by Lying Eyes
“But of course, we’re talking poker. That’s all either one of us know how to play—games.”
The oohs and ahhs circulated around the table and to beat it all, they were once again the featured game. It didn’t surprise anyone when the cameras rolled and the lens zoomed in.
“We’re both pretty good at ‘em, Ms. Alexander. But I just wanted to make sure when you said good, I heard you right and translated accordingly. And, for the record, right back at ‘cha.”
His future never looked brighter.
* * * *
She lost three subsequent hands. At least, she was smart enough to fold them before she had too much in the pot but still, three in a row. He deliberately stripped her of her enormous lead by getting her rattled and worse still, she let him.
After a short break, they resumed the final hours of play and she tossed in all hands dealt. She was sulking and not willing to give him the edge he needed. When she sat down, she meant to play only the top ten starting hands but she’d yet to see them. She kept getting the worst hole cards imaginable until she stopped to think about that fact altogether. Then, things suddenly changed for her.
Pocket rockets. A gorgeous hand, but she also knew one player there who already had her pegged for holding them. Max saw her flinch when she looked at her hand. She’d bet her life—or his—on it. No, scratch that, only hers. She’d never gamble with his.
“Whatcha holdin’ over there, Audra?”
“Are you in or out, Max?”
“I’m in if you are, baby.” He tossed in a slight raise.
She re-raised. “Then call.” She matched him and everyone around the table folded. It was a simultaneous act. If anyone paid close attention, they might believe it was all but coerced.
“I will,” he promised before his chips followed his verbal lead.
The flop came down. She never flinched.
“Raise.” She glared at him.
“Dit…to.” He re-raised with another million and it took him as long to say one word as it did to move his chips in the middle.
“Going soft on me?” She expected a larger re-raise than what he exhibited.
She had it coming to her then.
“Don’t bet on it, baby. Wanna feel?”
The table hummed with stifled giggles then.
“Already have.” She trembled when she reached for chips and resented the hell out of it. What a fucking bastard! “I wasn’t all that impressed, Max.” She nodded to the dealer. “I call.” She tossed the chips into the center.
Max’s hand hovered over his tall stack. He rippled. Something he never did. He typically didn’t touch his money. It was safe to say he was pissed, and if so, she was in trouble.
The turn card was overall uneventful but then the dealer flipped the fifth and final card.
Audra swallowed hard and Max smiled wider.
“What do we do now?” He released a whistle.
“Just play, Max. No drama necessary.”
“Raise a million,” he chirped.
“Right back.” She re-raised a million.
“Bold play.” He tossed his chips in and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “And a stupid one.”
The dealer looked at Max and then at Audra. “Turn them up. Let me see ‘em.”
Max had her. Damn, did he have her. “Bottoms up, baby.”
“You wish, Max.”
“Damn right. It’s an ass I’ll never tire of seeing, not with what you’ve got. Now show ‘em.”
“Straight.”
“Hmmmm…me too.”
She held her breath.
“Only, mine happens to be a flush.” He grinned and received a lot of applause and congratulations from those good ole boys around the table.
“Son-of-a-bitch.” She stared at the table and that’s when she noticed something a poker player never fails to see—all Diamonds were on the table and her aces were not Diamonds. What was she thinking?
Max enjoyed his great victory and then added quite softly, certain only everyone at the table would hear him. “Audra, my momma used to call me the same thing, but many believe she reserved that right. After today, I imagine one of these days someone will give our son the same title and perhaps, like me, he’ll deserve to wear it with a little pride.” He bit on his lower lip and watched her digest everything he meant by everything he said.
Blushing took on a new meaning entirely and from the inside out, she was truly embarrassed. She felt like running. She just wanted to hide somewhere. The World Series of Poker was her dream and the damage Max just inflicted on her didn’t so much hurt her chip stack as much as the respect she wanted to earn from those sitting around her.
She was all woman now. Everything about her. Now, to make things worse, he implied something as foolish as a future pregnancy. And he never so much as blinked—or apologized for it.
* * * *
He tilted his head in her direction and his voice sounded far too sincere.
“That’s right boys, that one there belongs to me and I don’t care who knows it.” Max saw the tears threatening, just looming at the corners of her eyes so he tried to make it better but he was one poker-playing idiot if he expected her tears to dry up with his words. No, he’d inflicted far more damage than a statement or two could heal and he was sorry for it.
“You decided this in what, seven days?” she fired back.
“No ma’am. I like to take things slow. I decided this in a backseat of a limo moving across the flatlands of Mississippi. What was it, two years ago?”
The older gentleman next to him nodded. Stan was one of those yes-men. A guy could look around the table for someone to support his tall tale and the older gent would slowly nod and smile. Everything was good in the old geezer’s world. Max knew him well enough. If he wanted to impress the opposite sex, Stan was the man to bring in because he just grinned, drank and agreed. And he could play cards, too. Max understood before the tournament ever began, if he met up with anyone he knew at the final table, Stan would wait with a smile.
