Page 45 of The Gambler

He closed his eyes and prayed for patience.Ten, nine, eight.Nope, it wasn’t working. “Fine, let’s play it your way.Whyare you stripping?”

Alfie’s eyes darted between them, like a ferret on steroids watching a ping pong match. Luca barely kept himself from giving him the finger.

“Because that’s the only way Alfie will talk to us about business,” Tess explained.

“I need to know you’re not being tracked,” Alfie added.

“Tracked by whom?”

Alfie gave him a look Luca was becoming painstakingly familiar with—one of sympathy, like he was a poor sap who didn’t know a damn thing. It was the Tess look. He didn’t care for that look. Not one bit.

“The feds, Homeland Security, CIA, you name it,” Alfie whispered. “They know we’re not alone, but they’re keeping it from us. I need to be sure you’re not sent by their ruler.”

How the fuck had he ended up in a room, which was practically a broom closet, discussing alien overlords?

Tess patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t think about it too much. This is one of those times your big bucks won’t seal the deal.”

“Money’s the root of all evil!” Alfie yelled, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. “It’s what took Loki from me.”

Loki? He wasn’t even going to ask.

Tess found it necessary to tell him anyway. “His cat,” she said. “Alfie has lost his cat.”

Grinding his teeth, he let go of her and took off his clothes. Tess continued stripping as well. His eyes were focused on Alfie. One wrong look at Tess’ glorious nakedness, and he would take the man out. Computers and aliens be damned.

Alfie seemed solely focused on alien tech though. He nodded and gestured they could get dressed.

Luca assessed the past week. Almost being gunned down by the Terminator, getting into a fight with bikers, and now this loon. He wondered how his life had spun this out of control. He’d only been a free man for just over a week, and already chaos was following him.

His gaze went to what he suspected to be the epicenter of said chaos: Tess Gibson. She was a menace. A curse. He’d easier deal with the seven plagues of Egypt.

“Are we done now?” he wanted to know. “Can you get whatever you need so we can leave?”

When Alfie started crying, Luca had a feeling they weren’t nearly done yet.

“We can’t leave without saving Alfie’s prized cat.”

“Come again?”

“Alfie’s cat,” Tess repeated, giving him a look as if he were the one being weird for not understanding her. “The poor thing is the love of his life.”

“A cat?”

She nodded. “Yes. His ex stole his cat. You must understand that he can’t think of anything but Loki right now.”

“Loki?”

“Yes. He’s named after the one fromThe Avengers. He’s a Norse god and one of the most misunderstood men in the Marvel universe. He actually has a good heart, but he’s got some daddy issues, but who hasn’t? So what if he tried to enslave the world by cooperating with an alien race? He only wanted to get Odin’s attention. The second Thor needed him, he was right there, fighting by his side.”

Maybe he’d died and gone to hell. Or walked right into a wormhole and ended up in an alternate universe.

“Can we please focus?” His knuckles were burning, his head was pounding, even his eye sockets hurt. “You said you needed to get inside this bar to get your gear. I got you inside the fucking bar. Now you tell me I have to go chase after a cat?”

“A prized cat,” she corrected him. “Loki has won several beauty contests, which is why Alfie’s ex abducted him. We can’t leave Loki in her hands. She will sell him to the highest bidder, just to spite Alfie. The poor cat might end up in a loveless home. So, you see, to get Alfie to cooperate, I have to get him out of his depressed funk. And to do that, I have to reunite him with Loki.”

He gave her a look that, according to his former PA, had once made his personnel run. It had broken grown ass men into sobs. A look that could make lakes freeze over.

Unfortunately, that look bounced right off Tess’ big, hazel eyes. That smart mouth in a small package wasn’t going to back down.

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