out tonight?” Pax asks as he approaches.
“Yeah, you in?” Pike says.
Pax hesitates a moment before saying, “Yeah, I’m in.”
“Still traumatized from the other night?” Pike cracks, laughing his ass off.
Pax glares at him. “You wouldn’t be laughing if it happened to you.”
“What?” I ask, looking back and forth between the two of them.
“You didn’t hear?” Pike hikes his brows up, still laughing as he looks at Pax. “You gotta tell him, dude.”
“I’m glad the most painful and harrowing experience of my life is so amusing to you.”
Alexei Petrov is laughing from the other side of the room. “That was the funniest shit I’ve ever heard in my life, man.”
“What happened?” I ask Pax.
He sighs heavily. “I was out with a couple of guys the other night and I met this woman I wanted to hook up with.”
“Yeah?”
“So we went back to her place. You know, had another drink, made out on the couch, and then she takes me into her bedroom.”
My chin drops, because I know where this is heading. “She was a guy, wasn’t she?”
Pax shakes his head. “No. Honestly, I would have preferred that to what actually happened.”
Now I’m intrigued. A couple other guys walk over to hear his story.
“She’s got one of those four-poster beds, right?” Pax continues. “And she asks if she can handcuff me to it. I told her she could put my wrists on the two posts at the pillow end, but I didn’t want my ankles handcuffed. So she goes to her underwear drawer and takes out two sets of handcuffs and cuffs me to the bed. I’m already naked and then I watch her undress and I’m thinking she’s gonna ride me raw. Can’t fucking wait. And then…” He shakes his head and looks away.
“Keep going,” Pike says. “Don’t be shy. Tell ‘em what happened next.”