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“Full house.” Janusz grinned, laying out each of his five cards. “Aces high.” He tapped his fingertip to the cards. “Now you.”
Henry’s smile fell.
“Go on, Henry. Show your cards.” Stephan nudged him.
“I’ll show them,” Henry growled, throwing his cards down. “You cheat!” He pointed a long, crooked finger at Janusz. He’d broken it in a car door – or rather he had it broken in a car door.
“You had too much to drink.” Janusz gathered up the cash in the middle of the table.
“No.” Henry turned on me, his chair falling to the ground as he jumped to his feet. “You!”
Dmitri moved to stand in front of me.
“Henry. Enough,” he barked in Polish.
“She told him my cards. She made a noise. I heard it!” Henry shouted.
“Oh, shut up, you old man,” Janusz chastised. “Sit down. We’re not done playing.”
“He is. He’s out of cash.” Stephan chuckled.
“Because of that bitch!” Henry raged on. I pressed myself against the wall. “Get away, Dmitri. Let me deal with her.” He stumbled forward. Dmitri moved to intercept him, and I rushed to the door. The ice bucket slipped from my grasp, hitting the floor and rolling away.
A gunshot rang out. Wood splintered from the door frame just as I reached for it. With a scream, I jumped back.
“Henry!” Someone bellowed. “Fuck!”
“You cheat!” Henry yelled.
Another shot.
A chair scraped across the linoleum floor, and Janusz fell back in his chair with a bullet in his forehead.
I froze. His body was only a few steps from me. Blood pooled on the floor, running toward me. When I looked up, Henry had his gun pointed at me. He pulled the trigger. Dmitri tackled him. The bullet hit the wall.
I covered my head.
“Fuck, Henry,” Stephan yelled. “He’s dead.”
I swallowed back the bile rising up in my throat.
“Over cards?”
“Can’t hold his liquor.”
The other men scrambled. I was shoved away from the door as they bolted from the room.
“Aleksandra.” Dmitri’s hands gripped my arms. “Look at me, Aleksandra.” He shook me, rattling my attention until I brought my eyes to his.
“He’s dead,” I whispered. Ice ran through me. I swallowed hard. He was dead.
“Yes. He is.” His lips pressed into a thin line. He cursed under his breath in polish, wiping something from my cheek. Blood. Janusz’s blood.
“Aleksandra.” His voice broke through the shock barreling down on me. “I have to deal with this.”
“It’s all her fucking fault! Not mine!” Henry raged as two more of Staszek's men wrestled him against the wall.
“Go to the office. Wait there for me.” Dmitri knuckled my chin until I moved my gaze from Henry to him. “Do you understand? Wait in the office. Do not leave.”
