Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73302 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73302 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
He turned to me as soon as he closed the door. “Don’t come here again. Don’t ask for me. Don’t speak to me after the game ends.”
“Are you afraid you’re going to get caught?”
“No, I’m afraid I’m going to have to put a bullet through your head. I’d hate that; it’s messy.”
“I would’ve thought you liked messy.”
He raised his brows.
“What do you want, G?” He emphasized the initial in a way that let me know how much my lack of a real name bothered him.
“Tell me about the men I beat tonight. I need to know more about them if I’m going to keep winning.”
Rafe huffed. “If you keep winning as boldly as you did tonight, they’ll be sure you’re cheating. I’m not the only person here who can eliminate their enemies.”
“I’m sure you’re not. I can be rather dangerous myself. If one of them comes for me, I will defend myself.”
Rafael inclined his head. “I would expect nothing less.”
“How long have each of them been playing? How well do you know them?”
“I’m not in the business of revealing personal details about the men who play in my backroom games. This isn’t about getting chummy; it’s about winning. They’re not here to tell their life story, and I don’t give a fuck about them as long as they don’t cause me any trouble.”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t vet all of them. I know there are people you wouldn’t want in here.”
“Damn right, but I’m not giving you their details. I don’t need shit like that getting around. When these men lose, they lose big, and we take the profit. This is a business, you know.”
“And that part of the business is far from legal.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you planning on ratting me out?”
“I hardly think the New Orleans police care much about backroom poker games. They’ve got a lot more on their minds.”
“Fuck right they do.”
“So you won’t give anything? I thought this was going to be a partnership.”
“A financial one. It’s up to you to figure out how to keep winning. As long as you do, we will keep sharing the profits. Otherwise, I have no use for you.”
“None at all?” I gave him a slow once-over.
“None that involves me revealing personal information about my clients.”
“I see. What about my winnings? How will I collect?”
He opened his drawer and pulled out a stack of money. “Take this tonight as a show of good faith. I’ll keep what you win next week.”
I studied him, wondering what he was up to. “We agreed to a split.”
“Yes, we did, but I have no intention of telling that to anyone, even the loyal employees who serve as cashiers.”
“Right.” Why hadn’t I thought about how private this needed to be?
“Now, get out of here. The other players are already suspicious. The more they see you talking to me, the more suspicious they’ll become.”
He was right, but as usual, I need to push my luck. “Are you sure you want me to leave? You sure were watching me closely during the game.”
6
RAFE
Ishould send G away, not just for tonight, for good. This was a dangerous game and a terrible way to go about investigating his real motives. I needed to call Remington and tell him about G. I should’ve done that the first time we caught him cheating.
Why hadn’t I?
Because you’re interested in him. You don’t want him to be a plant from Ivanov.
I sure as hell didn’t. There were things I wanted from him though. Money was the least of those, but money was always nice.
The more profit the casino made, the happier I made the family. And since I rarely did anything else to make them happy, I’d worked hard to keep things going well here. I didn’t want to screw that up, but… Was G offering what I thought? And since when did I wonder about men wanting me. I was the one in charge. Whatever I wanted, I got.
But don’t you really want him to take your control away?
Fuck. I couldn’t think about that.
I could seduce him if I wanted to. I could wrap him around my finger. I could make him spill all his secrets. Except I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear them.
Normally, with any other man, I would have him half-undressed by now. But for some reason, G made me feel uncertain. I hated that I was questioning myself. At least I knew how to fake the confidence I wanted to be feeling.
“What exactly are you offering, Gilbert?”
“Not my name, and do you really have to ask?” He moved closer to me, and I hitched myself up onto the desk. He stepped closer and pushed my legs apart so he could fit between them. My heart was pounding, and my cock was half-hard already.
“What do you want?” he asked.