The Gamble

by Kristen Ashley

  To that, Max had, of course, grabbed my elbow, yanked my arm to him, trailed his hand down it until he caught mine and pulled it right back.

  I didn’t fight this. Max was stronger than me and it would just be humiliating when I lost.

  Now he had no choice but to let me go in order to park and once the ignition was switched off I unbuckled my seatbelt, opened the door and jumped down. I then started marching toward the front door of the restaurant as fast as my high-heeled sandals would carry me.

  My swift progress was hindered when Max’s arm came around my shoulders and he hauled me into his side with such force I slammed against his hard body, my arm automatically wrapped around his waist and, for comfort’s sake (I told myself), stayed there. I made no protest and Max said no words. Thus we walked the rest of the way together.

  He opened the door for me and I saw the inside was not just windows but also gleaming, light wood; super high ceilings; some well-chosen Cotton prints; some antlers; a lot of comfortable looking booths both big and small; and not a lot of tables but the chairs weren’t restaurant chairs, they were cozy, high-backed armchairs, inviting you to stay awhile.

  I decided I liked this place when I spied Mindy and Brody and started to smile but Max stopped us, his arm curled me toward his front and his mouth went to my ear.

  “Somethin’ you should know, Duchess.”

  I yanked my head back, Max lifted his and I glared at him silently.

  He scanned my face, looked into my eyes and grinned then continued, “When I met you, my first thought was you were very pretty, great fuckin’ eyes, but not my type, high class which means high maintenance. Then you got pissed and that was it. Even if you hadn’t been in that ditch, now you’d still be in my bed. So if you think this attitude is a turn off, baby, you’re wrong.”

  I didn’t know what to do with that as it gave me nothing to go on but I didn’t have a chance to do anything because Max curled me back to his side and led us to Mindy and Brody.

  When we stopped and Max’s hands moved to take my coat, I announced boldly, “You should know, Max and I are fighting and I won’t be speaking to him throughout dinner. I hope that won’t ruin anyone’s night.”

  Mindy’s eyes got huge and Brody stared at me a second before he burst out laughing. Max, the jerk, could be heard chuckling behind me. Then he put a hand in the small of my back and pushed me into our booth.

  I watched him hand our coats off to a white shirt, black pants, long black tie, long white apron wearing waitress and then he sat beside me, not delaying in sliding his arm along the booth behind my back. I unwound the scarf from around my neck and tucked it next to me with my clutch when Brody spoke.

  “Well,” Brody started, still smiling, “this’ll make an already rocky evening even more interesting.”

  “What?” Max asked and Mindy, sitting on the inside of the booth across from me, leaned forward.

  “Kami’s here,” she whispered.

  I leaned forward too and whispered back, “Oh my God.”

  “It’s worse,” Brody declared. “Shauna’s here too.”

  Mindy nodded to me and I repeated, far more appalled this time, “Oh my God.”

  “And… get this!” Mindy said. “Harry!”

  “Shit,” Max muttered and it took all my control not to look around the room.

  “Where?” I asked Mindy.

  “We’re the center,” Mindy explained. “Kami’s at one o’clock, Shauna’s at five and Harry’s at nine.”

  “We’re surrounded,” I murmured, my voice horrified.

  “Yep,” Mindy agreed and sat back.

  Max’s arm curled around my shoulders, his other hand coming to my jaw and he turned my body and face to him.

  Then he suggested bizarrely, “Feel like makin’ out?”

  “I’m sorry?” I replied snottily, forgetting from his strange suggestion that I wasn’t talking to him.

  “It’ll piss Shauna off,” Max answered. “Kami too, I figure.”

  This idea had merit and therefore I considered it.

  This was a mistake because Max knew I was considering it, he found this amusing therefore he burst out laughing, pulled me even closer and kissed me hard but not long, doing so even while he was mostly laughing.

  His mouth broke from mine and he was spared the edge of my tongue as the waitress returned and asked, “Get you some drinks?”

  “Vodka martini, up with an olive and lose the vermouth, please,” I ordered, she nodded, bent her head and scribbled and Max gave me a squeeze, gaining my attention.

  “Duchess, you’re in altitude.”