“Jeez, Max, I’m sorry,” Audra drawled. “I don’t remember anything that extraordinary. Maybe you have me mixed up with someone else. I mean, pick a number, and choose a babe.”
“I don’t think so, sweet honey.” He turned to Stan and using his hand to drive home a point, he spoke to him about the experience. “I remember everything about her. Right down to that cute button nose.”
Stan nodded on command. Good ‘ole Stan.
Someone tapped the dealer on the shoulder and whispered something. “Thanks everyone.” The older woman politely said her good-byes and the day ended on a positive note, at least for some.
* * * *
Audra nearly tripped over her own feet as she shoved her way through the crowded casino. She knew she still had the lead but she barely hung onto it, no thanks to Max. He tried to catch up to her because she saw him in her peripheral vision whenever she had to stop and chit chat for a second, but the women were flogging him and since he made a miraculous come-back, by taking her money, he was a hot man to pursue.
She had her own admirers. Lots of them, and because she did, she quickly made her way back upstairs in an effort to dodge them. She didn’t need Max getting into a brawl just to show off some muscle and she really didn’t want anyone’s hands on her. Not now. She wanted to escape.
He rushed down the hall behind her. “Audra, please. Wait!”
“Wait?” She wheeled around to look at him. “You did exactly what I knew you’d do. You used me and you, our private moments, against me.” She tried to give him the most disgusting look she could muster. “You’re just out of hand.”
“Then keep me busy. Give me one of yours. Occupy my time.” He reached for her but she slapped him away and she did it fast and hard.
She gritted her teeth. “You promised not to do this and I foolishly believed you would keep your word!”
“Audra, sweetheart…”
“Don’t you dare patronize
me!”
“I’m not but you better pay attention to everything I am going to tell you because you need to hear this. If you don’t quit playing on emotion then you’ll go home first once we take our seats at the final table. You have to pull it together and you need to do it fast. Otherwise, you’ll leave without the big payday you’re trying so hard to earn.”
“I’m not leaving here without it. You’ll see. I came here to win.”
“So did I and just for your own information, I’m not going home without it either, so yeah, piss me off again. See what happens. See how willing I am to do what it takes to get you off your game when I’m provoked. All bets are off, sugar. When you play dirty, that’s what happens.”
“Then you’re not a man who stands by his word.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. And before you say anything else, think about that for a minute. Rewind the past few days and remember everything I’ve said to you before you jump to conclusions. Yes, Audra—I’m a man of my word.”
“You’re nothing more than—”
“A man who has made several promises and intends to keep them.” He glared at her. “I came here to win but just for the record, the prize I’m after has changed a little bit since this whole tournament began. The pot is a lot sweeter and I promise you, I’m not leaving here without my just reward, so start getting used to the ‘me and you’ and ‘you and me’ business. Learn to like it because I’m not a man who likes to wait on anything once I set my sights on a worthy payday.”
“Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you tossed me out on my ass.” She stepped inside her room, closed the door and sprinted to the other side in time to close the adjoining door and securely lock it. Then she kicked it. Because of course, he made her do it. Him and all of his ten-foot tall self-confidence, and her and all of the five foot four sexual frustration that went along with falling in love with the wrong man.
Chapter Thirteen
Max studied the men on the rail glaring at her. They didn’t look overly interested in poker. One looked like he needed a bath sometime in the near future and the other one looked like he could stop planes or locomotives just by raising his hand. Something was terribly wrong.
“Stan, who are those guys?” He nodded in their direction.
“I don’t know,” the older guy said. “I’ve seen ‘em here all week.”
“Huh.” Max folded his current hand.
Stan played out his hand and then offered a little more information. “They’ve been very interested in your gal.”
“Yeah, I see that.” It was hard to miss the fact. They were watching her every move and he was starting to get very uncomfortable with it.
He saw Audra’s cousin in the distance and he tried to act uninterested in him. He thought Franco tossed up a hand but he ignored him as he continued to study the two thugs doing their best to get Audra’s attention.
Someone was all-in on Audra’s table. An older man stood up and glared at the board. Audra stood, too. Max followed suit. The thugs gawking at her moved closer also, and with too much interest.
She won the hand and quickly shot the two men nearby a discerning glance. They clapped and the burly fellow patted the greasy looking fellow several times.
Max sat back down. Audra never looked his way.
At the break, Max went to look for her but ran into Franco instead. “I’d like to talk to you.”
“I imagine you would,” Franco agreed. “Outside?”
“Fine. I need answers and I think you have the ones I want.”
* * * *
The sun was setting over the desert in one of the most picturesque sunsets Max ever recalled seeing. He rolled down his window and enjoyed the fresh air for as long as he found it tolerable.
“Damn, this dry heat is never going to appeal to me.” He turned back to the man across from him. “I hope Audra doesn’t have any big dreams of living in Las Vegas.”
“I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself, Reynolds,” Franco hissed. “Besides, when she finds out about this, she’s going to walk away from you so fast your head will spin one-eighty.”
