Page 3 of Heir

He went to work calculating my chips while I leaned back against the table.

My belly grumbled. “Have you placed the order for the pizza yet?” I asked Gemma.

She shook her head. “I was going to, then you decided to play another game.” She yawned and checked her phone. “Crap. I need to be up in like six hours for work.”

“Call in sick. I’ll pay your wages for what you’d make tomorrow. Hang out with me, your bestie who you love and would do anything for, including playing hooky at work.”

Gemma snorted. “Unlike you, who hates people—”

“I don’t hate people. I’m just very selective about who I bring into my inner circle of trust. Most people suck, but not all. Marty doesn’t suck. Right, Enzo? You’re a stand-up man. A wonderful father, husband, and cashier.”

Enzo merely smiled. He was too busy counting my chips.

Gemma rolled her pretty hazel-green eyes. “Okay, but unlike you, who hates the grind that doesn’t involve cards in your hand and chips on the table, I actually like my job. I like my co-workers and the mindlessness that is making the Karen’s of the world their double-shot, no foam, two-pump, hazelnut lattes.”

I snorted. “That sounds disgusting.”

“The order, or the job?”

“Both.”

It was Gemma’s turn to snort. “You will survive the day without me. You always do.”

Pouting, I simply said, “Order the pizza, but order two. I’m starving. And we’ll pick them up on our way. I promise to have you home so you can get a solid five hours of sleep.”

“Gee, thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes.

I smiled and fiddled with the rose-gold hoop piercing in my right nostril.

“All right, Ms. Playfair, your total winnings for the night are,” I turned to face Enzo, “fifteen thousand, six hundred.”

Gemma sucked in a breath, like she was sucking through a straw, as Enzo proceeded to count the bills out in front of me.

Once he was done, I smiled at him. “Pull out a hundred for yourself, my friend.”

“Thank you very much.” He pocketed a Benjamin, then handed me my wads of cash after wrapping them up nicely with a rubber band.

I pulled out the child’s diaper I kept in my purse and made sure to stash the cash in there. It was safer. People were less likely to steal a diaper they thought was dirty. I mean, yeah, they could take my whole purse, but they’d have to fight me for it. And I carried a switchblade and mace, and Gemma was a badass bitch who knew Krav Maga like a second language.

“I hope you’re calling yourselves a cab tonight,” Enzo said. “Walking the streets of Chase City with that much money isn’t safe.”

“We’ll call a cab from the pizza joint, Enzo. It’s all good.” I linked my arm with Gemma’s and we turned to go, my belly rumbling again at the thought of pizza.

We climbed the stairs, arm-in-arm, and were nearly on the dark and empty street when thunder boomed like it was right overhead and a bolt of lightning, so bright and so vivid, cracked out of the sky and hit me square in the chest.

All I heard was Gemma scream before everything around me went dark and quiet.

All I thought was, this can’t be how I end. I didn’t even get to eat my pizza first.

All hail Omaera Playfair, Queen of the Realm!

My chest hurt.

My body buzzed like I’d just been tasered or electrocuted or both.

My eyelids were too heavy to lift so I just stayed in the darkness.

A moan bubbled up from my chest, and my throat burned.

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