  “And?”

  “And you had a glass of wine at home. You gotta be careful with booze when you’re not used to altitude.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “You weren’t fine when you had a bottle of wine last night. You were out like a light.”

  “I was tired. It was late. Now, it’s six thirty.”

  “It wasn’t late, it was nine at night.”

  My brows drew together and I asked, “It was?”

  “Yeah, honey, it was.”

  That was news; it seemed a whole lot later.

  “Oh,” I muttered.

  “Take it easy, all I’m askin’,” Max said on a squeeze of my shoulder.

  “All right,” I agreed and Max turned to the waitress.

  “Coors,” he ordered, she nodded and wandered away.

  “Lucky man, Max, seein’ as Nina’s silent treatment lasts about two seconds. Most women I know can hold onto it for days,” Brody told Max but his eyes were on me and I could tell he was teasing.

  “Not quite, she was silent most of the drive here,” Max shared.

  “I could never do the silent treatment, I get too wound up,” Mindy added.

  “What are you two fightin’ about anyway?” Brody asked nosily.

  “Nothing,” I replied immediately.

  “Nina movin’ here,” Max said over my word.

  “Max!” I snapped, twisting my neck to look at him.

  “You’re moving here! Awesome!” Mindy screeched very, very loudly and many of the other patrons turned to look.

  In fact, when I swept my eyes self-consciously across the restaurant, I spotted Shauna who, from the look in her eyes which were glaring ice daggers at me, heard every word.

  As embarrassed as I was, since she was with another man thus rubbing Harry’s nose into her betrayal further, I forced an expression of surprised delight on my face, lifted my hand and gave her a happy, “Hey, I know you!” wave.

  She turned away.

  “Christ, you’re cute,” Max muttered and I looked at him then caught Brody and Mindy both turning back from checking out Shauna, Mindy giggling, Brody grinning.

  Our menus, at that point, arrived. Our drinks came not long after.

  Kami came after we’d placed our food order and were enjoying a basket of fresh, warm, delicious bread.

  She stood at the end of our table, her eyes were locked on Brody and she said not a word of greeting to her brother, Mindy or me.

  “Brody, you’re home,” she announced as if Brody brought the black cloud of plague and death to Gnaw Bone upon his dastardly arrival.

  “Yep,” Brody answered the obvious but shared no greeting either.

  Her eyes came to me and she said, “Nina, congratulations, I see you’ve made it a week.”

  I opened my mouth but Max got there before me.

  On a sigh, he ordered, “Kami, tone it down.”

  Kami’s eyes went to her brother and she asked in a way that stated she thought I shredded them then doused them with gasoline and set them afire, “Did Nina give you the papers?”

  “Yep.”

  “You talk to Trev?”

  “Nope.”

  “Max,” she hissed and in doing so got his full attention. Or I could say his full, scary attention. So scary I couldn’t help myself and partially shrunk away from him.

  “Not gonna tell y
ou again, Kami, that ain’t happenin’.”

  “So, it’s up to me to take care of Mom all the time.”

  “She’s not invalid.”

  “She’s a pain in the ass.”

  “So don’t give into her shit.”

  “Easy for you to say, and do, not bein’ here hardly ever.”

  “Maybe we can talk about this later when I’m not spendin’ time with Brody, who I rarely see.”

  Kami didn’t feel like being generous and therefore asked, “You rarely see Mom and me either, Brody more important than family?”

  “Yeah, Kami, if Brody walked up to my table at a nice restaurant, said shit to my woman and got in my face, he wouldn’t be too important. Seein’ as he don’t treat me like dirt then he is.”

  Kami’s face got red, I took a hasty sip of my martini thinking I’d need it and my eyes slid to Mindy who looked pale, her eyes were wide but she still appeared to be trying hard not to laugh.

  Kami appeared to have found a new direction for her ugliness because her eyes came to me and I was glad I took that sip of martini.

  Then she looked back to Max and asked, “You gonna jerk her around like you did Shauna?”

  Mindy gasped. Brody sucked in an audible breath and straightened. Max just straightened.

  “Kami, careful, now you’re pissin’ me off,” Max stated in a tone that underlined his words unmistakably.

