Chapter 20
“ E xplain it to me again. I missed the last thing you said.” I tap Elana’s arm.
She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Okay, last time though.”
Elana picks up the deck of cards sitting in the middle of the table Megan and me are sitting at with her.
“Preferans is easy,” she says, dealing out the cards with a practiced flick.
“We each get ten cards. Then we bid to see who thinks they can take the most tricks—that’s the hand.
So, if you win the hand, you won the trick.
The highest bidder gets the talon—that’s two extra cards—and picks the trump suit. ”
She glances up, her eyes filled with mischief. I’m loving this girl. Even if she is related to the enormous Volkov men whose glares could strip paint from a wall.
“Your goal is to win enough tricks to meet your bid. The other two try to stop you. Simple, right?”
Megan looks as confused as I feel. None of this makes much sense to me at all.
“So, first we say how many hands we think we’ll win, and whoever bets the highest is the one who declares the trump suit?” I clarify.
“Exactly! You got it.” She shuffles the deck; minus the cards she’s pulled out and piled to the side.
“We’ll pick it up as we go,” Megan says confidently while collecting the cards her sister-in-law flicks at us while dealing.
“It’s easy. My brothers taught me when I was little.” She places two cards face down in the middle of us. “That’s the talon. So, whoever wins the bid gets to pick those up and can swap them out with two cards from their hand.”
“And whoever wins the bid picks the trump suit, meaning that suit that beats the others?” Megan looks over her cards.
“Yep.” Elana moves her cards around in her hand.
I have no idea what’s happening, but I do have some pretty high cards in my hand.
“Okay, so who bets first.”
“Bids,” Elana corrects me and points to Megan. “Megan, you bid.”
“Oh, okay,” Megan looks over her hand some more, her brow furrowing. “I think I can probably win six rounds? ”
I laugh. “You need to work on your poker face.”
“It’s not poker,” she teases back.
“I bid seven.” Elana announces as her phone dances next to her drink on the table.
A pink tint blooms on her cheeks as she reads the message. After she replies and puts it back down, she lets out a little sigh.
“Oh, man. She’s got it bad, huh?” I elbow Megan.
“She does.”
“No. I don’t,” Elana argues, looking over her shoulder to be sure we’re alone.
Kaz is somewhere in this massive brownstone, but I haven’t seen him since I arrived an hour ago. Not that I want to see him. Never seeing him again would rank really high up on my bucket list.
“You still won’t tell them?” Megan keeps her voice hushed.
“Mira, you need to bid.” Elana sidesteps the question.
“Won’t tell who?” I survey my cards, still unsure of what to do. “I think six?”
“Okay, that means I get the talon.” Elana picks up the two cards. “The trump suit will be hearts.”
After shuffling her cards around, she picks two cards and puts them face down. “Megan, you’re up. Put down a card.”
“I think you should give them credit; your brothers really love you.” Megan flips through her cards before plucking one.
Seven of diamonds. I survey my hand.
“You’ve seen how overprotective they are.” Elana argues. “ I mean, it basically took an armed guard of five men to get Alexander to let you out of the house today.”
“That’s true.” Megan frowns. “Now that he’s openly declared war on the DeAngelos, he’s been more protective.”
I slide my card, an eight of diamonds, onto the table.
“What would it take for the war to be cancelled?” I ask.
“Marco’s head on a pike,” Elana says, pulling out a card and dropping it on top of mine. “Nine of diamonds. I win this trick.”
“There has to be something else? Maybe Marco could do something that would turn the heat down?” It’s a selfish question.
My own guilt gets in the way of seeing the reality. Marco messed with Alexander’s family. He hasn’t done anything to make amends for it, and until Alexander is appeased, it will only get bloodier.
“Megan, your turn.” Elana looks up from her cards.
“Mira, you have to stop feeling guilty.” Megan drops an eight of spades. “I know you feel responsible because Nico was your boyfriend, but things have gone past what he did.”
My stomach sinks even lower. What Nico did.
“Mira, play a card.” Elana urges, her card already poised in her hand.
“I mean swearing off men for the rest of your life is a little dramatic. Even for you,” Megan says.
I toss my seven of spades on the table with a sigh. “Look at my history with them. It’s better for everyone if I just stay away.”
“You had one bad boyfriend, and now you’re swearing off love? That’s harsh.” Elana puts her winning card, the ten of spades, on top of mine and scoops up the cards. “I win again.”
“Not one boyfriend. All of them.” I shuffle my cards in my hand, waiting, as Elana looks through hers. “As soon as a guy even hints he might like me, I have our wedding planned, our children named. It’s a whole pathetic thing.”
“You want to get married and have a family, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Elana smiles softly. “At first it was just me and my mom, but then my brothers brought me into the family.”
“She shares a father with them,” Megan explains.
“Wanting a family is one thing, jumping into it with the first guy that sticks around for a second date is something entirely different. I’m pretty sure there’s a diagnosis out there waiting for me.”
“Well, it’s not like you had any great examples growing up. Your mom has had five marriages and your dad, three.” Megan points out.
Megan didn’t exactly have a Norman Rockwell upbringing, but she hasn’t led her life with her heart leading the charge. She’s levelheaded and smart and uses common sense. Until Alexander, she’d never made a rash decision about a guy in her life.
“That’s a lot of stepparents.” Elana’s eyes widen. “My mom never got married. She dated occasionally, but nothing was ever serious.”
