“I need you to give me your gun.”
* * *
Annie had one hell of a headache.
She’d woken in a dark room, realizing fairly quickly that she was handcuffed to a hotel headboard. The metal cuffs were digging painfully into her wrists, and the movement made her stomach swim with nausea.
Turning her head, she could see the light coming under the doorway. Muffled voices were outside, but she couldn’t tell who it was. She didn’t need to be a detective to decide she was in Jerry’s suite. The room had the same old smell of cigarettes and industrial cleaner, and she could hear children splashing and playing in the courtyard pool she’d noticed outside his window the day before.
She should’ve taken Jerry’s threats more seriously. Somehow she’d believed that if she was out of the tournament and Tessa was safe in police custody, he’d no longer have control over her life. She’d been painfully mistaken.
Now she would pay. She didn’t know how, but Jerry would punish her for her impudence. The idea was frightening, but a part of Annie had accepted this outcome the moment she’d chosen to throw the tournament. She’d retaken control of her life. If this was the price she paid, she only had one regret: that the last thing she ever said to Nate was a lie spoken in anger. He might never know the truth about how she felt.
The voices outside the door grew louder as they came closer. Annie braced herself for their arrival, struggling to sit up and put her back against the headboard. She might not have the use of her hands, but she could move her legs and by God, she’d make sure none of them would ever breed.
When the door opened, Annie could see the outline of two men in the doorway. One was Jerry, she could tell by the bald dome of his head and the slouch of his aged posture. The second was Eddie. The light illuminated the stupid Cowboys jacket he always wore. She’d expected him to be in Atlantic City by now.
“Sleeping Beauty is awake,” Jerry said, flipping on the light and temporarily blinding Annie.
“Now the fun begins.” Eddie’s mouth twisted into an evil grin as he crossed the room. He reached out to touch Annie’s face but jerked away when the cold slime of her spit landed on his cheek.
“You don’t touch me,” she warned, but her bravado was short-lived. Eddie’s hand flew at her face. The impact exploded across her cheek in a fierce wave of pain.
Eddie leaned in, his breath hot and rancid on her face. “Try that again and you and your sister will both regret it.”
“I thought you’d be long gone by now, Eddie. You’ve always been too chicken to do the dirty work yourself.” Annie prepared herself for another slap, but Jerry pulled Eddie back before his fist could fly again.
“We don’t have time for that. Go in the other room,” he demanded and watched Eddie slink out. “You are a hellcat, Annie. I never quite know what to expect from you. Makes me wish I was thirty years younger. You’d be a fun one to break.” He sighed, returning to the doorway. “Instead, I’ll just have to break Nate and let you watch. He should be here soon with the money he owes me.”
“Money?”
“Ten million dollars in exchange for you. That’s more than I would’ve made in the tournament, so I think it’s a fair trade. Enough to get me out of this godforsaken town and afford me the lifestyle I deserve after nearly killing myself for this casino.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure he’ll show up with the money,” Annie said. A part of her prayed he would save her while another hoped her words were true. She didn’t want to be the bait they used to trap him. Even if Nate brought the money, she didn’t believe Jerry would just hand her over and stroll out of the hotel. “I did a pretty good job of pushing him away, thanks to you. We’re getting a divorce. He may not care what you do with me.”
“Oh, he cares, Annie.” Jerry flipped off the light and pulled the door closed behind him. “I’d bet ten million on it.”
* * *
The thirty minutes it had taken to get things in place had felt like hours. By the time Nate started down the hallway to Jerry’s office, the adrenaline was pumping so furiously through his veins he was tempted to break down the door instead of using his master key.
But he was determined to stick to his plan. He shifted the duffel bag in his hands, checked on the gun in his suit coat pocket then slipped the key into the lock. The door swung open wide, his gaze sweeping the room until it locked in on his target. His hand slipped into his pocket, his fingers tightening around the grip of the gun.
Jerry was sitting at his desk, alone. As always, he was surrounded by paperwork, the space reminding Nate so much of how it looked when he was a kid visiting his grandfather. The betrayal of a family friend was still a bitter pill for him to swallow.
His target barely moved; his gaze focused intently on Nate without a hint of surprise. Jerry stood slowly, his hands held up to show Nate he was unarmed. “I’m glad you finally made it, Nate. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Where is she?”
Jerry gave a condescending smile and came out from behind his desk. “Close by and feisty as ever, I assure you.”
Nate swallowed hard. He hoped it was true, but he wouldn’t take Jerry’s word for it. “I want to see her.”
“Or what? Are you going to use that gun in your pocket to shoot your grandfather’s oldest and dearest friend? The man who’s worked with you and helped you make this hotel a success? Come now, we both know that isn’t going to happen, so why don’t you just relax and have a seat.” Jerry took a step toward Nate, his hand held out to gesture toward the seating area.
Nate didn’t move from his spot. “What is this all about, Jerry? Money?”
“What’s wrong with it being about money? It makes the world go round. You of all people should know that.”
“Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you owe someone money?” Nate struggled to find a reason why Jerry would do something like this.
