It wasn’t about the money, it was about her. About not losing to her any more than I already had.
“I’m in,” I said.
Tension crackled through the air as Matteo, Nicco, and Arianne watched us duke it out.
Tristan took the next card and flipped it, adding it to the three on the table. “Seven of diamonds.”
“Check,” Nora said coolly.
“Raise.” I called her bluff, trying to force her out of the game. Two-hundred and fifty bucks was a drop in the ocean to me, but to someone like Nora, it was money in her purse.
“Ooof,” Matteo grunted.
“Can you shut the fuck up?”
“What? It’s tense.”
“Nora, the ball’s in your court,” Tristan said.
She studied her cards closely, her eyes flitting from her hand to the ones lined up on the table.
Fold, I wanted to hiss. Just fold.
“Call.”
“Nora, are you sure? It’s a lot of money.” Arianne frowned, but Nora kept quiet, adding the right amount of chips to the pot.
“The turn,” Tristan announced adding a fourth card.
Boom. I had four of a kind and the third highest hand a player could have. Logic told me she couldn’t have a royal flush, given the lack of picture cards on the table, so she could only beat me with a straight flush. If the river card was a diamond it was a possibility, but what were the chances?
“What’ll it be, Abato?” I said without thinking.
Her eyes snapped to mine, filled with an emotion I couldn’t decipher. She looked hurt, but she also looked pissed as if I’d just kicked her puppy or something.
My brows furrowed. It was just a name. Shooting the shit over a game of poker. She’d insisted on sitting at the table with us. No one had made her play.
Her eyes narrowed, as she flicked her eyes to her cards and back again.
“Call.” The conviction in her voice rattled through my skull. She wasn’t going to back down.
“You sure?” My brow lifted, and she craned her neck around Matteo to stare me right in the eyes.
“I said call.”
“Have it your way.” I matched her bet and waited for Tristan to flip the final card.
A sense of smugness washed over me as I eyed the ten of spades. She couldn’t beat me. It was statistically impossible.
But Nora didn’t chuck her cards. Instead, she pushed her remaining chips into the pot. “All in.” Her eyes held a challenge, only I was no longer sure we were talking about the poker game.
“What’s it going to be, Marchetti?” She threw my words back at me, and anger flared inside me.
No way she could beat me.
“Don’t come crying to me when you lose, Gattina.” I smirked. It shouldn’t have felt so good to wipe the table with her, but after last night, the way she’d rejected me, I wanted her to hurt.
Her breath caught. I hadn’t meant to say it. Not in front of everyone. But I was enjoying having her at my mercy, even if it wasn’t in the way I really wanted.
“E,” Nicco warned, but this wasn’t between him and me. It was between me and the girl who had buried herself under my skin when I never wanted her there to begin with.
“Okay,” Tristan said. “Show your hands.”
Nora glanced at me, waiting.
“Four of a kind,” I said, laying my cards out.
Her brows knitted for a second but then a slow smile spread over her face. “Looks like you’ll be the one paying up, Marchetti.” She laid down her cards and I blinked in utter disbelief.
Four tens.
She’d pipped my four sevens. Fuck.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you play poker.” Matteo was enjoying my downfall far too much.
“Fuck off.” I grunted, pushing from the table.
“Ah, sore loser, cous?”
I flipped him off over my shoulder as I headed for the door. I needed a smoke. Or another bottle of whisky. Nora had schooled me in front of our friends, and I didn’t like the feeling of once again being at her mercy.
Glancing back, I watched the others congratulate her as Tristan exchange the chips for one-hundred-dollar bills.
As if she felt me watching, Nora looked over her shoulder, our eyes colliding. I expected to see smug satisfaction in her big, round, doe eyes, but I found none.
Instead, she looked like the one who’d lost everything.
After walking the perimeter to sober myself up and rein in my anger, I made my way back to the cabin. But right before I reached the door, my cell started vibrating.
“Uncle Toni?”
“How’s it going up there?”
“It’s… okay.”
He chuckled. “The girls giving you