Call My Bluff

by Elizabeth Knox

My voice cracked when I asked in a whisper, “You fell in love with me?”

  “Har, I’ve been trying to talk you into moving with me since pretty much our first day together. Hell, I’ve got proof.” He squeezed my hip then tipped his to the side, dumping me softly on the bed. I rolled to a sitting position as Nick, in all of his naked glory, strode across the room and picked up a manila packet, and when he was close enough, tossed it on my lap.

  His name was scrawled on it in Rico’s familiar handwriting.

  “Go on, I know what’s in there since I asked for it Tuesday. Open it up and see.”

  He dropped to the side of the bed, turned his hips, and brought his knee up. With shaking hands, I opened the envelope and dumped the papers out that were inside.

  There were two passports, so I checked those out first. The first was a picture of Nick and had his name listed as Nick Reyes. I picked up the other and was startled to see that it had my most recent driver’s license photo, but what stilted my heart was the name across it.

  Harley Reyes.

  “I had to message Rico Wednesday after our talk so he would use your actual name. When we drive across the border, we become ourselves. Who we really are under the walls and the illusions. I’d give you my real last name, but for this to be a fresh start, I have to leave Foster. I got as close as I could and gave you my abuelita’s last name. It means more to me than Foster ever did.”

  I reached for him, and when he held it out, I took his hand and brought it to my lips, brushing kisses to his knuckles the way he had mine. Then I set my shoulders and womaned the hell up.

  “I love you. It’s crazy how quick it happened, but I really do.”

  He’d been holding himself stiff, waiting, I realized, on me to freak and run. But I had his ring on my finger and his granny’s last name. He’d been fighting for me this whole time, and the biggest obstacle he’d battled had been my stubbornness.

  It was time to show my man I was worth it; messy habits, sugar addiction, and all.

  And he hadn’t been around long enough to learn of my obsession with Sam and Dean Winchester.

  He wouldn’t mind, though. I understood now that he would take me as I was and love it. Harlow/Harley or whoever I labeled myself as. I knew this because looking at my left hand, I knew there would never come a time again where I didn’t fight for him and take him as he was.

  Flaws and all.

  In the middle of this serious, life-defining moment, his alarm started its annoying bleep-bleep-bleep. He shut it off and turned his attention back to me.

  I shoved all the paperwork off of my lap and leaped at him.

  He caught me, pulled me across his lap, and laid a hot one on me.

  We kissed slowly, enjoying the moment and the realization that our time together wasn’t coming to an end. Instead, it was only beginning.

  Then the alarm cut through the haze, and we surrendered to time. We had forever now, so I reluctantly climbed off of his lap.

  I carefully gathered up the paperwork while he put the kitchen to rights, then I balled up the covers and shoved them into a box. Eventually, once we were settled, I’d open that box and remember the morning I’d woken up a married woman.

  I closed the box, took one last look around to make sure nothing was amiss and closed the door on the room I’d spent the last several years occupying.

  Instinctively, I looked across the hall and saw my brother’s room. I couldn’t fight the urge to walk across the hall and stare into his room one last time.

  I could remember the day I’d shown him the apartment and how cool he’d thought it was that he had his own room and his own closet. The clothes were long gone, and the only thing that remained were the ghosts of my memories.

  I turned to walk out and saw the spot where he’d lain as I’d fought desperately to breathe life back into him.

  My hand settled over my heart, and tears stung my eyes as I whispered to an empty room, “I miss you, Edgar. So much. I hope you found peace. And I wish you could’ve met Nick. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted. You’d love him.” My voice, thick with emotions, trailed off, and with one last glance, I shut the door and walked to the kitchen.

  Everything was boxed up now. The trash that had been overflowing was now empty, so I knew Nick had taken it out. He walked back through the front door and announced, “Lucy, I’m home.”

  Just like that, he’d chased the ghosts away, and it was only him and me. I didn’t stop myself from rushing to him and leaping in his arms.

  He caught me, barely shifting at my weight, and I informed him of something he already knew, “I love you, Nick Reyes.”

  He grinned up at me and countered, “I love you, Harley Reyes.”

  I didn’t even try to hide the happiness that stirred in me at his proclamation.

  His blasted alarm started it’s incessant beeping once more, and I narrowed my eyes on my husband, “If you don’t do something about that phone, I’m going to. There’s a perfectly fine toilet right through that door that will be more than happy to ruin your phone for you.”

  He laughed, hefted me once, and set me down on my feet then moved across the room to snatch it from the bar.

  He walked into the kitchen and came back with a carton of chocolate milk and a bottle of water, grabbed the two shiny packages on the bar and announced, “Time to boogey, Baby Doll. We have a game to get ready for.”

  I nodded and followed him to the door, turning back to take one last glance and then shutting it behind me, locking away the past and heading into a future.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Even though I’d nattered on about the ridiculous amount of time it took me to get ready, when I was motivated, I could get it together. So, get it together, I did.

  We hit the hotel, showered together for nothing more than the intimacy of it since we were on a deadline, and I was putting myself together in record time.

  Nick finished way faster than I did and took up his post leaning against the doorjamb.

