High Stakes

Copyright © by Cheryl Douglas

All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced, including photocopying, graphic, electronic, mechanical, taping,
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Persons, places and other entities represented
in this book are deemed to be fictitious. They are not intended to represent
actual places or entities currently or previously in existence or any person
living or dead. This work is the product of the author’s imagination.

Any and all inquiries to the author of this
book should be directed to
[email protected]

High Stakes © 2012 Cheryl Douglas

Nashville Nights
Family Tree

The Turners

Trey and Sierra
Turner
—Nashville Nights, Book
One, Shameless

Jared and
Elaine Turner
—Trey’s
parents

Alisa Turner
—Next Generation, Book One, High Stakes

The Coopers

Josh and Lexi
Cooper
—Nashville Nights,
Book Two, Fearless 

Jay and
Victoria
—Josh and Ashley’s
son and daughter-in-law / Nashville Nights, Book Seven, Hopeless

Mike and Tori
Cooper
—Josh and Ashley’s
son and daughter-in-law / Nashville Nights, Book Eight, Careless

Aiden Cooper
—Josh and Lexi’s son / Next Generation,
Book Two, Trade Off

Brianna Cooper
—Josh and Lexi’s daughter / Next Generation,
Book Three, Game On

Eva Cooper
—Mike and Tori’s daughter / Next
Generation, Book Eight, Blown Away

The Spencers

Luc and Marisa
Spencer
—Nashville Nights,
Book Three, Ruthless

Nikki Spencer
—Luc’s daughter / Nashville Nights, Book
Five, Relentless

Ryan Spencer
—Luc and Marisa’s son / Next Generation,
Book Three, Game On

Evan Spencer
—Lun and Marisa’s son / Next Generation,
Book Four, Burn Out

The McCalls

Ty and Avery
McCall
—Nashville Nights,
Book Four, Reckless

Anna McCall
—Ty and Avery’s daughter / Next Generation,
Book Five, Fast Track

Nick McCall
—Ty and Avery’s son / Next Generation, Book
Six, Time Out

J.T. McCall
—J.T. and Derek’s brother / Nashville
Nights, Book Five, Relentless

Nikki Spencer
—
McCall –
J.T.’s
wife / Nashville
Nights, Book Five, Relentless

Lauren McCall
—J.T. and Nikki’s daughter / Next
Generation, Book Seven, Face Value

Derek McCall
—J.T. and Derek’s brother / Nashville
Nights, Book Six, Heartless

Ashley McCall
—Derek’s wife, Jay and Mike Cooper’s mother
/ Nashville Nights, Book Six, Heartless

Dedication

To the devoted
readers who inspired the Next Generation series.

I am so grateful
you weren’t ready to say good-bye to your favorite characters.

Neither was I.

High Stakes—Book
One, Nashville Nights, The Next Generation

Former party girl, Alisa Turner, made a
deal with her daddy, Trey. He’ll provide the seed money for her new business
venture as long as she promises to stay out of trouble. Too bad her good
intentions tumble 30,000 feet when she meets a sexy stranger on a flight to sin
city.

Hotel mogul, Liam Bryson, has never
believed in love at first sight, but when a sexy little siren twenty years his
junior tempts him into a night of high stakes Blackjack, he’s suddenly playing
for keeps.

Alisa wakes up in Liam’s bed the next
morning, cursing Tequila and the five carat diamond on her left hand. She
demands an annulment before her over-protective father finds out she reneged on
their agreement, but her new hubby isn’t prepared to let her go without a
fight.

“Have you seen this garbage?” Trey Turner
asked, tossing the rolled up newspaper in his daughter’s general direction.
“That’s the third time this month I’ve seen your face in some rag, drinkin’ or
partyin’ with—”

Alisa held her hand up. “I’m not having
this conversation with you again. I’m twenty-five, not five. That means I get
to decide what I do and with whom I do it.” She loved and respected her father,
but if he had his way, she’d live under his roof and abide by his rules until
she was too old to care about having fun.

“Oh yeah?” He smirked. “Who bought you that
fancy condo you just had to have, or how about that new A7…” His eyes fell to her
shoes. “Gucci?” He whistled under his breath. “Must’ve cost a pretty penny.
Might be the last pair you buy for a good long while. I hear waitresses are only
makin’ minimum wage plus tips. That’s probably not enough to buy designer shoes
or purses.”

“You’re threatening me?” Alisa couldn’t
believe what she heard. She and her father had always been close. He may not
always agree with the choices she made, but he never threatened to cut her off
before.

“Call it what you want.” He shrugged his
broad shoulders. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you from self-destructin’
the way I did.”

