Page 4 of Wild Card
“Okay, then. Let’s get to it.”
We set up these games at different locations each time to avoid getting busted for gambling. The sexy Deputy Harvey had gotten wind of them and warned me I was playing with fire.
I’d only grinned and asked him if he wanted to burn up with me.
Harvey was a stick in the mud, though, and my flirtation had gone right over his head. “Watch it, Ax, or I’ll be putting cuffs on you again,” he’d said.
“Promises, promises,” I’d teased.
That time, the come-on had landed. His eyes had darkened, gaze sweeping over my body, before he’d abruptly walked away. No doubt, fucking the sheriff’s deputy would be a bad idea, but damn, the man’s ass looked good. If he could turn me on in that ugly-ass sheriff’s department uniform, then I didn’t stand a chance when I saw him in Levi’s at the local pool hall.
Still, I didn’t want to get arrested for real. For one thing, Holden would kill me. So we got more careful about moving locations and keeping the details on a need-to-know basis.
Jett followed me inside and whistled low. “This will do.”
I chuckled. “Right? Too bad we can’t do it here all the time.”
Ahead of us, sofas, chairs, and coffee tables were all crammed close together on a concrete floor. Beyond them, dining tables and chairs filled the cavernous space. Rows of furnitureextended as far as the eye could see. Industrial shelving held stacks of more chairs, coffee tables, and end tables above our heads.
Jett and I shifted things around, setting up two game tables. By the time we’d cleared a path and set up the makeshift bar by shoving two high-top pub tables together, it was damn near time to get started.
Jett rubbed his hands together. “It’s gonna be a good night.”
“Hell yeah.”
Jett was in it for the money, and that was certainly a nice perk. But I was all about the rush it gave me. The risk, the money changing hands, the intensity of desperate players, and the booze that turned the whole thing into a tinderbox just waiting to explode into threats or violence.
Not to mention the hot asses that would walk through that door, some of them more interested in making bets about how big my dick was than the cards at the table.
Yeah, the games were a good way to settle the wild beast I had inside. The one that craved chaos—a destructive force that wanted to burn the world down for the ways it had failed me.
For one night, at least, I’d satisfy the urge so that I could go back to pretending that I was tame like everyone else around me.
CHAPTER 2
Dalton
“Hey, Ava.”I rapped my knuckles on her desk as I passed. “Why didn’t you warn me about Sam Murphy? That ole coot tricked me into fixing his fence.”
Ava gave a throaty laugh. She was seventy-five, but her spirit was younger than mine. “Who do you think told him to report his steer was missing?”
She winked behind her turquoise-framed glasses.
I gasped, raising a hand to my chest. “You know false reporting is a crime, young lady. It’d break my heart to haul you in.”
She giggled, her cheeks turning a shade of pink that rivaled the dyed streaks in her silvery hair. “Now, I didn’t say his steer wasn’t actually missing. Only that you might help him with his security if he reported it.”
“You’re devious,” I said, lifting my coffee cup to slug back the dregs. They were cold and bitter, but it’d been a long-ass day that started damn near ten hours ago. I needed the caffeine. “I better finish my report so I can get out of here.”
She nodded. “Sheriff wants to see you before you go.”
Damn. I wasn’t Hale’s favorite person right now, so I couldn’t imagine it was for anything good.
I set my coffee cup and incident report on my desk, then headed for his office. The door stood open, so I knocked on the doorframe.
“Ava said you wanted to see me.”
He grunted without looking up. “Need you on crowd control at the Homecoming game. You better get out there.”