  “She know?” Kami asked, either not processing or ignoring Max’s threat. “She know what you did to Shauna?”

  “She knows we were together, she knows now we’re not,” Max returned. “You wanna carry on this conversation, we’ll do it outside.”

  “You don’t want her to know,” Kami shot back and Max slid out of the booth but Kami’s eyes came to me. “Led her on, took her ring shoppin’ then scraped her off, givin’ her no reason whatsoever. Just ended it,” and she lifted up her hand and gave a loud snap with her fingers.

  “Where’d you hear that shit?” Brody asked, his tone scathing.

  “Shauna told me,” Kami answered.

  “Shauna lied,” Max stated, his hand on Kami’s arm. “We’re finishin’ this elsewhere.”

  She pulled her arm out of his hold and took a step back, accusing, “Shauna and I have been friends since forever and you treat her like that?”

  Well that explained the attitude about Max and his supposed player status. Shauna had fed Kami lies and Kami, being what I knew of Kami, lapped it up.

  My eyes went to Mindy and she bugged hers out at me in a “See!” look.

  “Kami –” Max began but she kept talking.

  “That’d be like me messin’ with Brody’s head.”

  “Like that’d happen,” Brody muttered, visibly shivering in revulsion at the thought and it was my turn to fight back a laugh and I did so by taking another healthy sip of my martini.

  Kami gave him a glare then turned to Max and dealt her death blow. “Or like when you fucked things up with me and Curt.”

  My head snapped around at this interesting news and I stared at Kami.

  “Uh-oh,” Mindy muttered.

  “Kami, for fuck’s sake,” Max bit out.

  “Christ, Kami, that was twenty years ago,” Brody put in.

  “Not quite,” Kami snapped.

  “You wanna do this here, great,” Max stated and crossed his arms on his chest. “Curt fucked things up with you and him, not me. He always wanted Bitsy, Kami, even when he was with you. He got his chance, he took it. Truth hurts but there it is. Curt’s dead, Bitsy’s broken and it’s time for you to get the fuck over it.”

  “Bitsy’s not broken, she may be stuck in that chair but she’ll be rollin’ in Curtis’s money for the rest of her life.”

  This utterly nasty comment was when I felt it necessary to intervene, why, I didn’t know, it was insane. But I did it.

  “You’re a cow,” I declared and her eyes narrowed on me.

  “What’d you call me?”

  “A cow. We use that expression in England when we’re talking about a bitter, whinging woman.”

  “What’s ‘whinging’?” Mindy asked on a whisper and I didn’t take my eyes off Kami as I answered.

  “Moaning, complaining, nagging, bitching. That’s whinging.”

  Kami leaned forward and hissed, “The nerve.”

  “No, nerve is described in England as ‘cheek’, otherwise known as audacity or impudence, demonstrated by you walking up to our table and being a cow.”

  “Nina,” Max muttered but he didn’t sound angry anymore, he sounded the opposite.

  It was Max’s sister and if he didn’t want me to have a verbal altercation with her that was his call. I’d said my piece anyway.

  So I sat back, drained my glass and declared, “I need another martini.”

  “You gave up Shauna so you could end up with the likes of that?” Kami asked, gesturing with her hand at me.

  Kami’s comment about Bitsy had been my final straw. Her insult to me was Max’s.

  “I gave up Shauna because she was fuckin’ Curt at the same time she was fuckin’ me, hedgin’ her bets and tryin’ to talk Curt into leavin’ Bitsy so she could land him if she didn’t manage to land me. And I gave her up because, once she thought she was in, she was mostly a bitch and thought she could lead me around by my dick. She couldn’t, she didn’t like that, so she got even bitchier. When I finally scraped her off, she latched onto Harry who she could lead around by his dick at the same time spendin’ his money and fuckin’ around on him. Now, you got your explanation, you got your scene, go sit the fuck down and, I swear to Christ Kami, you don’t leave the drama behind next time I see you, I won’t fuckin’ see you. Yeah?”

  My goodness. Max, I realized, was mostly patient in his Mountain Man way but when he was done being patient, he didn’t take any shit either.

