High Stakes: A Texas Heat Romance

by Camilla Stevens

  “You don’t have to sweetheart,” he said, pushing away a strand of hair that had turned into a frizzy mess in the rain. He liked her this way, all pretense of propriety out the window, and her careless side coming out to play. “What did I tell you about being able to read people?”

  Juliet stared at him thoughtfully for exactly one second.

  “What am I telling you?” she asked, honestly curious.

  “The same thing my own mind is telling me. I love you.”

  Juliet gave him the smile she knew he liked as she rested her chin on his chest. “So where do we go from here?”

  “How’s about we just wander and see where the rest of our lives take us?”

  She laughed at the reference from their first—or first and one-quarter—date, which seemed like a million years ago.

  “Absolutely.”

  44

  The coast wasn’t quite clear. Chance still had one loose end to take care of.

  Yes, both Peter Antonov and Leo Petrov were dead. He just had to make sure that the openings they left in their respective turfs were permanently cauterized before a usurper to the thrones could come in and pick up where they had left off.

  Franco Moretti.

  Chance had his grandfather to thank for this one. Although Viktor couldn’t lend him the money, a certain family that had been itching to reclaim the Houston territory most certainly could.

  “You’ve caused quite a ruckus, you know,” Franco said with a smile. He puffed on a cigar as he considered Chance from across the desk.

  Chance knew better than to respond. He had no intention of giving this man more information than absolutely necessary. He was reminded of that saying: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

  At least he had no personal issues with this particular boss.

  Franco, gave a soft chuckle as though reading his mind. Then he gave Chance a sharp look. “What happened to the rest of the money? And don’t even think about giving me that shit about the dealer taking it.”

  “That is the going theory,” Chance pointed out.

  “And anyone stupid enough to buy it doesn’t have the brains God gave the back end of a donkey.”

  Colorful, Chance would give him that much. Everything else, he kept firmly behind sealed lips.

  “I could make you turn it over you know,” Franco said, staring hard at him. “Interest on the loan I gave you.”

  Chance waited, thinking of Juliet so that his eyes wouldn’t give him away.

  Franco waited as well, seeing if he would cave. Finally, he sat back with a sigh. “I suppose I should let you keep it, seeing as how you handed Houston back to the Moretti family on a silver platter. That alone is worth a hundred times as much. Then of course, there’s Jacob Weinstein, that rat fucking bastard. Who knew, huh?”

  Chance watched a sly smile come to Franco Moretti’s face as he turned to look out the window of the Montrose office building they were in. In the underworld, information was almost as important as pure power, and Jacob was a damn encyclopedia. Chance certainly didn’t envy the man, who was probably already being “interrogated.” Considering the danger he had posed to Juliet, he also didn’t give half a shit what happened to him.

  Franco was still waxing poetic toward the street outside. “Those goddamned Russians, coming in and taking everything from the rightful owners….”

  Franco brought his attention back to Chance. “No offense,” he said with a droll smile.

  “None taken.” He had no particular love for the Russian, at least most of them.

  “You gotta leave Houston, you know. No way am I having you down here fucking things up even further. That’s a distraction I don’t need. Maybe one day you can come back, when we clean up this fucking mess you’ve made. For now, you’re gone.”

  “Not a problem,” Chance said truthfully. He had a plan, and it certainly didn’t involve hanging around Houston with a target on his back for anyone who had a particular fondness for either Peter Antonov or Leo Petrov. Fortunately, they were few, and anyone with a head on their shoulders knew they had to play nice with the new boss. That meant leaving Chance alone, at least for now. This bit of protection would only last so long.

  “When I say gone, I mean gone. Not Galveston, or San Antonio. In fact forget about the entire state of fucking Texas. Throw in Louisiana while you’re at it. The last thing I need is shit from those guys.”

  “Done,” Chance said. He had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do. All he needed to do was get one gorgeous woman with the world’s most beautiful smile on board.

  “Shit, man. Who the hell would have figured Chance McCoy as the black sheep of the family?” Chip said, laughing. He winced as the pain from his wounds hit him.

  Chance was visiting him in the hospital. Chip was due for release soon, sent home to recover from his injuries. He had just told his brother every detail of what had happened since last visiting him. It had taken a while.

  “So what are you gonna do now?”

  Chance’s eyes drifted to the wall behind Chip and a lazy smile came to his face. “I have an idea. I just have to get her to go along with it.”

  Chance brought his focus back to his brother. “What about you? You should probably lay low for a while. I’m the one with the bull’s-eye on me, but that doesn’t mean you’re free and clear.”

  Chip rolled his tongue around in his mouth, which heightened Chance’s senses, waiting for what he was about to reveal.

  “Actually, I think I’m gonna stick it out on the rig.”

  Now that it was out in the open, Chance wasn’t surprised. “Well, it seems to be a fit for you.”

  Chip just shrugged, looking away sheepishly.

  Chance pondered him, then brought up the touchy subject that had been rolling around in his head for a while. It wasn’t his business, but he’d feel bad about leaving without telling Chip.

