Savage Angels: A Savage MC Erotic Romance (21 page)

My idea was to bankroll Fitz. Steer him to a game where he could earn better, put up some stake money and share the winnings,
But, would I ever be able to work with his attitude?
I watched him.
With a little coaching
, I thought,
Fitz could play profitably. We could split the profit
.
If I could trust him.

The waiter brought the Gibson. Whatever it was, it was clear in a tapered glass with a little white onion on a stick. Seriously, I wondered if I could stand that much time in his company. He sipped his drink. He hadn’t thanked me for the drink, or asked my name
.

He said, “Well, are you going to use my money to bankroll me?”

I stood up. “It’s been real,” I told him,

“Okay, look,” he said, “Wait, alright? I don’t win all the popularity contests. I know it. Maybe we can help each other though.”

Still standing I said, “What have you got that I need?”

“Good question. There must be something otherwise you wouldn’t have come, right?” The impression of a smile wandered across his lips. It didn’t make him look a lot better.

“There
was
something,” I told him, “but you’re so damned disagreeable, I doubt you can take ‘yes’ for an answer.”

“Why would you want to bankroll me? What can I do that you can’t?” He rubbed his chin. “You don’t look like you scare easily, so I don’t think you’re looking for protection.”

I looked at his scrawny frame, “I’d be in a sorry state if I needed your protection.”

He didn’t miss a beat, “Probably so. If one of us was going to be the muscle, it would be you.”

“You must be fighting the ladies off night and day.”

That got to him and his face puckered, “I do alright.”

When you’ve got money, perhaps
, I thought.

His finger tapped his chin, “It must be to do with you being a girl,” he said, “You’ll get more attention at the table than me. You want to be able to sit in the deal, work as a team, but with me making the plays.” He sat back and took a hit off his clear drink with the onion in it.

He was nowhere near the mark, but that was okay. If that was what he wanted to think, so be it. My doubts about dealing with him hadn’t gone. I wondered how he might respond to some advice.

I watched him think for a moment, then he said, “You going to give me my money back?”

“Some of it. Maybe. Not exactly ‘give,’ though.”

“I knew there’d be a catch.”

“Look, I didn’t make you go all in with a pair of nines.”

“Trips.
Three
nines. Do you know how dry that fucking table has been all night? Do you know how long it took me to work up the money that you just took off me?” Like it was my fault.

I told him, “I’ll give you this for free. You need to manage your bankroll a
lot
tighter. When you play tight you’re not tight enough, you bet too fast and too much. And when you’re aggressive you’re not strong enough and you’re reckless.”

“Oh, do you teach Sunday school, too, ma’am?”

“Well, it really has been fun.” I stood up to leave.

“Okay, let’s make a deal.” His voice had tightened and gone up a notch. “I’ll do it. You’re right, I don’t have a stake and I need to get back into the game.” Being reasonable didn’t come naturally to him.

“You’ve got no stake at all? You blew your wad?”

“Don’t grind it in.”

I said, “I’ll put up a grand.” His eyes brightened. I told him, “What you win we’ll split sixty-forty.” His eyebrows started to move so I got it in quickly, “I get the sixty.”

“Oh, wait up, that means I’m playing like an employee.”

“I can get out of your way so you can work with one of the other backers waiting in line here.”

He looked down. Spoke into his lap. “I’ve got obligations. I’ve got to get back what I lost tonight.”

“I’m sorry, Fitz, this isn’t going to work. Enjoy your drink and I hope you can work something out.” I stood. So did he. I shook his hand, but as I turned he tried not to let go.

I had to pull my hand away and I headed for the door. Fitz followed me. Half way there I stopped.

“Fitz, you’ve got problems to solve. So do I. They aren’t compatible.”

“You’re holding a lot more than a grand. We can both be doing a whole lot better is all I’m saying.”

“Sorry, Fitz. No.” And I left him there.

Outside in the night, the cool air hit me and it all seemed unreal, like I had stepped out of a dream. The sky was big and black over the parking lot. A few trucks and saloons dotted the lot in the sodium light like orangey-gray gappy teeth.

Then I realized that I was still holding chips. I needed to go back in and cash up. I turned and bumped straight into Fitz.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, it was an obvious play. He pushed me, gently at first. A rising heat in the front of his pants was uncomfortably close.

“Be reasonable, Belle.” He gave me a doggy-eyed look. Flicked his eyelids down and back up again. “We can work together, Belle,” his head cocked on one side, “We’ll make a great team.”

“Your charm and my money? Yeah, we’d be unstoppable.” I turned. His hand turned me back. All the softness had slipped out of his face. Now he just looked spiky, determined and angry.”

As I tried to shrug him off he grabbed my shoulder harder. I pushed back and his eyes narrowed as he slammed me hard against the side of a truck.

His tight, pointed eyes flicked towards my purse. My knee crashed upward into his balls. My timing was good. The lift in my thigh powered up into his groin. The apex of the swing would have been way up in his pelvis.

