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“Not exactly. I’d want something in return.”
No. I’m not dreaming. Of course he’d something else in return “What do you want?”
A dark, decadent smile carves into his face. “I want twenty minutes with you to do whatever I want.”
My skin pebbles with goosebumps and my pulse charges like a general on a battlefield. Under any other circumstances I would get up and walk away after hearing something so vague, but I’m still rooted to the seat next to him because I’m considering what I’d lose if I left.
It hasn’t escaped me that if I leave or choose the queen I’ll still be in the same boat. But the possibility of picking the dragon has me considering the possibility of saving what I set out to save.
Then all I’d need to worry about is the money for Mom’s surgery. That’s it.
But what would he want me to do for twenty minutes?
“I’m not a slut.” That’s my dignity talking.
“I don’t deal with sluts.”
“Then what would you do with me for twenty minutes?” I keep my eyes on his.
He leans closer, as if he’s going to tell me a secret. “That’s for me to know and you to find out, lass. But of course, you don’t have to play if you don’t want to.”
He moves away and stares back at me. And I think.
If I pick the dragon and get the loan, all that money I was going to give Cillian would go into the restaurant. I never even had a proper plan on how I was going to pay the loan back. This would give me a way.
Above everything else it would release me from the guilt of the past.
I know Mom doesn’t hate me now, but I’m still to blame for leaving.
This would absolve me. I’d be the daughter who fixed her husband’s mess and saved the family.
“I’ll play.”
As expected the fearless devil smiles, reminding me of the evil villain in the movies when he’s winning.
“Okay, here goes.”
Cillian does some fast shuffle thing with the coins on the table. At first I keep my focus on them, looking only at the dragon, but he’s so fast I lose track of it within seconds.
The next thing I know he’s holding out his hands to me with tight fists, and I have no idea where the dragon coin went. Is it in his right hand or the left?
How interesting it is that the dragon seems to benefit him and the queen would lose if I picked her.
“Pick a hand, lass.” He bites on his bottom lip and watches me with the eagerness of a lion who’s just backed its prey into a corner.
I study his hands, my gaze switching from one to the next before I pray with everything inside me and choose his right hand. He opens it to show me what I picked, and I see the dragon.
My eyes widen and my lungs seize. I did it. I picked the right coin.
I actually did it. Or did he let me?
It doesn’t matter. I played the game and picked the coin I wanted.
“Your mother is free of the debt she owes me. I’ll have my lawyers write up something that releases her from the loan.”
“Oh my God. Thank you.” I finally breathe and my lungs burn as if I’ve been standing in a room full of thick, black smoke.
Cillian places the coins back in his wallet, then shoves it in his pocket.