  “You know, Cherry—Crystal, whatever.”

  “Cherry?” Chip interjected. The shift in his body language was swift: tight jaw; hard look; flared nostrils itching for a fight; the blood rushing to his face.

  That told Chance everything he needed to know. He actually chuckled, which had Chip practically ready to jump out of that bed and teach him a lesson.

  “I hope you’re treatin’ her right,” he said. “She’s one you should probably hold on to. She legit cares about you.”

  “Yeah, well,” Chip said, replacing his anger with mild embarrassment. “I suppose it’s good thing I’ll be sticking’ around here. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll make an honest woman of her.”

  Chance cocked a half smile.

  “Hell, she makes good money,” Chip added with a laugh. “Better than me anyway.”

  They both shared a laugh at that one.

  “The money is yours and Chip’s. I’ve got this house and the savings your father left me. Besides you two earned it.”

  “You were a part of it too, Ma,” Chance said. He sat with her at the same dining room table where this whole plan had been hatched.

  She reached out a hand to cup his face with a smile. “My reward is having both my sons safe and alive. If anything, you should be sharing it with Juliet.”

  “Well, that’s the plan,” he said.

  “Do you have any idea where you’re going?” Katherine asked.

  “None whatsoever,” he said with a smile.

  She laughed, then gave him a soft look. “So like your father.”

  “So I’ve been told.”

  She looked down at the table. “My father…how…how was he?”

  “He looks just like you.”

  Half her mouth went up in a smile.

  Chance read her face, then spoke up. “He misses you. I think he’d be okay hearing from you, rules be damned.”

  Her eyes shot up to him. She twisted her mouth keeping her emotions in check.

  “Ma,” Chance said leaning in. “Your mother died when you were practically a babe. You lost Daddy a long time
ago. You almost lost Chip and me. If anything, all this should tell you that it’s important to tell people you love them while you still have the time. Call him.”

  Katherine laughed and let the tears fall.

  45

  “Mom, Dad,” she said looking at each of them in turn. “I—we,” she quickly darted her eyes to Chance, “invited you out to brunch to tell you something.”

  She immediately saw the wheels turning in their heads imagining every scenario: engagement, pregnancy, cancer….

  That got her quickly to the point. “I’ve decided to make my sabbatical a bit more…permanent.”

  Her dad was the first to react. “As in quitting? Juliet, this is a terrible idea!”

  Juliet just shrugged. She supposed in a manner of speaking she was quitting. She looked at her mother who was observing her with keen eyes and a guarded expression that Juliet couldn’t read.

  “And just what do you plan on doing during this permanent sabbatical?” her father asked.

  “Travel. See the world. Do things I’ve never done before,” she shrugged again, knowing the answer wouldn’t satisfy him.

  “And when you come back? What then? You’re just going to march right back to Rice and say ‘hey, I’m done flying off to wherever, being perfectly irresponsible, I’ll take my job back now, thanks’? Because your mother and I will be the first to tell you that’s not how it works. We worked hard to get our positions and maintain them. It’s not just something one gives up so easily.”

  Juliet held strong. She had been prepared for this, especially from her father. Both her parents had a right to be skeptical of this plan of hers, and her dad was raising some legitimate issues. What would she do when she got back? How long could one million dollars last?

  Chance reached out to take her hand and she saw him shifting in his seat to step in and help her out. She had told him that she’d do all the talking. So far he’d been tactful and smart enough to stay silent.

  Just feeling his hand on hers let her know that, despite how crazy and reckless it was, she was making the right choice. This was her choice. This was what she wanted. She didn’t need him to step in and protect her. She needed him by her side to support her.

  She squeezed his hand to let him know she was fine and met her father’s direct gaze with her own.

  “That’s the point Dad,” she said firmly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get back. In fact, that’s the beauty of it. I finally get to do something that’s what I want to do not just something I’m supposed to do.”

  Her father hiccupped a sharp laugh throwing his hands up in the air as if he had heard it all now.

  He suddenly shifted a narrow-eyed gaze to Chance. “This is all your doing isn’t it?”

  Before Chance could answer, Juliet stepped in. “You know what Dad? It is all his doing. He’s the first man who has ever made me feel something, anything. With him I feel alive, excited, happy, terrified, just…” she looked off trying to think of the right thing to say, then she shrugged, “perfect, in the most imperfect and irrational way possible.”

  “Well that says it all!” he replied, throwing his hands up in the air.

  “Thomas, I don’t think…,” Monet finally sat up to address them. She gave her husband a look that was half reproachful and half amused. “…our daughter is asking our permission.”

  The table went perfectly quiet. Monet had that effect on people. Even with the long pause that followed as she carefully eyed, first Juliet, then Chance, then Juliet again.

  “I’m not going to say I don’t worry about this little plan of yours, sweetheart. Every mother wants to make sure her babies are safe and sound. But,” she paused in that dramatic way she often did, “you are a thirty-one year old woman. I think perhaps you’ve earned the right to find your own form of happiness. Heaven knows you’ve played it straight and narrow up until now.”

