Call My Bluff

by Elizabeth Knox

  Daisy kissed Joker on the cheek, then turned to Seth. “Try to get him to relax.”

  “Looks like somebody could use a drink.” Seth motioned to the barstools, then slapped him on the shoulder. “Sit your ass down. I’m buying.”

  “Jack Daniels neat,” Joker told the bartender, as Tobias flanked him on the other side.

  “What is this, a tag team?”

  “I’ll have whatever you got on tap,” Seth said.

  “Same,” Tobias added.

  They settled on the barstools and Seth turned to Joker. “Don’t let Vinnie get up your ass.”

  Joker stayed silent until the bartender returned with their drinks. He swigged at it enjoying the burn as it slid down his throat.

  “Do they have a history?” Joker wasn’t known for his tact. He never thought about what came out of his mouth, but this time he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear the truth.

  “By history you mean—”

  “You know what the fuck I mean. Did Daisy and him—”

  “No.” Seth focused on his beer.

  “Shit, I don’t think she even liked working with him on jobs.” Tobias drank deep from the beer glass.

  Interesting. Was there a reason Daisy didn’t want to be alone with him?

  “She told me all the shit you guys got up to before she skipped to Miami, so you can be straight with me.”

  “I am being straight.”

  “There was a guy in Miami she was running a con on, big, dumb fucker. She had him so wound up he came at me with a tire iron and a blade.” Joker drank deep and flagged the bartender for another. “I guess what I’m asking is, do I have to worry about Vinnie?”

  “Not like that,” Seth said. “Vinnie’s been running shit here for a long time. Others go down but somehow he’s still standing.”

  “That’s what worries me. I’m sure he’d sell out his mother if it saved his sorry ass, and I don’t want Daisy—”

  “I get what you’re saying, but she’s been taking care of herself for a long time and you gotta have some faith.”

  “Hmm,” Joker grunted.

  “Was that an I agree with you grunt or a you’re full of shit grunt?”

  “Ahh, leave him alone.” Tobias cuffed him on the shoulder. “Daisy can be a handful, but she’s worth it.”

  “Ride or die all the way,” Seth added.

  And that’s what worried Joker. She’d go to any length to help him, even if it meant putting herself in danger. And losing Daisy the way he lost Desiree would wreck him.

  “Let her play this out. Her dealing at the game is Vinnie’s form of leverage. It’s harmless. Just a bunch of high rollers making big bets and throwing it down like they’re mad at their money.”

  “Either of you gonna be there?” Joker asked them.

  “Nah, only room for one pretty face in that room.” Seth thumped him on the shoulder. “I gotta save myself for the long con.”

  Tobias rolled his eyes. “I’m heading out to that studio in the desert. Make sure it’s as secluded as Vinnie says, and that everything’s where it should be for our shoot tomorrow night.”

  Seth smiled. “Shoot, good choice of words, man.”

  They raised their glasses to what Joker hoped would be an easy job.

  “You still tryin’ to hit it with Sheena?” Tobias smirked.

  Seth tried to blow him off with a furrowed brow.

  “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” Tobias laughed. “Serious now, we all see the way you eye-fuck her.”

  “Whoa.” Seth held up his hand. “I don’t eye-fuck her and there’s nothing going on between us.”

  “But you sure wish there was,” Tobias said.

  Seth drained his beer and motioned for another. “I’m not her type.” Seth waved over his lanky body. “She wants the guy with jacked up muscles.”

  “Like me.” Tobias flexed to piss Seth off.

  “I’m just a skinny con-artist who’s fast with the cards and good with disguises,” Seth said.

  “I’m telling you, give it a shot.” Joker finished off the Jack and pushed away from the bar and looked at both men. “Thanks for getting me straight.”

  “Go upstairs and make it up to your lady.” Seth sipped at his beer. “You know you got a good one there, right?”

  Chapter Five

  Daisy paced the room, then settled in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the strip. Vinnie and Joker clashing wasn’t a surprise. Two alphas that kept themselves alive thinking they were top dog. Each with their own agenda, each stubborn and single-minded.

