Page 74 of Maverick
I already knew what they were. They were to up the price of bids toward the grand prize.
Men were scattered toward the bar at the opposite end of the room, talking amongst themselves.Hewasn’t here yet. I wasn’tsure what he would do when he saw me, whether he would outwardly tell the others who I was, or if he’d play along.
In this room, I recognised a politician, a police commissioner and at least four businessmen that I knew were into kinky shit. I counted five of them. There were eight chairs. If I were the sixth one, that left one chair for Hardy, and a spare chair.
“Gentlemen,” I heard his crackly voice from behind me. “Take your seats. Let’s get this underway.”
He hadn’t noticed me yet. I took a seat with my fake name on the display by the chair and waited. My eyes were on Hardy, never leaving his smug, absolutely punchable face. Slowly, his little buddy, who had grabbed me from the floor, ran through the rules.
They were each as debaucherous as you’d expect. I ignored them for the most part. We didn’t play for chips. We played with our wealth. Trojan had loaded my “account” with as much fake money as he could get his hands on, so I was good, but I wouldn’t need it. I knew how to win this game. I just had to make sure I didn’t let my emotions get the best of me. Hardy’s eyes were drawn to the empty seat.
“Who’s missing?” he asked, his tone taking on a menacing note.
“Ah…James Quinn.”
My eyes shot from Hardy to his man with the iPad. James Quinn? No…it couldn’t be.
“Sorry, I’m late, gents.”
Fuck. It was.
Why didn’t he tell me?
Vegas moved to the empty seat, across from me, his eyes on Hardy and the others, before they shifted to me. A slight incline of his head, an acknowledging tilt, to let me know he had my back. If I failed. He’d win her for me.
He was going to keep me on track.
Keep me focused.
He was here for me, even if his real identity was revealed. A true brother.
Hardy’s eyes moved over to me, widening for a moment, before a slow, wide smirk landed on his face. I made no effort to give him what he was hoping for.
Weakness.
I had entered my Maverick mode. Expressionless. Emotionless. Just pure strategy and skill.
He had no idea what he was in for.
“Well, I think I’ve kept you all in suspense long enough,” Hardy said, clapping his hands together. “How about we see what we’re playing for tonight, shall we?”
A door behind the bar opened and a man was dragging a woman inside. She wore a tight gold dress and strappy heels, but I’d know those curves anywhere. I’d mapped them with my mouth and hands countless times. I looked up at her face, and saw her faraway stare. She hadn’t taken in anything in the room. Had they drugged her?
Taking in her appearance, I noted the slightly faded bruises on her wrists and arms, but the handprint around her neck was unmistakeable. Fury laced through me, my fingers itching to suffocate Hardy in front of everyone for daring to lay a finger on her. Vegas cleared his throat, breaking me from my internal plan to ruin this fucker.
“A prize indeed, Bainbridge, stakes?”
Vegas knew how this worked. His old man was one of the nastiest pieces of shit out there, but at least he did one thing right by his son. He taught him the game, how to withstand your opponent in the face of death, even in a game of chance. The one time Vegas opened up to me about his old man, he told me when he was fifteen, his dad played a game of Russian Roulette with him.
It took five clicks before his father had passed out from his drink and he’d been able to breathe. Five times he’d heard the click next to his ear, wondering if he’d be killed in the next second. Five times he held his breath.
It had been torture, he’d said. Your body goes through all sorts of trauma from it, and it took him years of therapy to overcome it. Even now he still awoke with nightmares of those times his father had tried totoughen him up.
“Stakes are, two hands lost, you’re out, despite the buy in.”
“And when we win, we’ll be escorted out of here?” one of the politicians asked. I was already planning his death in my head as well.
“A helicopter is waiting on top of the building to take the victor with his prize to wherever he wishes, as well as papers to travel.”
