BACK IN HER HUSBAND'S BED (11 page)

Her throat went bone-dry in an instant. “No.”

“Annie,” Nate pressed, his voice calm and cold. “It’s already too late to save her.”

Her eyes widened as she frantically searched his face for a sign he was bluffing in the hopes she would reveal the critical information he lacked. His jaw was firmly set, his dark eyes hurt that she hadn’t been honest with him. But there were no signs of a bluff. He meant every word.

What choice did he leave her with? Either betray her sister or destroy her career. She tried not to let the disappointment creep into her voice. It ended up coming out in a hushed whisper. “I didn’t know anything until yesterday.”

“What did you see?” he pressed.

Tessa had dug a hole deep enough to bury them both. Annie might as well jump in. “I saw her signaling to another player. Watch her every gesture. Each move is deliberate. Whoever her partner is today will drive up the pot to help her win.”

He nodded, his grip tightening on her elbow. “We’re going to need your help to catch them.”

At this, Annie closed her eyes. “Don’t ask that of me, Nate. I can’t do it. Even if it means putting Eddie in jail where he belongs.”

“Annie, please.” Nate’s voice softened as he tried a new persuasive angle. “We need more evidence to build a solid case against Eddie.”

And was she supposed to provide the evidence they needed? Not when it would do nothing but incriminate her sister and let Eddie walk away as he always did. Annie crossed her arms defensively over her chest, trying to rebuild some of the barricade that she’d let down between the two of them. She loved Nate, but she had to protect herself. “No. I told you what I saw. Your security people will have to do the dirty work.”

At that, she reached under her sweater and ripped the wire from her skin without a thought about the pain. She shoved it into Nate’s hands. “I have to go.” She spun on her heels and rushed back to the table before she changed her mind and did something she would regret.

She came to a halt several yards from the tournament area to gather her composure. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her hands smoothed over her hair and sweater, tugging at her skirt. By the time she took her third deep breath and opened her eyes, her furious heartbeat had slowed in her chest and she felt fairly in control.

Annie settled in her seat just as the announcement was made that the tournament was beginning. Tessa was sitting two seats to her right, but she didn’t look at her sister. She didn’t greet the other players or chat with the dealer. She also didn’t look around for Nate or the navy-clad security officers who swarmed around the tables like sharks. Whether or not she’d wanted to cooperate, her role in Nate’s plot was over and at last she only had to focus on the cards.

Make that the cards and the sharp ache in her chest. Her fit just now might have cost her the second chance with Nate she’d wanted, and in the end, it probably wouldn’t change anything. Her sister was going to jail. The only thing she could do was focus on the tournament.

They were over an hour and a half into playing before Annie finally started to feel at ease. She was doing well. She’d won several key hands and at least one player was on the verge of going out. Tessa was playing a solid game, winning a few hands, but nothing suspicious. Today, her sister’s earrings seemed to be secure and she wasn’t fidgeting much. Not that she was looking.

After successfully winning a big pot, Annie drove the first player from the table. She stood to shake his hand and caught a glimpse of Nate over his shoulder. He was watching her, as he had all week, but this time he was not beaming with pride. He was scrutinizing her every move, his arms crossed over his chest, threatening to rip the shoulders out of his expensive black suit.

She didn’t keep his gaze, sitting quickly and returning to the next hand. Annie needed to hold her game together. She couldn’t let thoughts of Nate throw her off. She flipped up the corners of her new cards and frowned. The cards were good, she had no reason to frown, but she just couldn’t shake the sensation of his eyes on her. How was she supposed to play with—

“Mrs. Reed?”

Her head snapped up at the sound of the dealer’s voice. All the players were looking at her, including Tessa. “I’m sorry,” she said, tossing a few chips out.

Focus, woman.

And she did. The next hour flew by in a blur of cards. The afternoon break came just as she began getting mentally weary. Annie stretched her legs, pacing around and avoiding anyone who looked as though they might want to talk to her.