“That’s how it started, yes. I do have a fondness for the ponies but not much of an eye for picking a winner. I ran through all my retirement savings pretty quickly, which is why I came back to work. I got in with an interesting crowd when I couldn’t pay the bookies what I owed. Fixing poker tournaments started as a way to get them off my back, but I soon realized there were bigger payoffs and bigger thrills in this game.”
“Of all the people you could’ve chosen, why Tessa? Why my Annie? Were you trying to get back at me for something I did?”
“Not really. We chose Tessa because she was young, stupid and could lead us to Annie. She was our real target in the end. If she met with great success, no one would ever suspect. It was a perfect plan. I didn’t realize at the time that she was your wife. It was quite the pleasant surprise when I found out the two of you were coming together to catch the cheaters. I knew every move you made because you told Gabe and me everything.”
“Did you really think Annie would be so pliable?”
Jerry laughed. “No, but everyone has a button you can push. Apply the right kind of pressure and you can make a woman madly in love betray her husband and sabotage her own career.”
She did love him. It made Nate sick to think of how Annie had come to him at Jerry’s demand. “How’d that work out for you?”
Jerry shrugged. “It worked great until Annie started crumbling under the pressure. She couldn’t have won a game of Go Fish with the way she was mooning at you over her cards. She completely lost her focus. There wasn’t a damn thing we could do to salvage her game. The two of you ruined all my plans. The polite thing to do—” he gestured toward the duffel bag with a smile “—is to make it up to me.”
“Well, here it is,” Nate said through angrily gritted teeth. He wanted to drop the bag and pistol-whip the old man, but he couldn’t until he knew Annie was safe. “Where’s Annie? I want to see her first.”
Jerry sighed a
nd shook his head. “You seem to be working under the impression that you’re calling the shots. You’re just like your grandfather, thinking you’re in control of everything when it’s people like me that make you successful. Give me the damn bag. And the gun.”
“Not until I see her.”
Before Jerry could answer, the bedroom door flew open and Eddie came in, dragging Annie with him. He held a gun to her head and had his arm wrapped around her neck in a chokehold. Seeing her like that made something primitive rise up inside Nate. It took everything he had not to pull out his gun and shoot Eddie on the spot. Unfortunately, he was not a marksman, and with Annie furiously struggling in Eddie’s arms, Nate couldn’t be certain not to hit her instead.
“So you’ve seen her. She’s obviously still got some fight left in her. So put down the gun and the money and step away.”
Nate ignored Jerry and took a few steps to the right toward Annie. Confused by his movement, Eddie dragged her back toward the window and away from Nate’s approach.
“The money and the gun, Nate. Now.”
Eddie nervously pulled back the hammer on the gun. Nate couldn’t trust him not to shoot Annie, even if by accident.
“Okay, okay,” he said, easing the gun down onto the floor and kicking it toward Jerry. “Please stop pointing the gun at her.”
“After I get the money,” Jerry said. The old man bent over to pick up the gun.
The rest happened in a blur. Nate yelled, “Now!” A loud bang rang out. Annie screamed. Nate swung the duffel bag filled with poker chips at Jerry, the heavy and unexpected blow knocking him to the ground. Nate quickly scooped up the gun. He held it on Jerry, his eyes darting back to the shattered window. Annie stood there alone, her entire body trembling in shock and fear as she tried to process what had happened.
The door burst open and a dozen men in navy security uniforms rushed into the room. Once they had Jerry in custody, Nate dropped his gun and ran to Annie’s side. He crushed her against him, tugging her away from Eddie, who was howling in pain at her feet.
Gabe’s sniper training had served them well today. With Nate’s cell phone on in his pocket the entire time, Gabe had waited patiently across the hotel courtyard for Eddie to get into position and Nate to give the order to shoot. His bullet had crossed the distance and found its mark in Eddie’s shoulder.
Nate pulled Annie from the suite, taking her far away from the scene of her captivity. She didn’t speak, just cried against the lapel of his jacket until they reached the empty hotel room they’d set aside when they’d planned their attack. He sat Annie on the bed and wrapped her shoulders with a thick blanket.
“You’re going to be okay,” he whispered into her hair, gently stroking her back. “Gabe’s calling the police, and the ambulance should be here soon. They’ll take good care of you, okay?”
“I don’t want a divorce.”
Annie’s voice was so small Nate wasn’t quite sure he heard her correctly. “What did you say?”
Annie pulled away, gently brushing her tears from her cheek. She winced in pain as she moved, making Nate’s chest ache. If Jerry rotted in jail ten years after he was dead, it wouldn’t be long enough to make up for what he’d done.
“I said I don’t want a divorce.”
“We don’t have to talk about that right now. You’ve been through a lot.”
“No, we do. I’ve already waited too long and almost missed my chance to say it. I hate myself for what I said to you. Jerry made me do it, and it just broke my heart. I lied to you, Nate. I do love you. I always have, I was just too scared to say it. After today, I realize there are so many other things in life to fear than love. Tonight, all I could think about was that I might die without telling you how I really felt. That you might always think those horrible things I said to you were true.”
