Bet in the Dark (7 page)

             
Fin broke out in a crooked, triumphant smile then, his gaze finding mine again. “But you’re so fun to fluster,” he admitted.

             
I let out a growl of frustration and watched as his smile grew.
Brat.
 

             
“I can’t do this,” I rushed my words out afraid one more compliment from him and I’d be signing over my soul. “I can’t help you, or work for you or do whatever it is you want me to do. I don’t owe you the money. My roommate does. And I don’t know where she is, or where your money is, but I do know that
none
of this is my responsibility. And even though I want to help you find her, I do not want any part of your illegal gambling…. thing. Nor can I be of any help because I know
nothing
about gambling or poker or Texas shuffle them or anything!”

             
“Wait,” Fin commanded and I didn’t want to admit this, but if he told me to do anything in that voice I probably would, it was probably why I was here right now even when I wanted to be anywhere else. “Texas shuffle them?”

             
And before I could respond he burst into laughter, throwing his head back and all.

             
“Or whatever it’s called,” I finished on a sigh.

             
“It’s
not
called Texas shuffle them,” He sobered and then looked me over as if he were really seeing me for the first time. “It’s called Texas Hold ‘em and we don’t even play that here. We play Five Card Stud.” He paused, visibly gathered patience and then continued, “Ok, here’s the thing. This is going to work for us because I need to hire help and now that I’m out seven thousand dollars I can’t afford to pay someone. You owe seven thousand dollars and need a way to pay that off. You solve a problem for me and I solve a problem for you. On top of that, you can’t prove to me that this isn’t your debt. Not just by your word. I want to believe you, Ellie. I do. You don’t seem to have any clue about any of this. And you seem genuine enough. But whenever I decide to believe you, I start arguing with myself. It’s not like the gambling version of you knew what they were doing either. Sure you were up for a while, but honestly that could all have been blind luck because as soon as you started losing you really started losing. Like a ball of burning flames kind of losing. So I gave you time, I gave you twenty four hours to come up with something else, some way to prove to me that this isn’t your debt. Right? If this really isn’t yours you could have gone to the police, you could have tracked down your alleged roommate, or what I really expected you to do, you could have gone to your brothers. I know Beckett, and I know Grayson, and whether this debt was really yours or not, I know they would have stepped in for you and tried to settle this. So, when I remind myself of all that, I can’t talk myself into believing this debt
isn’t
yours. I am going to make this very simple for you. We won’t even need to go to the police or anything. First of all, I’m going to tell you what I want. I want you to work for me. Maybe, ten hours a week. Nothing too demanding, nothing that will take away from school. And in the meantime you are welcome to hunt down the person you really believe has my money, or come up with it on your own. I’m not going to pressure you for it other than I need it in six weeks. I need it by April twenty seventh. However, if you are telling the truth, hell, if you are
not
telling the truth and just want to get out of this, all you have to do is ask Grayson to talk to me. I owe him. If Grayson talks to me, I’ll let this go.”

             
“Why do you owe Grayson?” I asked before I could stop myself. Not many people owed Grayson. Grayson was the kind of guy that collected on all of his debts.

             
“That’s between him and me. Besides, it’s not the kind of debt that you owe me. This is something less…. tangible. So is that what you would like to do? Are you going to talk to your brother? Or are you going to see this through with me.” His eyes were darker than they ever had been; black pools of intensity.

             
I swallowed against the nervous lump rising in my throat. I hated his options. Hated them. I couldn’t go to Grayson; that was absolutely out of the question. I was doing my best to avoid my family’s protection, I was definitely not going to go run and crawl under it the minute I faced any kind of trouble. Besides, for some reason going to Grayson felt like I was admitting to this being my fault. And even though staying with Fin and working for him felt exactly like admitting this was my fault, it was all of a sudden the better, nobler option.

             
Which was stupid.

             
So stupid.

             
“Fine,” I grumbled, already regretting my decision.

             
“Fine, what, Ellie?” Fin asked quietly.

             
“Fine, I’ll help you. Fine, even though this isn’t my debt, and I don’t owe this money and I probably will never be able to come up with it in six weeks, fine I’ll see what I can do.” I crossed my arms and looked down at my shoes. I kicked my toe against the wheel of Fin’s chair. I knew I was pouting, but I couldn’t help myself. He used my own arguments against me.

             
“You’ll come up with the money, Ellie,” he said gently but authoritatively.

             
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” I sighed and dared to meet his eyes again.

             
“I don’t have hopes, I have desperation and I need that money, so you
will
find a way to get it to me.” His voice was a low growl that sent the hairs on my arms standing at attention.

             
“What-“

             
“I’m not going to tell you what I need it for, so don’t bother asking.” Suddenly he was very terse, completely and emotionally cut off. He reminded me of the guy that first came to my apartment; the guy I easily assumed was a hit man for the mob.

             
Cold, aggressive and dangerous.

             
“I’m not helping you do something illegal,” I braved my last bit of integrity.

             
“Too late, Ellie. You agreed to do it my way, that was the only time you will ever be given a choice from here on out. Now let’s get to work.”