  Only she loved Joker and wanted more than anything to do this for him after the way he’d helped her in Miami. Use her connections and skills, then set up Digger so it would be safe for Joker to bring his son home. And if dealing a private game for some high rollers made that happen, shouldn’t Joker understand and be onboard?

  She mentally rehearsed her upcoming conversation with Digger. It wouldn’t be hard convincing him they wanted to do a screen test, but phrasing it right was important.

  She swiped his number and her heart kicked up. Playing her part and keeping the revulsion out of her voice had its price. She knew better than to make a job personal, but this job had been personal from the beginning and there was nothing she could do about it.

  “Yeah.” Digger’s gruff noxious voice boomed through the phone.

  “It’s Charlie.” Using her other name gave her a sense of separation.

  “My Hollywood director with the sweet ass.” Digger chuckled.

  Daisy drew in a deep breath. “Good news. The studio wants you to come out for a screen test.”

  “No shit. They want me to come to Hollywood?” he shouted to others that must’ve been with him.

  “No, we’re filming in Las Vegas.”

  “Vegas. Even better.”

  “Can you get out here by tomorrow?” Daisy asked.

  “Fuck, yeah. Are they paying for my flight?”

  “No, this is only a screen test. If you do well, and I’m sure you will, then everything will be compted.”

  She heard shifting and again he yelled to whoever else was with him. “I’m gonna be a fuckin’ movie star.”

  “Text me your flight information so we can have someone meet you at the airport,” Daisy said over the whoops in the background.

  “Am I getting a stretch limo?”

  “Of course.” More like a rented sedan driven by Seth.

  “Can’t wait to see your bangin’ body again,” he shouted through the phone.

  Just the thought of Digger’s company made her skin crawl.

  “Maybe you and me can get together.” He paused and she pictured his disturbing smirk. “You know, private like.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Another lascivious guffaw and the line disconnected.

  Just talking to that idiot on the phone made her want to take a shower.

  She turned as Joker entered the suite. His face serious or maybe pensive. Since they’d boarded the plane to Vegas his moods confused her. She understood his edginess about getting this job done, but something else seemed to be tugging at him.

  She couldn’t shake the feeling something was off with them. In Miami although many times they were on opposite sides, and most times disagreed, they’d always shared their emotions. Now, he seemed closed off and shut down. Like he didn’t want her to know what he was thinking, and it bugged her. No, it scared her. She’d lost him once and she wouldn’t recover if she lost him again.

  “Everything all right?” She’d said those words a lot over the last few hours.

  “Sure.”

  “I made the call to Digger.”

  “How’d that go?”

  “He didn’t need any convincing. He obviously sees himself as the next big thing.” She sucked in a deep breath. “He’s an idiot.”

  “A dangerous idiot. The worst kind.”

  She moved closer to him putting her palms against his chest. “Are we good?” />
  “Of course,” he said way too fast, then covered her hands with his.

  “I know Vinnie can be a bit much, but—”

  “I don’t wanna talk about him.”

  “I want you to know . . .”

  His phone buzzed, he fished it out of his pocket, and read the message. “It’s Cobra. I gotta go meet with him.”

  “Right now?”

  He flipped the phone so she could read the name and address of the bar Cobra texted him.

  “That’s a few blocks from here, right off the strip.”

  He texted Cobra and slipped the phone into his pocket. “I won’t be long, just gotta set it all up with him and his club.”

  She already felt alone and he hadn’t even left yet.

  He quickly kissed her lips, and when he left a sadness surrounded her. An emptiness she couldn’t define. Like something shifted without her permission, and she didn’t know how to fix it.

  Joker left the hotel suite unsettled at the uneasiness that had crept between him and Daisy. In Miami they’d started out enemies, and quickly became lovers and then they fell in love. He saved her from her life and she saved him from drowning in desperation. They’d found strength in each other, and then she vowed to help him set up this sting, but since they’d hit Vegas she seemed off.

