Page 90 of Underground Prince

“But I’ll just slide this on over here,” he said, sweeping an arm across the pot and dragging all the chips to him.

“Hey—” I said, but then I remembered.

He winked at me. “I’ll make sure you get your fifty owed.”

Blowing out a puff of air, I fell back in my chair. “Keep it,” I said, scanning the table. “I’m gonna need another thousand.”

“All right,” Kai said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Russ waved his fingers at me, either as an asshole send-off motion or an asshole you’re-such-a-girl motion. “Enough chatter, more dealing. Philly, you’re on the button.”

* * *

After my first big score I sat for one more hour, played it pretty tight and folded mostly. I dragged down (my new poker word for “taking”) a few small pots but nothing big—all in all not a bad way to finish the night. All of those winnings went to Kai, anyway.

The men broke up, rising from the table and ambling away either to the balcony or to the couch for a beer and TV. I was done for the night. As much as I loved Kai, there was no need to turn him into a loan shark. I could finish off by owing him five hundred. Then, once my pockets were full again, I could start using my own cash instead of relying on his. And keep it.

I caught Kai in the kitchen area as he was digging through the fridge for a few cans of beer.

“Thanks for tonight,” I said to his butt. He turned to me with his arms full of aluminum.

“You’re actually doing really good.” He set the cans down on the counter. “Learning fast, refusing to be intimidated. My perfect pupil.” He noticed my jacket. “You sure you want to leave? You could probably start making some money off these assholes.”

“I know when to bow out,” I said.

“You have some great potential.” He cracked open the cans. “Don’t ever give up. You’ll destroy me. I feel like I could turn you into the next kid genius.”

“I’d never dream of destroying your mom-ager moment. But before I go, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah?”

“The other night, I saw…Trace.”

Kai studied me for a moment, deep lines creasing the skin between his nose and the corners of his lips. He mimicked my stance, folding his arms across his chest as he thought.

“I don’t know, it could be dumb. Or dangerous. I haven’t decided which, yet.” I nibbled on my lower lip, talking to the fridge instead. “I was at the Drop Down. There was this moment when I was outside with a friend. We needed to get out of the wind and so we went around back.”

I sensed Kai stiffen.

“And there was Sax’s brother. Doing something with a truck. I mean—unloading stuff. Coffee.”

“And you found that weird.”

I nodded. “Who has that much coffee at a bar? And espresso, for that matter? It wasn’t—”

“You don’t think it was coffee.” Kai sighed. “Well, I did tell you that family was into some serious shit.”

“I guess I have proof now.”

“Not really.” He shrugged. “Could’ve been just coffee.”

“Kai.” I leveled a stare at him. “Come on.”

“Did he see you?” Kai asked. “Did anyone?”

I shook my head, forcing myself to believe it could be true. “It was pretty dark.”

He nodded, more to himself than to me. “All right. Good. How about from now on, you decide not to follow Saxon family members into seedy back alleys?”

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