Up The Ante
Page 1
Table of Contents
Synopsis
By the Author
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
About the Author
Other PJ Trebelhorn Titles Available via Amazon
Books Available from Bold Strokes Books
Synopsis
Jordan Stryker’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis changed her life. She left the FBI and decided to try her hand at professional poker. She’s played poker for years, but no amount of practice could have prepared her for what she’d face in Las Vegas away from the tables.
Ashley Noble works security at a casino in Vegas. After a failed marriage and a disgraced exit from her position with the LAPD, she’s just grateful to have a job. When Stryker shows up in her casino, Ash is forced to face the woman she had an affair with fifteen years ago and thought she’d never see again. The attraction between the two is undeniable, but Jordan keeps her distance because of her MS. When Ash decides she’s ready to up the ante, she knows getting Jordan to call the bet will be damn near impossible.
Up the Ante
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Up the Ante
© 2015 By PJ Trebelhorn. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-290-8
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, New York 12185
First Edition: January 2015
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Cindy Cresap
Production Design: Susan Ramundo
Cover Design By Sheri (GraphicArtist2020@hotmail.com)
By the Author
From This Moment On
True Confessions
Missing
Trusting Tomorrow
Desperate Measures
Up the Ante
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I want to thank Len Barot and everyone at Bold Strokes Books. I’m thankful every day to be a member of this amazing family.
Sheri, thank you for another wonderful cover.
My editor, Cindy Cresap, you make my words so much better, and I can’t thank you enough.
There are only approximately 400,000 people worldwide who have multiple sclerosis. I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had many relapses of the disease since I was diagnosed in 2005.
I really thought that in the nine years since, I’d dealt with the emotional turmoil my diagnosis brought on, but found through writing Jordan’s story, I’d suppressed a lot of those emotions. This book was more difficult to write than I thought it would be, and I just hope I did okay with it.
A huge thank you has to go to you, the readers. Your e-mails and encouraging words mean more than you could ever know. And it’s because of you that all of us keep writing.
Dedication
For Cheryl, always
Chapter One
Jordan Stryker walked out of the nursing home, or assisted living facility as Matt preferred to call it, where her mother resided and took a seat on one of the benches in the courtyard. She looked west toward the ever-reddening sky and found herself wondering how they’d gotten to this point in their lives. Her father died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound seven years ago, when Jordan was thirty-six. Her brother, Matt, who was still inside trying to get their mother to remember something—anything—that happened more than five minutes earlier, had only been twenty-nine at the time.
Then there was their mother. Jordan knew for most families, the mother was the glue that held everything together. Not so for the Stryker clan. Most people who didn’t know them assumed Evelyn was this way because she’d been sitting next to her husband on the couch when he put the muzzle of a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, resulting in blood and brain matter being splattered not only all over the wall behind him, but all over his wife as well.
It would have been enough to drive anyone mad, but Jordan knew her mother had been barreling toward this outcome for years. Maybe her husband’s suicide had been the catalyst for her downfall, but there was no doubt in Jordan’s mind she would have ended up in the same place eventually.
Jordan knew now that her childhood had been atypical, but at the time she hadn’t known any better. She leaned forward and rested her head in her hands with a sigh.
Evelyn had been only sixteen when she’d found herself pregnant, and Jordan’s father, Carl, was only a year older. Her mother’s family was ashamed of the scandal, but since Carl had been drafted and was being sent off to Vietnam, they thought they’d have time to talk her out of marrying him when he returned home after his tour. Their plan didn’t work though, and the two were married three months after Jordan was born.
As far as Jordan could tell, they’d never really been happy with each other. Hell, they weren’t ever happy apart from each other either. She wasn’t even entirely sure her father had been capable of being happy. Carl wasn’t one to ever let an opportunity go by to tell Jordan he resented the fact he was forced into marrying. He blamed Jordan for all his problems in life, and he was convinced Evelyn had gotten pregnant on purpose in order to trap him. He even voiced his doubts Jordan was even his. He’d told her he wasn’t cut out to be a father, and Jordan could certainly attest to that.
“Mind if I join you, or is this an invitation-only pity party?”
Jordan looked up at her younger brother and scooted over so he could sit. He handed her the cane she’d left inside. She studied his face for a moment as he gazed off in the distance. If it weren’t for the seven-year age difference, they could have been twins. Their dark hair, green eyes, and model-like facial features hadn’t come from either of their parents.
