Page 63 of Biker's Collar: Property of Scrap

“Think of what we stand to lose,” Magnum says. But I can tell Owen hasn’t given a single thought to what he stands to lose.

“It’s a dice game,” he says. “The odds are in our favor now more than they are during a winter parlay across three sports.”

“There’s a little more at stake here than your beer money.”

“Owen. Just shoot his ass,” I snap, because honestly, what the fuck are these men doing here?

I raise my gun to Hakeem’s head and he raises an eyebrow at me. Owen raises his hand to stop me. I promised I would trust him, so I don’t pull the trigger.

“Don’t, Vickie. We’re making a deal.”

“You’re fucking gambling, Owen.”

“What’s he gambling?” I ask.

Magnum grimaces and gives me a stern look that sends a chill straight through me. “Fucking everything, princess. Including you.”

“Don’t scare her.”

“Is it true?”

“You have three tries to hit seven,” Hakeem says. Owen pulls out the chair and sits with his legs spread. He still doesn’t look at me. This man makes me so crazy that I almost want to raise the gun and shoot his ass instead of Hakeem’s. My hearing is still muffled from the gunshot earlier sotrust me,I really don’t want to believe that this shit is happening right now.

“Owen, you can’t be serious.”

It occurs to me that Owen could kill this man, anyway. But I know him.

“I told you to trust me, Vickie.”

“I trusted you when the plan was shooting Hakeem.”

I sound hysterical and I’m still tempted to just…do it.I search the face of Owen’s companion for signs that he’s feeling my spirit of rebellion. He just looks obedient. I want to scream. More importantly, I want to shoot.

Owen’s hands swipe over the table and I barely see him grab the dice. His hands move like a rattlesnake’s tail as he shakes the dice around. The noise is too quiet for my fucked up hearing to make out properly. Owen’s companion looks over at me.

“Southpaw lost his girl in a game like this one. Anything happens to you… I don’t know if we’ll come find you.”

“Thanks.”

“Better hope he wins.”

“Everyone in this room had better hope he wins,” I mutter under my breath. I don’t know if Hakeem has back up, but I’m hoping those nephews of his stay locked up tight so this situation doesn’t get worse.

“Come on,” Hakeem taunts Owen. “Lucky number seven. You just have to hit it once and everything is yours – I will legally sign over to you all my businesses in Las Vegas and give you the key to a safety deposit box with an additional $300,000.”

Okay, maybe Owen has a point that there’s a lot to gain. But Magnum doesn’t look so confident, which means what he stands to lose must be…monumental.My stomach is already sitting in my ass because I have seen Owen gamble every cent of his net worth in the past.

And Magnum’s implications are that somehow… my life is on the line too.

I don’t want to believe Owen would do that and then punctuate it with a flippant ass “trust me”. The dice scatter across the table. I try to peer over his broad shoulders to see the number.

I wish I was taller.

Twenty-Eight

Owen

Snake eyes.

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