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“You’re on, pretty lady,” Cash says, shuffling the cards. “Three rounds of blackjack to determine the winner.”
Wells must have ordered the guys to stand down, or they’re feeling better about this arrangement because the commotion has settled.
As Cash begins dealing, I note he’s using one deck. That lowers the house odds a bit, but maybe he’s appraising my skill set. Or simply underestimating me.
In blackjack, you only play against the dealer, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t consider what Liam, Maddox, and Gage are dealt. It all plays into my odds of getting the cards I need.
When the dealing’s done, I have a soft nineteen—an ace and an eight. Cash has a nine up. Maddox has a hard sixteen—that’s about as bad as it gets with a dealer’s nine. It would be easy to panic here because if the dealer gets an ace, I’m out. A ten, and we tie. I only have one viable option though. Out of sixteen tens in the deck—the face cards and numerical tens all of equal value—only two are out. Maddox and Liam both have one. Cash flipping a ten is entirely likely, but not a terrible outcome. Better yet, Gage sits with two aces. Only one remaining. Doubtful Cash pulls it.
I’m not sweating it. “Stand.”
The guys each play their hand, and when Cash flips over a ten, I smile. We’re both at nineteen. Sometimes, not losing is a win.
“Push,” Cash says before raking the cards and switching to four decks. “Gotta win two out of three hands. Pushes don’t count.”
I pull two tens on the next hand, but Cash has a ten up too. This is where some people would split—almost always a mistake. “Stand.”
My reserve pays off when the dealer flips over his seven. One win down.
The next hand is a pair of nines, Cash showing a six. I think through the available cards.
Never let them see.
He didn’t reshuffle. The hand is mine if I stand, but where’s the fun in that?
“Split,” I say, winning me a megawatt grin from the blue-eyed dealer and an expletive from the scruffy blond beside me.
Cash hits me with an ace and an eight, giving me twenty and seventeen. His ten only takes him to sixteen. Two more victories for me.
“Well played, Celeste,” Cash says, his voice a seductive purr. “What game would you have picked next? We should still try that best out of three. Odds are in your favor.”
“A night at Magie Noire would be very much in her favor,” Maddox croons. “So, I count this as her first loss.”
These guys are far more trouble than any girl should encounter. They need to be stamped with a warning label.
An amused grin leaks over my cheeks. “I bet you can justify a lot with that twisted logic, Maddox.”
Cash exchanges a conspiratorial expression with Maddox before addressing me again. “So, game?”
That’s easy. “Chess.”
“Or Uno,” Ivy adds, which makes me laugh. We’ve had some serious Uno battles over the years.
“We have a board,” Axel volunteers.
Cash’s eyebrows dart for the high industrial ceiling, so I shrug and proffer a coy twist of my lips.
“Sure. If you want to keep getting your ass kicked on your own gambling turf, who am I to stop you?”
Gage and Liam both dish out some taunts while Axel strolls to a glass cabinet, emerging with a stunning marble chess board with crystal pieces—clearly a collector’s set. He winks his sapphire eye at me, mischievous glimmer in tow. And his humor is warranted. It’s not necessary to even narrate the moves of the match. I fly out of the gate with the Dutch Defense, which isn’t even the best in my arsenal, and secure a five-move checkmate.
Cash claps his hands with a maniacal chuckle. “Shit. This is embarrassing.”
Wells sips his scotch, kicking his chin up to me in respect before eyeing the defeated Noire. “We could still do a spectators’ choice game, Cash, so you’re not completely castrated.”
Our crew has lightened up considerably since Magie Noire is off the table, and I can’t deny the blanket of belonging cloaking me because of their possessiveness. It hasn’t felt like I was only Ivy’s friend this evening. Whether it’s merely posturing in front of the Noires or not, tonight, I’m theirs. It’s an acceptance I didn’t realize I was craving.
A comical debate about what game we can venture into next ensues, but my eyes keep gravitating back to Liam’s. Different again. Still a midnight forest, opaque and luring. But there’s something else. Pandemonium.
