Chapter 10
Gabriel
“Oh, shit.” Savvy’s friend breathes out from the other side of the pool table.
The dickhead daring to touch Savvy cranes his head enough to see me from over his shoulder. And when he does, he releases her like she’s turned radioactive.
“You should move away now.” I flick my wrist.
He stumbles back a step, catching his foot on hers and stumbling into the pool table.
Savvy sighs. “What are you doing here?”
I huff. What am I doing here? She’s hustling pool but wants to know what I’m doing here.
“You were supposed to be home an hour ago,” I say, moving toward the dark-haired asshole who still hasn’t run away. Maybe he doesn’t think he’s in danger since he stopped touching her.
But it doesn’t change the fact that he touched her at all.
“Do you like grabbing women?” I snatch him up by the collar of his shirt, dragging him back to his feet. He’s a good height, but I still have at least four inches on him. He tries to scramble off, but I grab him by his throat, holding him steady.
“She hustled us.” He tattles like he’s back in preschool and Savvy just stole his favorite crayon.
“Put him down.” Savvy grabs my arm, but one glance from me and she retreats a small step. “You’re acting like a caveman!”
“Hey. These two hustled us out of a few hundred dollars.” The blond pipes up. The table between us gives him just enough bravery to intervene.
With a nod of my head, my cousin, Lucian walks around the table toward him, backing him into the wall. Cassie’s eyes go wide, and she backs up right along with him.
“Grown ass men don’t realize when two women are hustling you because you’ve been eye-fucking them the whole time.” I squeeze his throat.
“Gabriel. Stop.” She yanks on my shirt. “He didn’t do anything.”
I move my gaze to her. She retreats a step.
“He touched you.”
Her eyes flick to him. “He didn’t hurt me. You’re going to kill him. Stop.”
I shake him, bringing my face in front of his so I’m the only thing he can see.
“If you so much as breathe the same air as her again, I’ll rip your lungs out through your throat. Do you understand me?”
He nods—well, as best he can given I’m still holding his throat.
“Take your friend and get out.” With one more shove, I let him go. He scrambles to right his footing, holding his throat while trying to suck in valuable air.
“You should probably go, too.” Lucian says, standing over the blond.
Three more of their friends follow them from the bar, maneuvering through the onlookers. They disperse the second I set my eyes on them, splintering off to other parts of the bar or back to their stools.
“You didn’t need to do that.” Savvy plants her fists on her hips. “I would have handled him.”
“You wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t pulled your little stunt.”
She rolls her eyes. “It was just a little fun.”
“You hustled two men you didn’t know. How do you know they didn’t have weapons on them, or that their little friends didn’t? How can you be sure you weren’t going to get hurt?”
She cocks a brow and shrugs. “It hasn’t happened yet.”
“How many times have you two run this hustle?” I dare to ask, already knowing the answer is going to make my palm itch.
The recklessness of this woman will have me gray before I hit forty.
She glances at Cassie, who seems oblivious to the murderous look on Lucian’s face as he observes the scene.
“I don’t know…ten, fifteen?” She asks Cassie, who lifts a shoulder.
“I think it’s probably more like seventeen. You always forget the two in Indiana.”
“I don’t think it’s hustling when you count cards at the blackjack table. That’s just cheating.”
“The casino in Hammond?” Lucian demands, then lifts his eyes to mine.
Ralph Russo’s crew runs the security. If they’d found these two counting cards, it wouldn’t have just been a ride in the back of a police cruiser.
It could have been a boat ride to a secluded island, where men with deep pockets pay whatever is asked in order to do whatever they want to pretty women.
“Nothing happened,” Savvy says quickly, as though that makes it any better.
“I don’t understand how you’ve managed to live as long as you have. You keep pulling scams on the wrong people.”
“A few hands going our way in a casino isn’t going to put up any flags.” She picks up the bottle of beer from the high table and takes a long pull.
“Winning by luck is one thing; winning because you cheated the casino is different. The people who own and run that place aren’t as accommodating as I’ve been.”
“Accommodating?” She laughs. “You’ve stolen me from my life; how is that accommodating?”
I ease the bottle from her hand and place it back on the table. “How many have you had?”
“Beers? I don’t know, two?”
“Good.”
“Why is that good?”
“Because I want you sober when I deal with you.”
“Deal with me?” She laughs. “Who talks this way? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
I make a point of looking at my watch. “You were supposed to be back at the house an hour ago.”
The smile fades. “I never agreed to that.”
“You didn’t need to agree.”
“Sav, it’s late. Do you want to stay at my place tonight? You can take me to the train station in the morning.” Cassie offers. Lucian is already shaking his head behind her, but she’s not paying him any attention.
“Savanah has a place to stay tonight,” I say, keeping my gaze locked with Savvy’s.
“I don’t mind staying with Cassie. She needs a ride in the morning, anyway; that way she doesn’t have to haul her suitcase on the bus to the train.”
“Lucian, you don’t mind picking up Cassie in the morning and making sure she gets to her train in time, do you?”
“I’ll handle it.” He says, resting his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll make sure she gets home tonight safe, too.”
“There. Cassie’s been taken care of.” I run my fingertip down the length of her nose and press it to her lips. “Now we can go home.”
“Maybe I’m not done having fun.” She’s trying to sound strong, pushing her chest out and raising her chin. But it’s a show.
“Robby!” I yell over the noise of the bar to Josh.
“Yeah, Gabriel?” he shouts back.
“She’s done. Until I say otherwise. No service.”
She sucks in a breath as though my audacity has shoved her in the chest.
“You got it,” Robby calls back. “I’ll let the others know.”
“Are you serious?” she yells. “You can’t do that!”
I shrug. “Looks like I can.”
“How do you even know him?”
Leaning into her space, I cup her chin and drag her eyes back to mine.
“You still don’t get who I am, do you?”
“I know who you are,” she says. “And what you are.”
“Savvy, no,” Cassie hisses.
“You’re an asshole.”
Cassie groans.
I smile. She has no idea the beast she’s just awoken. Being insulted in my world is an instant beatdown. Being insulted in public, with this many eyes watching, could mean worse.
“Lucian, take care of that one. I’ll be dealing with this one.” Bending at the waist, I throw my shoulder into her stomach and hoist her over.
“Oh my god!” She screeches and goes feral trying to wiggle her way out of my grasp.
The crowd parts as I walk through the bar. Not a single person lifts a finger to stop me. They wouldn’t dare.
She seems to be the only person in the city who doesn’t understand the power I wield. I won’t bother denying that fact both irritates and excites me.
It explains why her reactions are so natural and so real. She has no fear of me.
Well, she might after tonight.