One Shot Bargain

Home > Other > One Shot Bargain > Page 6
One Shot Bargain Page 6

by Mia Grandy


  For the first time in his life he actually felt driven to accomplish something. Someone he cared about actually had a stake in whether or not he succeeded.

  *

  By the end of the night they had managed to win three games and had moved up significantly in the brackets. There were only eight teams left, and so far they had not seen any sign of cheating. Randa began to wonder if maybe she had been wrong about Mike. Maybe he was on the up and up now.

  The doubt that had been lingering with her all day started to fade a little by the time she climbed into bed. While Drake had maintained his distance and hadn’t made a move when she’d gone into her room instead of his, it was probably for the best.

  A few minutes later when there was a knock on her door, Randa smiled and ran over. Maybe Drake had second thoughts about being together tonight. As much as she hated to admit it, she already missed having him around. In the few short days they had been together she had started to grow used to his comforting presence and the smell of his aftershave.

  However, when she flung open the door she found herself instead face to face with Mike. She started to swing the door shut again, but he pressed his boot into the door frame and muscled his way into her room.

  She opened her mouth to scream for Drake, but Mike managed to clamp his hand firmly over her face before she was ever able to utter a peep.

  “Don’t think it’s going to do any good, sweetheart.” He told her through gritted teeth, his face only a few inches from her own. “I saw your man go downstairs a few minutes ago. We’re alone here. Besides, if you scream too loud I’ll have to hurt you…and we both know how much I hate to hurt you.”

  Randa looked down just as Mike moved his hand enough so that the blade flashed in the light of the room.

  “I’m going to move my hand. You know the drill. Scream and I’ll start slicing away your little bits.” He smiled, and Randa immediately found herself remembering the times when Mike had to fight or use force to get out of a scrape. She remembered how much he had enjoyed the conflict, how he said he it gave him a high. Back then she’d been able to write it off as the actions of a person who had been cornered.

  Now, she could see differently. He enjoyed inflicting pain. She knew that he would make good on his promise. Tears clouded her vision as she nodded her head.

  “What do you want?” she managed to ask when he had pulled down his hand and she was able to gulp down air into her burning lungs.

  “Imagine my surprise when I saw little old Randa hooked up with a big shot rich guy. I mean, you can smell the money on him from across the room. And we all know where you hail from.” He sneered as he spoke and Randa wiped the burning tears with the back of her hand, gritting her teeth together as she did so. She was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her in pain again.

  He backed up a step as he spoke, the knife still clenched at the ready. “Then, it struck me. She must be here to give him an edge in this tournament. So, I follow the two of you up here and see you practically fucking in the hall.”

  “That’s not…”

  “Shut up, darling. I know fucking when I see it, and that’s clearly what you were doing. Not only are you helping him win the tournament, you’re giving him some on the side as well. Looks like you finally became a prostitute after all.” He said, the hate filling up his eyes as he reached out and grabbed her breast.

  Randa jumped back and swatted at his hand, but he reacted just as quickly, the knife sliding across her forearm. It was so sharp that Randa didn’t feel much resistance when it moved across her skin. Instead a thin line of blood appeared an instant later.

  “Don’t act like it’s above your pay grade. It’s not like we haven’t been together before.”

  “That was a long time ago, in another life. I’m not a prostitute. No one is paying me to be here or to be with Drake. I’m sorry you have the wrong impression.”

  Mike eyed her, his gaze cutting into her so sharply that she actually shivered under its weight as she pulled her arm close to her, cradling it so that the blood seeped out and stained her pale blue nightshirt.

  “You may not think you’re a prostitute, but I guarantee you that guy sees you as nothing more than a temporary good time girl. If he’s not paying you for it…well, that’s just your loss.” This time when he grinned he lifted up the corner of his mouth just enough that he was clearly leering at her.

  “Whatever. Just tell me what you want and get this over with.” She said, sticking out her chin defiantly. It was clear what mike thought of her. She was never going to convince him that there was more to her than sex and pool.

  “Well lookie here. It appears there’s an assertive side to mousy little Randa after all. Too bad you didn’t have this kind of spunk when we were together. Maybe then I wouldn’t have felt the need to supplement our relationship.”

  Randa visibly cringed when he said that, and he laughed at her discomfort. She’d known he hadn’t been faithful, but to hear the actual words spoken out loud made it so much worse. The self-doubt he had always been so good at triggering immediately began to set in.

  “What I want…well, what we want actually…is for you to agree to throw the match. We already have plans in place to secure our win, but I figure that you owe me for that little disappearing act you pulled with my supplies and my money. Unless you want me to hunt you down and take it out of your flesh, you need to make sure you guys do not close the deal tomorrow.”

  Mike backed toward the room door, and as he spoke his last words, his hand closed around the knob and opened it. Since he was still facing Randa he didn’t turn around in time to see Drake standing right behind him.

  *

  Drake had gone down to the lobby earlier with the intent of trying to stretch his legs and get his mind off Randa’s predicament. He didn’t know of a good way to show her that she was more to him than just a partner or a playmate. In fact, in the short time they’d been together she had become more important to her than he would have believed possible.

