Ironically, a famed gambler.
Or maybe not ironically, I thought with sudden clarity.
I blinked at Paul. Considered his fate. My face went numb. Was this idiot trying to reenact my father’s past? “How much are you in for?”
“Twenty-two large.”
My hands formed fists at my sides. “Twenty-two thousand dollars?”
“I know! I know! I thought Tex’s payout was better.”
“Yeah, to get you hooked, you dumbass!” Seriously. Had he learned nothing?
“It’s okay. He let me make a deal.”
The corner of my eye ticked. “What kind of a deal?”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Just… a little money laundering.”
A humorless laugh escaped my lips. “Oh, just a little?”
“My accounting skills should pay off in that respect.”
“Yeah,” I said flatly.
“Don’t tell Sonny. I need some time. A week, tops.”
“I can’t believe I used to look up to you.” I also couldn’t believe I was considering helping him out. But the night the cops found my dad, it’d been Paul who’d shown up and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. Paul who’d cleared out his home office and bought me a bed to sleep in. I was eighteen and scared and alone for the first time in my life. I knew nothing. I had no one.
“I could use your advice on a game. One game.” He pointed to the kitchen where ice cream puddled on the floor behind the counter. “I have the paperwork in there.”
I was already shaking my head.
“Come on, Dev. You understand odds. You’ve always been good at this. Better than me, even when you were a kid.”
True. Growing up with a career gambler made me good at what I did.
“One game,” he repeated. “You remember scores and matchups in the past. Your memory would save me looking up the stats. Help me connect the dots.”
He was right. It was all logged in my brain. I could help him place a winning bet—or what the odds said would be a winning bet. Arguably, I owed him a debt that couldn’t be repaid.
I nodded. “Okay.”
He stepped past me, ignoring the ice cream melting on the floor, and gathered the sheets of paper strewn across the counter. “You’d think I’d be better at this since I’m an accountant.”
“You’d think,” I said drily. If Sonny caught me helping Paul, he’d throttle me. At least fire me. I needed that relationship. Hell, half of Oak & Sage’s profits came from gamblers dining and drinking in my restaurant.
“No harm, right?” Paul’s shaky smile returned.
“Wrong,” I said. “I’m going to basically help you rob Sonny, which surprise, surprise, he will not appreciate.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” He shuffled the papers into an order that made sense to him. This man used to be confident, not the desperate, twitchy mess in front of me. But Dad had been like this right before he died, too. The pressure of owing money to big, bad guys could turn any grown man into a sniveling kid. “No more betting after this, Dev. I swear.”
It was a lie. When someone was in as deep as Paul, it wasn’t as easy as one and done. But given the option of relinquishing his fate to Tex, what choice did I have? I didn’t know the rival bookie well, but I’d gotten as up close and personal with his guys as I cared to. Letting Paul walk off Bay Bridge on Christmas Eve with a bottle of Jack in his hand wasn’t an option.
I couldn’t lose anyone like that again if I hoped to maintain my sanity.
I leaned on the counter. “Show me.”
Chapter Seven
Rena
At work the next day, my mind was predominately focused on Devlin. More accurately, Devlin’s lips. And how that kiss, despite the industrial freezer, had left me hot both inside and out.
I’d had butterflies in my stomach the first time I’d seen my high school boyfriend so I knew what they felt like. A sweet flutter of possibility. But when I walked past the kitchen at Oak & Sage for the prep area in the back, those butterflies felt more like gargoyles with huge, leathery wings. And when Devlin dropped a knife onto the table with a clang and stalked away, the beasts took flight and rattled my bones.
I followed him, trying to look like I wasn’t following him. He stepped into the storeroom and so did I. I sucked in a breath and waited for an answering heat in his eyes, or a nod of recognition.
He gave me neither.
Mouth set, eyes frowning, he didn’t so much as acknowledge me when he walked in the opposite