by Anna Lowe
The portly hedgehog shifter who’d just vacated the space winked on his way out, and Karen hid her smile.
Just like Tanner arranged. Her dragon nodded in satisfaction.
The dealer’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker, even though he was in on the arrangement, too. In fact, he was a key piece of the puzzle that had to align perfectly if she was going to make it out of the casino alive with a million dollars. The man’s name tag said Dexter Davitt, but Tanner had called him Dex.
Find the corner table. The one where Dex deals, he’d said.
Dex?
The smile Tanner flashed when he explained was the only one he’d shown in the time they’d spent going over his plan. Dex. A friend of mine.
How will I recognize him?
Another grin. Think Denzel Washington crossed with Brad Pitt.
She’d had a hard time imagining that, but now, she understood. Dex had the smile and charm of the former plus the bright eyes of the latter Hollywood star. The standard-issue smile he shot at her showed a row of perfect white teeth against his dark skin — enough to make two nearby women sigh. Karen might have drooled the way they did, too, if she hadn’t already lost her heart to Tanner.
Tanner, who kept striding in and out of her vision if she peeked at just the right time. His job was to keep other security guards away; hers was to work with Dex to win big.
Dex, the panther shifter. She looked at the man’s impassive face. Tanner trusted the panther, so she would, too. Dex would earn a fifty percent cut of the winnings — a cool million of his own — if everything went right tonight. And that meant she had to win two million to come away with enough for Tanner’s clan after splitting the total with Dex.
And what about the Blood Diamond? her dragon asked.
That was the only part of the plan she disliked. Hated was more like it, but Tanner had been right about giving up on the diamond. It was too risky, too much to try for at once, and she was turning over a new leaf in her life. Swindling Schiller out of enough money to derail his Idaho casino deal would have to be reward enough — together with the reward of getting out alive with her mate, whose steady, solid presence she could feel from across the room.
Focus, already. Focus!
Dex sat across the table from her, making his casino uniform look like a finely tailored suit. On her right were two men: first, a human in jeans and an expensive leather jacket who sported a thick mustache that would have given Freddie Mercury a run for his money. Beside him sat a penguin shifter — the scent and the tuxedo were a dead giveaway.
To Karen’s left was a haughty brunette who looked about to bust out of her sheath dress. Her lips were painted so red, she was bound to pick up a vampire sooner or later.
It’s not worth it, honey, Karen wanted to whisper, but she kept her mouth shut.
On the outer left sat a human in a somber suit who shook a couple of chips in his hand as if this was a craps game and not blackjack. The chips clinked and pinged against each other, driving Karen nuts. The final gambler was a woman in a black-and-white dress. Karen squinted and realized the pattern was made up entirely of little Elvis silhouettes, repeated over and over again.
“Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets,” Dex called.
Karen placed her chips on the table in neat stacks and took a deep breath. She didn’t dare glance behind her to where Tanner said the sole camera aimed at Dex’s table was placed. She bet two five-hundred-dollar chips, waited for the deal, checked her cards…and promptly lost.
Freddie Mercury pumped a fist. Elvis-girl squeaked. Karen pretended to look disappointed, because that was all part of the plan — to lose some, win some, until the moment came to win big.
Really big, her dragon added.
She blinked a few times to make sure her eyes didn’t shine the way they did whenever her dragon saw riches, then placed another bet.
“Hit me,” she said on the second round. With a nine and a three in her hand, she didn’t really have a choice, not with the dealer showing a card that was unlikely to bust.
Dex obliged, sliding her another card, which she left facedown until he called the round.
“Damn,” she muttered, flipping over an eight.
“Bust,” the woman with the overdone lipstick sneered.
I’ll show you bust, lady, her dragon muttered in her head.
Karen rearranged her stack of chips and bided her time. The skin on the back of her neck prickled as the space behind her filled with a feathery noise.
“Dex, honey, how long are you working tonight?” a woman’s voice called.
