Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,7

chest. She knew his identity. “My man upstairs isn’t quite ready to pay-out. And either you walk away with a pay-out, or you go away all-in… like our friend upstairs.”

Silas sat back down and leaned forward, mirroring her posture. “I don’t think I’m interested in playing that game.”

“Not you,” she said. She twisted in her chair, her red lips twitching in a smile as she looked over the three of us. “Which one of you will join me at the table?”

“They’re not playing,” Silas said.

“Then I hope you can get out of town in a hurry, because I can have the police here for you very soon. And before you snap my neck,” she said, her voice growing hurried as if she read the murderous intent in Silas’s easy smile, “my man upstairs will be very hard to get past if I’m not here to unlock the door from below.”

My eyes had grown adjusted to the gloom, and I noticed the small things then, like the brass frames on the air intakes in this windowless chamber. One of them shuttered closed then, sealing with a clank.

Silas sighed. “You’re going to be tiresome about this. I hate when people are tiresome.”

Rafe started toward the table, his expression grim. “Oh, Silas, if I survive this game, you are—”

I stopped Rafe with my hand on his arm. My voice came out low and calm. “I’ve got more power.”

Rafe stopped and looked at me, anger flaring in his eyes—a cover for all those protective urges and alpha tendencies—and Jensen sighed. Maybe there was a better way I could have phrased that, but I didn’t have time to baby male egos today.

She hooted with laughter. Charming.

“I’ve got this,” I promised.

“It’ll be fine,” Silas promised, although he was smiling wider than ever, and that was a bad sign. He played the idiot when he was nervous sometimes, inviting people to misunderstand what a danger he was.

But if worst came to worst, we’d just fight our way out of here. She was stuck down here too.

“Good luck, Sunshine,” Jensen told me, and I smiled at him over my shoulder as I started forward.

“You’ll have to teach me the game,” I said as I tried to choose a seat. The dead man’s seat was the one nearest Silas and furthest our new friend, so I took it for practical reasons.

His seat was still warm, and I regretted the decision immediately.

Chapter Four

Jensen

* * *

I suddenly found myself with two equally important tasks: one, preparing to kill our way out of here if we needed to, and two, preventing Rafe from killing our way out of here prematurely. I could feel tension radiating from his posture, no matter how calm his face.

When Maddie held her hand over the bowl, Silas reached out and gripped her hand, squeezing her fingers. She winced, and something twitched inside me. I loved Silas, but when he hurt her there was a part of me that wanted to go over the table at him, no matter how necessary it was.

But I’d let it ride when Rafe hurt her too, after Clearborn trapped him into it. I’d been focused on the end game then, and I was now too. I crossed my arms and forced myself to watch calmly. She was my girl, but she was tough.

Her blood trickled down her fingertips and dripped steadily into the pool. Rafe glanced away, a muscle ticking in his cheek.

“So she’s a complete novice,” the woman said, her voice delighted.

Silas didn’t dignify that with an answer. “You know my name. Who are you?”

“Catarina,” she said.

“Lovely name,” Silas said. “It makes me think of cataracts.”

“You’re a charmer.”

Silas squeezed her fingers again, and Maddie drew her hands into her lap, as if she were rubbing them under the table to get rid of the bleeding sensation. She picked up the dice a second later, the look on her face resolute.

“My sister and I used to play a game like this when I was a child so I could memorize math facts,” she said. “I’m surprised you big scary wizards all find it so amusing.”

They began to shake the dice and roll them. I wanted to look at the dice themselves, but watching her beautiful face fixed in concentration was enough. I could see the disappointment wash over her face and knew she’d had a bad roll even before she called the number.

She kept on going.

“Fifty-four,” Silas said, his face more intense than before when it wasn’t just his own power on