A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,53
her way behind a dark wooden counter by the door, hanging Annie’s coat up on a rail on the wall. “Of course, you’ll already be familiar with the rules we run these evenings by. Can I ask what you’re playing?”
“Poker,” Beau replied, just as smoothly.
The woman’s eyes flicked over him in obvious appreciation as she nodded, before they moved back to Annie. Annie had never thought of herself as the possessive type – not that she’d ever had much chance to find out – but now, she found herself pressing a little closer to Beau’s side, her hand wrapping around his arm.
The woman cocked her head and then blinked as if realizing something, and Annie recalled what Beau had told her about other shifters being able to sense that he was her mate. Either way, the woman’s smile became purely professional once more.
“Poker is on the first floor, up the stairway and to your left. You have your buy-in, of course?”
Annie nodded. “Of course.”
“Then have a pleasant evening,” the woman said, with a smile and a nod.
“This place is slick,” Annie murmured to Beau as they made their way across the room toward the sweeping, split staircase, one side of which curved up in a tight arc to a mezzanine level above the foyer.
Beau nodded. “I’d like to know who this ‘boss’ is,” he replied, his voice so soft Annie could barely hear it. “Since that was one thing Pete was definitely very keen to keep quiet about.”
“Whoever he is, he knows how to throw a party, obviously,” Annie said as they passed a room with a fully-stocked bar running the full length of the back wall, packed with more kinds of alcohol than Annie had even been aware existed.
“Pity it all seems to be funded with illegal gambling,” Beau said. Annie watched his eyes roving about the people that wandered in and out of the rooms, dressed to the nines and holding drinks, chatting as if they didn’t have a care in the world. It took Annie a moment to realize he was counting security guards, noting where they stood and where their patrols seemed to take them. They weren’t hard to spot – all of them were just as huge as the man they’d met outside the front door.
They entered the room the woman at the front desk had indicated, filled with long, oblong tables around which the poker players in the evening’s games were seated.
Just as Pete had said, all of them were women. Some men stood by, sipping their drinks and watching the games, but none of them were playing.
“Would you like to join a game, Madame?” Another smiling woman stretched out her arm in welcome as Beau and Annie stepped into the room.
“Yes, certainly,” Annie said, returning her smile.
Just remember – act like you belong here.
“If I can have your buy-in, I’ll get your chips for you and show you to a table.”
Annie almost hesitated before she reached into her purse for the five thousand dollars Beau had given her to cover the buy-in. It seemed impossible she was just about to hand over that amount of money for a game of poker, but she knew that showing any sign of hesitance or nerves might be seen as suspicious.
So she forced herself not to pause as she took out the pocketbook she’d put the money inside, before handing it over.
Beau’s hand came to rest on the small of her back as the woman counted the money and then the chips.
“Will it make you nervous if I watch?” he asked her. “Or would it be okay if I wandered in and out and got myself a drink?”
Annie smiled at him – she knew getting himself a drink would more likely be finding a way to search for Scott.
“No, do whatever you like,” she said. “I don’t know how well I’ll go – it’s just a bit of fun, after all.”
She laughed lightly as the woman pushed her chips across the counter to her.
“If you’ll follow me, Madame, your table is right this way.”
Okay, well, this is… different, Annie thought as the dealer declared her the winner of the hand – again.
The game was a straightforward Texas Hold ’Em, nice and simple for recreational players, which she was pretty sure most of the other women at the table were. And rich, too, if the cavalier attitude toward their repeated losses was anything to go by.
What wasn’t straightforward was the pile of winnings in the pot that was