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“Poker. You like that game, don’t you? Let’s play a game. You and me. Winner takes it all.”

“Eden, no!” Bennett says, sounding amazingly realistic and unrehearsed even though we’ve practiced this ten times. “You can’t even win at snap.”

Vin’s lips curl. I turn to look at Bennett.

“It’s okay,” I tell him. “He won’t do it. He’s scared of a woman half his age.” I look at his bodyguards, all who are standing in the doorway. One of them is holding half a muffin. “You can take him home. We’re done here.”

“We’re done when I say we’re done,” Vin says. “Go back to the kitchen,” he tells his men. Then, when they don’t move, he yells, “NOW!” He looks at me, his jaw set. “Do you even have a pack of cards?”

“There’s a pack of my niece’s somewhere,” I say lightly, pretending to search. “Oh, here they are.” I hold them up. They’re a set of Barbie cards that I bought for Ayda. “You don’t mind pink, do you?”

“For fuck’s sake,” he mutters. “Just deal.”

“Uh, Eden?” Bennett says, his voice tight as he stares out of the window.

“What?” I snap, the cards sticking to my damp hands. We’re finally getting somewhere and the last thing I need is a distraction. I need to concentrate.

Bennett swallows. “We have company.”

I follow his gaze, and my stomach drops. A black SUV is pulling up outside the North House. Doors open. Hudson. Parker. Asher. And West.

The cards tremble between my fingers, and suddenly the Barbie deck feels heavier than stone.

“One hand. Winner takes all. No second chances,” I tell Vin, pulling my gaze back to him.

“I don’t need second chances,” he replies, gesturing at the coffee table as he sits back down in the easy chair.

I take the seat opposite and pull the cards out of the pack, just as West and my brothers storm in through the front door.

And then everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

thirty-eight

WEST

“What the hell is happening?” I mutter, seeing the woman I’d bleed for and the man who wants me to bleed to death sitting on either side of my coffee table, a pack of Barbie cards on the surface.

I don’t know whether to be relieved or furious. She’s alive. She looks beautiful and untouched. But I need her far, far away from him.

“Are those Ayda’s cards?” Hudson asks, sounding confused. But I can barely hear him over the rush of blood in my head at the thought of her getting hurt.

“Get out of my house, Marchetti,” I say, striding toward him. Eden looks up, and my gut twists when her eyes lock with mine. She’s not wearing makeup, there are shadows beneath her eyes, yet it’s like looking into the sun.

“We’re busy here, West.” Vin says. “Your girl made me an offer.”

“What offer?” I look at Eden again. She won’t meet my gaze this time. “Eden? What offer?” I can’t breathe at the thought of her getting mixed up in my mess. She’s too good for that.

“It’s simple.” Vin smiles. “We’re playing for your future. If I win, you lose everything. The resort. Your girl. All of it.” He says it slowly, like he’s enjoying the effect it has on me.

“And when I win, Vin walks away with nothing,” Eden says, her jaw set stubbornly.

“Just stop,” I tell her. “You don’t need to do this.” Panic rushes through me.

“But I do.” She sets her eyes on me again. I feel like I can see into her soul. The thought of her losing. Of her crying and broken, because of me.

I can’t do this. I’m going to hyperventilate.

Vin gives her a patronizing smile. “Are we playing cards here or should I leave?”