I didn’t exactly kick the door open, but it was a more dramatic entrance than I usually made. Tanner, the skinny idiot who partied too hard to hold on to his money, fell out of his chair.
Naomi, however, didn’t bother looking up. She was squeezed in between Winona and Grim, tongue poking out between her lips as she studied the cards in her hand. “Okay. Tell me again what beats a pair,” she said.
Ian launched into a Texas Hold ’Em 101 lecture while Grim leaned over to look at her hand. “Raise ’em,” he advised.
Tentatively, she picked up a blue chip and looked at him. He shook his head. She added two more chips and, on his nod, tossed them into the pile at the center of the table. “Raise,” she announced, wiggling her ass in her seat.
I rounded the table and leaned in. “What the fuck are you doing, Naomi?”
She finally looked up at me, bemused. “Learning to play poker.”
“Fold,” Winona sighed. “Never trust a rookie’s luck.”
“I’ll see you and raise you,” Lucian decided, dropping a fistful of chips onto the table.
“Leave her alone, Morgan,” Ian told me. “Our drinks are full, and she’s never played.”
I bared my teeth.
“Relax, Morgan,” Winona said. “We all staked her some chips. It’s just a friendly hand.”
Lucian and Naomi were engaged in a stare down.
I leaned in again and whispered in her ear, “Do you know what those chips are worth?”
She shook her head, watching as the action returned to Ian, who folded. “They told me not to worry about it.”
“That’s twenty grand in the pot, Naomi.”
I’d pushed the right button. She stopped staring at Lucian and looked at me as she started to come out of her chair.
Grim put a hand on her shoulder to hold her in place, and I fixed him with a cold glare.
“Fucking relax, Knox,” he said. “Winona’s right. It’s a friendly hand. No loans. No interest. She’s a quick learner.”
“Twenty-thousand dollars?” Naomi squeaked.
“I’ll call,” Tanner decided, throwing in his chips.
“Show ’em,” Grim growled, shoving a matching stack of chips into the center of the table.
Tanner lay down a shitty two pair. Lucian took his time arranging his cards before revealing a nice little straight.
“Uh-oh,” Winona hummed under her breath.
“Your turn, sweetheart,” Grim said, his face unreadable.
Naomi dropped her cards face-up on the table.
“I believe this is a bigger straight than yours, Lucian,” she said.
The table erupted in cheers. “You just won $22,000,” Winona told her.
“Holy shit! Holy shit!” Naomi looked up at me, and the joy on her face was a sucker punch to my windpipe.
“Congratulations. Now get your ass up,” I said, still capable of being an ass.
Lucian groaned. “Suckered in by those innocent eyes. Every damn time.”