Stroke of Luck - Opal Carew Page 0,30

agree with the guy’s ruthless actions, but he could understand him lashing out at her.

“I know. But now … well, I always thought she was a gold digger, and now it’s very clear she is. Jon recognized one of the men as Austin Wright. He’s from big money. And it seems he just made a huge fortune with crypto-something-or-other, so now he’s got to be the wealthiest man in the country. It seems clear that she’s going after bigger fish.”

At that moment, April’s gaze shifted and locked onto Quinn’s. He was standing only a few feet away from her. Her jaw tensed, and her cheeks blossomed crimson. She stood up, her arms stiff at her sides, and marched past him. He turned and followed her, not wanting to start a conversation here where those women could overhear. He was sure April had the same idea.

She pulled open the glass door and strode back into the casino, then turned right and continued marching toward the exit. Quinn followed. Austin stood up from the table, watching what was going on, then headed toward them.

April had stepped into the atrium before Quinn could catch up to her.

“April, wait.”

She ignored him and kept walking.

“Where are you going? You don’t have a key card for the suite.”

A few people glanced around at them, but he ignored them as he kept moving. April slowed, and he finally caught up to her. He moved to face her.

“I don’t want to talk about this here,” she murmured, her voice swelling with emotion.

“What’s going on?” Austin said as he hurried to them.

April stared at him, her chest rising and falling with her agitated breathing.

“April overheard that woman talking about her. It was the same woman, wasn’t it, April?”

She nodded in one curt movement of her head.

“Nothing good, I take it?” Austin said.

April’s hands were balled into fists, and Quinn knew she wasn’t upset just because of what the two women had said. She was also upset because she’d seen Quinn’s face and the doubt that had lingered there.

“Please. I just want to go up to the suite,” April said through gritted teeth.

Quinn glanced at his watch. “The poker game starts in a few minutes, so we don’t have time. We’ll just put this on hold for now.”

Her blue eyes were like acid, but she didn’t argue. He’d already made it very clear that he expected her to attend the game. He knew it would ruin it for Austin if she went and hid out in the room. As much as Austin had looked forward to the game, he’d give it up rather than leave her alone and depressed. That’s the kind of guy he was.

Austin had glanced from one to the other of them. Quinn knew his perceptive friend could tell how upset she was and that he understood that something new had been unleashed into the mix. The anger rippling through April was obvious, but Austin would see past that to the deeper pain within.

Quinn wished he had his friend’s keen instincts about people, because he couldn’t tell if April was angry because the woman had exposed the truth about their breakup, or if it was a lie and she was upset and hurt because she had seen in Quinn’s eyes that he might believe it.

And, fuck, right now he had no idea what he actually believed about April.

Austin rested his hand on April’s shoulder. “Sweetheart, if you want to go back to the penthouse, that’s fine. If you want to talk, or if you’d rather be alone, that’s all fine.” He squeezed lightly. “But you’ve had such a rough day, why not kick loose and put it all behind you? At least for tonight. I say, let’s forget about that stuffy poker game and do something wild and fun? Totally take your mind off your troubles.”

April frowned. “But I thought you really wanted to play poker.”

Austin grinned. “Okay, I tell you what. How about we start with a private poker game? Just the three of us.”

Quinn gazed at April, whose cheeks were flushing. He could think of a lot of interesting possibilities.

“I think that’s a marvelous idea,” Quinn agreed.

8

April found it hard to breathe as Quinn called the concierge and arranged a private poker suite for the three of them.

The insinuation of a poker game—a private one—made her imagine stripping off her clothes in front of these two men as she lost each hand. Then once her clothes were gone, the two of them demanding special favors