AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Please, take a seat. Would you like a drink?”
I shook my head.
He chuckled. “Of all the ways I pictured your arrival, I did not predict this. I’d heard your quips made even the most seasoned players speechless, that you could read a man through a glance and predict his cards in one sweep. Yet you stand before me a tired, scared young girl with nothing to say.”
“Where’s Theo?”
“Ah.” He threw an arm across the top of the couch and crossed a leg at the ankle. “I’ll add predictable to the list.”
“Where is he?”
“Patience. Sit down and talk a while.”
“You got what you wanted. Trace is here,” I said through the cogs in my throat. My lungs offered very little breathing room. “Theo did as you asked.”
“Yes, he certainly did.”
“Why do you want to kill me?”
He cocked his head, his eyes just as startling on an angle as they were head-on. “You aren’t so vacuous as to fail to understand why I want you out of the way.”
“Theo and I aren’t together anymore.”
Tony tilted his head the other way. “No?”
“We’re not,” I said, firmer. “He needed me to…”
To what? Theo didn’t require my services to locate his older brother. He was only using it as a pretense.
“He needed me to play in a few games.” I made sure to sound strong. “To infiltrate ones Trace was known to put horses into or play himself.”
“I assure you, Theodore has told me the same thing.”
My relief was short-lived. Gordon smiled. “Your stories match, but I haven’t enjoyed stories since I was a babe in my mother’s arms.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You made a mistake the instant you stepped through the doors of my House a few years ago.”
“Then I’ll leave,” I said. “Show me Theo, that he’s all right, and you’ll never have to see me again. I’ll stop playing poker. I’ll move out of the city.”
Gordon rose, walked toward me with the ease of a predator. When he was close enough, he raised his hand to stroke the forming bruises on my neck. I swallowed, the action pressing his fingers deeper for a mere second, but it was enough to have me reeling back. I didn’t break eye contact.
“You’re responsible for Theodore’s demise,” he said, hand still raised in mid-air. “I want you to know that. It’s because of you he’s shirked his duties, discarded the Saxon name, and stayed away from my city for so long. In truth, you took Trace with you in the same action.”
Gordon’s handsome features morphed, a vulgar mask warping what was a misleadingly kind face. It was like searching for an angel during a storm.
“You’ve ruined two of my sons. I have one who hates you and one who would do anything for you. In both situations, you are a distraction. Tracey must focus on what’s important—this empire, this city—and Theodore needs to fall in line. Oh, and he will.” Gordon’s veneers glimmered in the industrial lighting. It was in that moment I realized why this house lacked plushness, fabric, carpeting. It was due to calculation. Crime scene clean-up was so much easier this way.
“I want to thank you,” he said, the mask falling to the ground. Gordon came back, his lips, though deeply lined, mellowing into a relaxed downward curve.
“For what?” Shockingly, my tone remained steady.
“For bringing with you the realization that I should never have initiated a contract against you.”
“If you want to be the one to personally kill me, then do it.”
Gordon’s brows jumped, deepening the lines on his forehead, but he slammed them down just as fast. “I’ll be glad to.”