  Where days ago, it had turned me into a nervous wreck to be watched so closely, today I just smiled and kept doing my thing.

  I added a dash of perfume to my neck and inner wrists, slipped into my shoes, heels tended to have a certain effect on Nick, so I saved them for last since we were in a hurry.

  He guided me out the door and into the elevator with his hand resting intimately on the small of my back. It burned through me, but instead of hyperawareness from being self-conscious, this time it was because I knew in just a couple of hours, I was going to be bent over the couch, taking it from behind and I couldn’t wait.

  For now, I had to keep my game face on and not fantasize about the deliciously wicked things he could do to me with his body.

  I squirmed, and he chuckled in that dark, sexy way of his, sending thrills through me.

  It didn’t bode well for me that he could read me so easily.

  Adding insult to injury, or you know, whatever the horny version of that statement was, he brushed the hair from my neck and pressed his lips there, his tongue darting out teasingly to taste my sensitive skin.

  We moved into the room where each of the games had been played so far, and I noted that it was far emptier now than it had been for each of the other rounds.

  He led me to my seat and waved the waiter over to bring me a drink. I thought it was odd until he pulled me into his arms and kissed me breathless. He was prioritizing, and I liked the way he was thinking. He didn’t lift his head until the waiter delicately cleared his throat behind us and offered him my drink. Reaching over, he took the offered glass and held it for me to take. I did so and grinned when he bent to whisper in my ear, “When this is over, we walk out millionaires, and I’m going to make love to you until the sun rises.”

  It happened so fast, the way everything seemed to with him. The pile of chips in front of Nick grew and grew, even though his eyes stayed glued on me for just about the whole entire time. At the midpoint, the cards were pulled and replaced
with a new deck, and Nick was in my space, holding out a new glass to replace the one I’d emptied.

  Something occurred to me as I stood there, sipping expensive red wine in a dress that cost hundreds and a huge ass rock on my hand. “Did I get married in sweats?”

  And there was the blush that I constantly wore with him, only this time it was because I was mortified at the possibility.

  He grinned and nodded, “Oh yeah, you did. And we decided at some point that we were framing them and keeping them in the bedroom for the rest of our lives.

  I groaned and dropped my head on his jacket-covered chest. Then I remembered I was wearing make-up and jerked my head back up, checking to make sure I hadn’t ruined the material.

  Nick tipped my chin up and held my eyes as he said, “I’ve said it before since you sashayed your sweet ass into my life, but it bears repeating. I am a lucky fucking man, Baby Doll.”

  Tears filled my eyes, but I was determined to blink them back. There was no way on earth that I was ruining my make-up when there were still ten rounds to go.

  He watched me fight to rein it in and nodded with a grin.

  “Luckiest Man Alive, Har.”

  The game ended, and Nick was the clear winner, the other player shook his hand, and quickly left the room. Not that I blamed him. Being that close to winning that much money and then losing would be enough to send anyone away in a hurry.

  Nick waited around, talking to one of the men and then nodded, shaking hands, and heading my way. I stood to meet him, and my hands shook, where I held them clasped together. He’d won. He was a millionaire and had won it literally playing cards.

  I was living in a world that I’d thought only existed on television.

  He practically dragged me from the room in such a hurry to celebrate his victory, and we’d almost made it to the elevator when someone stood from one of the chairs and moved toward us.

  Nick didn’t even try to hide his annoyance as Nat, the woman who had the persistence of a gnat, moved into our path.

  He cut her off before she had a chance to speak. “If you so much as glance at my wife, I’m going to find out every dirty deed you’ve done in your life, and I’m going to spread that shit far and wide. I put up with your shit while the championship was happening, but bitch, it’s done, and I am not afraid to ruin your life and make it so you can’t hook a rich guy again for the rest of your life.”

  That gave both of us pause. He was serious, and he was brutal, not pulling any punches. He was dead serious. It was plain on his face that he wasn’t bluffing. Not even a little.

  She wavered, considered her options and then in a small voice, one I hadn’t known she was capable of she asked, “Why her and not me?”

  I braced because it was a question I’d asked myself during our time together. He didn’t even attempt to soften the blow when he told her, “She walked into the room, and Nat, I lost my breath. My heart stopped beating in my chest, and my whole life was turned on its ear. The more time I spent with her, the harder I fell. Eventually, I looked up and realized I was in so deep that I was never going to get out, and I liked it.”

  Oh, man. That was a good answer.

  At least for me. Nat looked like she’d been punched in the face and stabbed in the heart. The women’s woman in me poked her head up and urged me to offer comfort, but the bigger part of me, the one that knew Nat had crossed lines you just didn’t cross, shoved her back down and crossed her arms, ready to fight for her man.

  “I wanted to be that for you.” And I believed her, mostly.

  He didn’t, though. “Nat, I tried to like you, tried to find something in you other than empty sex that I could connect to, but it wasn’t there. I’m really not trying to be hateful when I tell you this, but someone has to tell you. Love isn’t something you can force. And I hope you find your man and experience what real love is, but that man isn’t me, and you won’t find one worth keeping if you keep trying to manipulate every dick in your life and don’t start trying to find you.”

