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“I bet you do, babe. I bet you do.”
“Really, are you sure you don’t want a job? A side gig?” Faye asked. “I’m pretty sure you just made Aero come with that look,” she added, smirking.
“If you’re done trying to recruit, Faye,” Richard said, but sounded amused, like he had a soft spot for her, “our ride is here.”
“Wasp, I hope you don’t mind a blindfold,” Aero said, taking one from one of the men who had emerged from the limo, handing out a pile of blindfolds.
“With a sight like you here, I’m sure she is thankful for it,” Faye teased, getting a chuckle from Aero.
With that, we all climbed into the limo, putting on our blindfolds, and riding in silence as we seemed to be driven around aimlessly.
I’d grown up in this area. I knew the back roads as well as any local kid who’d ridden their bike around every afternoon after school. As such, while we drove for about half an hour, I was pretty sure I knew the general vicinity of this private location.
We all were helped out, led down a set of stairs.
The next thing I knew, hands were at the back of my head, undoing my blindfold.
And there I was.
In Navesink Bank’s invitation-only underground casino.
It didn’t have the same cheesy glitz of a casino in Vegas or Atlantic City —all neon lights and harsh colors.
Whoever Eamon Awan was, he clearly had taste.
Everything was in shades of black—some shiny, some matte—with the occasional splash of red. Understated. Upscale. The kind of place millionaires dropped salaries of the average middle-class families in a matter of hours.
“Wow,” I said, and just for a single second, that was all that was on my mind.
Only a second though, mind you, because, inevitably, my mind wandered back to Fenway, thinking about how much fun this would have been to enjoy with him. I would sit there winning endlessly. He would keep losing with a smile on his face as I scolded him about wasting so much money.
It would be an amazing experience with him.
But, I reminded myself, I would have to find a way to enjoy it without him. As I would with all future adventures in my life.
“What do you say, Wasp?” Aero asked, offering me his arm. “How about you whip my ass in poker?”
“That is an offer I can’t refuse,” I told him, being led over to the table exchanging cash for coins as everyone else did.
Our dealer was a silent man in his later mid-life in a pitch-black suit and salt and pepper hair.
“So, Wasp,” Richard said a few moments later. “What brings you to Navesink Bank?”
“Oh, I’m visiting with a friend,” I told him, arranging my cards.
“And how did you manage to snag an invitation?” Richard asked.
The only spot open was beside Faye who was across from me. I couldn’t help but wonder if it would only be the four of us, if this place was that exclusive, or if others would make their way in later, in a different limo.
“A treat from my brothers.”
“And they are?” Richard asked. They were probing, and I couldn’t’ quite figure out if they were just a tight-knit group, or if they were somehow suspicious of me.
“Local outlaw bikers. Henchmen,” I supplied, figuring that if they were the kind of people who would be regulars at this casino, that they were also the type who could figure out exactly who I was.
“Oh, that’s a yummy group,” Faye said, tossing a couple chips in the pot. “They’re not clients,” she told me, looking at me from under her lashes, “in case you wanted to know.”
“I sincerely hope they didn’t find themselves so lacking in game that they had to pay for it,” I said, smiling.
“You’d be surprised how many men prefer not having to chase. Despite the stereotype. Alright. Who’s trust fund am I stealing tonight?” she asked, shooting me a wicked smirk.
Between the two of us, we’d won three rounds before Aero declared he needed a drink before the next hand.
“Can I get you a drink, Wasp? What’s your poison?” he asked.
“I—”
“Pink champagne,” a voice said behind me. That voice. The one that made an ache slice through my chest, the voice I still heard in my ear in quiet moments.
But no.
No way.
He couldn’t be there.
He was in freaking Australia.
Even if he did come back to the States, what were the chances that he would be here, in this town, in this underground casino?
Slim to none.
Yet, there was no denying it was him.
I knew that voice as well as I knew my own.
My body was already warming, thawing, at the sound of it.
“Unless that was a lie too, darling,” he said, making my stomach plummet.
Across the table from me, one of Faye’s well-shaped brows lifted, intrigued.
“I have a feeling it’s a tequila night, Aero,” I told him as Fenway moved out toward my side, going around the table. “Thank you,” I added, my gaze following Fenway as he took the empty seat beside Faye.
