A man who stood by a door opened it, and the two men pulled her into a large room with several tables and a few dozen men playing cards.
“This way,” one of the men said and pulled her over to one of the tables.
“Here she is, boss.”
Every man in the room stared at her. Her fear was at sucha level that she felt bile climb in her throat.
“Why am I here?” she asked.
One of the men spoke, the one she least wanted to deal with because his eyes were dead and cold, and she saw no remorse for her. “You’re here because I wanted to know what I would win. I can’t take something home I can’t stand to look at.”
“Who are you?”
“Victor Marino.”
She tried to think about if she knew him or not. “We’ve never met.”
“No, doll.”
“Tell me why I’m here?”
“I already told you,” Victor said. “I wanted to know what I’m going to win.”
“I don’t understand.”
The man pointed across the table at a slightly hidden person behind another guy. Rebeka stepped to the side and was shocked when she saw her cousin, Troy.
“Troy, what’s going on?”
Troy moved from behind the guy and cleared his throat. “We’ve been playing this game for a while, and I finally have a great hand, Bek. I can’t let this go.”
If she felt sick before, now she felt like her world had exploded. “You put me up for a bet?”
“You’re the only thing I had left,” Troy said.
“I’m a human being, you bastard. How can you treat me, the one person in your life that cared about you, like this?”
“If you saw my hand…”
She turned back to Victor. “Do whatever you want with him, but I’m leaving.” The men instantly grabbed her.
Victor grinned. “The fuck you are. Let’s finish this hand.”
A few men put down their cards. She watched Troy lay his down with a grin. When it got to Victor, she knew from the lookon his face that Troy had lost. They’d never know if the bastard cheated, but she guessed he had, and there was nothing they could do about it.
She watched the blood fade from her cousin’s face when he saw Victor’s cards.
“Take her,” Victor said. “Keep her at our warehouse. I’ll be there shortly.”
Troy stood. “Wait, can’t we do something else?”
She looked at her cousin with tears rolling down her face. “Thank you, Troy. You just ruined my life. Did you ever think about what this guy would do to me?”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want your apology. I never want to see you again. But then again, I’ll probably be dead soon.”
The two men led her off.