WIN THE GAME

by Allison, Ketley

  This was probably where she took prospective clients and various henchmen before she threatened them with imminent death on behalf of her father.

  The property was, at least in my value, worth $25 million. I’d played in enough places like this to catalogue them.

  A subtle peek on my part showed that her biceps were still as cleanly-lined under her brown skin as they’d been before. She put my once-a-month spin classes to shame.

  “Can I offer either of you a drink?”

  Theo nodded, and I followed suit, carefully picking my way over the duvet-like carpeting to a couch.

  Rada stopped in front of a sterling-framed glass bar cart, the ice clinking as she set them into crystal highball glasses, then poured golden-brown liquid.

  She was clad in an all-white wrap jumpsuit, and with her back to us, showcased her perfect, peach-shaped rump. I subtly cast over to Theo to see where his attention might be, but he was busy frowning at his phone.

  Speaking of which—

  Rada silently made her way over the carpeting with a sterling tray and gracefully set it on the coffee table between us. Theo set down his phone by his thigh and reached for a glass, crossing his leg at the ankle when he settled back.

  Rada took a seat across from us, artfully crossing her legs. “So, what can I do for you?”

  “I’m sure you’ve deduced that by now,” he said after a careful sip.

  “Still searching for your brother, I see.”

  “I’ve tracked him here, and since you come to my city often claiming you own this town, now is the time for you to prove it.”

  One expertly plucked eyebrow. That was the extent of Rada’s tell. “Are you still smarting over our negotiations years ago?”

  “Tell me where Trace is, Rada.” Theo bent forward.

  Instead of being intimidated by Theo’s scarred face in full afternoon light, she relaxed against the pillows and tipped the glass to her bright red lips, maintaining eye contact the entire way.

  “I admit, I could be of assistance,” she said.

  “What’s the price?”

  “Are you not enjoying your drink?”

  I startled out of my repose, accepting that Rada was acknowledging me the way she would an invisible dust mite in her sheets. “Uh, yes. I’m fine.”

  She angled her head. “Perhaps you’d enjoy coffee instead?”

  I suddenly became aware of the purplish bruises under my eyes, the state of my hair. “Sure. That would be…” Theo didn’t seem to mind the interruption, going back to his phone. “That’d be great. Thank you.”

  Rada arced into a stand. “I’ll let the kitchen know. One moment.”

  Theo looked up from his phone. “Can you provide one of your butlers while you sort out the coffee?”

  “It’ll cost you,” she tossed over her shoulder.

  “I’m aware.”

  A middle-aged man appeared in the entryway, hands politely folded behind his back and thin-rimmed glasses perched on a small, pug-ish nose. He was belly first, his white button-down straining against the material, but his legs were surprisingly thin.

  “Can I be of assistance, sir?”

  “Yes.” Theo set his drink down and gestured for the butler to approach. He murmured something in the man’s ear.

  The butler, ever used to strange requests from his employer and her friends alike, cast a strange glance my way before recovering and nodding to Theo. This man was a pro, his half-second stare at me not something any layman would notice. But I was on the type of alert I used at the poker table.

  “Right away, sir.”

  I watched him exit, then turned to Theo. “What was that?”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  “No, you won’t. Tell me now.”

  He sighed. “In a minute, Scarlet.”

  “You’d better,” I warned, noting Rada’s approach. “I didn’t come across the ocean just to be your lap dog.” I paused. “Or sex doll.”

  He shot me a look. “You’ll get to flex your muscles soon. That I can promise.”

  Sated for the moment, I sat back.

  Rada returned, a petite woman trailing behind her with an artfully-designed silver tray containing a single-serve French press and a gorgeous little teacup with light pink floral print along the rim. It was completely at odds with the gray, but so cute I instantly wanted to lift it with my pinky finger sticking out.

  And the instant the waft of coffee beans hit my nostrils, my brain zinged with incoming stimulation.

  “Here you are, darling,” Rada said as she resumed her position.

  The—maid?—went about pouring, but I stopped her with a hand out and a smile. “It’s okay. I got it.”

  The maid nodded politely and departed.

  “Tell me about the games in this town,” Theo said to Rada.

  “Looking to pass the time while you’re here?” she asked. She put her index finger to her lips. “I can think of a few things we can do.”

  “Enough.”

  I paused with the coffee halfway to my mouth. Theo’s bark was often worse than his bite, but that didn’t mean it had no teeth.

  Rada did nothing but cross the other leg.

  “You’ll get what you want,” Theo said in a softer tone. “But in turn, I need to get what I want. And that’s the top games here in London. Where are they, who runs them, and how many times have you seen Trace?”

  “There are a few well-known houses around here,” Rada admitted.

  “I want your favorite.”

  Rada made a sound with her tongue. “There’s one I can think of, tonight. It’s a large one, though—I doubt your brother would dare.”

  “How big?”

  “A room full of security cameras big.” Rada leaned over to lift up her drink. “The most categorically recorded clandestine game in the neighborhood.”

  “What’s the buy-in?”

  Both seemed surprised to hear from me. Funny, considering out of the three of us, I was the most active player.

  Rada deigned to regard me. “Twenty-thousand.”