The question plaguing her was what she would do next. Tessa was doing okay—not fabulous, but she wasn’t the closest to going out, either. Annie hadn’t specifically targeted her to knock out of the tournament, but maybe she should. The less time Tessa played, the less time Nate and his gorillas would have to gather incriminating information.

The call went out to summon the players to the tables so the next portion of the game could begin. With a sigh, Annie chucked her plate into the trash and made her way back. A quick scan around the crowd made her instantly suspicious. Nate and Gabe were gone.

Annie leaned back in her chair and eyed the black dome on the ceiling above them. No doubt they were watching from the office. At least now she couldn’t spy Nate scowling at her from across the room. Some of the pressure was gone, even if the gravity of her situation still sat heavily on her shoulders.

As the game resumed, Annie glanced quickly at the stack of chips in front of her sister. It would take a couple hands to wipe her out, but it could be done. Especially if Tessa was certain she had a sure thing.

Which she very well might have. Annie eyed the dealer. She hadn’t played at any of his tables before. There was also a man playing at her table who she didn’t know. He could be helping Tessa, but she wasn’t sure.

Several hands went by without much progress. Annie would win, then Tessa would win, scissoring back and forth. Before long, there were just four of them left. If Annie was going to take out Tessa, she needed to do it, and soon.

The dealer began the hand and Annie had a queen and a jack of hearts in the hole. She bet accordingly. The flop went down containing the ten of hearts, the nine of clubs and the king of hearts.

Annie had a straight and she was one card away from a
very
good hand. The nine or ace of hearts would give her a straight flush or a royal flush. But it was nearly impossible to get and too soon to get excited.

Tessa bet a fairly large amount. It was too early for that, but Annie didn’t react. She probably had a pocket pair to go with the flop. The bet was still too large just for three of a kind. If Annie raised her, Tessa would have to go all in. She considered her options and chose to raise. The other player folded.

Tessa didn’t hesitate, pushing all her chips out and going all in. Annie felt her jaw tightening. She kept forgetting that her sister was cheating. If she was going all in, she knew something Annie didn’t. Perhaps she anticipated more. Maybe four of a kind.

If Tessa had four of a kind, the only hands that would beat her would be the straight flush or royal flush. Annie was one impossible card away from an unbeatable hand. She had enough money to match Tessa’s bet without going all in. She could take the risk and still be safe. If she folded, Tessa would win, anyway.

Annie took a deep breath and called, pushing her chips out. They both turned over their cards. She’d been right. Tessa had a pair of tens. Her sister looked at her, the smug satisfaction paling slightly when she saw Annie’s hand. She’d thought she had a sure thing. Now, she wasn’t certain. She could read Tessa’s face like a book.

As she anticipated, the turn was a ten of spades. Annie sighed to herself, staring off into the crowd as she mentally calculated the odds of the river card being the nine or ace of hearts. It was astronomical. Having one in the same hand as someone with a four of a kind made it damn near impossible. Well, at least when one of the parties wasn’t cheating.

The murmur of speculation ran through the crowd as everyone saw the cards and came to the same realization. Everyone knew the hand would be determined by the river card. An almost unbeatable hand was about to be tested in a glorious fashion. The kind of moment that video montages of poker tournaments would play for years to come.

Annie closed her eyes and held her breath. That was all she could do.

* * *

“What the hell is she doing?” Nate cursed and pushed his rolling chair back from the panel of screens. “She’s deliberately trying to take Tessa out of the game.”

He shouldn’t be surprised. She was doing what she had to do to protect her sister and her own stakes in the game. He’d given her no choice. Tessa might not like it, but if she had any idea what Annie had just done for her, she wouldn’t complain.

“Whoa.” Gabe shook his head. “That’s a helluva hand they’ve both got. Might backfire on her.”

Nate leaned in. If the last card was the nine or ace of hearts, Annie would win and Tessa would be out. He was a casino owner. The odds were miserably against her. And yet she was determined to take Tessa down. He stood and took a few paces away from the screen. He couldn’t watch.

“Well, I’ll be damned! The ace of hearts, man. Tessa is out.”

“Damn!” He slammed his hand onto the console, making the screens flicker just slightly.

