Page 21 of Prized Possession

I give him a small smile as I nod. “I think that’s a good idea…if you win, of course.”

Jake chuckles, throwing his chips in to call me. Another card flicks over, and it takes all my strength not to react when I see the Queen of Spades.

There’s the potential for a straight on the table, depending on what Jake’s initial cards were. But, given there’s a mix of all the suits, a flush is unlikely. It’ll all depend on the final card.

I throw my chips in, signalling for him to drop the last card, and he’s quick to meet my bid. My heart is racing while I wait for him to flip the card over.

Three of Hearts.

I have two pairs—Kings and Threes, which is a pretty decent hand.

Keeping my expression the same, I throw down double my usual bid, and I have to hold back a smile at the way Jake grimaces at the raise. He studies his cards again, like he’s hoping to see something that’s not there. Though I’m not naive enough to think he might be bluffing.

He doesn’t just meet my bet, he raises it again, and now I’m really worried. He’s either going hard on the bluff, or he has something. Either way, my hand isn’t a bad one, so I meet his bet. This time, he doesn’t raise, he calls it instead.

We both turn our cards over at the same time, and my heart sinks. We both have two pairs, but he’s got two Aces, whereas my highest are Kings. Jake whoops and laughs as he throws his arms into the air in celebration, as I grumble and swear to myself.

I take a big swig of my whiskey, allowing the burn to distract me from my loss. Jake begins to gloat, the way he always does when he wins, and he finishes the rest of his glass of whiskey before pouring us both another. He then finishes the beer bottle in front of him too.

As he gloats, a big smile on his face, I note the way his pupils are blown so wide they appear black, only a hint of chocolate around the edges. If he keeps winning, it won’t be long before he’s really pissed, and that’s exactly what I want.

I grab the cards from on the table after he’s scooped up his winning chips and begin shuffling them for the next round. “What are we playing for next?” I ask him.

We play a few more hands, dealing with small, almost trivial matters, and as per my plan, the more drunk Jake gets, the easier it is for me to take all his chips.

He’s only got a very small pile left, barely enough for this final hand, and that’s exactly what I had in mind. I kept this final matter for the end, knowing how hard Jake would go in to win.

“Right, I only have one more matter on my agenda, and since you’re done, this will be our last hand. I’ve tried to do this in a friendly way, but I think we’ve reached the stage where I need to make it official.

“Last week, you fucked another one of my dancers from Caged, despite knowing they’re off-limits to you. You didn’t call her back the next day, and when she saw you in the club with another girl, she created a scene. In fact, that doesn’t even come close to covering it. She punched the girl so hard she broke her nose. Security removed her, but it was still a scene that could have been avoided, had you stuck to the rules.

“So, for this final hand, I propose we play for the girls in the club. If you win, I won’t stop you from being with any of them, but if I win, you can’t touch anyone who works there without my permission. What do you say?”

A heavy silence fills the air, and his inebriated state means it’s easy to see the emotions that flicker across his face. Intrigue, annoyance, anger, and maybe even a little excitement.

He enjoys messing around with the girls when they’re off-limits, but he also knows there’ll come a point when I enforce the rules much stricter than I currently do. This is his best opportunity to retain a chance with the girls there.

“I’m in.”

I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. He’s playing straight into my hands… Now I just need the cards to fall in the right way. I’m not going to cheat, but that doesn’t mean I can’t carefully manipulate the situation.

The game plays out exactly how I hoped. I have a better hand than I was expecting, but I don’t let on. In my hand I have the Four of Hearts, and the King of Hearts. On the table there’s the Ace of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds, Three of Hearts, and Four of Spades.

Not only do I have two pairs, there’s also the possibility of a flush, if the river card is a Heart. But even if that doesn’t come, I still have a pretty strong hand.

Since Jake’s pretty tipsy now, he’s barely hiding that he’s got a good hand. He’s raising the stakes quickly and aggressively, which, given the small amount of chips he has left, he’d only do if he was sure he had a good chance at winning.

Now it’s time for the next part of my plan. I raise the stakes higher than he has in chips, and he glares at me. “You know I don’t have enough chips to meet that bet,” he grumbles.

I shrug my shoulders, trying my hardest to look smug, enough to wind him up more. “Well, I guess, you’ll have to fold then.”

I make it sound like this is about me protecting the girls at the club, so he has no idea I have another motive. He glares at me, taking another sip of his whiskey, though I doubt that will help him come up with a solution.

“I’m not folding. I want to raise the bet,” he states, his gaze fixed on mine.

“Too bad you don’t have any chips,” I reply flippantly.

“Well, let me add in something else of value then,” he states, just as I expected him to.

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