  When he thought that after this tournament she might go on her way and he might not see her again he got very anxious. So, a few calls to his accountant later he had set up a scholarship for her at the local community college. Nothing too fancy, just enough to cover the tuition for four years.

  He picked up some flowers and was headed toward her door to tell her all of this when he noticed that there was a guy standing next to it with his ear pressed against the door. Drake slowed his stride and set the flowers down on the floor as he walked up behind him and slipped his arm around the guy’s neck, pulling it up at such a steep angle that the guy only flailed about twice and then went limp.

  Drake had studied a number of self-defense techniques over the years. He’d ran into his fair share of people who were out to take advantage of him. So, when the man went limp Drake laid him out in the hallway.

  He immediately noticed that this was not the same man that was staring Randa down in the casino earlier that she had identified as Mike. This man was taller with a skinnier frame and long, blonde hair.

  Just as Drake was turning around to open the door it came open on its own. In just the blink of an eye he noticed three things almost simultaneously. First, this was the guy that had been stalking Randa earlier and the second was that he was holding a knife, and the final one was that Randa’s arm and shirt front were smeared in blood.

  The white hot rage that started pumping through him at the thought of someone hurting her was more than he had ever experienced. Just as Mike started to turn around, Drake grabbed the arm with the knife and slammed it into the door frame hard enough that he heard it snap as the hand was wrenched open and the knife clattered to the floor.

  Mike screamed and started to run, but Drake turned him around and punched him twice in the face and then dropped him to the ground just as the casino security ran down the hall, their weapons drawn.

  Drake put up his hands and backed away. He didn’t say anything as they cu
ffed him and led him down the hall. He just looked back over his shoulder to see Randa’s face stricken with horror and confusion. The flowers on the ground were now knocked out of their cheap plastic binding and spread across the hall as security personnel and Mike ended up dragging their feet through them in the ensuing scuffle.

  *

  After more than two hours of talking to the security team and the police Drake found himself once again walking back along the hall corridor to the room. Luckily Mike had an outstanding arrest record and several run ins with police. It made it a lot easier for them to believe Drake’s story.

  He took a deep breath as he stood outside of Randa’s door and looked down at the scattered flower petals and leaves that still lingered in the hall. Someone at least had picked up the majority of the flowers.

  Even though he had a key to her room he knocked on the door. He did not want to startle her any further. He’d learned from the people who had interrogated him that she had been cut and threatened. Although he wanted nothing more than to come up here and comfort her, he was worried that she would have left already.

  Just as he was about to turn into his room and leave her alone for the night the door swung open.

  Randa stood there in the sheltered darkness of the room. He saw that her arm was bandaged and that she had changed clothes.

  “I just wanted to come and see how you were doing,” he told her as she stepped away from the door and let him into the room.

  “I think I’m okay,” she told him. “The wound is only skin deep so it shouldn’t keep me from playing tomorrow.”

  “I’m not worried about whether or not you can play pool tomorrow,” he said, “I’m a lot more worried about how you are coping. After all, that is someone you once knew and cared about who just cut and threatened you.”

  Randa looked at him, holding her wounded arm in front of her stomach almost like a shield. “I don’t think I could handle being the person who kept you from winning back your grandfather's cabin.”

  “I don’t want the cabin back if it means causing you any problems or pain,” he told her as he pulled her close. “You are more important than the cabin. If you don’t want to play tomorrow, we don’t play.”

  Randa sighed, and he felt the tension seep out of her limbs as she stood there. “I appreciate that. But I really just want to play. I do not want them to look as if they have won already.” She paused and he could tell that she wanted to say more, so he waited for her to continue. “I found the flowers outside, and the note. I just wanted to say thank you.”

  He blinked for a second, trying to think about what she was referring to before he remembered that he had put the note about the scholarship in the card. “Of course.”

  “No one has ever done so much for me. No one has done anything so kind for me.”

  Drake smiled and pulled her close, curling his arms around her in a protective stance. “Win or lose tomorrow I wanted you to have something you could hold onto, something you could be proud of. But my leaving to take care of that got you in trouble. I should have been here to keep you from getting hurt.”

  She chuckled and looked up at him, and when he saw the fire in her face he was so happy that the incident from earlier hadn’t forced her to start emotionally withdrawing like he’d feared. “I don’t think you can be there all the time. Things are going to happen that you cannot prevent. I’m just glad you came when you did.”

  “I’m glad too.” He told her, leaning down and gently kissing her as he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed.

  Win or lose that tournament tomorrow, he’d already decided it didn’t matter. His grandfather had been right all along. Home was more than just a building with walls. He knew that as long as Randa was with him he would feel at home wherever he was, and he intended to spend as much time as he needed demonstrating how important she was to him.

  Thank you for reading my book “One Shot Bargain”. Please leave me a review to let me know how much you enjoyed the book.

  For special offers and more information on upcoming releases please join my newsletter by clicking here.

  - Mia Grandy

  © 2013 Mia Grandy

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form electronically, mechanically, by imagery, scanning, or any other means of distribution. Very brief quotes in reviews or articles are permissible.

 

 

 


‹ Prev