One Night Gamble (Jokers Wild)

by Katherine Garbera

  “I thought we did that yesterday,” she said. “You mean about the night we had together, right?”

  He shrugged and walked over to her, so close the scent of his aftershave sent shivers of remembrance through her. “Yes and no. If you are this…cold and stiff every time I’m in the room, my partners, and frankly even perfect strangers, are going to guess something’s up between us. I’d like to just get a chance to get to know you so that you are more at ease.”

  She let out a deep breath. “If I don’t keep my guard up, there is a very good chance you’re going to see that girl who bumped into you in the grocery store.”

  “Let’s aim for something in between. I’m not going to pretend that one night was enough to satisfy my longing for you, but I think being friends should be a priority here. I took a gamble on you, Talia, and I am used to winning.”

  “I took a chance on you, too, Casey and I’m used to being let down. It’s a streak I’d love to see broken, so if you think being friends will help, I’ll give it a shot.”

  …

  Casey had spent the last night playing cards with some buddies in an online poker match and losing. He knew he was distracted and Nicholas had stopped by after midnight with his own problems. The world of street magic and illusion was full of backstabbing characters. It had made Casey realize that he had much more at stake here than just his own desire to stop playing poker and make his mark on the world a permanent one. He’d talked his friends into taking a chance on the roll of the dice and he wouldn’t let them down.

  “It’s not my intent to con you,” he said. “Let’s start with that. Tell me why you have an aversion to gamblers.”

  She took a sip of her coffee and smiled as the first mouthful went down. He knew there was nothing sexual in the way she drank, but he had to admit that everything she did seemed like a turn-on.

  “My dad.”

  “He had a problem?” Casey asked. A lot of people—himself included—could get sucked in by a streak. But Casey had always known that his mom was waiting at home and he needed to stop while he still had money in his pocket. He’d never gambled everything.

  “Yeah. He had a heart attack and died about seven years ago. Ever since then, I’ve been working hard to fix some of the problems his gambling caused,” she said.

  “Like what?”

  “Like that’s personal. Tell me why you decided to open a casino. Do you know anything about running one?”

  “I do. While I was playing poker, I took classes at the online university and got a degree in hotel management. Casinos are a subset of that, but I have spent a lot of time in them, so I know what works and what doesn’t.”

  She took another sip of her coffee. “Why did you take college courses? I read that you won your first million-dollar jackpot when you were eighteen.”

  He tried not to let it matter that she’d read up on him, but it did. He liked her, and what he felt went beyond sex. Not that he had time for anything other than casual, but he was used to bluffing and playing a solo game, where he was the only one who took risks. But because they’d hooked up, he and Talia were on the same team, whether either of them wanted that or not. They were both playing a hand they hoped would turn out to be a winner, but if cards and life had taught him anything, it was that things seldom worked out the way he wished they would.

  “You grew up with a gambler,” he said. “You know that’s not a solid path to a normal life.”

  “And you want normal?”

  There was a note in her tone that made him believe she thought he couldn’t do normal. Of course that’s what he wanted. No one wanted to spend their life hiding behind dark glasses and running the numbers in their head. Or, at least, he didn’t. He’d never wanted that life, but he was good at it.

  “Yeah. Don’t you?”

  She nodded. “But you’re different. You have all of this. Is this normal?”

  He shrugged. He was a long way from being the kid who’d dealt three-card monte on the street and watched for the cops. He liked his penthouse apartment and the hotel he had convinced his buddies to invest in. They were all living much different lives than the ones they’d had in the halfway house where they’d met. Casey had been there because his mom had dumped him and ran. Nick had run away one too many times, and his parents had been tired of bailing him out. And Dare…well, he’d just been too much for his mother to handle after his dad had died. But one thing Casey knew for sure—they’d all been ready to stop running the con.

  “I want normal,” she admitted. “That’s why this job is so important to me.”

  “You seemed in a hurry the day we met,” he said, his tone leading, the question implied.

  “I have been working two jobs lately—one as a sales clerk at the mall and the other at a fast food chain,” she said. “I had to run out and pick up something for my grandmother before my next shift.”

  “Ah, that explains it. Why two jobs?”

  “I couldn’t have a full-time gig while I was still in school because my class schedule was erratic, so I just took the ones that were flexible but paid enough to take care of my bills.”

  She was young and still in school… How many bills could she have?

  Her phone pinged and she glanced down at it. “That’s Rio. He’s meeting with me this morning to discuss his social media ideas.”

  “Then I’ll let you get to it. If you’re free tonight, I’d like to introduce you to some of our regular players.”

  “I can’t tonight,” she said.

  “Fair enough. I’ll give you access to my calendar. Take a look and let me know a good time. How well do you know the world of high-stakes poker?”

  “Not at all. But I’ve started to do some reading on the actual game, although not the players.”

  “Yoshi Takamori is one of the best right now. He and I traded the top spot on and off for a few years while I was still playing, but lately, I’ve been more focused on opening the Jokers Wild. Yoshi is heading back to Singapore for a game on Thursday, and I’d like you to meet him before he leaves.”

