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ANTE
E.M. SHUE
COPYRIGHT
Text Copyright ©2023 E.M. Shue
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Formatting by Mountain Rose Press
Editing by Nadine Winningham of The Editing Maven
www.authoremshue.com
Created with Vellum
ABOUT ANTE
The cards are laid out. As the Boss of this town, most men wouldn’t go up against me, but he won’t fold. He’s desperate to win. And desperation leads to drastic measures. As I’d hoped, he bets his last thing of value…her. I’ve bided my time waiting for her to come of age, and now she has.
I can’t lose.
I won’t lose.
I’ll cheat to win her.
She’s the ante, but I’m her match.
TRIGGER WARNING
Ante contains hot and steamy sex, graphic violence, and may contain other content that could be sensitive to some readers. Ante is meant for mature reading audience, 18+.
For my Sweet pea
PROLOGUE
SPARROW
Taylor Swift blares through my headphones as I sing along and clean the room. I hold the stick vacuum up like a microphone on the pole when the song hits the chorus. I’m energized and several rooms ahead of my counterpart today.
I strike a pose in the mirror across from the bed and scream when I look up. There’s a man standing in the doorway behind me. Yanking my headphones from my ears, I turn around and hold the vacuum in my hands as a weapon. He doesn’t miss the move and his lips tip up slightly.
His eyes move down my body from my head to my feet. I’m used to men staring at me. It’s Vegas, where most men think every woman is available for a price.
Even housekeeping.
I’m not though.
I’ve never even been kissed before. Never had a boyfriend. I had to drop out of school when I was fifteen. The only things I’m allowed to do are go to work and home. Even my volunteering is closely monitored. But something about this man affects me. He makes my heart beat faster, and yet he also calms me. Maybe I could let him kiss me just so I would know how it feels. He looks like a man who could kiss a girl like in the books and movies.
I take him in more. He’s dressed in an expensive-looking all-black suit, nothing like the one my brother pulls out when he’s trying to get another loan. He’s taller than me by probably a foot. His long legs carry him toward me. He has no speck of color except for the glint of silver on his belt buckle. His dark brown hair is brushed back and hangs down his neck. He has a trim mustache and beard on his angular chin, but it’s his eyes that I can’t stop looking at. They are such a pale blue they are almost gray, and laser focused on me.