  The Scarlet of yore would’ve been stunned and dropped her nice teacup on the expensive carpeting. I merely quirked my lips.

  “Doable,” I said to Theo. “If you can stake me.”

  Theo opened his mouth, probably to argue and say there was no way he was putting me in a room full of dangerous Englishmen—

  “I’d be happy to,” Rada said.

  I jolted. Rada’s eyes, so stark against the brown of her skin, the rimmed eyeliner, the white of her outfit. They possessed the depth of a goblin shark.

  “Good,” I said, at the same time Theo proclaimed, “Absolutely not—”

  “You, like your brother, are hard to welcome at games right now,” Rada interjected. “She, on the other hand…”

  At least I’d graduated to a “she.”

  “I can do it,” I said to Theo. “If you think this house can find your brother, or he’d show up, I can be there. I can be your eyes.”

  “It’s a terrible idea,” Theo said.

  “She said it herself,” I said, including Rada in my periphery, “There are a ton of cameras. If you want to continue to be incognito, it’s not a good idea for you to go in.”

  Theo rubbed the spot between his brows, right where his scar crossed onto his nose. To give him time to think would be gifting him the moments he needed to figure out a credible excuse. And we were on borrowed time. I had no idea how long Kai could keep the police at bay. And I needed time.

  “It’s settled,” I said to Theo, hopefully in the vein of, don’t argue with me. “If you don’t mind,” I said to Rada, “I would love to use your facilities. It’s been a…”—I avoided Theo’s study—“busy day.”

  “I can do even better, darling. If you’re going to the estate of a duke,” Rada pressed a napkin to both corners of her mouth before making sure to include me, all of me, in her perceptive study, “You’re going to need a better outfit.”

  16 Ta
bloid Princess

  Rada led me up an ornate staircase to the second floor. Theo stood at the base, watching us ascend. I glanced back once—only once—and kept my pace with Rada. It was strange, the sudden yank I felt in my chest, like I’d been tied to Theo but was now thinning out the string.

  This would be the first time in twenty-four hours I wasn’t in the same room as him.

  “Here we are.” Rada pushed open the double doors to what must have been her master bedroom. It, like the gray room below, exuded a soothing sanctuary, with that effortless flair I wished with all my being I had. If there was a time I’d ever own my own property, it would be designed exactly like this.

  Creams, silky whites, pale blues. The king-sized bed wouldn’t dare house any springs and would be the pricey, squishy foam that fitted to one’s body like a lover. The pillows were long rectangles, temporary cuddle-buddies for those nights when the lover wasn’t available, all ensconced within a billowing, silky canopy.

  My eyelids went heavy at the sight. All I had to do was merely rock forward and I’d land face-first in the divine comfort.

  “In here,” Rada said.

  She’d disappeared through an ornately carved wall, potentially the entrance to a walk-in closet. If I didn’t trail behind her closely, I’d lose her in this maze of a house.

  “I’ve found the perfect dress for you.”

  I followed her voice, discovered the line in the wall, and pushed it open. Rada stood among soft chiffon, intricate lace, designer cutouts and red soles on shoes.

  Now, I’d have to add all items of her closet to my property list.

  “I think we’re the same size,” Rada said. She held out a red floor-length dress with a deep V at the cleavage. It would fit me like an hourglass.

  I approached, running the material between my finger and thumb.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” I breathed. The real thing didn’t come close to my rentals, or the few dresses of my own I’d acquired and left folded in Verily’s closet. I turned in a slow circle, eyeing every piece of silk, sequin, and crystal in the custom-designed closet. The smallest drawers caught my eye, four nestled one on top of the other underneath shelves for handbags that cost more than a year of Verily’s rent. As I gently tugged on one, I half-knew what would greet me but was still bowled over by the sheer sparkle.

  Diamonds, pearls, emeralds, other jewels I was unfamiliar with, and … what was that? I peered closer. On instinct, I picked it up, inspecting it, then shoved it under my shirt as insurance for later.

  “Try it on,” she said when I turned back around. “I’ll be waiting in the bedroom.”

  It wasn’t until I raised my head and realized Rada had walked out and shut me in her closet, that I got a clue. Rada was being much, much too nice. The dress dropped with a clatter.

  That bastard. Theo locked me in here so I wouldn’t accompany him to this duke’s estate and play him under the table.

  “Hey!” I yelled.

  Theo was going to leave me in his house until he deemed it necessary to let me out. Damn if I’d let him, damn, damn, damn him—I’d show him what it meant to take me out of my country and into someone else’s only to have me safely stored away in designer clothing like a rich, trophy wife—I’d friggin’ bare my teeth at the asshole and bite whatever exposed skin—

  “Trouble with anything?”

  The closet door opened without a struggle. Rada lay supine on her bed, sipping champagne that she had brought up when I wasn’t looking. There were two glasses.

  “Um,” I said. “No.”

  “You don’t like the dress?”

  “Actually—” I was halfway to turning back into the closet but changed my mind. “I do have a question.”

  She waited.

  “Why are you being so nice to me? Right now, I mean.” I gestured to the bedroom door. “Downstairs, it was like I didn’t exist, and now…”

  Rada tutted. “Darling, after all this time, you must understand the play by now.”