“We didn’t get anything on her.”

Nate sighed and shook his head. “Have security quietly escort Tessa upstairs. We didn’t get anything conclusive, but she doesn’t know that. She’s young and inexperienced. With a little pressure, her mouth will start running like an old faucet.”

Eleven

A
nnie knew better than to go up to the suite after the tournament was done for the day. There was a fight waiting for her there, she just knew it. Instead, she started wandering aimlessly through the casino. She wanted to get as far away from the poker tables and the cameras as she could. She turned down a narrow corridor, relishing the quiet and solitude. A placard on the wall indicated she would follow the route to get to the hotel gym and day spa.

Perhaps now was a good time for that manicure.

She turned to continue down the hall, then stopped when she found Jerry, the Sapphire’s floor manager, standing in her path.

“Mrs. Reed,” he said with a smile.

“Afternoon, Jerry,” she said. “I’m off to get my nails done as a reward for another successful day of the tournament.”

“Well, I’m sorry to interrupt your plans, Mrs. Reed, but I’m going to have to escort you upstairs.”

Annie’s blood froze instantly in her veins. Nate must be furious with her if he’d sent his casino manager to collect her. Her gaze dropped from Jerry’s apologetic smile to the gun held close to his side. In an instant, she knew she no longer had the advantage in this hand.

“Jerry, I...” she started, taking a step back toward the chaos of the casino.

Jerry surged toward her, reaching out to grip her upper arm with his free hand. “It will be best for everyone involved if you come with me without making a scene.”

Annie ignored the cruel fingers digging into her upper arm and nodded softly. He tugged her forward and she fell into step beside him. At first, she’d thought perhaps she was getting an inside view at the rougher side of casino security. But the farther they moved away from the part of the hotel where the surveillance and interviews took place, the more concerned she became. Casino managers didn’t carry guns. And security would’ve taken her upstairs if she’d been implicated. Things had just gone unexpectedly awry.

Now it was too late. They walked the quiet, abandoned hallways, moving deeper into the bowels of the casino, away from the possibility that someone could help her or spot her on the security monitors that Nate was always watching. If she’d only kept that wire on instead of throwing it in his face...

They took one of the staircases up a few floors and into a hallway of guest rooms in one of the older segments of the hotel. Annie had never been into this part of the property. This portion was original to the casino Nate’s grandfather had built. The shiny blue tower of fancy suites had been one of her husband’s additions. These rooms here were nice, but you could feel the age, still smell the faint cigarette smoke from back before it was banned in most of the facilities.

Jerry didn’t look at her as they walked, stopping only at the end of the hallway to open the door to one of the rooms. There was no room number, just a sign that designated the space as private.

He shoved her inside and to her surprise, it was less of a hotel room and more of an office space like Nate’s quarters. There was a seating area with a television, a conference table with leather chairs and a desk piled high with paperwork.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“This used to be the suite where George Reed ran his casino. Any decisions were made in this very room. Nate, of course, wanted something a little flashier with his makeover, so he allowed me to use the space when I came back here to work for him.”

“And why are we here?”

Before he could answer, Eddie Walker appeared through the doorway that led to living quarters of some kind. She was right. This had nothing to do with Nate. But everything to do with Tessa. It had never occurred to her that Nate wouldn’t be the only one angry with her stunt today.

“Sit down, Annie.” Eddie pointed to one of the seats surrounding a glass coffee table. When she hesitated, she felt the hard prod of the gun in her rib cage and it urged her forward.

She flopped into the chair, able at last to look at Jerry. She’d met him once over the past week but had never really given the man much notice. Nate had spoken of him a few times, grateful that a man with his experience was there to help him keep operations on track. She knew he’d worked with Nate’s grandfather for years, then came back to work with Nate after an unfulfilling retirement, but that was it. No reason to suspect or ever consider Jerry had any reason to hold a gun on her.

“You played well today,” he said, lowering himself calmly into the opposite chair. “As always, I enjoy watching you. You’re so much better than Tessa. Sometimes it’s all we can do to keep her from putting herself out of the game, much less win.”