  She stood where she was, but Nick was done with her. He showed this when he took my hand, pulled me around her, and into his chest, and walked with me tucked there, not letting me go until we’d crossed the threshold of our suite.

  As soon as the door closed behind us, Nick pounced, using nimble fingers to unzip the gown and watching with heated eyes as it pooled on the floor around my feet.

  I stood there in a lace thong, my standard lacy thigh highs and the tallest pair of fuck-me heels in my arsenal, and his eyes went molten.

  In five-minutes flat, he had me moaning his name.

  The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, loaded his rental with the belongings we’d be taking with us, and headed straight for the border.

  We traded cars, returning the rental and loading up into a car he’d already purchased, and we crossed the border and headed to the coast and our life together.

  Epilogue

  The wind blowing in from the sea glided through my hair and made it dance. Using my free hand, I shoved some of the stray locks behind my ear and kept walking the length of the beach.

  There was a storm blowing in so it wouldn’t be long before Nick locked up and hung the “Closed” sign on the door and came to find me.

  We’d been here a little over a year, and I was more in love with him than I’d been even on the day we left Nevada to start a new life.

  I had a florist who would make weekly deliveries, putting flowers on my little brother’s grave and getting rid of the old.

  And Rico, well, Rico was never far away. He stayed in Vegas and still ran his business, but more and more frequently, he talked about hanging it up and coming down here to spend his retirement chasing loose women in fast cars. He’d brought my boxes and belongings down about six weeks after we’d left, right after we’d found a house we both loved, and that had been that. The culture, community, and scenery, both female and nature, hooked him. His visits had become more and more frequent since. The bonus was that every time he came, he brought Ted, giving us all a chance to catch up. Ted and Rico being the closest thing to family that Nick and I claimed.

  I heard him call my name and turned to see my husband walking down the beach, his flip flops dangling from a finger on one hand.

  He was the picture of ease, the laid-back bar owner who was quick with a laugh and always down for a good time.

  Two months after opening the bar, Luck of the Draw, fitting since that was how we’d had the money to build it, Nick had decided on a once a month fiesta where we dressed in our finest clothes and sipped champagne. The locals loved it, but I knew the real reason he had done this was because he missed seeing me in fancy dresses and lacy underthings. The first night, after we’d closed and sent our two waitresses home for the night, he’d hefted me onto the wooden bar top and peeled them off with his teeth.

  It had been erotic and one of the top five hottest things he’d ever done to me.

  So, I’d started incorporating those thigh highs and heels with some of my day to day outfits, for no other reason than the fact that it turned him on when he saw the heels, and it didn’t matter if they were paired with leggings or the finest of silks.

  All he cared about was the package underneath.

  The wind blew hard and lifted my hair, bringing chaos to my locks, but I no longer cared because, in about two steps, I was going to be home.

  Not a physical dwelling or a city or place, no, home for me was wrapped in my husband’s arms.

  I didn’t stop walking until I had crashed into his arms. He dropped his flip flops, bent and wrapped an arm under my rear, lifting me up higher and grinned, “I had to close up shop so I could come find my sea nymph. It’s time to go home, Baby Doll, there’s a storm brewing, and I’ve spent the whole day fantasizing about fucking you until you scream, and not worrying about the neighbors as the thunder shakes the house.”

  I tipped my head down and brushed his lips, “That sounds like heaven to me. Put me down
and lead the way, hot stuff.”

  He smiled, and it was the one that still made me quiver with its intensity, then he did what he was told, setting me gently to my feet and picking up his flip flops.

  Though he didn’t calmly lead the way, no, not my man. Instead, he raced down the beach, holding my hand and laughing into the sky.

  For a brief moment, the clouds broke, and the sun peeked through, shining down on us, then as fast as they’d parted, they settled once more, and the first few raindrops floated down.

  I liked to think that this was my baby brother shining down on me, happy and at peace, and knowing that his big sister had found her happiness and peace as well.

  Nick squeezed my hand and pulled me into him, tossing his arm over my shoulder and dropping a kiss to the crown of my head.

  I was a very lucky girl.

  The End

  Redeemed

  Barbara Nolan

  Chapter One

  Joker hated waiting.

  When he was Vice President of the Raiders MC the guys waited for him and hung on his every word. All he had to do was nod his head, or crook his finger and his every damned wish was met. He’d lived that life for over ten years and the power and notoriety was a tough habit to break.

  The wooded area surrounding the Raiders’ clubhouse in upstate New York provided the perfect cover for the surveillance van while being close enough to receive perfect reception on the black and white monitors.

  Joker shifted in the uncomfortable bench seat of the van he’d been forced to sit on for the last forty-five minutes. But since his girl, Daisy, con woman extraordinaire, was scamming Digger, the psycho president of the Raiders, Joker felt compelled to watch this shit go down. Especially since she was doing it for him.

  “I don’t get it.” Sheena, Daisy’s best friend and fellow con woman, nodded toward the monitors. “Why would anyone want to be a biker? That clubhouse is a shithole.”