  “High and mighty, always were,” Kami shot back, still raring to go.

  Max shook his head. He was done and I knew this because he slid in beside me and looked at Brody, remarking, “Remind me to thank you for this great fuckin’ idea. Steaks at The Rooster. Fuckin’ brilliant.”

  “Don’t blame me,” Brody muttered, grinning.

  “Waitress!” I called, lifting up my martini glass when I caught her eye and then circling it around the table indicating she should bring a fresh round for all.

  “I love your top, Neens, I forgot to say,” Mindy told me.

  “Oh yes, darling, and yours is lovely. I forgot to say that too,” I replied.

  “And that thing in your hair,” Mindy continued. “It’s fab.”

  “Thanks,” I smiled at her.

  Kami emitted an annoyed, unladylike snort and stomped away.

  When her lingering malevolent presence wafted away on her heels, Max’s arm came around me and he suggested, “Maybe we should put Kami in a room with your Dad, see who’s the last one standing.”

  I looked at Max and proclaimed, “Dad would kick her ass.”

  Max grinned and stated, “Babe, Kami ain’t no slouch.”

  “I can see, still, Dad hadn’t given me the good stuff this morning. Probably jetlagged.”

  Max was still grinning when he muttered, “That ain’t good news Duchess.”

  “What’s this about?” Mindy asked and Max and I looked at her.

  “Nina’s Dad’s a dick,” Max answered bluntly.

  “What?” It was Brody’s turn to ask.

  I explained, “My ex-fiancé told my father I was here and my father is concerned about losing the social status he was counting on gaining through my marriage. Therefore my father flew out here to tell me I was making a big mistake, he did so this morning in his uniquely insulting way, managing also to utter slurs against Max who he doesn’t even know before Max had to chase him out of his house. However he hasn’t left town which means he’s at the hotel in Gnaw Bone likely planning to hatch a sinister scheme against Max, me, both of us, the town of Gnaw Bone and all its inhabitants or maybe even the entire
county.”

  Mindy and Brody both stared silently at me.

  “Like I said,” Max summed up, “Nina’s Dad’s a dick.”

  “Wow, you’ve really had a bad day,” Mindy said softly.

  She didn’t know the half of it.

  “Thus me ordering another martini,” I replied on a teasing smile.

  Max’s arm gave me a squeeze but when I looked at him he was looking at Brody. Then he spoke in a tone that could only be read one way and that was extreme approval.

  “You should have seen her with her Dad this morning, Brody. Christ, she chewed him up and spit him out. Thought I’d have to get out the mop and clean the floor.”

  Brody grinned but noted, “Bro, not sure that bodes well for you.”

  “I’m not a dick,” Max replied. “I’ve noticed Nina saves the lethal stuff for bitches and dicks. Me, even pissed, she’s tame.”

  My eyes narrowed on him and I asked, “Tame?”

  Max’s eyes came to me and he murmured, “Honey, with me, your claws are like a kitten’s.”

  Mindy giggled. Brody chuckled. My eyes narrowed further and our appetizers arrived.

  * * * * *

  I’d finished martini number two and was enjoying the final sips of the glass of full-bodied, delightful red wine I had with my now consumed, utterly delicious steak, its accompanying sautéed mushrooms and loaded baked potato after an individual, baked camembert, my appetizer, which was superb when our next incident hit.

  Shauna.

  Brody spoke first and he did it the instant his eyes hit her standing at the end of the table.

  “Seriously?” he asked disbelievingly.

  She ignored him and everyone else. She only had eyes for Max.

  “Max, can we talk a second?” she asked politely, her voice unlike it was the night of the buffalo burgers. It was lower, sultry, cajoling.

  “Nope,” Max replied curtly and I noted happily he was immune to her sultry cajoling.

  She leaned in and said softly, “Honey, please.”

  I was, unfortunately, even though Max asked me to be careful, slightly inebriated. Therefore when she called Max “honey”, I was not in any shape to fully consider my response as in, perhaps not have one at all.

  Instead, my happiness about Max’s immunity to Shauna melted clean away, my back went ramrod straight, I looked at Mindy and I asked loudly, “Did she just call Max ‘honey’ in front of me?”