Annie didn’t know where they were going with this, but Jerry had the gun, so he could talk as long as he liked. He eyed her, the pistol now resting in his lap. She didn’t doubt for a moment that the older man would spring to action with the gun if she even shifted in her seat.

“That, of course, is why I put you two at the same table today. With Nate and Gabe watching her every move, I knew you wouldn’t let Tessa hang herself. Or interfere with you winning.” He leaned back in his seat and chuckled. “That was quite a stunt you pulled off today. You’re lucky my dealer was feeding you the cards you needed to beat her.”

Annie let a ragged breath slip through her lips. The dealer helped her win? Suddenly, she realized her mistake. She’d thought she was doing the right thing, but she had played right into his plans.
She
was the one they were really after. They had just used Tessa to get to her.

“Tomorrow, the Barracuda is going to sweep the tournament,” Jerry announced.

“Nate has probably arrested your dealer by now,” she argued. “It won’t work. They’re watching everyone so closely.”

“We have more dealers and another player heading to the final table tomorrow. They’ll help us ensure that you’ll win it all. After Tessa and Darrell are arrested, they’ll relax their surveillance. No one will suspect you because they’ll believe you were instrumental in catching the real cheaters. You’ll be able to waltz out the door with your winnings.”

Annie’s heart started pounding frantically in her chest. She had worked for years to win, but she wasn’t a cheater. She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. “I don’t want to win that way.”

“You have no choice, Annie. Tessa going to jail could be the least of your worries. She was involved with some really dangerous people. Something might happen to her before her court date.”

Annie swallowed hard and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t let them hurt her sister. “My marriage will be ruined.” She could barely imagine the expression on Nate’s face if he found out she really was involved.

“From what I hear, your marriage was ruined the day you said your vows.” He tapped the radio at his hip and sighed. “What’s left of it will be destroyed tonight. You can’t go back to the suite. I don’t trust you not to tip Nate off.”

“I won’t, I—” she started, but he cut her off with a curt shake of his head.

“You’re going to go to Nate and tell him it’s over. That you’ve fulfilled your part of the bargain and now you want your own hotel room. After your stunt today, I doubt it will be a surprise. He’ll be so distraught that tomorrow’s outcome won’t matter.”

Annie’s fists tightened in her lap, the anger coursing through her veins. Since she was old enough to make decisions, every facet of her life had been decided by her. Right or wrong, she was in charge of her fate. She’d left Nate before he could start telling her what to do. She certainly didn’t want the likes of Eddie and Jerry calling the shots.

“What about him?” She jerked a thumb in the direction of Walker.

“He’s leaving. They suspect him, so his disappearance will confirm they’ve caught the right people. It’s all managed, Annie. I assure you that this is a well-organized plan. You’ll walk away with the glory, a third of your winnings and most importantly, a guarantee of your sister’s safety.”

Somehow, winning the tournament paled in comparison to what it would cost her. She hadn’t intended it to happen, but she had fallen in love with Nate. They had both grown up a lot since the last time they were together. They could have a future—one she’d never realized she wanted until she had Nate back in her life—but Jerry would force her to throw it all away.

And for what?

Even if she did everything she was told to do, there was no guarantee she could walk away from this. She would just be giving them more evidence to blackmail her into playing again. “And that’s it?”

“Until such time that we see fit to call on your services again.”

There it was. She was not just taking Tessa’s place tomorrow; she was filling her shoes until Annie came under suspicion and they had to replace her. In the end, her career and her marriage would be ruined.

Despite his assurances, she would never be free of any of this. Tessa would never be safe. And Nate would never, ever forgive her.

* * *

Nate was having one of the longest days of his life. He’d kept telling himself that catching criminals and protecting his casino was the most important thing. After seeing Annie’s reaction, he wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t had much time to think about it, though. Since Tessa was eliminated, he’d spent most of his evening in the security offices interviewing her and Darrell.

Hours of interrogation and working with the police had taken a lot of energy out of him. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with Annie and sleep. Honest-to-God sleep, for more than four hours. Twelve would just about do it.