Alisa knew her father’s history with
alcohol. When her parents divorced, before remarrying more than twenty-five
years ago, he’d hit the bottle hard and nearly destroyed everything he worked
so hard to achieve. But she wasn’t him. She was young and single, trying to
enjoy life a little before settling down into the life of domestic bliss so
many of her friends seemed to favor. The life she’d almost had, before another
woman stole it from her.

“Daddy,” she said, quietly. “I know you
love me…”

“More than anythin’,” he whispered, drawing
his fingertip down her cheek. “You and your mama are my whole world, angel. If
anything happened to you, it would kill me.”

Alisa knew her parents had lost a child
before she was born, and her father never quite recovered. He still seemed to
blame himself, and as a result, he worked that much harder to protect his only
child from harm, even if it meant suffocating her.

“I know that.” She smiled, trying to soften
her words. “But you can’t expect me to live in a bubble. I have to live my life
and make mistakes, just like you did.”

His hand fell to his side. “I’m not gonna
watch the booze take you down the way it did me, and if that means I have to
enforce a little tough love, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

There was no way to win an argument with
her father once he’d made up his mind about something. Her only option was to
negotiate. “So you’re just gonna cut me off, huh? Just like that?” She crossed
her arms. “You want me to move back home so you can keep an eye on me 24/7?”

“Don’t tempt me,” he warned, pointing a
finger at her.

Trey Turner could only be described as
intimidating. Most people wouldn’t be brave enough to cross him, but his love
for her gave Alisa a distinct advantage. She knew that she and her mother were
his only weak spots and she hated to exploit that, but until she came up with a
game plan, she needed his help.

“You really think Mom’s gonna let you do
this to me?”

“Your mama isn’t gonna cross me, young
lady, so don’t even think about tryin’ that angle.”

Alisa knew he was probably right. Her
parents were a force of nature, always strong, united, and impossible to
breach. “Fine. What do you want from me, an oath signed in blood?”

Trey sighed as he sat down behind his desk.
He suddenly looked tired, and Alisa felt a pang of guilt for causing him so
much distress. He was a mountain of a man, who’d always ruled with an iron
fist, but sometimes she forgot he was just a man, and the years were slipping
away too quickly. One day, she wouldn’t have him in her life anymore and she’d
live with the regret of days like this one.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sinking into the
chair across from him. “I don’t mean to embarrass you.”

He looked up, seemingly surprised. “Is that
what you think this is about?” He shook his head. “Darlin’, you could never
embarrass me. I’m so damned proud of you…” His voice trailed off and he looked
wistful. “You’ve always been such a high achiever, straight A student, all
those dance trophies, gettin’ your picture in those magazines…”

Her modeling days seemed like a lifetime
ago. She’d loved the years she spent in front of the camera, strutting down
runways, but at her age, she had to face facts: her best days were behind her.
She’d decided to bow out gracefully instead of waiting for someone else to
deliver her fate. “I’d rather not talk about that, if you don’t mind.”

Trey looked at her a long time before he
asked, “What the hell happened to the little girl I used to know? Did that
business really mess you up that bad?”

She tried not to think about those days. It
hurt too much to realize at twenty-five, she was already past her prime, and no
one, including the man she’d built her dreams around, seemed to want her
anymore. “Modeling was the only thing I ever wanted to do; you know that.”

“Yeah, and you made a lot of money over the
years.” He leaned back in his leather swivel chair and tipped his cowboy hat
back on his head so he could look her in the eye. “Hard to believe you wasted
every goddamn dime of it.”

She winced. They’d had this argument more
times than she could count since she’d come home to stay, and her father never
seemed to tire of it. “Living that life isn’t cheap. I knew you wouldn’t
understand, so I couldn’t very well ask you for the money to support it, could
I?”

“We sent you to that fancy school in New
York so you could get a good education and pursue your modelin’ career. Was there
more to it than that?”

Alisa gripped the wooden armrests on her
chair, bracing herself for the question her father had never had the courage to
ask… until now. She suspected he’d been too afraid of the answer, so he opted
to remain in the dark. “What do you mean?”

“You blew through a hell of a lot of money
in eight years, Alisa. Were you doin’ drugs? More importantly, are you still?
Is that why these pictures keep showin’ up?”

Knowing he even considered that a
possibility hurt her. “No, I’m not now, nor have I ever used drugs. You want to
know what I was addicted to, Daddy? Designer clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry…”
She cleared her throat and forced herself to look him in the eye. “I was living
in a world where measuring up was damn near impossible. There was always
someone prettier, smarter, someone who made more money. You lost five pounds
and they’d tell you that you were too thin. You’d gain ten pounds and they’d
tell you that you were too fat.”