  She jotted something on the notepad she’d brought with her. “I will get it on the agenda today.”

  “Thanks,” he said, looking down at his computer screen as she got up to leave. He tried not to notice that the skirt she wore today was flouncy, with the hem dancing at mid-thigh. Her legs were long, toned, and tanned and he knew he needed to ignore them. Needed to treat her the way he did Nick or Dare. But he couldn’t. He didn’t want to see either of his friends naked, but he’d seen Talia completely bare, her curves and her limbs wrapped around him. The image was burned into his mind.

  He couldn’t forget it.

  But he would do his best to ignore her for now. Her story had touched him. She was another kid that Vegas had used hard and she was trying to fix the problems her dad had left her. He had to respect that.

  “Have a good day.”

  She closed the door behind her and he leaned back in his chair. This was harder than he’d thought it would be. His plan had been simple, and he knew it was con…but he’d always been good at running them. Until now. It was as if she was starting to mean more to him than the night they’d spent together.

  …

  Talia fell into a routine that kept her working long hours and should have provided the distraction she needed from being around Casey. And to be fair, it worked for the most part. She set up meetings with the directors of each line of business and she saw several places that would benefit from social media community building with easy-to-implement strategies. But she also had some harder-to-crack communities.

  One was the high-stakes poker group. Most of the people in the community were like Yoshi. They preferred anonymity, and liked to be on their own. She got that. She knew the reputation of a lot of the “whales” who came to Vegas was predicated on being known only to those they wanted to know them—not the wider community. But she was tasked with making sure that the Jokers Wild Casino became the “it” des
tination in Vegas, and that meant promoting the high rollers who frequented the club.

  Yoshi reminded her a lot of Casey, from the YouTube videos she’d watched of his playing days. Yoshi could be anywhere from twenty to fifty. He wore dark sunglasses and a baseball cap with the Mario Brothers character Yoshi on it, hence his nickname. He was quiet and never actually answered a question. Instead, he gave vague half statements that left her more perplexed about him.

  When they got to the high-stakes area, Yoshi went ahead to talk to the host of the room and Casey turned to her.

  “What do you think?”

  She shrugged. “I doubt he’s going to let us use his name or image in social marketing.”

  “I agree,” Casey said.

  She tipped her head to the side. “Then what was the point of this?”

  “Not all gamblers are bad people,” he said. “You have to work with a lot of them, so I wanted to show you—”

  “Don’t. You can’t understand what I was talking about when I told you about my dad. Yoshi is nothing like him. He’s rolling in money that my dad never even dared dream about. He was gambling things like his car, my lunch money, and my grandmother’s home. I don’t really care how nice Yoshi is or how well-adjusted other gamblers are.” Then she realized how snippy she sounded. She turned to Casey. “Sorry. It was a nice gesture.”

  “Why don’t you take off?” he said. “We can talk later in the week. I’ll get something on your calendar.”

  She wanted to explain more fully, but knew she was stubbornly defensive when it came to gamblers. She’d spent her entire life with a charming rogue, cleaning up his messes until he’d cashed out and died. She bit her lower lip and reached over to touch Casey’s shoulder as he turned away.

  He glanced back at her. For a second, she glimpsed some real emotion in his eyes, but it was complex and way too fleeting to be identified before he dropped his poker mask back into place.

  “Yes?”

  “I am sorry. I know that was over the top.”

  “It’s okay. I underestimated how deeply your mistrust of gambling went,” he said.

  She suspected he wouldn’t again. “Part of it is just gut instinct. But I will control it better.”

  He took her elbow and an electric tingle went up her arm as he led her away from the entrance to an alcove that gave the illusion of privacy. But this was Las Vegas. She knew someone was always watching and security cameras were always recording.

  “You are complicated, Talia. From the moment you bumped into me, your eyes sparkling and wearing that short skirt…I’ve been intrigued. A smarter man would avoid the risk of being around you, but I never could resist a challenge.”

  A challenge.

  What did that mean?

  She was trying to do this job, get the last balloon payment on Gran’s house made, and then find a way to get the hell out of Nevada, but Casey had made her think…what? That she could trust a gambler. He was a rogue. A charming sexy-as-hell one, but still a rogue. He was always running a con because that was his nature and she was an idiot if she ever let herself forget it. If she ever let herself drown in those blue eyes of his that were as mercurial as the sea during a storm. He gave away nothing but she knew he was watching, observing, waiting to see her weakness and then use it to his advantage.

  Hadn’t she learned that lesson a long time ago?

  How many times was she going to allow herself to be played?

  She pulled her arm back. She needed to get out. If she didn’t love her Gran so much, she would have left town a long time ago, taking off the same way her mom had. But Talia had never been one to turn her back on someone she loved.

  “I am not something you should bet on,” she said.

  She felt edgy, almost on the verge of losing it again. But she couldn’t. She needed this job.

  “I bet on everything, sweetheart,” he said.

  In that moment, she wanted to hate him. Wanted to tell herself that she regretted sleeping with him, but she knew that was a lie.