I point to her. “See, that’s the way to go. ”
“Except, she never had anyone to share her life with. Other than me, she didn’t really have anyone.”
“You don’t want that, do you?” Megan needles.
“I would think you’d be on my side here,” I say. “I mean, you’ve seen the disasters I’ve been with.”
“Yeah.” She nods. “But that doesn’t mean the right guy isn’t right in front of your face.”
Of course.
“I’m not marrying Rurik,” I all but shout. “I’ve known him for barely ten days.”
“The fact that you aren’t chasing him is what makes me more it might be worth exploring.”
“You just don’t want to be the only one that’s dragged into this whole mafia thing.” I wince when Elana’s eyebrow curves. “Sorry, no offense.”
“None to me. I’m just the little sister.” She gives her best impression of an innocent smile with fluttering eyelids.
“Mira, put a card down.” Megan pokes me.
“I will say this. I’ve known Rurik for a long time, and he’s never made a claim on a woman.” Elana drops another winning card down and slides the trick to sit with her others. “So, if he’s said he’s marrying you, I’m not really sure there’s anything you can do about it.”
“I can say no.”
Megan laughs. “Can I be there when you do?”
“It’s not as fun watching someone dig their own grave as you think it might be,” Elana gives Megan a pointed look.
“Maybe just give him a chance. Don’t run away just because you’re afraid. ”
“Why would I be afraid of him?” I protest now that they’ve both decided to gang up on me.
“Because this is the first time you haven’t dived headfirst into something. You’re being reasonable. You’re letting things develop on their own.” Megan doesn’t even try to hide her smirk. “You’re sleeping with him and loving every second of it without putting big labels on it.”
My face heats. “You don’t know?—”
“I have known you for too long for you to think I don’t know when you’re getting laid,” Megan interrupts.
I stare at her, slack-jawed, for a long moment. “I’m that transparent?”
“To me you are.” Megan shrugs and tosses down a king of diamonds.
Finally, Elana won’t win a hand.
“It’s complicated, though.” I drop a low card and hold back a higher one for another hand.
“How complicated can it be?”
I keep focused on my cards. Answering her question would destroy everything. She’d see me for who I really am, and I’d lose her. And Rurik.
That last bit stings a little more than it probably should, but I’ll stuff that in a box for later evaluation.
“What are you playing?” Kaz saunters in shoving his arm into a suit jacket.
His hair is brushed back and he’s cleanly shaved. The spicy scent of his aftershave wafts over to the table as he gets closer.
I wait for the butterflies to start dancing like they did the first time I laid eyes on him two years ago. A reckless night at the club that left an embarrassing moment etched into my brain forever. But there’s nothing. Not a flicker of a wing.
Kaz catches me looking at him and grins. “Mira. How’d you get Rurik to let you out?”
He doesn’t remember me from two years ago. Only as Rurik’s captive.
A rush of relief flows through me. I figured he wouldn’t, it’s been two years after all. But still, a girl hopes she’s left some sort of impression…though admittedly the impression I left wasn’t one you’d want remembered for long.
“Megan was able to help her escape, so she came along, too.” Elana points at me to play a card.
“Oh, you’re playing Preferans?” Kaz laughs. “Careful, Elana cheats.”
“I do not.” Elana’s brows pull together, and she shoots him a hard glare.
“No?” He reaches beneath the table, slides his hand under her leg, and pulls out two cards.
An ace of diamonds and a ten of hearts—the trump suit.
Elana puts on a sweet smile when Megan and I look to her for an explanation.
“You forget who taught you.” Kaz grabs a potato chip from the bowl in the middle of the table and grins while crunching on it.
I can see why I fell so hard for him; he’s gorgeous, but I can’t get anything other than appreciation for his beauty to come to the surface.
Rurik has broken me .
“You taught her to cheat?” Megan’s tone is accusatory.
He lifts a shoulder, grabbing another chip. “Ivan kills at this game; she was always losing, so I helped.”
Elana lifts up her other leg and brings out another card, dropping it into the pile and pushing them all together.
“Sorry, girls. Old habits die hard?” She laughs.
“We barely know what we’re doing, anyway.” Megan drops her cards.
“At least you weren’t playing for cash. She usually cleans up.”
“Kaz. Don’t you have a meeting or something?” Elana shoves him.
“I do, actually. Just came to tell you I won’t be home tonight. The house is yours.” He winks.
“Ew. I don’t need to know about your conquests. It’s as gross as when I see Alexander skipping down the stairs in the morning.”
“He skips?” Megan deadpans. “I can’t picture him skipping.”
“He doesn’t skip.” Kaz frowns down at his sister. “If you go telling people that he does things like that you’ll ruin his reputation for being the cold-hearted bastard he actually is.”
Elana rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”
Kaz pulls out his phone and his brows raise as he reads whatever has popped up on the screen.
“Does Rurik know you’re here?” He lifts his gaze to me.
“Not really, why?”
Before my question falls into the air, Rurik barges into the room, one of Kaz’s men right behind him, not trying to stop him, just sort of escorting him. Like he’s there for backup, but he’s not getting in Rurik’s way.
His face is pulled tight. Daggers shoot from his eyes as they land on Kaz. His jaw flexes as he gets closer.
When he passes Kaz, he grunts. Actually grunts like a real Neanderthal before pushing past him and coming to my seat.
“Rurik—”
He hauls me out of my chair and throws me over his shoulder. Without a word to anyone, he carries me out of the room, down the hall, and out of the brownstone.