Page 10 of Mischief Mayhem

“One of these days, I’m going to beat you,” Wheels said with a wink.

“Oh, yeah?” I sat down at the far corner and put a cigarette between my lips, taking a moment to light it before blowing the smoke away from them. “You think today will be that day?”

“She’s good,” Castor said. “But she’s not as good as me.”

“That’s right, I’m better,” I teased. I’d been playing with Castor and Hollywood since we were kids, so I knew their tells, but Lore and Wheels would take some work to figure out.

Castor explained the buy-ins and blinds, and after the first round, I had a better idea for the two newer brothers. Lore only had one working eye, but he blinked when he didn’t have anything good. Wheels shifted in his seat when he got a pair of queens on the river, giving him a three of a kind. That told me what I needed to know about how to read him. Castor’s tell had been the same since we were little. As soon as he saw his cards, he rubbed his nose if he had a good hand. If he didn’t, he licked his lips. Hollywood, on the other hand, had trained his physical body well enough not to give anything away, but he turned into a chatty Cathy if he was trying to distract his opponent. When he got to talking, I paid attention to his bluffs.

This went on for a few hours while we laughed and joked with each other, but eventually, I started to clean up. The more I drank, the better I got at outsmarting the others . . . or perhaps the more they drank, the worse they got at hiding their hands.

“Jesus, V,” Castor said when I’d won the last several rounds. “Can you knock it off?”

“Who taught her how to play like that?” Lore said.

“I did,” both Castor and Hollywood said at the same time, making me burst into laughter.

“You’re both idiots,” I said. “It was Bear, of course.”

“Ahh.” Wheels smiled, lighting up his entire face. “I should have known. That motherfucker can read anyone.”

He could. We’d both learned from our dad. When a man had his money on the line, an itch was never just an itch, and a shift of the hips could mean the difference between winning the pile and going home empty-handed. After I won another two rounds, Castor and Wheels had lost their money and gotten too drunk to keep going, so they went back into the main room to party. In this hand, I had the bigger pot, but Lore was ready to call it quits.

“I’m all in,” he said, spilling his few chips into the center.

“Fold,” Hollywood said.

“I’ll call. Show your cards, buddy.” I flipped mine over to reveal two pair.

He had nothing. He was bluffing.

“Jesus, Lore.” I laughed as I cleaned up his chips and piled them neatly in front of me. For a hundred-dollar buy-in, I was up nearly two hundred bucks. “You’re terrible at this game.”

“Nah.” He waved me away, slurring a bit as he stood. “I’ve got, uh . . . some business . . .” He cleared his throat and waved at the hang-around that had spent a hundred dollars to win him earlier. She stood by the door with a playful look, beckoning him to the back rooms. When he reached her, he wrapped his arm over her shoulder and let her lead him out of my sight.

Now, only Hollywood and I sat at the table while he lazily shuffled the cards and stared at me. I let him have his fill, relishing the way his eyes trailed down my neck, over my shoulders and chest, and back up again. His gaze brushed against my skin like a caress, like I’d suddenly been stripped naked in front of him.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” I said, hoping to break the tension.

“Have I?” He raised his eyebrows, seeming surprised while he looked down at the cards. “I don’t think that’s true.” He pursed his lips and dealt the hand before placing the deck down in the middle of the table, discarding the first card before flipping the next three over. Based on that, I had three queens but hoped for the fourth in the next two turns.

“Any time I look in your direction, you shift away,” I continued. “If I try to talk, you flee like a bat out of hell.” I took in his stiff muscles and the way his feet were perched by the sides of his chair, like he might get up and run any second. “Did I do something to piss you off?”

He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat before grabbing two chips and tossing them in. I called his bet and he flipped the next card over, revealing a king of spades.

“You didn’t do anything,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve just got some personal shit going on.”

“Is it your mom?” She’d been locked up most of his life, but I knew they were close.

“No, she’s fine,” he said. “It’s nothing you need to be worried about.”

“Hmm.” I didn’t like that answer, but I let him have his privacy. If he wanted me to know or if there was anything I could do to help, he’d tell me. “Why did Wheels take over as my bodyguard? Was it the big thing you had to do for the club?”

Not that I cared—not at all—but it had been nice to have someone I knew as well as Hollywood by my side for those few months. I liked Wheels, but it was hard for me to trust people in general, and Hollywood was my brother’s best friend. Even if I couldn’t fully open myself up to him, I trusted my brother enough to trust Hollywood.

“So nosy tonight.” Hollywood grinned, dropping a few more chips into the pile. I called his bet before he flipped the next card over, showing the last queen. Holy shit, I had the hand of a century, but I didn’t let that show. I tried to keep my features as calm as I could.

“We have a lot to catch up on,” I said.