But he knew he was likely to get none of those things. He’d seen the look in Annie’s eyes when he’d threatened her. He’d recognized the pain hidden there when he asked her to betray her sister and had forced her to choose. What choice did he have? He couldn’t just let Tessa walk because she was his sister-in-law.

When the elevator chimed and the doors opened to his suite, he was surprised to find Annie sitting on the leather sofa in his office. The lights of the Strip shining through the picture window were the only thing illuminating her as she sat in the darkness waiting for him. She looked up when he came in, but there was barely a flicker of recognition in her eyes, much less a warm greeting.

Nate walked over into the mostly dark office, flipping on the lamp on his desk. The light was enough to highlight the tracks of tears that had dried on Annie’s cheeks. His stomach immediately sank.

“How’s my sister?” Annie spoke the words without looking at him. Her gaze was fixed firmly on her hands, folded in her lap.

“She’s fine. A smart girl mixed up in something stupid. Hopefully they won’t go too hard on her. She’s working out a plea bargain with the D.A. for information to convict Darrell and Eddie.”

“Just Darrell and Eddie?”

Nate frowned. Did she think he was going to have her charged, too? She should know better. Or should she? Hell, if she had been involved, Nate probably would’ve hauled her in, even if he regretted it later. “Yes. We don’t have evidence of anyone else being involved at this point. I think that’s quite enough, to be honest. Tessa should be released on bail tomorrow morning.”

“Good.” Annie stood suddenly, scooping up her purse and grasping the handle of her rolling suitcase.

He didn’t know why he was surprised. “Where are you going?”

She continued to hide beneath her dark lashes. Nate couldn’t understand why she was hiding from him. What did she think he was going to see in her eyes?

“I’m going to check into my own hotel room. I think given the current situation it’s the best idea.”

“So you’re leaving.” It was more of a statement than a question, but Nate wanted to hear her say the words. When she left the last time, he hadn’t been there. She’d written a note and slipped out in the night. If she was going to leave him again, he wasn’t going to make it easy on her. It certainly wasn’t easy on him.

“Yes, I’m leaving. I’ve fulfilled my end of the agreement. You’ve caught your bad guys. I don’t see any need for us to continue with the charade.”

Charade.
It sure as hell hadn’t felt like a charade. It had felt like she gave a damn. She’d confessed her love for him not twenty-four hours ago. Apparently it had all been smoke and mirrors to protect her sister. He couldn’t keep the steely anger from his voice when he responded. “So I assume you’re wanting me to keep my end of the deal and give you your precious divorce.”

Annie took a deep breath, not answering right away. There was something in her hesitation that urged him to act. He was about to call her on it when her chin snapped up and her blue eyes fixed on him with unmatched intensity. “Yes. I still want the divorce.”

Stupid. Nate was stupid. Even now, when faced with the truth about their relationship, he kept looking for reasons to believe in her. He’d started out this journey in the hopes of getting over Annie once and for all, but it had backfired. He’d ended up falling for her again. Gabe had been right about this whole thing being a bad idea. That fact pissed him off more than anything.

“So you’re just going to run away again?” He stuffed his curled fists into his pockets to contain his anger.

“I am not running away!” A red flush rose to her cheeks and she crossed her arms tightly under her breasts. “I came here to play in the tournament and get a divorce. Just because you tried to twist this arrangement into something it wasn’t doesn’t mean I’m running away. I’m simply putting an end to this relationship once and for all.”

Nate reached out to touch her arm and found her skin ice-cold. Her tell was giving her away. “Please don’t lie to me, Annie.”

“I never lied to you.” Annie spoke the words, but the eye contact dropped and she turned to the window.

The frustration was starting to well up inside of him. How could she throw all this away? Again? He let his arm drop to his side. “You’re lying right now. Acting like this week hasn’t meant anything to you. Damn it, I think our relationship is more important than this situation with your sister. We can work this out.”

“No, we can’t. There’s nothing to work out.”

“Then you’ve changed your mind? You don’t love me after all?”

“Nate, it doesn’t mat—”