  He felt out of touch here. Not knowing the players or how things worked, and worse putting Daisy in an unsecured situation. When he was with the Raiders he ran the show. Now he was flying blind without a net, and maybe putting Daisy in danger too. He’d lost her once and wouldn’t recover if he lost her again.

  The Strip was a crazy mix of every vice ever imagined. The noise, the lights, the crowds, and the constant jangling of the slot machines messed with his head. And he didn’t care what people said about the low humidity, it was still fuckin’ hot. By the time he’d walked the four blocks his T-shirt was stuck to him, and then the too cold air-conditioned bar sent a chill over his damp skin.

  Connecting with Cobra was the last link to their plan. Sure, he wanted Digger to pay for all the shit he caused, and yeah, Digger deserved it, but didn’t doing this deal with Cobra make him just as responsible as if he pulled the trigger himself?

  Fuck, if this newfound conscience didn’t bite him in the ass. In the old days he wouldn’t have given this a second thought, but then Daisy came into his life. They’d promised each other to do better, to be better and that was what he wanted, right?

  Joker stepped through the door of The Gold Mine and immediately felt at home. No frills, no fancy cocktails prepared by a celebrity mixologist, just the smell of cigarettes and the pounding beat of hard rock. He picked Cobra out at a corner table off to the side. They’d met twice at the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis, and Joker remembered him as smart, perceptive and subtly dangerous. They did the usual fist bump, male hug thing, then sat.

  The clang of slot machines sounded in the background. Joker quickly learned slot machines were all over the place in Vegas, and right now that fuckin’ sound was standing on his last nerve.

  When the waitress appeared they each ordered a beer, and when she left Cobra leaned in. “You made me and my club very happy with this job.”

  Just as Joker remembered, Cobra got right to the point. No flexing, no bragging, no bullshit.

  “It’s been a long time coming. Digger’s been outta control for over a year.”

  Cobra lit up a smoke. “It’s not good for the rest of us.”

  Joker waited as the waitress placed their beers in front of them. “The blow he’s been shoving up his nose has him thinking all kinds of delusional shit.”

  “Running his mouth about club business, taking on more than he can control.” Cobra’s lazy voice belied the tension in his jaw.

  Joker sipped at his beer. “The others follow him outta fear, but they don’t respect him.”

  “I heard you were first choice for the president’s seat.” Cobra let the question hang between them.

  “I’d just lost my wife.” Those words usually gutted him but being with Daisy eased the hurt. “And I had my son to think about.”

  “Family first.” Cobra raised his beer glass.

  The Vegas Serpents ran muscle for hire, loansharking, and some of the biggest unsanctioned weed farms in the state, but they respected family.

  “The whole club’s gone down since he took over.”

  “We can’t have that.” Cobra dragged deep on his smoke. “Especially when it gets personal.”

  Joker had already filled him in on the basics. Digger selling Joker out and putting a contract out on him in Miami, then turning his shit on Derek.

  “How’s your kid doin’?”

  Joker nodded to the pack of Marlboros on the table, and Cobra shook one out for him. Joker stuck the smoke between his lips, lit up with Cobra’s Zippo and dragged deep. That first hit of nicotine. Fan-fuckin-tastic. He’d promised Daisy he’d quit. He’d gone a full two weeks without a smoke, but Vegas wired every street-smart nerve in his body and he needed something to calm the static.

  “He’s good, but I got him locked up tight in a private school in Nebraska,” Joker said around the smoke. “He’s not happy, I’m not happy, but I’m not bringing him back till shit is safe.”

  “I feel you.” Cobra ground his cigarette out in the dented metal ashtray. “Gotta protect family.”

  “Exactly.” Joker drummed his fingers against the table. “There’s this guy, a connection of Daisy’s out here. He’s gonna loan us his studio out in the desert for the job. Secluded, off the grid. Probably uses it for porn flicks, but whatever.”

