Page 96 of Texas Hold Em'
The men laughed.
Carrie didn’t. “He got away.”
Jackson nodded. “I know. It’s okay.”
She looked at her feet. “They drove out of the city. I think… I think they might be running.”
“If they are, they’ll be back,” Jackson said. “A man like Bates doesn’t walk away from his prize. Tex almost killed him tonight. He needs to regroup. So do we. When he comes back, we’ll be ready for him.”
Carrie nodded and didn’t look up.
“Hart,” Jackson said firmly.
She lifted her gaze. He moved forward, grimacing in pain. Brody shook his head behind Jackson, irritated that his patient was alreadydisobeying his orders to rest. The rest of us looked at our President like he was a god as he placed a hand on Carrie’s shoulder.
“You did well tonight. Tonight, you are one of us.”
Her eyes danced.
“Welcome to the Devil’s Luck,” Jackson said. “We’ve got your back from here on out. No questions asked.”
Abel lifted his beer with the hand that didn’t have broken fingers. “To the Ranger.”
“The Ranger,” everyone said unanimously. I added my voice to the toast, and Carrie turned to me with tears in her eyes and hope in her smile.
“Well done, kid,” Jackson said before releasing her shoulder and moving tiredly to his chair. He lowered himself into it, and Sam took up her place beside him.
“Did you hear that?” Carrie whispered excitedly in my ear. “Jackson doesn’t hate me anymore.”
Knox pressed a beer into her hands. Grant clapped her hard on the back, knocking her forward a step. She grinned like a kid on Christmas morning when Mason draped his jacket over her shoulders later in the night when the temperatures dropped. And when the men all sat around telling Suzie and Sam the tales of the night, Carrie was the star of the show.
I watched her as she realized that she’d found a new family here in Reno, and I wondered if she truly understood just how far these men would go to protect her. She was our blood now. Mine forever.
Ours.
So long as she would have us, that is.
CHAPTER 40
CARRIE
Asingle ice-blue eye stared unblinking at me. All around it was darkness so thick I could have sworn I’d fallen into a well of ink. The eye narrowed even though it was lidless, and a hollow laugh rang in my ears. I lifted my hands to cover them but found I didn’t have hands.
Where was I?
What was this place?
Surely, it wasn’t real.
The eye spoke.
“You broke our deal, sweetheart. Do you remember what I said? I have a bullet saved for you, Miss Hart. It’s all shiny and new, but it belongs in your skull. You should have killed him.”
My ears rang with Bates’s voice. It sounded like he was inside me. Desperate, I tried to escape the sheer nothingness all around me, but there was nowhere to go. Everywhere I turned I was met with more darkness and that single, penetrating, ruthless eye.
“You should have killed him.”
I tried to scream, but I had no mouth. No lungs. No tongue.
