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I find the card I want and flip it around to show her. “Nothing changes. We carry on as before, and one of us will do his best to win your heart.”
“I’m not stupid. This isn’t about my heart.” She glances at the card. “What game are we playing?”
I place the queen of hearts on the table. “Find the Lady.” I deal out two more cards, face up, and lay them beside the queen. The ace of spades. The ten of clubs.
Chiara shakes her head. “The game where you show me the queen of hearts and then switch the cards around using sleight of hand and I have zero chance of finding her? No way, that whole game is a con.”
I grin at her. “Ah, and I was hoping you wouldn’t know the trick.”
“There are shills who play this game on the bridge over the river. I walk past them every weekend on my way to church.”
“Church? What a little angel you are, inside and out.” I pick up the three cards and hold them out to her. “We’ll switch places then. You move the cards, and I’ll find the queen.”
Chiara takes the cards from me, her expression doubtful. “I still don’t trust you.”
I put my hand over my heart. “Who me? I’m putting myself in your hands.”
She glances at the backs of the cards and her expression becomes totally blank. “All right.”
I hesitate, her sudden poker face throwing me off. “Wait, really? Do you know the trick?”
She blinks her long lashes at me. “Who, me?”
I narrow my eyes. Either she’s bluffing or she really does know sleight of hand. The others will flay me alive if I mess up this deal for them. They want Chiara, badly. I want her, too. The stakes are high and I could actually lose.
I feel suddenly energized and crack my knuckles. “Interesting. Let’s do this.”
A smile tilts up the corner of Chiara’s mouth. “It’s almost as if the idea of losing is exciting to you.”
“I’ve had too many sure bets lately. It’s fun living dangerously.”
“You really will honor the bet if I win? I don’t know if I can trust you.”
“You think a man like Cassius would let me go back on my word? Or Salvatore? The man runs a casino.”
She flips through the three cards, watching me with her head on one side. “Either I get rid of you all, or everything stays the same. You’ll honor that?”
“I swear it.”
“I guess I can’t say no, then. What have I got to lose?”
More than you realize.
I slide closer to her and murmur in her ear. “You’re really beautiful, you know that?”
“Stop trying to distract me. You said you weren’t going to use any tricks.”
I stroke my hand down her arm. “No tricks. It’s not often that a beautiful woman holds my destiny in her hands.”
“I’m holding on to these,” she says, showing me the backs of the three cards in her hand. “You can flatter me as much as you want but I’m not letting go of them.”
I don’t give a damn about the cards right now. “The game is all the more interesting when the stakes are high, don’t you think?” I slide my hand around her waist. “Think about it, Chiara. You’re in control. Doesn’t that make you feel powerful?”
She raises her chin to look at me, her eyes as bright as stars. What did it feel like when Salvatore kissed her, I wonder? He likes an ambush. I prefer surrender.
“It’s…different.”
“Come now,” I murmur, dipping my mouth closer to hers. “I’ve been honest with you. Won’t you be honest with me?”
