Page 43 of Wild Card (Advantage Play 1)

With a glance at my wristwatch, I do the math, only to realize she’s been missing for nearly thirty minutes. I saw the pit boss hand her off to the motherfucking head of the Romano family before he took his spot back on the floor like it was just another day at the office. I saw the way Mr. Romano touched her bare skin. The way she trembled under his touch. Bile floods my mouth, and I swallow it back.

I’m two seconds away from blowing everything I’ve worked so hard for, but I can’t. Not even for an innocent girl that seems to be caught in the crosshairs of something she knows nothing about.

In the corner of my eye, I see a flash of black, and I’m gifted with Ace in a blonde wig, ripped jeans, and a black t-shirt that’s been torn to reveal her toned stomach. The same stomach I saw him touch.

She walks my way, completely oblivious to my presence until I reach out and grab her forearm.

With a squeal, she rips herself away from my grasp before her eyes widen in surprise.

“Jack?”

“Hey. Are you okay?”

“What the hell? What are you doing here?”

I can’t tell her the truth, yet I’m sick of lying too. My mouth forms a thin line.

She senses my hesitation and pushes, “Tell me, Jack. Now.”

“Answer me first,” I return. “Are you okay? I saw you get escorted again. I saw you talk to Kingston Romano. Did he touch you?”

Please say no. Please say no.

She gasps in shock. “What? What are you talking about? And how the hell do you know Kingston?”

Fuck. Seems they’re on a first-name basis. That seems promising.

Seeing it’s apparent she isn’t half as terrified as she should be for having been alone with Dark King, I try a different tactic. “Listen, I need to talk to you in private. Can we go somewhere?”

She takes a step backward, her brows pinching in confusion. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I need to talk to you,” I repeat. “Please?”

“No offense, Jack, but I don’t exactly know you well enough to go somewhere with you in private.” I can tell she’s put up her walls. I just don’t know how to get her to take them down for me. I’m not the bad guy.

Lifting my arm toward the corridor she just returned from, I argue, “But you’re good enough to be alone with Kingston? Do you know him at all? What he’s capable of?”

I watch as she swallows, chewing on her lower lip as she assesses me. “How do you know Kingston or what he’s supposedly capable of?”

My hands dig into my short blonde hair before tugging on the strands in frustration. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you need to know who you’re dealing with.”

Her gaze is wary as it shifts around the casino before coming back to me. “I don’t think we should be talking about this out in the open.”

“That’s why I’ve been begging you to go somewhere with me,” I insist.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she releases a deep sigh. “Listen, Jack. I don’t think you’re a bad guy, but I do think you’ve stuck your nose where it doesn’t belong. If you know Kingston as well as you say you do then you also know that you should probably back off right now. Look, I gotta go.” She steps toward the exit, but I reach for her again only to pull her close into my chest.

She’s practically a marble statue in my arms as I lean down to whisper in her ear, “Do you do drugs, Ace? Is he your dealer? Is that it? I can help you—”

“You need to shut up right now, Jack.” Her voice is low but lethal. “I have a set of rules, and you’re breaking every fucking one of them as we speak. If you don’t let me walk out that door in the next ten seconds, you’re going to regret it.”

“Ace, I’m just trying to hel—”

A large hand slams onto my upper shoulder like a slab of meat, interrupting me. “There a problem here?”

I squeeze my eyes in defeat before letting my arms go limp at my sides. I’m so screwed. Ace steps back, leaving a solid three feet between us as her attention bounces between me and the guy digging his fingers into my collarbone.

“No problem,” I reply as I slowly raise my hands into the air in surrender.

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