My angle was bad, though. He had on those stupid kind of jeans that hang low around his ass and so I connected with the inside of his thigh. All it did was hurt him enough to make him angry.

His hand moved off my shoulder to hold me by the throat and his other arm drew back. A gleaming blade flashed in his hand. My legs were trapped between his and I couldn’t get a swing.

The blade darted at my face. It stopped an inch from my nose. His head snapped backwards. An arm, covered in black leather, whipped around his throat. Fitz’s hips jerked forward and he collapsed backward and down to the ground.

A broad figure stood in front of me, his feet either side of Fitz’s head. Black shades, black hair, black jacket. The man I saw when I entered the casino. Dark voice. “You okay?”

My breath was still churning and my heart banged in my chest. I couldn’t speak but I nodded. Fitz began to lift his head. My rescuer lifted his foot and held it over Fitz’s nose.

“Stay exactly where you are, runt.”

Fitz didn’t move.
 

Then the man said to me, “Come back in and let me get you a drink. You can sit a moment. Get yourself together.” I peered at the shades. He lowered his head to look at me across the top of them. He held a big hand towards me, palm up like old-fashion chivalry.

“Larry,” he said and a trace of a smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

As I took the hand he offered I managed to say, “Belle.”

He said, “You got the right name,” and the honeyed tone reminded me of Daddy. Not something I wanted to be reminded of right then, but it was reassuring somehow.

I stepped over Fitz. Before we left him there, Larry asked, “You psychic, runt?”

Fitz’s head shook.

“Shame. Coz any time I see you again, I’m liable to bend your neck a notch further, you get me?”

Fitz nodded. Once. “So it would behoove you to know where I’m going to be.” Fitz’s lips stretched tight and his eyes crinkled. Larry said, “You best stay home indoors the next decade or so.” Then his boot pressed down on Fitz’s nose.

“I saw him come after you.”

Larry got me settled into a booth in the quietest part of the bar. His scent made me almost pant. He looked to me like a kingpin mobster. I couldn’t think why he spent his time on me. I thought it must have been for the fun of slamming Fitz to the ground.

I told him what had happened. And about how I tried to recruit Fitz as a poker partner.

“You’d already wiped the craps table, I heard.” His voice set off sparks inside of me, “Then you stole a big pot from Declan in the poker room.” One black eyebrow lifted. I couldn’t tell if he was laughing at me or if he was genuinely impressed.

He stretched back in the booth and I saw the impression in the front of his pants. “You’re a goddamn hurricane. You played poker much before?”

“In a casino? This is my first time.”

“You made close to five grand out of sand, your first time in a gaming room and you’re trying to buy a player?” His head shook slowly. “Hellhound on your trail? You only got two days to live or something?”

At that moment I wanted to tell him the whole story. Tell him about Daddy and Spinal and the money but I held back.

“I need some money and I don’t have a lot of time to get it.”

“So you walked into a casino to get it.” My stomach dropped as his brown eyes held me. His voice thickened as he said, “You got some balls, little girl.”

My hips fidgeted. My panties were soaked. Nobody had called me ‘Little girl’ for a very long time. I hadn’t imagined that anyone was likely to, either. I wouldn’t have expected it to have the effect on me that it had.

“How much more do you need?” he spoke quietly and his tone was almost gentle.

“Five thousand four hundred.”

“Let’s make it six and a half. Or maybe seven.”

“That’s very kind of you, but I’m not interested in a loan.”

“You sure are feisty.” His eyes sparkled “I’m not talking about a loan. Well, not one that I make to you.” I thought,
Oh, no. All this and he’s going to try and con me? Shoot me now.

“Same deal you offered the runt,” I was melting in his voice, “Same terms, whatever they were.” I took a deep breath.

“I come into the poker room with the money.”

His eyebrows lifted. He said, “Whatever you say. You look to me like you need a rest before you get any more of that table action.”

“I’ve got a comp for a suite,” I told him.

The way he said, “Oh.” I nearly came right there.

The suite was bigger and nicer than I expected, although when I discovered that the thick curtains were hung over a blank wall just to give the false impression of a window, it made me feel kind of claustrophobic.

First he showed me how to set the combination on the room safe, then he left me while I stashed all my chips inside and locked it.

Larry stood in the middle of the room. He’d brought the tumbler of bourbon and a bottle. Broad and brooding, his eyes blazed. After the night that I’d had, I only wished that a smoking hot guy like him would give it up for a curvy girl in need.

No chance, obviously so I said, “All I want now is a hot shower and a couple of hours sleep.”

“Don’t ever bullshit a bullshitter, Belle. You want a rough and hard reaming.” I stared at him open mouthed as he padded closer, “You want your body righteously worshipped and adored. You want to feel the hard body of a man, feel the power of his need.” He stood in front of me. Close enough that I had to look up into his blazing eyes.

As the heat of his body radiated through my clothes, my nipples stung inside my brassiere and my thighs quaked. His finger lifted my chin.