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“I never felt good on a single hand against you,” Tess said. “I was queasy every time you touched your chips, even if you only called.”
“I’m notthatgood,” he assured both women. “There is totally a world where I end up making a bad gamble or two, run a bad string of luck, and fade out in fourth.”
“In how many scenarios out of a hundred do you suppose that happens?” Tess scoffed.
He shrugged and remained honest. “A few.”
“I think I agree with what you said,” Anna told Tess. “Victoria’s the only one he sees as competition.”
“I’m the only one who isn’t playing frightened of him,” the voluptuous brunette said as she glided behind him and Anna on her way back to her seat, new drink in hand. “He was far too comfortable last round. We’re allowing him to dictate the pace, and he’s wringing us dry because he knows he can get away with murder every half-decent hand he gets. If that doesn’t change, these next two rounds will look a lot like the first.”
“That’s probably true,” Anna said, sighing. “I’ll try and do better this round.”
“So shall I,” Tess said.
“A little more aggression could go a long way for you both,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing I noticed. Victoria was right about me getting to have my run of things last round. I don’t plan to swap strategies now, so you’ve all got a chance to adapt to the temperature of the table. That’s the benefit of playing multiple rounds.”
“And that’s why I planned for us to have at least three,” Avril said, returning to her seat. “I don’t want to watch reruns; I want something new! So, one of you hurry up and beat Liam back into being all docile and humble.”
“Rude,” he grunted, stealing one of Avril’s favorite retorts.
The sultry redhead grinned, sipped more of her drink, and reached for one of the unopened decks on the table. After the last round had ended, she’d removed the deck they’d used from the table. Now, with everyone having their stack of red chips and two stacks of black chips back in front of them, she popped open their deck for this round. As she shuffled it, he found nothing wrong with it, not that he genuinely believed she intended to cheat in such a way.
In fact, he’d seriously started to consider that the amusing twist of the night was simply that Avril Knightwasn’tplanning on a twist. It’d certainly be unexpected, though that didn’t stop everyone from watching her like a hawk. He wasn’t alone in staring intently at her as she shuffled the new deck. It’d be fitting and somehow still in character if she threw her hands up at the end of the night and yelled, “Surprise! No surprise was the surprise!”
She finished shuffling. Blinds went in, cards went out, and the second round began. It was the first time he needed to go all-in in the night.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Either the Moon or the Sea
Victoria’s mouth flattened, Tess clicked her teeth together in frustration, Anna sighed, and Avril groaned. These four responses occurred almost simultaneously because of one single event. For their pain, Liam withheld any outward show of triumph. As the four women saw their collective dream crumble like sand between their fingertips, he quietly collected his winnings—and removed himself from the brink of elimination.
All this, and the round hadn’t been going for even twenty minutes yet. His bad luck, however, had begun in the first minute of play. Not that kind of bad luck that sidelined him to watching everyone else jockey for the pot while he continuously folded, but the kind where he was constantly flirting withvictory, only to have the most absurd circumstances force him to watch someone else drag the pot their way.
Kicking things off, he‘d intended to leap out of the gates with a decisive victory. He’d started things with a suited nine and seven, and in his late position, he’d matched Victoria’s raise so he could stay in long enough to see the flop at least. When another nine and another seven joined a queen on the flop, he’d happily jousted with the gorgeous woman, looking to transition his hot streak from the previous round into this one. The pot had continued to swell, as did the eyes of their spectators. In his mind, Victoria’s aggressive play was entirely to prove to everyone at the table that she wasn’t planning on playing any tighter just because of the painful defeat she’d suffered last time. Liam could appreciate that.
What he couldn’t appreciate—or anticipate—was a king on the turn and then a queen on the river.
Come on,he internally groaned as Victoria raisedagain.The pot already contained dozens of chips, and there was no doubt it’d swell even more if he met her final raise. It was the first time that night he showed visible frustration, and much of it was because of his continuing inability to read Victoria Moreno. Was she bluffing? He had no idea. But he knew how he’d feel if he sank even more chips into the black hole. And so, he flicked his cards away in self-disgust.
The first of something else happened immediately after. With her icy blue eyes perforating his heart, Victoria twisted the dagger. She showed her cards to the table before sliding them back to Avril.
“That’s messed up.” He knew from the writhing in his gut that he’d be seeing her Ace of Hearts and Jack of Spades in his nightmares for weeks to come.
“What did you have?” she asked, tilting her eyes toward his facedown cards.
“Who knows?” he said, which brought a rare smile to Victoria’s face.
“Better than what I had,” she theorized.
“Maybe, maybe not.” It was all he would say.
His luck did not improve. Victoria continued to test her mettle against him, and she usually found the late cards she needed to force him to fold or take the hand when he dared to stay in. Consequently, Tess absorbed some of her colleague’s boldness and chipped away at his dwindling chip supply. Even Anna carved away some of his flesh when she took a large pot with the first flush of the night.
And that was how they ended up at the moment he knew they’d all been secretly hoping for. A moment when he had the smallest pile of chips at the table. A moment where he knew he needed to swim among the feasting sharks for his own bite of flesh or else submit to waiting until he starved.
“Raise, eight hundred,” he said, depositing a smattering of chips into the pot following the flop, which consisted of a Four of Spades, a Jack of Diamonds, and a Six of Clubs.