am guessing that if you know I got the ranch, you know I got a buyer lined up. A company that specializes in destination entertainment.”
Hope nodded, feeling her stomach clench, knowing that she had to play her hand with everything she had, and be lucky, as well. And sitting across from this tired, hung-over, semi-naked Mafioso, she didn’t believe that the odds were on her side.
“The lawyer I talked to said the place is worth two million dollars,” she said. “My family doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of money, Mr. Saladino, but we love that ranch. We’ve always lived there. We’d be heartbroken to leave it.”
Big Julie finished his Bloody Mary with a slurp through the straw and put the empty glass on the end table.
“Yeah, see, I’m not in the charity business,” he said. “Tell Marty I’m sorry about your loss and all, but I won that ranch fair and square.”
“I’m not asking for charity, Mr. Saladino,” she said. “I want to play you for the ranch.”
Big Julie’s eyes opened a little wider. “What?” he asked.
Go for it now. Hope unbuttoned her jacket and leaned forward, putting her glass on the table in front of her. She watched him while his eyes drifted toward the pink camisole. Excellent.
“In next Saturday’s card game,” she said. “I want to play. You win, you take my stake, you keep the ranch. I win, I get the ranch.”
Big Julie stared, but he didn’t budge.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “There’s already eight in the game. Anyways, I got a buyer.”
Hope took off her jacket, turning to lay it on the back of the sofa, letting Big Julie get an eyeful of pretty much everything she had.
“I understand,” she said, crossing her legs and smiling. “Still, turning the property into an entertainment destination will be complicated. The sale isn’t a simple cashout. There’ll be leveraged stakeholders, stock options, maybe bonds to float, perc and land tests, permits, contingencies, covenants, restrictions, valuations, who knows what. You can’t get it done in a week. You can’t get it done in a month. Maybe several months. Even years. It’s a lot of work. Maybe more work than the property’s worth to you.”
Big Julie had torn his eyes away from the pink camisole while she’d been talking, but now that she’d wound down, he was staring at her chest again. Back in the game.
“I’m just asking you to let me play.” Hope recrossed her legs. Not that she had any evidence that Big Julie was a leg man.
“So what’s this cozy little meeting going on in here?” a strident female voice asked.
Hope looked up to see a gorgeous, pampered, unhappy-looking young woman storm into the room. The young woman stared at her tight pink camisole and exposed thigh with deep suspicion.
Wrong outfit for her, Hope thought. I blew it.
“Hello,” Hope said, trying to sound unthreatening. “I’m—”
“Baby, honey,” Big Julie said, placating. “This here is—what did you say your name was again, Sweetheart?”
Hope blinked. “Hope,” she said. “Hope McNaughton.”
“Hope, here, is just asking me if she can play in next Saturday’s game.”
“Oh, is that what she’s here for,” Baby said, crossing her arms, glaring at Hope. “I thought it was for something else.”
“Baby, you know I would never—”
“I’m watching you, Big Julie. You are never getting out of my sight until—”
And then, as Hope watched Big Julie gaze at the angry china-doll blonde, Hope saw an Idea enter Big Julie’s head. His eyes went from desperate to smug in a second. And then she knew she was in the game—on Big Julie’s terms, whatever they were.
He looked at Hope with a diabolical smile. “Hope here wants to play in the big leagues. And I was just about to tell her that she’s in if she brings a stake of two hundred to the table and you take her shopping. Today. At three-thirty. And not a minute later.”
“Three-thirty today,” Big Julie said. “Three-thirty today, you and Baby here go shopping. And you bring two hundred to the game next Saturday, and you can play.”
Hope felt her heart pound. She was in the game. And all she had to do was spend one afternoon shopping and bring a two hundred dollar stake.
“Me?” Baby said, incredulous. “Take her shopping? No way.”
“Spend what you like,” Big Julie said, uttering the magic words.
“Why do I have to take her shopping?” Baby asked, still suspicious.
“Are you kidding?” Big Julie asked, smug with victory.