that she’d lose.
“Who needs a dealer? It’s just a little card game among friends,” Big Julie said. He sat down and picked up a pack of new cards, broke the seal, and started to shuffle. Drake passed out equal chip stacks to all the players.
Big Julie slapped the deck down on the table in front of Sandy Schraf, who sat on his right.
“Cut,” he said.
The game started.
Hope kept her eyes glued to the table as she watched the deal go around and tried to control her emotions. Anger, disappointment, helplessness, and fear—none of it would do her any good right now. All those feelings would just cloud her judgment in the game. If she was to have a prayer of winning against Tanner, she had to keep a clear head.
Maybe her situation wasn’t hopeless. Just because Tanner knew how to cheat didn’t mean that he would. He might play an honest game tonight because otherwise she might give him up to the other players. Big Julie was no wimp. He’d throw Tanner out of the game—or worse—if he caught him cheating.
And even if Tanner did cheat, she was prepared. She could play to counteract it.
Tanner was no doubt a far more experienced player than she was, but she still had a chance. Skilled players won, but even skilled players got bad cards and bad breaks. Books were written about excellent players who had losing sessions, losing streaks. Players who lost their nerve.
She glanced Tanner. He didn’t look like he’d lose his nerve.
She’d have to play her very best—better than she’d played all week—and she’d have to have luck, too, if she was to win. If she waited for the right cards and played them aggressively, like Marty—and Tanner—had told her all week, she could win.
Tanner was a professional poker player and a known card cheat, but she’d won two hundred fifty thousand dollars in one week. And even professional poker players and known card cheats had to respect that.
Chapter 26
Tanner was cheating.
She thought she’d been prepared for the possibility, but the blind rage that swept over her when she saw him do it stole her breath and left her shaking. She wanted to lunge across the table and strangle him with her bare hands.
Just like Derek. He was just like Derek. A laughing, charming, handsome devil who’d run over your heart and steal your purse, and then leave you, bleeding and wounded, wondering what you’d done wrong when he got what he wanted and walked away.
How could she have been so stupid? Why did she fall for it? She’d known what would happen if she got mixed up with Tanner.
If she let him get away with it, he’d take the ranch—her life—from her. Just like Derek.
She didn’t know how to tell the other players. And she wasn’t sure that she should. No one else had noticed, so it would be her word against Tanner’s. And she didn’t want Big Julie to shut down the game, which he might do if he thought his “friendly” get-together had been infiltrated by a pro—a cheating pro. Shutting down the game was the last thing she wanted.
But she wanted Tanner to stop cheating. Before he stole her home out from under her.
The trick he was using wasn’t complicated. Derek had used the same technique—had taught her the same technique. When it was his turn to deal, Tanner gathered the cards, talking the whole time, flattering the winners and inflating their egos. But instead of bunching the cards into the deck randomly, he arranged them the way he wanted them—high cards at the bottom of the deck. That part was easy to spot.
The cheating riffle shuffle was easy to spot, too, if you were looking for it. Tanner held half the deck in each hand and caught the cards at their corners before pushing them together. Riffle shuffles, if done right, kept cards in the deck where the cheating dealer wanted them. Tanner left the face cards on the bottom of the deck. Just like Derek used to do.
Then came the hard part—at least it had been hard for her when Derek taught her the trick. When Tanner cut the cards, he had to palm the high cards from the bottom of the deck. She’d never been able to manage it, but Tanner’s hands were large, with broad palms and long, flexible fingers. Just as Derek had done, Tanner easily concealed the cards in his hand.
After the cut, he put the face cards at the