  “Happiness? Happiness?” Thomas looked at his wife as though she had suggested their daughter start selling drugs. “The world doesn’t operate on happiness, Monet.”

  “And why not?” Monet asked with profound seriousness.

  Thomas’ mouth opened and closed like a fish. Juliet found it amusing, but she knew better than to laugh right now.

  Without a retort for his wife, he turned it back on his daughter. “And just where do you two plan on going? Do we at least get to know that much?”

  Juliet’s eyebrows went up in perfect innocence and she shrugged. “Maybe just throw a dart on a map and go.”

  Now it was Chance squeezing her hand. She turned to give him a smile that was matched with one of his own.

  “What if it lands in Syria or North Korea, or worse? What then?”

  Juliet and Chance both turned their heads to Thomas, then broke out in laughter.

  He frowned. “I fail to see the humor here.”’

  “That’s because you aren’t looking closely, dear,” Monet said, reaching out to take his hand. Everyone at the table felt the immediate calming effect it had on him. The two were a perfect yin and yang.

  Maybe there was something to that.

  Thomas sighed and looked at his wife. Some silent communication developed over the course of their thirty-six-year marriage passed between them. He brought his gaze back to Juliet then to Chance.

  “It’s obvious that my daughter is crazy about you,” Juliet didn’t miss the slight stress on the term “crazy.” Her dad leaned in and gave Chance a direct look. “But if she comes back and she’s not as happy and crazy about you as she is now, you’ll have me to deal with.”

  Juliet’s mouth fell open. She knew her dad cared about her and loved her, as all dads did, but this is the first time she’d ever seen him so blatant about it.

  “Don’t let the exterior fool you, son,” he went on. “I may not look like such a tough guy but I’m a chemist, I can think of at least ten different ways to do away with a man, in very unpleasant ways.”

  “Dad!” Juliet exclaimed, half horrified and half impressed.

  Chance just gave her father a grin that radiated respect. “Message received, loud and clear, sir.” He turned to her and squeezed her hand again. “I plan on making Juliet the happiest woman alive.”

  46

  “It isn’t Pin The Tail on the Donkey,” Juliet protested as Chance spun her around.

  “How do I know you didn’t memorize the map so you could stick the pin on some safe, boring place?” he replied. “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.”

  “Okay, okay,” she laughed. “You’re going to make me dizzy. I don’t even remember which direction the map is anymore.”

  “Good. That means you’re ready,” he said pointing her toward the wall where the map was. He guided her close enough so that even the most wayward show would hit something. “Shoot.”

  Juliet threw the dart then eagerly pulled off her blindfold.

  Chance placed an arm around her shoulders and looked down at her with a smile.

  “I guess we’ve found our first stop, sweetheart.”

  “Well, how about that?” she said, staring at the map.

  Then they both laughed.

  Epilogue

  One Year Later

  Their first stop had been Tahiti, right smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Chance had actually persuaded her to go topless on the beach there, the first of many daring things she’d experienced this past year.

  Now, they were on a tiny Italian island called Paresi in the middle of the Mediterranean.

  Juliet watched Chance as he played in the water with Anna, the little Swiss girl whose family resided on the island several months out of the year. He was swinging her up in the air only to dip her back down into the sea to the chorus of her gleeful laughter.

  The two of them had been here for three weeks now and had developed enough of a rapport with Anna’s parents to serve as babysitters for the afternoon. She thought about what a wonderful and exciting life the little girl had a
lready lived, traveling the world, meeting new and different people. Anna already spoke three languages and she wasn’t even six years old yet. There was something to be said for an unconventional upbringing. Juliet filed that one away for future reference.

  Juliet was pleased to note that Chance was spectacular with the little girl. That was a good bit of information to have, especially now. She filed that one away as well.

  She loved this tiny little island, which they’d heard about in passing while they visited Naples. Like most of their year-long adventure, they’d decided to visit on a lark and hopped on the overnight ferry to get here.

  Money wasn’t an issue, especially since Chance had managed to turn that one million into three at their second stop: Monte Carlo. There would be some serious tax consequences when they went home, but for now they were well-set.

  They’d kept in touch with their family, letting them know when they had reached each new destination. Juliet’s parents had come around and now got excited with each new report, already making plans for their eventual retirement. Chip had officially asked Cherry to marry him and she’d said yes. Katherine had finally gotten in touch with her father. After 40 years, especially with Peter Antonov out of the picture, old promises were given a little bit of leeway.

  The Moretti Family had officially cleaned house in Houston. With two heads of major Russian families dead, there had been a brief bout of chaos until the dust finally settled. It had been less bloody than expected. Jacob Weinstein had disappeared. Juliet had no desire to know the details of where or how.

  Now Chance, having completely tired poor Anna out, was carrying her out of the water toward where Juliet sat with their towels. Chance’s skin had developed a permanent tan and his hair had become sun bleached over the past year of their round-the-world adventure.

  Monte Carlo been their second destination. It was a prelude to an entire tour of France, because, why not? Spain had come next, simply because both of them had taken Spanish in school and it was right next door to France.