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49
AIDAN
"Come in, come in!"Savannah chirped, leaning up on tiptoe to graze the cheeks of the men looming in the doorway in welcome.
Mickey, Lucas, Cade, and the new guy who’d replaced Connolly stepped into my apartment with a wariness that wouldn’t be conducive to a fun evening.
Connolly’s replacement, Findley, was one of Tony’s younger sons. His being transferred to my crew was a politically smart move, so long as he didn’t try to stab me in the back for what I’d done to his father.
I couldn’t exactly spread the word that the traitors’ families weren’t to be isolated if I didn’t turn the other cheek myself, so, here I was.Trying.
Trying fucking sucked.
Standing by the table Savannah had set up with new decks of cards, brand new rolls of poker chips, and bowls of snacks, I dug my hands into my pockets as the guys traipsed in.
I felt like Ma had forced me to attend a birthday party of the kid I hated most in class—I guessed this situation was kind of like that.
This was Savannah’s idea.
It wasn’t a totally shitty one, but fuck if I’d have preferred to be doing anything but this.
"This wasn’t my intention when I bought you this table," I groused at her as she moved toward me, curling her arm around my waist.
"We can play strip poker another time," she hissed in my ear with a smile. "In fact, we can play as a reward for tonight. You have to be nice. These guys are your crew. You want them to trust you, and you need to trust them. You can’t do that if you don’t try."
Though I rolled my eyes, I knew she had a point.
With a grunt, I asked, "Who wants beers?"
Mickey, Lucas, Cade, and Findley all nodded.
Immediately.
Seemed like they wanted to be here as much as I did.
My lips curved into a grin as I pulled out some bottles from the fridge that was inbuilt into the new table.
As I handed them out, Savannah, as bright and bubbly as she only ever was when she was trying to get her own way, declared, "I don’t like playing poker without high stakes."
"How high are your stakes?" Cade asked warily.
I knew him from back in the day. Cade had been in Eoghan’s class at school.
If Da had treated Eoghan like the rest of us, I knew he’d have forced them to be friends, but Eoghan had always gotten away with shit his older brothers didn’t.
When Lucas had told me he needed help with Savannah’s detail, Cade had been an obvious choice.
Ironically, Lucas and Cade were the brothers of that aforementioned kid I’d hated most in my class. I’d drunk champagne when that piece-of-shit Allan had gotten his head blown off in an armed robbery gone wrong twenty years back.
"Fifty bucks," she declared, breaking into my thoughts.
Allan had always played up my dyslexia, calling me out for being a dumb ass.
Almost the whole fucking class had joined in.
Was it any wonder I didn’t play nice with my peers?
Lucas snorted. "Fifty bucks? Those are hardly high stakes, Savannah."