Their father had wanted both of them to follow in his footsteps and join the Marines. Jordan despised the idea so much she’d seriously considered joining the Navy out of spite. He’d been pissed when she announced her plans to join the FBI. In his mind, defending the country against enemy forces was more noble and infinitely more important than catching criminals. She’d really thought it might kill him when Matt announced his intention of joining the FBI like his big sister instead of becom
ing a Marine.
“Have you told Mom you left the bureau?” he asked after a moment. “Or even that you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis?”
“Why? What would be the point?” Jordan shook her head in frustration. They had this argument every time they discussed anything having to do with their mother. “She’d just forget it five minutes later, and even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t care.”
“That’s not true.”
“The hell it isn’t.” Jordan fought to keep her emotions under control. She’d learned a long time ago anger got her nowhere with Matt when they were talking about their mother. As far as he was concerned, Evelyn was perfect. And perhaps she was, for him. She’d always treated him better. Maybe life growing up would have been more bearable if Jordan had been born a boy. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose. “You know what? I’m not going to argue with you about this anymore. You go right on living in your little fantasy world where dementia is a curable disease. I’m done with it. I don’t know why we continue to do this every single year.”
“We do it because she’s our mother, Jordan.”
“Jesus, Matt, it really is that simple for you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” he said quietly. “It’s her birthday.”
Jordan could see the indignation in his eyes, and her heart broke a little for him. She wanted to feel the same way, but she just couldn’t. She blamed her parents for shaping her into what she’d become—a woman incapable of maintaining a loving relationship. When you grow up with parents who did nothing but argue and fight constantly when they were together, that was what relationships were, and who wanted that? She set her cane against the end of the bench and turned to look at him.
“You’re right. It is her birthday. But she doesn’t know that, Matt. She doesn’t even know who we are, for God’s sake. She tells the staff here she has no family. If we never came back here again, she wouldn’t even know the difference.”
“I would. I’d know the difference,” he said, pointing at his own chest to emphasize his argument. “I could never do that to her. Would you want your kids to ignore you?”
“Matty, I don’t have kids. I’m forty-three years old, I’m single, I’m a lesbian, and I have MS. Chances are pretty good I won’t ever have kids.”
“Doesn’t mean you couldn’t meet some woman who already has one.”
“I think you’re forgetting the MS part. There are no relationships in my future.”
“Have you ever even had a relationship?”
Jordan looked up at the darkening sky and tried not to think about Los Angeles. She tried not to think about Ashley Green. But a funny thing always happened when she consciously tried to not think about Ash—she ended up thinking of nothing but Ash. It was infuriating, but at least it didn’t happen nearly as often now as it had in the past.
When she looked back at him, he was staring at her, waiting patiently for her response. She simply shook her head.
“I don’t believe you,” he said with a slow smile. “You went somewhere just now. You checked out. What’s her name?”
“It doesn’t matter. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in fifteen years. And to be perfectly honest, if I ran into her tomorrow, I’d probably turn right around and walk away. Hell, I doubt I’d even recognize her.”
“She broke your heart, didn’t she?”
Jordan had to laugh. She knew if she didn’t she’d probably end up crying. She wasn’t sure where the impeccable insight her brother possessed came from, because it sure wasn’t a trait either of their parents passed along.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about her?”
“It wasn’t one of my proudest moments, Matt. She was straight. She was married. They were trying to have a kid. I went into it with my eyes wide open, and I was stupid enough to let her get close enough to be able to break my heart. I’ve made damn sure to never make that mistake again.”
“You had an affair with a married woman?” He sounded surprised, and she couldn’t blame him. She always told him she would never even think about getting involved with a straight woman, married or not.
“No,” she answered after a moment. “I had a relationship with a married woman. Unfortunately, she didn’t see it the same way. To her it was nothing but a fling. When she was finished with me, she threw me out like I was no better than an empty ice cream carton. But I knew better than to fall for her, so it’s my own damn fault. And it doesn’t matter anyhow, because it was a lifetime ago. Or at least it feels that way.”