  “Then prepare to end your winning streak, because I’m not an easy prize,” she said, turning on her heel and walking away from him. As she stepped out into the steamy Vegas night, tourists crowded the sidewalk, but she felt alone, isolated, and not sure. She hated that. She hated this city.

  And she hated that no matter how hard she tried to forget the past, it clung to her like a cheap leather skirt. She walked to the parking lot, jumped in her car, and drove out of town as if the devil himself were chasing her.

  Chapter Seven

  Casey knew better than to sit down at the poker table in the mood he was in. He’d always known his limits and tonight was no different. He waved off Yoshi and went to the penthouse apartment he kept at the top of the Jokers Wild Casino, but he was restless. He stared down at the strip, at the bright lights that promised whatever thrill he wanted but he saw through it.

  He always had. That was the reason he’d gone on the road. Now he’d come home supposedly wiser, but with Talia he felt like an untried boy, someone who didn’t know his limits and was gambling out of his league.

  Darien walked into the living area of his apartment, looking tired and as aggravated as Casey felt.

  “What’s up?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle. I need… Want to go for a ride?” Darien asked.

  A ride with Darien more than likely meant something hair-raising and dangerous. It was exactly what he needed tonight.

  “Yes. Bike or car?”

  “Given the mood I’m in tonight, I might kill us both in a car,” his friend said.

  Casey couldn’t let that pass. “What is it?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Want to hit the clubs instead?” Casey asked. “If you’re having women troubles, there’s nothing like mindless sex to take your mind off them.”

  Darien walked to the wet bar and poured both of them two fingers’ worth of Jack on ice.

  “That didn’t work for you last time, did it?”

  “What?”

  “Nick told me we hired your hookup.”

  “Fuck Nick. That’s not why we hired Talia.”

  “Talia? Rio thinks she hung the moon,” Darien said, walking over and handing him the glass.

  Casey downed it in one long swallow. “She’s good at her job.”

  “So why are you so restless?”

  “Same as you,” Casey said, venturing a guess. Besides, no man wanted to think he was the only one who kept making the same mistakes.

  “Mine is a woman from my past. One who I thought was different…but that’s because I’m a fucking moron. You’ve always been smarter.”

  Ha.

  “I’m not,” Casey admitted.

  “You hide it better than me, then,” Darien said, going back for the bottle and collapsing on the couch as he poured more liquor into his glass. He set the bottle on the end table and Casey walked over to pour himself a bit more.

  “I’ve told you for years that you needed to work on your poker face,” Casey said. “You are good at it when it comes to fear but everything else you wear out there for the world to see.”

  Darien nodded. “I’m pissed, Case. I’m really not sure that doing the show here is going to work for me.”

  That was worrying. He and Nick needed Darien. The stunt driver was unique and part of what was going to ensure that their casino stood out from the other offerings in Vegas.

  “Why not?”

  “I need to hire riders and train them, which means staying still. But I screw up when I’m not moving,” Darien said. “I don’t want that to affect you or Nick. Or Rio. He wants this to stay in one place.”

  Casey walked over to one of the leather armchairs and sat down on it. He had always half craved the stability of staying in one place. His childhood hadn’t been exactly solid. The halfway house where he’d met Darien and Nick had been the only home he’d ever really claimed for himself. But that was a distant mem
ory and he knew it as well as Darien did.

  “You can’t keep running,” Casey said. Darien had told him he believed it was being on the road that had led to his father’s mistakes and ultimately his old man’s death. Everyone in the world thought that his dad had been the bravest man but Darien had said he was weak. He’d let fear drive him to take dumb risks.

  Tonight, Casey felt like he understood that. When Talia had exploded at him, telling him that he didn’t get what had made her hate gamblers, he had realized that he’d made a dumb risk. He liked risk. He had made a living from it, but tonight, he realized that rolling the dice or cutting the deck was infinitely different than wagering on a person. He had looked at Talia and saw something that he thought he could control, never realizing that she might end up influencing him.

  He’d never let another person have that kind of power over him…not since his mom had dropped him off at the halfway house and driven away. He had heard through the rumor mill that she’d died, but he’d been in Tokyo for a high-stakes game at the time and hadn’t been able to get back for the service that some of her friends had held for her. She was gone before he could resolve what had happened between them.

  He’d never met her as an adult.

  “Hell. Let’s get out of here,” Casey said. “I need to get out of my head.”

  “Me too.”

  They left the casino, Darien at the wheel of his classic ’69 Corvette Stingray. They had the T-top off and women smiled at them as they roared out of the city. Darien drove out to the big house on the outskirts of town where Nicholas lived when he wasn’t on tour.

  Nick heard them and came out to meet them.

  “What’s up?”

  “We are blowing off steam, you in?”

  “Hell. This has bad idea written all over it.”

  But their friend climbed into the backseat and they headed toward the old dirt track that had been Darien’s dad’s practice track, back before he’d become famous. Then the three of them spent the night drinking and riding the motocross circuit. But when the night was over, Casey knew that nothing had been resolved. His issue with Talia was still there, but at least he wasn’t as alone as he’d felt earlier.