All the men swiveled their heads around fast enough to risk whiplash, and when Karen turned, she saw why. A Vegas showgirl stood there, tall and practically topless but for the scraps of fabric covering her nipples. The plumage rising high from her headdress would have covered more than those tiny triangles with tassels on the ends.
The headdress is covering the security camera, too, her dragon pointed out.
Her mate was a goddamn genius, bringing the showgirl in on this. A showgirl looking to earn a little bonus before she left Vegas for good, he’d said.
“Hi, Amber,” Dex said to the showgirl. “I’m on for another hour, baby.”
Her feathers were the perfect means to block the camera without drawing attention. And if Tanner was right, the security detail currently on duty was the slowest and laziest of the bunch. Chances of them noticing the blocked camera and hustling the showgirl along were slim.
“Too bad,” Amber sighed. “I’ll just watch for a few minutes.”
Karen’s pulse spiked, because there was a message coded into those words. All set. Camera’s blocked, but not for very long.
It took everything she had not to lean forward eagerly and push every one of her chips into the betting box.
Bet small first, then build up, Tanner had told her, and it was his gig, so she did exactly as she was told, putting another thousand on the table. Dex made the briefest possible eye contact with her when he dealt, but his signal was clear. One ace and one nine, coming right up.
Nineteen to the dealer’s ten. She waved her hand, rejecting a third card. “Stand.”
She beat the house on that round, and the next, and the next, betting higher every time until she was playing the limit every round. She stayed just under the amount Dex was required to call in and obtain approval for, which would protect the dealer when all was said and done.
A bead of sweat formed on her brow. Time was ticking, and though she didn’t dare count her chips, she knew she had close to eight hundred thousand dollars.
If Tanner had been at the table with her, he would have shaken his head. Not enough. Not nearly enough since we have to split it with Dex.
She tapped her fingers on the green felt of the table, wishing the other players would speed the hell up. The guy on her left kept sliding his chips around, making an agonizing decision about every bet. And no wonder, because he was losing. Red Lips lost a lot, too, which only made her toss down more of the pink cocktail in a glass now smudged with lipstick all the way around the rim. Somehow, that drove Karen crazy, too. Everything did except the cards she drew.
“Wow, two nines,” the penguin shifter marveled at her next hand.
“Split,” she murmured, trying to keep her cool while Dex dealt her a jack and an ace.
“Holy…” Freddie Mercury said.
“Double,” she said, tapping her bet.
“…shit,” the man finished when the round closed for another win. “Two hands doubled at twenty-five thousand each…”
A cool hundred thousand in chips that she eagerly scooped closer to her chest.
All that money, her dragon hummed.
It was still too little, but it was adding up fast. After another two rounds, she started betting even higher. Dex reached under the table, just as Tanner said he would. Dealers were required to alert security to big bets and repeat winners — which would mean big trouble if Tanner h
adn’t snipped the wire in the communications room earlier. In the investigation that was sure to ensue, Dex could truthfully say he’d placed the call, even though it hadn’t gone through.
Our mate is a genius, her dragon cooed.
She tapped the table with her knuckles, hurrying the next round up. Did the penguin really have to count and recount his chips with every hand? And did the woman at the end of the table have to hum Elvis songs?
Several rounds later, the feathers behind her rustled impatiently, and when Dex’s eyes stopped on someone across the room, Karen froze. Was she out of time? Was security coming over to check out the action at her table?
Dex’s shoulders relaxed the slightest bit, telling her the coast was clear, but he dealt the next round in double time.
Just a little longer. Her dragon gritted its teeth and all her muscles tensed.
Remember, even eight hundred thousand after we split it with Dex will do, Tanner had told her. We can figure out where to raise the rest.
She ground her teeth against each other. She didn’t want to win just enough. She wanted every dollar Tanner needed to protect his clan’s land. For him, and for her own sake, because it was another way of proving herself to Tanner and his family.