They were both silent then, and Jordan found her mind wandering to Ash. She wondered what Ash was doing now. It was her birthday tomorrow, and why the hell should she remember that? Did they ever have the kid she’d wanted so badly? She shook her head. It wasn’t doing her any good to stroll down memory lane. Especially not the particular lane leading to Ashley Green.
“You aren’t leaving for Vegas until tomorrow, right?” Matt asked, obviously knowing she was ready for a change in the subject.
“Right. Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Will you have dinner with me tonight?”
“Absolutely.” Jordan smiled sadly at him as he stood and looked over his shoulder at the building.
“I’m going back in for a minute. I’ll be knocking on your hotel room door in about forty-five minutes, so be ready.”
“I will be.”
Matt walked away and Jordan could see the defeat in his posture. He knew the things she said about their mother were true, but he’d always been one to look at the sunny side of everything. When he was a kid his optimism had always left him disappointed. Now, as an adult, it was apparently having the same outcome.
Jordan closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the crickets all around her. She’d always done her best to keep Matt from getting hurt, but it was inevitable growing up with an alcoholic mother and an overbearing career Marine for a father. It seemed neither of them could ever do anything to please their parents. It didn’t stop them from trying though, but disillusionment waited around every corner. As Matt got older things got easier for him, but Jordan hadn’t been so lucky.
She remembered their mother’s thirty-third birthday when Jordan was sixteen, and Matt was nine. Their father had been out of town for one thing or another, and Matt had wanted to surprise their mother with a party just for the three of them. Jordan tried to talk him out of it, but he had his mind set. They decorated the house and made a cake. Jordan even made dinner, but she knew their mother wouldn’t make it home. She rarely did when her husband was out of town. They waited at the dinner table for almost two hours before finally going to the living room to watch television. At ten, she sent Matt to bed and she waited in the dark for their mother to come home.
It was after midnight when she finally stumbled through the front door. Jordan was about to confront her when she realized she wasn’t alone. There was a man with her, and based on where his hands were, Jordan was pretty sure the guy was more than just a friend. She shrank back into the couch and prayed they wouldn’t come into the living room.
She heard her mother laughing quietly as the guy’s hands covered her breasts, and Jordan had closed her eyes. She really didn’t want to witness her mother being unfaithful. It was bad enough to know she was, and even worse she had to hear it, but there was no way she was going to watch it as well. She heard her mother whisper they needed to be quiet because she didn’t want to wake up the kids. The man said something Jordan couldn’t make out, but then her mother moaned loudly. She told him he could stay, but he had to be gone before the kids got up for school in the morning. Then Jordan heard them going up the stairs to the bedroom.
A car door slamming in the parking lot brought her back to the present. She shook her head to get rid of any lingering thoughts and grabbed her cane before standing. She’d never told anyone about that night, nor the subsequent nights their mother either brought home a man or simply never came home. As far as she knew, Matt had no i
dea she’d ever been unfaithful. Jordan vowed a long time ago to make sure he never found out.
Chapter Two
Ashley Noble woke with the sun in her eyes. She turned onto her side in an attempt to go back to sleep, but there was a warm body next to her. She stiffened slightly as an arm went around her waist and the woman she was in bed with groaned softly in her sleep. Ash held her breath and mentally counted to ten before carefully extricating herself from the other woman’s grasp.
She picked up her clothes from the floor as she headed for the bathroom. Once there, she shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief. She really needed to stop this. Waking up in random women’s hotel rooms was getting old. She splashed cold water on her face and looked at her reflection in the mirror.
“You don’t look like you’re forty years old,” she said quietly, turning her head slightly so she could study the crow’s feet around her eyes. “All right, maybe you do. But you look pretty damn good for being the age you once thought was ancient.”
She dug her cell phone out of her pocket to check the time. Six thirty. In the morning. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Too damn early considering she didn’t have to be to work until three in the afternoon. She quickly dressed before opening the door slowly so she could peek and make sure the woman was still asleep. There was a reason she only hooked up with tourists—she never had to see them again. And she was always gone before they woke up in the morning.
And she never picked up anyone in her casino. Too much of a risk of running into them again, and that would never end well. And the Rio was far enough from the strip that they didn’t get too many people just wandering in to throw their money away. Chances were, if someone was in the casino of the Rio, they were staying at the hotel too. So she’d made the decision early on that she’d stay far away from the women in her casino.