Page 17 of Trick's Trap

His questionable reputation had been a comfort, although Tahlia hadn’t thought about it that way at the time.

Her family had left her alone for a few years after she’d started grad school. Things changed in her third year. Dante and Cain started spending time in Boston. She’d gone from an average boring student to a paranoid freak who constantly looked over her own shoulder.

But right when her life started to go south, Maia met and married her millionaire. Overnight, she acquired a pack of new friends, rich and connected people who could protect her.

Perhaps that was why Tahlia continued to socialize with her long after things became uncomfortable with her relatives.

Her family’s intrusive surveillance was obvious to others by then. In Tahlia’s last year of grad school, her cousins and their lackeys dogged her everywhere she went. The exception had been when she’d gone to see Maia at her then-fiancé’s penthouse apartment.

Her relatives also left her alone when the two had gone out for the occasional meal, mainly because her friend was always accompanied by bodyguards, courtesy of her overprotective husband.

And she’s still well-guarded.Tahlia wrapped the thin denim jacket closer to her body. Maybe she could reach out now that Maia knew she was alive.

Don’t even think about it, she ordered herself sternly. It was far too dangerous for all concerned.

But the weak part of her mind couldn’t help picturing asking Maia for help.

Her friend would give it without reservation. That she knew already. But the image of her father’s body flashed in her mind.

No. It was impossible. Going to Maia had never been an option. In fact, Tahlia clung to that friendship far too long—a futile attempt to hang on to some semblance of normalcy in a world that was spinning out of control.

I didn’t even love my father. That hadn’t been an easy thing to admit, even to herself. Santino certainly hadn’t loved her. He hadn’t even let her call him Papa or Father while he lived. Theirs had been a rigid and very formal relationship.

Her mess of a childhood was why she was a badly socialized, self-taught math geek, one who faked being normal. And then something happened. Maia had been talking to her about her new friend Eva, the wife of her husband’s friend. It had been an incredible story about how a poker game saved Eva’s life.

Tahlia had always been good at card games, but it was that story that prodded her to do something with her skill.

She started playing online, but the popular website she tried showed signs of being biased against the player. The odds, which she could calculate in her mind in seconds, hadn’t played out the way they should have.

Tahlia decided she needed a game where she could see a person’s reaction. One fateful afternoon, she took the bus to the local Indian casino. At first, she’d floundered like anyone out of her depth. But once the novelty and anxiety faded, she’d found an unexpected advantage in her sorry childhood. The way she’d grown up forced her to become an expert at reading human expressions while masking her own. It was a talent she honed at the awkward family gatherings. That ability combined with her math skills and excellent memory, and Tahlia was instantly an elite player.

That was how she ended up at Chao’s playing against Patrick—because of the story Maia had told her. Somehow, she’d come full circle.

I can’t go back to the Caislean, can I?Not if she wanted to avoid putting her only friend in danger. Patrick, too, apparently.

She had to stop thinking about him. As far as he was concerned, she was a ghost. A resurrection was not in the cards. Not for her.

Tahlia huddled in the narrow twin bed later that night, mentally counting her cash. She had a little over two hundred dollars left to her name. It wasn’t enough for the buy-in at the Hammer room, but with luck, it might be enough to get her to California.

Flying standby on a budget airline had been her plan, but now she’d been recognized, perhaps a bus ticket was the way to go.

But she would be much better off if she could get paid for tonight’s work…

Then at least she’d have enough cash to get a room for the first night. She just needed to convince Gina to give it to her while simultaneously failing to keep her word to do a second night of work.

“No, absolutely not.”Gina was adamant. The matronly redhead blew her frizzy hair out of her face, giving Tahlia a dismissive once-over before sidestepping a busboy in the busy industrial kitchen.

“You don’t get rewarded for letting me down and leaving me in the lurch. Two waiters and a line cook already called in sick.”

“I am so sorry.” The guilt was eating her alive, but she needed that cash.

Gina put her hands on her hips. “I can still use you.”

She waved at Tahlia’s nondescript dark pants and top. “You could even wear that. At this point, I don’t care.”

Tahlia winced and glanced around at the other waitstaff, but none of them were paying them any attention. Everyone was scrambling to get ready.

She twisted her hands together. “I hate this. I’ve never broken my word before. I always keep my commitments, but I need to leave town and the money would be a huge help.”

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