last week, and he said if I earned the stake, he’d put the ranch on the table. Why are you here? Do you always play with gangsters?”
“Not usually,” Tanner said. “Tonight’s a big deal. I—”
“Everything all right down there?” Big Julie called out. “You two can’t find the can, or what?”
“We’re good, Julie,” Tanner called back. “I’m just trying to persuade Hope here that ladies always go first.”
“The cards is getting cold out here.”
“Be right with you.” Tanner opened the bathroom door and motioned Hope inside.
“Listen,” Hope said when Tanner had shut the door behind them. Her voice sounded desperate. “I have a decent shot at winning this if you’re not at the table. Can’t you play Big Julie next week? I have to win the ranch tonight. Big Julie already has a buyer. They offered two million. The money’s in escrow. The title’s being transferred. The buyers are putting a destination resort on our land. We’ll lose everything. I have one chance to get the ranch back, Tanner, and it’s tonight.”
Tanner felt numb.
“Hope, I can’t,” he said. Hope stared at him, and he watched as the light dimmed in her eyes. “I have to play so that the winnings—”
“I don’t care about the winnings,” she said. “You can have everything else. Just let me win the ranch.”
“I can’t,” he repeated. “I have to—”
“Just the ranch,” she pleaded. “Then I’ll leave the game, and you can clean up the cash. You don’t want the ranch, either.”
“I can’t let you win,” Tanner said, not wanting to look at her eyes anymore. “If I could swing the ranch to you, Hope, I would, but I can’t. Everything is set up so that—”
Hope turned her head. “That’s why you were practicing that card trick that day at the bar,” she said. Her voice sounded harsh and bitter. “I should have known then that no good would come from playing with you.”
“Hope, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. I’ll—”
“You can’t make it up to me, Tanner. If I don’t win tonight, the ranch is sold. Then everything is gone.” She shook her head, anger and resignation in the gesture. “If I had a buck for every time a card player ripped me off and said he was sorry, I’d own that damn ranch by now. I knew you were bad news, just like Derek. Card players. I can’t believe I let myself fall for your line.”
“Hey,” Tanner said, startled at her vehemence. “I didn’t rip you off. If you’d told me—”
“If I’d told you, everything would still be the same. You’d still be in this game, telling me that you can’t let me win the ranch and you can’t play Big Julie next week instead. If you think you didn’t rip me off, come out next week when we’re packing up, and ask Faith and Amber and my mom how they feel. See what they say.”
She flung open the door and went back to the living room.
Tanner stared after her, feeling angry, but sick, too. She was wrong. He hadn’t ripped her off. He just hadn’t known. His anger simmered with the false accusations she’d thrown at his head.
But she was right about one thing. She would lose the ranch tonight.
She had to, or he’d go to prison. And he wasn’t going to prison.
He’d make it up to her later. Somehow. But in the meantime, he still had work to do.
He lifted off the toilet tank cover, ripped off the baggie taped there, and stuffed the contents into his pocket. Then, he too, rejoined the players in the living room.
“Jesus, took you long enough,” Big Julie said. “I coulda lent you some Metamucil, you need that crap.”
Tanner, his heart pounding, tried to act natural as he refilled his glass and then stopped at the ficus plant, pretending to feel its leaves while he attached a button model camera to a branch, before he returned to the table.
“I’m fine, Julie,” Tanner said as he sat down. “Sorry. Hope and I were catching up on old times.” He glanced at Hope, but she kept her eyes on the table. Fine. She could be that way.
“Let’s go, then. I start the deal,” Big Julie said.
Hope jerked her head up at Big Julie’s words.
“There’s no dealer?” she asked. Card games without dealers were more susceptible to cheats. She didn’t want to suspect Tanner before the game had even begun, but she had seen him practicing card tricks almost a week ago. And he was so positive