“Hit me,” she murmured at the next round, and even Dex’s eyebrows shot up at that. Tanner had said Dex could track about ninety percent of the cards dealt, but he couldn’t track every single one.
“You’re nuts, lady.” The penguin shook his head. She had a queen and a seven; a good, high hand.
Karen, Tanner’s worried voice entered her mind from across the room.
“Hit me,” she insisted.
Dex shook his hand and flipped her another card, and a cry went up.
“A four! Twenty-one!” the Elvis fan cheered for her.
With her winnings inching steadily closer to the two million mark, Karen felt giddy with success. High, even, which should have turned on all her inner alarms.
Don’t overdo it, Tanner cautioned her. That has to be enough.
She cracked her fingers and motioned for another hand. The showgirl was growing nervous, shifting from foot to foot. Karen pushed the glasses higher on her nose and checked her watch.
Just one more round, her dragon whispered. All we need is one more round.
Dex’s eyes darted around, and the play of his fingers over the cards gave his anxiety away.
Quick, her dragon urged. Just one quick round.
“I’m close to my break,” Dex called to the nervous showgirl. “Why don’t you stay for a second and watch?”
Yes, Karen nearly added. Stay right there. Don’t move a feather.
“Anything for you, honey,” the showgirl said.
Anything for the twenty thousand I’m getting, the woman might as well have said, although the hitch in her voice said she was impatient to move on.
The showgirl’s presence was a blessing and a curse. With the feathers keeping the camera covered, no one would be alerted to Karen’s winning streak, but with the men all stealing glances at Amber, the game proceeded at a snail’s pace.
Dex flicked cards over the table and tapped the table to get their attention. “Anyone?”
“Hit me,” Freddie Mercury said.
Dealing the card to Freddie took an eternity, it seemed, and Karen wiped her brow again. She tapped the table, not quite satisfied with her hand.
“You want another card?” Red Lips asked incredulously. “When you have a nine and an eight?”
Yeah, it was a risk, but hell, she was on a roll now.
When Dex dealt her an ace, Karen sat back in relief. Eighteen. Another win.
“This is so exciting, I just don’t want to leave,” the showgirl announced from over her ear. In other words, Hurry the hell up. I have to get out of here.
A leathery hand pulled at her arm, and Karen turned to see Grandma Panda, looking like an empress in a high-necked silk dress and gold jewelry.
“Time we go. Time we go,” she said in her quick, accented speech.
That had been arranged, too — along with the ten-thousand-dollar payment they’d agreed on that afternoon. The panda would cash in Karen’s chips so she could make a quicker exit.
Dex tapped his fingers on the table, urging her to call it a day.
All Karen had to do was sip her drink, pull out on the next round, then pick up her cash and meet Tanner outside. He had stashed his motorcycle nearby, and soon, they’d be rolling over the highway with the wind in their hair. They’d transfer payments to the others from Utah as promised and move on with their happily-ever-after.
Grandma Panda held out a silk bag with a Chinese dragon stitched on it. The chips Karen slid over the edge of the table made muffled little clanking sounds as they fell in.
She exhaled slowly. The hard part was over. She was nearly done.
The penguin shifter nodded his congratulations, and Dex wiped his glistening brow. They’d done it. There was a good two million in that bag.
One of the chips missed the bag and rolled under the table, though, and Freddie Mercury retrieved it for her.
“One more for the road?” he grinned.
She could feel temptation pulling on her like a puppet on a string. All the gambling she’d done that day was for Tanner’s bear clan, not for herself. One more win with that ten-thousand-dollar chip could give her and Tanner a nice little nest egg.
“See you, Dex, honey.” The showgirl sashayed off with her dance shoes clicking, her headdress fluttering.
It took all of Karen’s self-resolve to take her last chip and stand up instead of betting one more time. But just as she stood, the space behind her filled again.