“Annie, I—”
“Let me finish,” she interrupted. “I don’t know how to be a wife, and I can’t always promise I’ll be a good one, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you trying to figure it out. If you still want me, I’d love to plant roots here in Vegas and travel with you by my side.”
Nate couldn’t help but smile. His heart was leaping in his chest. “If I still want you? Annie, I’ve never stopped wanting you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. I love you. More than anything.” Nate hugged her gently against him and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Don’t ever believe otherwise.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the truth of their words and the gravity of the situation they’d just experienced fully sink in. Nate could hear the police going up and down the hallway and Gabe’s voice ordering the staff around. It wouldn’t be long before their moment together would be disrupted by police interviews and EMT examinations.
“So you really think we can do this whole marriage thing?” Annie asked at last.
Nate sighed and leaned his head against hers. “I think we can have a great marriage. One you’ll want to run to instead of run from.”
Epilogue
St. Thomas
Annie could feel the Caribbean sun’s rays sinking warmly into her bones. The combination of the heat and the rum was doing wonders for her state of mind. She needed this. After the shooting, she’d decided to take a break from the game. It seemed like a good idea to get away from the chaos and noise of the casino and the game that had ruled her life for so long.
Once the scandal with Jerry broke and hit the news, it became abundantly clear she wasn’t going to get any peace in Las Vegas. On ESPN they were constantly showing pictures of her next to Tessa’s, Eddie’s and Jerry’s mug shots.
Nate had decided they both needed to get away from the Sapphire and turned over the running of the hotel to his new casino manager. They’d spent some time at the house in Henderson, then visited his father in Texas. After that, Nate had suggested a few weeks on St. Thomas at the family beach house. They’d only been there a few days, but she had to say this whole vacation thing was pretty damn great. She’d have to make a point to schedule more of these in between tournaments and time in Vegas with Nate.
Annie took a sip of her drink and closed her eyes. This was the way to live. She was feeling so good nothing could ruin her buzz.
“I was thinking we should get remarried when Tessa gets out on parole.”
Almost nothing. Annie rolled onto her side on the queen-size lounge chair. Nate was lying beside her, absentmindedly thumbing at the keypad of his smartphone. Getting him to take a vacation was a big step, although she was doing better at the actual vacationing part so far.
“Remarried? Did I miss the part where we divorced?”
“I mean like a vow renewal or something. Have a reception. Some cake. We could let our families and friends come this time.”
Annie sighed and considered the idea of a real wedding. Their first had been such a blur. They’d rushed through it, so anxious to just be married that she hadn’t relished the details the way a woman normally wanted to. She hadn’t been raised dreaming about her wedding day like other little girls. And yet even there the tides had turned.
When she’d called her mother to tell her about Tessa’s unfortunate incarceration, Magdala Baracas announced quite suddenly that she’d gotten married to her Portuguese businessman. The change of heart probably meant that not only would her mother and uh...stepfather...come to the wedding, they might even enjoy themselves. This was new territory for the Baracas women.
“Would we have it at the hotel?” The Desert Sapphire had a very nice wedding chapel. They’d made quick use of it the first time.
“No, I think we should do it here.”
“St. Thomas?”
“Yeah. We could get married on the beach at sunset. I’ll have some of the locals build us a gazebo. We could have a bonfire and eat seafood until we throw up.”
“Sounds lovely,” Annie said, her tone flat with sarcasm.
Nate put down his phone and rolled over to face her. “I’m being serious here. Barbara Ann Baracas Reed, would you do me the honor of marrying me again with our friends and family as witnesses?”
Annie opened her mouth to answer when Nate pulled a small velvet box from his shorts. “What is that?”
He frowned. “That is not the appropriate response.” When he flipped open the box, Annie was nearly blinded by the large, heart-shaped diamond ring inside.
“You never got a diamond before. I thought you deserved one now.” Nate pulled the ring from the box and slipped it onto Annie’s finger next to her wedding band.
Annie couldn’t tear her eyes from it. It was the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen. She didn’t know what to say.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up to see Nate’s dark eyes filled with concern. “I’m wonderful. Why?”
“The last time I did this you passed out on me.”
Annie had to laugh. Her world had turned on its end since that day. In a month’s time, things had changed so dramatically it surprised even her. As she looked down at her new ring, there were no nerves, no butterflies. No screams from generations past urging her to run away. Nate’s love had slain the dragons. Such an achievement should be celebrated. A wedding on the beach with too much seafood was a good place to start.
“Yes, Nate.” She smiled, leaning in to place a kiss on his full, piña-colada-flavored lips. “I will marry you again. And again. And again.”
* * * * *
Don’t miss these other stories from Andrea Laurence:
WHAT LIES BENEATH
MORE THAN HE EXPECTED
UNDENIABLE DEMANDS
A BEAUTY UNCOVERED
All available now from Harlequin Desire!
Keep reading for an excerpt from JUST ONE MORE NIGHT by Fiona Brand.
BACK IN HER HUSBAND'S BED Page 16