  I crossed my arms, then re-crossed. “I…”

  My radar couldn’t be this off. Even in the presence of a woman whose sense of the people around her rivaled mine, it wouldn’t neutralize my powers. Yet, Rada remained a mystery. One to watch.

  “It’s Sax, isn’t it,” I said to her.

  “You must admit, there’s something about him that is utterly feral.” She savored the last word. “And fascinating. I want that man, have wanted him for a long time.”

  “And you consider me competition?”

  She chuckled, a low, feminine sound, that had I been a man, I would have drifted forward. “Darling, no. We’re both aware that Sax chooses his women, whether or not he has one currently.”

  Um, no. I didn’t know that. But my expression remained passive.

  “In the end, I’m a supporter of women, especially those in this realm. We’re rare dolls, as players. The kind that not a lot of men can find easily on the market. I dare say,” she said while leaning to the side and topping off a second glass of champagne, “Sax might have a type. He always enjoyed the rare jewels.”

  I wondered if Rada knew of Theo’s high school girlfriend, the one his father tortured in front of him until Theo agreed to do his bidding. The one he watched be mutilated, forever scarred, because of a father’s deeds he inherited as his own.

  “As such, I feel it is my duty to say, be careful. You might not understand as much as you think,” she said.

  “Is it all right if I take a shower first?” I asked, with as much composure as I could. The red dress still lay in a discarded pool on the floor of the closet, growing deeper creases the longer it lingered. Rada maintained the power, but I could control time, and the faster I was primped, the more I could allocate to Rada and understanding the duke, the members, the cameras.

  As for bedding Theo … well, I wished Rada the best of luck with that.

  “You may use the guest quarters down the hall, in the secondary wing to the house.” Rada set the champagne bottle down with an audible clink.

  Something I said—or didn’t say—rattled her. Pissed her off. Perhaps it was in my facial tics, the utter disgust I had, but whatever the reason, I was not to be allowed to use her en suite bathroom.

  “Sure. Thanks,” I said, then sprinted out of there.

  As I rounded a corner, Theo was in the hallway, commiserating with the butler he’d had run an errand a little while ago. The instant the butler saw me, he said some last words to Theo, then disappeared around the bend.

  Something seemed off—in the slant of Theo’s shoulders, the drooping of his eyes, how he shifted his weight.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  Theo turned to face me, and I noticed a white pharmacy bag in his hand.

  “Did you need ibuprofen?” I asked.

  “No.”

  Fine. Wasn’t my business. “I need to take a shower, so I”—we were back in the car, me riding him, his breath hot on my neck, his dick hard inside me—“um, I’d like to freshen up, so if you could please move aside…”

  “It’s for you.” Theo lifted the bag he held with two fingers.

  “Me? Why…”

  With his free hand, Theo pulled out his phone. A few taps later, he turned the screen toward me. “You’ve made the news.”

  17 Rainbow Strands

  The lackluster color of my driver’s license photo stared back at me.

  Even though it was taken four years ago, my eyes looked older, strained and dulled, the flecks of blue blurred and pale, the watery circles drying up in the years after.

  Time should have smoothed over the edges in my smile, the curves of fatigue. In a way, it did. Cards assisted in burying the grief, the dirt that covered it fertilized by illegal addiction. Adrenaline helping it grow.

  “Scroll down,” Theo said.

  I took the phone from him, first going above my picture and reading the headline:

  INNOCENT GUNSHOT SURVIVOR FROM WILLIAM
SBURG DRUG BUST NOW GUILTY FUGITIVE

  24-year-old Scarlet Rhodes from Croton Harmon, Westchester, narrowly escaped death-defying odds when she was at the receiving end of a bullet shot from the gun of one of Manhattan’s most notorious crime lords and currently one of New York City’s Most Wanted, Tracey Saxon.

  Rumors spread that Miss Rhodes was the girlfriend of Tracey’s younger brother, Theodore “Sax” Saxon, also a fugitive from the law, and in doing so, found herself amidst an underground world heretofore unknown to the former honor roll student at Croton-Harmon High. A high school dropout who lost her twin sister, Cassandra Rhodes, almost ten years ago in a horrific car accident, Scarlet has since acquired a taste for the bad boys. A little over two years after barely surviving the well-documented Saxon fury dominating these streets, Scarlet has once again teamed up with this familial crime syndicate and can now add “criminal” to her non-exhaustive list of ways to rebel against her parents, and I daresay, living out a Bonnie and Clyde fantasy—

  “What kind of rag mag is this?” I asked Theo.

  “A blog,” he said. “Read by hundreds of thousands a day.”

  “Explains why it’s so unnecessarily wordy,” I muttered.

  “This isn’t a joke. The FBI knows you’re with me now. It’s only a matter of time before the major news outlets catch on and people start to recognize you.”

  “Even on London’s streets?”

  “I repeat,” he said, “Over a hundred thousand hits a day.”

  “We knew this was going to happen eventually.” My heartbeat drummed, but my hand was steady when I passed the phone back to Theo.

  “You’re blond in the picture.”