“Sir.” Dex nodded to the newcomer. From the tilt of Dex’s head, she knew the guy had to tower well over six feet. Closer to seven, maybe. A giraffe shifter, judging by the dry, savannah scent he carried with him.
That part hadn’t been arranged, which only proved fate was on her side. The shifter stood right where Amber had, blocking the camera. Which meant she had time for one more bet, right?
Karen pushed her last chip into the betting box and said, “One more round.”
Grandma Panda tut-tutted and shook her head in one of those young-people-these-days gestures and headed to the cashier with the mother lode of chips.
I’ll be right there, her dragon called after the old woman. Just one more round…
A round that seemed to take an eternity.
“Just decide, already,” Karen snapped when the penguin counted his chips for the twentieth time.
“I’m in with three thousand,” he decided with a sigh.
“I’m in with ten,” she said, trying to move things along.
Everything seemed to proceed in ultra slow motion from then on. The cards Dex dealt fluttered across the table one by one. The penguin checked his cards four times. Lipstick lady doubled her bet. The woman at the end hummed louder, and even that stretched out to a low warble in Karen’s mind.
She checked her cards. An ace and a two — thirteen.
“Hit me.” She scratched the felt tabletop just to have something to do.
The penguin took another card, too, and ended with a strong nineteen. The dealer had a queen and a mystery card. Karen turned her third card over and slowly exhaled.
“A seven!” the Elvis fan called. “Wow. You really are on a roll.”
When Dex turned his second card over and revealed a six, she released the breath she’d been holding and reached for her winnings. She’d done it! She’d really done it!
She tossed a thousand dollar chip at Dex as a tip and shifted her weight, ready to rise when the air pressure in the room jumped and cooled as if someone had flipped the air conditioning to high.
Dex’s eyes widened on something behind her, and Karen’s skin crawled.
“I’ll just be going now,” the penguin shifter mumbled in a jittery voice.
Karen wanted to do the same, but when she spun in her chair, every muscl
e in her body tensed.
Igor Schiller stood scowling at her with his arms crossed over his chest. Not a hair out of place, not a trace of color on his cheeks. Not a hint of warmth in his body. Elvira stood on his right wearing a sequined dress and an intense look of distaste. Four burly security guards flanked the pair.
Karen’s heart sank, especially when she spotted Tanner behind them, his eyes wide with alarm. Obviously, Igor’s change in plans was a surprise to him, too.
“Now, now,” Schiller said in his death-chilled-over voice. “What do we have here?”
Chapter Fourteen
Holy. Crap.
Tanner clenched his hands into fists, trying to maintain a calm outer veneer. Which was nearly impossible with his bear bellowing to be freed.
Kill vampires! Grab mate! Get the hell out!
The beast was nearly as difficult to control as his temper. What the hell was Karen doing, lingering in the casino for so long?
She’s winning the money we need for the land, his bear retorted. Endangering herself for us.
Which made it really hard to stay mad at her for being so reckless. But Jesus, how was he going to get her out of there? Security guards were filing in from all sides, surrounding the table. Even Dex, who was always the picture of calm and cool, nervously shuffled and reshuffled the cards. The other guests at the table fled, which left Karen — defiant and beautiful as ever, especially in that green silk dress that carried a shimmer of dragon magic in its cloth.
He sighed a little. Just his luck to fall for a headstrong dragon who didn’t know when enough was enough.
His bear warmed a little, just at the thought.
“Such a pleasure to see you again, my dear,” Schiller said in a sour tone.
“Can’t say the feeling’s mutual,” Karen shot back.
Tanner kept his mouth closed and calculated the distance to the nearest exit. Far. Much too far, especially with seven or eight vampires closing in. He’d sensed Schiller coming a minute before the man had actually stepped through the casino doors, and though he’d hurried to intercept the vampire and buy Karen time, there had been too many guests in the way.
Kill! Attack! Maim! his bear screamed.