Page 106 of Merciless Desires

I reach into my purse to take out my phone, so I can pretend to call the girls, when I see my wad of cash is gone.

Spinning around, I realize the older couple pick-pocketed me! Or maybe it was one of the bachelorette girls and I didn’t notice. No wonder they ran off. My heart pounds as I curse. “Shit.”

“Problem?” Cormac studies me.

“No.” Feeling sick, I glance at all those chips in his hand. “Show me how to play roulette.”

Having no choice, because I not only lost all my money, I also have nowhere to sleep tonight, I let him steer me away.

We come up on a table I’ve seen in James Bond movies, only there are no chairs, and no one’s wearing a tux. In fact, most people around this table look one step away from being homeless, like me.

Cormac hands me a handful of black chips. “That’s a grand, baby. Put it on a number.”

I stare at one thousand dollars in my hand and consider running. But this place is swimming with security. I won’t get away with it. “What are the odds?”

“Thirty-six to one. That’s what I love about this game.”

I see no chips on 21, so I drop the pile on it for good luck, since it’s my age.

“No more bets. No more bets,” the dealer, who probably smokes a pack a day, bellows to the crowd.

She pinches a white ball into a sparkling roulette wheel, and it bounces all over the place. My heart stops when it comes close to 21, but it pops up. Pops high and…lands on 21!

“Holy shit, baby.” Cormac grabs me. “You just won me thirty-six thousand dollars!”

“You won?” I yelp. “Don’t I get a cut? I picked the number.”

He eyes me cautiously. I assume he’s living off some kind of trust fund. And he’s not on the run. “What will you give me for your share?”

His tone drags me back to that conversation with Dante Caruso. They are all the same, aren’t they? Gangsters. Cormac doesn’t work for his family, but he grew up in that world. Men like him usually only want one thing from women.

“How long are you in Vegas, Cormac?” I quickly change the subject.

He takes a swig of his drink. “I’m not sure.”

He was a known party boy back home, not the type to get married and settle down. Maybe he is running away from something. Despite the creepy comment about what I’ll give him, I feel safe with him. Doctors save lives, not take them. And besides, we have something in common. Cormac escaped the life I also don’t want to live.

Feeling a little better, I smile. “Let’s see if we can win more money.”

“Addicting, isn’t it?” He takes my hand. “Come on, princess.”

We just won thirty-six thousand dollars! Maybe I can make a life here after all. Hang out with a cute, harmless doctor.

What can go wrong?

CHAPTER 3

Anastasia- Present Day

“How far along are you, Ana?” the EMT asks me.

“I’d check my watch, but I’m handcuffed,” I sneer sarcastically because that’s who I am now.

A woman who sneers.

A woman who is unhappy, bitter, and hasn’t smiled in I don’t know how long.

I live with a man I hate.

---