“Nah, I don’t think so. The way she looks at me is like nothing a man like me has ever seen before. She’s not after my money or even the glory a lot of these women want when they conveniently drape their little bodies over a professional gambler’s arm. No, she’s different all right and there’s one thing you can count on, too…” His eyes focused on an approaching car in the distance.
“Yeah, what’s that?” Franco shifted nervously in his seat and then began to brush the lint off of his navy trousers.
“She’s already in love with me.” Confidently, he was matter of fact in matters of his heart, especially since he never realized he had one before Audra.
“I wouldn’t bet on it yet.” Franco glanced toward the approaching vehicles. “She’s going to get outright pissed over this. Count on it.”
Max gripped the side handle of the door and glared at Franco, his mind and focus immediately shifting to the task at hand. “Now, listen to me, if anything happens, you get the hell out of here. Understand?”
“Yeah, but Audra will kill me if something happens to you because of her so try to keep that in mind, on a favor, if you will.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Max stepped out of the limousine and watched the other cars drive up to meet him. One was a late model Mercedes all but dilapidated and the other was a sporty-blue convertible Mustang. Yeah, he was in trouble. They were planning on a deal gone bad.
If he glanced back at the car then Franco would likely screw something up, like step out and try to talk their way out of the trouble he perceived they faced. Instead of doing anything stupid, Max simply squared his shoulders, parted his feet with a confident stance and waited with two large briefcases hanging at his sides.
The Mustang came to an abrupt stop inches from his shoes. Max narrowed his gaze on the driver. It was the tall lanky guy who went by the name of Smoke. He’d heard plenty about him in a short period of time. An investigator provided him with enough information to make him realize he wasn’t someone he wanted near Audra. He was a drug runner on good days and he hated to think about what his job description entailed on bad days.
Someone was in his backseat because he kept saying something over his shoulder and he didn’t offer to get out. Max couldn’t see the driver of the other car. The dark tinted windows prevented it.
Max slowly entertained the concept of an unexpected death. If no one moved from either vehicle, then the odds were highly favorable for a terrible end result. Max tried to act uninterested in either car and focused instead on Audra. The blank expression he’d witnessed when she spotted Smoke in The Amazon Room was more than he could stand. If he’d been at her table at the time, he didn’t know what he would’ve done, or said, when Smoke inched only closer to her. Thank God he wasn’t.
The fear had lingered in her eyes though and to think he hadn’t noticed them there before. Stan said they’d been there at The Rio just hanging around waiting, lurking, and hoping their payday would soon come.
Since Max knew how things worked in Las Vegas, he understood a threat made when he saw one. She didn’t have any other choice but to make it to the final table and if he had to guess, Smoke and his goons wanted a cut of whatever winnings she secured. They were expecting one hell of a payday, no doubt.
The door of the Mustang opened and Smoke hopped out. He looked like a throw back from the fifties with his black hair slicked back and his coal leather jacket. A cigarette hung from his thin lips and he tossed it to the side with the first step into a lively forward stride. A man from the Mercedes soon joined them. A grizzly bear first came to mind, just as it had earlier that day when Max spotted him. He tried not to glare but the man was a truly unique species, someone he’d never forget in his lifetime. He towered close to seven feet tall, if Max had to guess.
“Reynolds, I hear you have something for me?” Smoke tilted h
is head to the right and his mouth twisted downward a bit to the left. He thought he was way too cool to stand in the desert heat.
Max glared straight ahead and he felt the killer instincts he once had as a young man. They wanted to resurface. This was the man who threatened a vulnerable woman, and not just any woman, but his woman.
“Do you have it all?” he sneered. “Every last dollar?”
“Two million. It’s all here.” Max’s arms shifted a little as he tugged at each luggage-sized briefcase.
The man reached in his pocket and quickly pulled out a cigarette. Max jumped and the lanky one sneered. “What? You think I want you dead? Is that what you think?” His mouth twitched. “Hell, I haven’t had a payday like this in quite sometime. I’m not ready to kill you. Not yet, anyway.”
“I’m probably worth more to you alive now that you know you can have two players paying you off, huh?”
The men took different stances and shifted their feet apart as if they voted on a precise time to do it. Glares of hatred passed between men.
“Tell me something, buddy, cause I’ve just been dying to know something.” He lit his cigarette and then blew out rings of smoke before he taunted with an inappropriate subject, “Is she has tight as I think she is?
“Why you son-of-a-bitch.” Max leaped forward but the monster of sorts, obviously the bodyguard, stopped him. It was easy to do. While Max wasn’t a small man by any means, he didn’t have steel rods for arms. The goon with Smoke had towers for limbs.
“Is she?” He moved inches from his face and puffed the cigarette a couple of times before he threw it to the side. “See, I want to know…I gotta know. It’s not everyday when a man just steps up to the plate and offers to pay off a woman’s debts. You know, it gets a guy like me wondering and you can guess what I’m thinking.”
The big one still had a strong hold on him and Max still wanted Smoke dead. He should’ve left Audra out of the conversation altogether.
“I want to know, big man, because I gotta tell ya, her daddy and me, we had a deal once. One he broke a few times, I guess. She was supposed to be mine. Did she ever tell ya that?”