  “Vinnie Black?” Cobra said.

  Joker nodded.

  “He’s good at what he does. We do some business with him.” Cobra pulled on the serpent stud in his ear. “Doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.”

  “Don’t trust him.”

  “You don’t have to, as long as he delivers what he promises.”

  Joker couldn’t see Vinnie and Cobra working together which made him wonder what business they shared.

  “Tell me about this plan.” Cobra twisted his lips in a deadly smile. “Always wanted to be a movie star.”

  Joker drank deep letting the cold beer slide down his throat. Cobra could play the thug without a doubt. A Hollywood casting department couldn’t have done any better.

  Everything was coming together.

  All he had to do was let Daisy deal in an illegal card game, set Digger up for a fake screen test, and make sure Cobra pulled the trigger ending Digger’s miserable life. What could go wrong?

  Chapter Six

  “I think you’re worrying over nothing.” Sheena crunched on some pretzels from the mini bar. “Just the way Joker looks at you says it all. That man is fuckin’ crazy about you.”

  “Since we’ve been out here though something’s off,” Daisy said.

  “He’s got a lot on his mind. His son’s future rides on this scam going off right.”

  “I know.” Daisy arched her back against the sofa. “I hate sounding needy. It’s just—”

  “It’s you in love with a man and worrying about him. Granted, something you’ve never experienced but real just the same.”

  Daisy let Sheena’s words sink in, but she couldn’t shake the uneasy sensation that surrounded their relationship.

  “How about you and Seth?”

  “There is no me and Seth, because that man can’t get his ass in gear.”

  “Give him a chance.”

  “I’ve given him plenty of chances. He looks but he never touches. I’m not waiting around forever.” She wiggled her hips in the chair. “A girl’s gotta have it, ya know?”

  Daisy laughed at Sheena’s antics. She envied Sheena’s honesty and knowing what she wanted especially since Daisy’s brain twisted with what ifs and what nows. They both stilled as the door opened. No matter how many times Joker entered a room, Daisy’s stomach did that fluttering thing. His rough good looks and his deep-set dark eyes paired wi
th his amazing body draped in jeans, a white T-shirt that hugged his tatted biceps and his biker boots. Her addiction in living color.

  Joker’s silence had Sheena crumbling the empty pretzel bag, then standing from the couch. “I’ve got to check on a few things.”

  Total lie, but even Sheena sensed the tension following Joker into the room. Sheena purposely walked behind him and bugged her eyes out in her usual animated way. Then she made the sign with her hand that said ‘call me.’

  When the door slammed behind Sheena, Daisy said, “How did it go with Cobra?”

  In three large steps Joker closed the distance between them, circled her waist with his huge hands, and crashed his lips against hers. The kiss bruised her lips while his tongue plundered her mouth. She gasped for air not wanting to break the connection as he pulled her to him harder, then turned and crashed her against the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  He fisted the hem of his T-shirt, then ripped it over his head. The fire in his eyes seared through her as she untied the waist and neck of her halter top letting the silky material flutter to the carpet.

  “Fuckin’ need you.” He slapped his hands against the glass, and his belt buckle ground into her. “Strip me.” His guttural demand lit her up.

  She gazed over her shoulder at the forty story drop on the other side of the glass wall. The dizzying height made her fingers fumble with the leather strip.

  He smiled. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” He popped the button on her jeans and she wiggled out of them and her thong, her bare ass hitting the cool glass.

  He fisted himself with one hand while bracing his palm against the glass with the other. “Fuckin’ crazy view. Your sweet body and a four-thousand-foot drop.”

  “Let’s hope it holds us.”

  “Ahhh c’mon, you’d take a chance with me, right baby?”

  His words hit her hard. He was talking about much more than the death-defying height. And the question hung between them. Was she ready to plunge into life with him?

  “Trust me to hold you tight, trust me to keep you from falling.”

  Since their time in Miami they’d declared their love for each other, but never nailed down their future together. Could you love someone, and then not have a future with them?