Page 100 of Gambler's Conceit

“Okay,” I say, nodding.

“We mean it, Seven,” Vortex says, gripping the back of my neck firmly but somehow gently at the same time. “Just the three of us.”

Part of me wants to mouth off to him, to demand to know what exactly he’ll do if I fuck someone else, but… The other part is relieved that this is it. That I won’t have to entertain other men, that I won’t have to try to learn their preferences, that I won’t have to fight and hide from yet another person.

“I saidokay,” I mutter.

“In that case.” Caleb glances at the other two. “This bed isn’t big enough for four people. If you want to sleep with somebody who isn’t me, Seven, you’ll have to go back to your own bedroom. Nacho will probably appreciate it, too.”

“Is there going to be like…” I scrunch up my nose. “A rotation, or something? A calendar?” I pause, thinking. “Havoc, don’t you need a place to stay? You can stay in my room?” I hate the little high note to my voice, the way I’m not sure whether I’m hoping he’ll agree or refuse.

Havoc scratches the back of his neck. “Nah, I, um. I talked to the landlady. I’ll grab one of the places I was looking at earlier. But I’ll make sure to get a huge bed.” He darts a glance at Caleb before looking back at me. “I need my own space too, at least for now. I’ve got my own baggage to deal with.”

Vortex snorts, but he keeps whatever snarky comment he might’ve had at the ready to himself as he kisses me on the top of the head. “We’ll be here when you need us,” he says instead. “But you can sleep alone, too. Well. With Nacho. Somehow, I don’t think he’d let you sleep completely alone. He’s more demanding than all of us put together.”

I can’t help but smile at that, even though it’s strained. “Yeah. He’d just meow at the door until I let him in.”

We keep talking about nothing, and the strange mood from earlier today is mostly gone.

As long as I don’t think about who Caleb is.

As long as I pretend Vortex is just a bodyguard.

As long as I forget that Havoc would sell me out for his salary.

As long as I remember that, in the end, I can only depend on myself.

TWENTY-THREE

CALEB

“You should fire Havoc,”Earl says.

I roll my eyes. Earl is sitting on my office couch, and Grant has the armchair. Rather than be close to either of them, I’m staying at my desk.

“I’m not firing Havoc,” I say.

“He’s a liability!” Grant exclaims. His voice is still nasal, on account of the broken nose and the bandaging. Apparently he’s fit to return to work, though, and make himself a nuisance by dragging Earl into all this.

“He’s as much of a liability as you are,” I point out. I pull up the video I’d sent to Havoc, the one where he’s beating up Grant. I turn the monitor so Grant can see it and press play.

Grant flinches, and I feel a bitter satisfaction. Good. Let him suffer more for having terrorized my staff—for having dared to touch Seven.

“That’s some motherfucking justice,” the guy recording says. There are hundreds of comments underneath the video praising Havoc, and only a few that argue that Havoc’s reaction was disproportionate.

“Stop yelling at the staff,” I say. “You’re making us look bad.”

Earl scoffs loudly. “The staff is making us look bad! When I was running the place?—”

“You weren’t running it!” I snap at him. “You did nothing, and the casino was consistently in the red, and I found three different staff members who were all stealing from us! They weren’t even working together!”

Earl scowls at me. “Listen up, Caleb. Just because you’re young doesn’t give you the right to spit on all the hard work Grant and I put into the casino. We did everything, and if not for me, you wouldn’t have a casino at all.”

“Yes, because if literally anybody else had been in charge, I wouldn’t have been able to afford the casino! So thank you, uncle, for driving it to the ground and making it so unprofitable that nobody else would have touched it.” I turn the monitor back to myself. “If you don’t like how I run the place, you can fucking leave. Both of you.”

“Are you trying to fire me?” Grant asks. “I’m the general manager. I’m the heart of the casino. You can’t run it without me.”

“I can and I have,” I point out. “And as we’ve seen in the past, the casino certainly doesn’t run well with you calling the shots, either.”

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