“Can’t wait for you to lose, Amira.” Charles’s gaze moved over her like her shirt was still unbuttoned.
“I won’t,” Naveen’s ex-girlfriend remarked, and she took the seat that the silent dealer gestured to.
“We play winner takes all,” X said, and his smile was cold. “Hope you can last the next few hours.”
“I actually only have an hour,” Mira said calmly. “So we’ll have to finish by then, tops.”
X’s laugh was on a huff of air. The others looked equally amused. “Uh, okay. Then the blinds will double every five minutes.”
Naveen had only a small inkling of what that meant, but by the smirks of the other players, he had a feeling that it was not a good thing. “Now this is getting interesting,” Ryder said softly.
“Fine,” Mira agreed. “Let’s play.”
Naveen’s gaze met Mira’s and she gave him a single nod.
Ralph prodded him and Emi to go sit on the empty couch behind Mira, next to the harpist, who began playing again, the mellow music filling the room. They wouldn’t be able to see Mira’s cards from here. “You two can watch,” Ralph said, and his tone was almost apologetic, and certainly pitying. “It won’t take long for this to be over.”
And in the beginning, Naveen believed him. Mira lost steadily, the chips in front of her dwindling. But then, at a certain point, her fortunes reversed, and she started winning back small amounts, a little here, a little there, chipping away at each of the four other player’s fortunes. Her bets were conservative even on her best hands, but she was also expressionless and still. The other players had excellent poker faces, but they still had poker faces. This was how Mira was—calm, controlled.
“That vein in your forehead is freaking me out. Have some faith in your girl,” Emi murmured next to him, sotto voce.
“She’s not my girl. And it’s not about faith. This is risky.”
“And you don’t like risks?”
“Not really, not anymore.” There had been a time in his life where he’d been all about risks. The risk of working at a big law firm, where every word and action was scrutinized on a daily basis, the risk of not working for his family’s company, the risk of meeting and dating someone outside of his own social circles. Then he’d taken one risk too many.
“Sounds boring. Makes sense you’re an attorney.” Emi rolled her eyes.
He was not boring. Or maybe he was, nowadays, tucked away in his grandfather’s spare apartment, but that was a good thing.
Your ex was legendary. Mira here could have gone pro easily.
He tried to wave away the nagging discomfort about what Emi had said, but something about it was off, and Naveen did so hate things being off. “Where was Mira playing poker in high school? Were there teen tournaments?”
“Oh, you sweet summer child. Did you think she was playing for Monopoly money before she was legally of age?” Emi smirked. “Her dad had her playing in backroom games with higher stakes than this.”
He was naïve, because that had been what he’d assumed. “Against adults?” Naveen had to force himself to speak low, under cover of the music, but his voice wanted to raise on that question.
“Yup. Uncle Vassar would drop Mira off, go get some drinks at the bar, and by the time he was ready to pick her up, she’d be reading a book outside the room. With everyone’s money.” Emi wrinkled her nose. “I tagged along every now and again. At the time, I thought it was super cool.”
Naveen ran the back of his hand over his mouth. “That’s not at all cool.” That was . . . horrifying. He couldn’t imagine leaving his teenager alone in a room with adults like these.
Had Mira been scared? Or had she faced them with the competent calmness she displayed now?
Emi lifted her shoulder. “She had skills he wanted to encourage.”
Naveen thought of the careful blankness in Mira’s face in her father’s storage unit. “Who kept the winnings?”
“You know which questions to ask, lawyer. Her dad kept them.”
So it hadn’t been encouragement, it had been exploitation.
He placed Mira’s jacket next to him. How she was able to wear it, he didn’t know. No wonder she hadn’t cared much about the dowry chest or anything else her father had left her, and no wonder she’d skipped town as soon as she was legally able to do so.
No wonder she buried everything about her family and didn’t tell you about it.
Another piercing of his anger, and this time it was due to compassion.
It got to a point where I could no longer sanction what he was doing.
When Mira had said that in the diner, he’d assumed she’d meant she couldn’t tolerate his actions. He didn’t know why he hadn’t even considered the possibility, until now, that Mira’s father might have tried to drag her into his schemes as a child, that she’d left because she could no longer sanction what he was having her do.
Does that change anything where you’re concerned?
Yes. He wasn’t sure how yet, but he’d figure it out.
“Why wouldn’t she tell me about this?” he murmured, almost to himself. If she’d wanted to manipulate him, painting herself as the victim would have done it.
“I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t want you to pity her. The girl I used to know was pretty proud.”
That was possible. The woman he’d used to know had been proud to the point of pain. You also thought she was scrupulously honest.
Maybe she hid this one thing, this one major thing, but for good reasons? Everything else could have been true.
Something changed in Emi’s demeanor, a twinge of seriousness touching her eyes. “Who ended things, you or her?”
He looked down at Emi. “She did.”
Emi didn’t seem surprised by that. “Same here.” She patted his hand. “It’s an elite club. Welcome.”
He snorted. “Thanks.”
“I can see you’re still mad at her about it.”
“You don’t seem mad at her at all,” he countered. It was odd that he felt free to talk to Emi about this, but she did have a very likable quality about her. No wonder she’d befriended Ralph as she had. She reminded him of someone, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on who.
Emi regarded the object of their conversation. At the table, Mira shifted. She looked cool and composed, like she was in a forensic audit and not attempting to win their freedom. “I’m mad at her. But I understand her.”
“You probably know more about the real her. I only know fragments.”
“Ralph, if our guests cannot be quiet, perhaps they need to be placed in the bedroom.” X didn’t look up from his cards while he spoke.
“We’ll be quiet,” Naveen said soothingly. Ralph gave them a warning look.
“I bet it really bugs you when someone’s messy and all over the place, huh?”
He shot Emi an exasperated look over her still talking given the warning they’d received. The woman really did blow past obvious threats, didn’t she? “I don’t care if someone’s messy.” He was messy. “I just like having the whole mess. All the pieces.”