             
He turned back to the computers, his long fingers gliding easily over the keys. With a few clicks of the mouse and pecks at the keyboard we were on the backside of an intensely complicated online poker website.

             
Fin was absolutely focused now, in the zone and explaining everything in a clinical, slightly annoyed way. I turned my attention to the screen, to the task at hand. I filed all of the information away, determined to do well at this, even if I didn’t understand everything that was happening in front of me.

             
I had to do it that way. I didn’t have a choice. Because if for even a sEcond I thought about the consequences of helping Fin with his illegal game or whatever illegal activity he needed all that money for, I would succumb to the panic attack I was just barely holding at bay.

             
And one panic attack in front of Fin Hunter was enough for a life time.

Chapter Four

             
“Hungry?” Fin asked after two hours of what he called “orientation” and what I called a giant waste of time. I didn’t understand what he did online at all. Not the gambling, not the business side of it and especially not the programming part of his website.

             
“Why?” I asked suspiciously. “How long do you want me tonight?”

             
There was a charged pause between us while I stared at my computer refusing to look at him. He was a senior in college; there was no way he was going to take the easy and juvenile joke here.

             
“All night,” Fin finally answered in my ear, low and growly. “Girl, I want you all night.”

             
I swung out and punched him in the shoulder. He laughed at my response but didn’t scoot back any. “But then we wouldn’t get any work done and your ten hours of my time would be up for the week,” I reminded him trying to stay as calm and casual as I could. Although that wasn’t exactly easy and it had nothing to do with his joke and everything to do with how close he was sitting next to me right now.

             
“Ellie, I promise you, if you spent the night with me, I wouldn’t have to bargain for your time, you’d come back willingly. Over and over and over,” his voice was husky now and so full of innuendo I felt my face heat to a fast blush.

             
I finally lifted my eyes to meet his and while his mouth was tilted in a playful smile his dark eyes were heated and not at all playful. A tingle rolled over my skin, every inch of me while my brain tried to convince my body that he was just messing with me.

             
“So all boys are perverts then?” I asked dryly. “You never grow out of that?”

             
His eyes relaxed and he leaned back in his chair, his lips twitching. “You tell me, you’re the one that grew up with three brothers.”

             
“Yeah, but they weren’t perverted around me!” I squeaked. Although that wasn’t entirely true, it had gotten better now that we were all older.

             
That got another bark of laughter out of him. “Ok, so dinner, yeah? We both need to eat.”

             
“You’re not going to make me pay for it are you?”

             
He smiled down at me but didn’t answer my question, which made me nervous. I mean, I was just joking. But seriously, I was just joking. I couldn’t afford dinner. If I had to pay for it, we’d be eating from my stash of Ramen Noodles. And the muscles, defined and rippling all over his body, told me a sodium filled package of dried noodles wouldn’t be nearly enough nourishment for him.

             
“Food allergies?” Fin asked from where he stood at the gray slate kitchen counter, multiple take-out menus spread out in front of him.

             
I kind of hated how cool his apartment was.

             
But his question seemed really considerate. “Um, no. But I, even though it’s not exactly a food allergy, I really,
really
hate mushrooms,” I confessed. Ugh, he made me so nervous and we were only talking about
mushrooms
.

             
“Noted,” he said on a smirk. “Extra mushrooms.”

             
I wanted to convince myself that he was just kidding, that he wouldn’t really order extra mushrooms. Plus, it was a lame joke, right? I mean what was with him and taking every obvious avenue? But….

             
“No, I said, no-“

             
“I heard you Ellie,” he grinned over at me like he just won some kind of contest. His whole face transformed with that look, he went from unattainably handsome to something more boyish, more playful. I realized that this expression was infinitely more dangerous than all of the other ones; this look was going to get me the most into trouble. “I was just kidding.”

             
“I had no idea you were such a comedian,” I rolled my eyes. But seriously, who knew the great Fin Hunter liked to make lame jokes? Everything I had ever heard about him centered around his illegal activities, his super human speed or his gorgeous body. Nobody ever talked about his sense of humor.

             
Also I had to stop referring to him as
Fin Hunter
in my head. He was
not
a celebrity.

             
“There’s a lot about me you don’t know yet, Ellie,” he said on a soft mumble.

             
I cleared my throat, hating how my girl-brain went straight to planning our wedding at the sound of future promise in his voice. I was an idiot. “So what’s for dinner?”

             
“Pizza?” he asked like he was giving me a choice.

             
“Sure,” I squeaked, trying to ignore the way my mouth watered. “Sounds good.”

             
Pizza? As in a real meal! I stayed my enthusiasm until I heard him give his order and credit card number over the phone and then I bounced up and down in my seat like I just won the lottery. Hooray, a real meal!

             
I would just ignore the sinking thought that I was really selling my soul for pizza. Well, pizza and a debt of seven thousand dollars.

             
Plus, just because I was eating his pizza, did not by any means, make me friends, colleagues, associates or anything else with Fin Hunter.

             
With Fin.

             
Just Fin.

             
“Why do you look so happy?”