Page 114 of Stealing Blinds

“Fuck,” he hisses, smacking his hand over his neck, right near his jugular, as crimson stains his skin, leaking all over his white collared shirt.

“Accidents happen.” I bend toward him, as if I’m checking the wound, which is a nasty slice. “Sometimes, karma bites us.” I wave the blood-streaked card in front of him. “Or the queen you fucked over does. Either way, I hope it doesn’t taint your stay. But just to be clear, if you even think about my woman again, I’ll trace that line with a hatchet.”

I stand and motion to Jason, circling my hand above the unfortunate gore. “Send someone to clean up and help Mr. Gordon here. We wouldn’t want him to miss any games, whether he’s playing or not.”

Danny’s jaw locks as he gathers cocktail napkins to press against his injury, which seems to spread from the front of his throat up near his ear. Quite a swipe.

“You got it, boss.” Jason tosses what I was waiting for in a large arc to me.

I catch it and tuck my prize in my pocket. Upon my exit, the jazz music from the vintage phonograph halts with a dramatic record scratch, and Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” blares from the jukebox, so I do a theatrical spin, tossing and snatching a few kings and queens to the beat. The crowd whoops—the accidental card debacle long forgotten and my threat that much more daunting. My members and employees always have my back.

And Maddox is not the only one who can utilize a well-timed playlist.

Once I’m in the concealed passageway and headed back to the penthouse, I whip out my phone to call Axel.

“How’d it go?” he asks after only one ring.

“I didn’t kill him.”

“I appreciate the sacrifice,” he returns. “But I was looking for details that I can use.”

“Far too confident. No wonder Kratos has been working so hard to get whatever the fuck they’re after. Peter Fairfax has to be involved in a group equally as powerful because Danny showed no fucking fear.”

“That’s disturbing. It’s what I was worried about,” he groans. “Everything we learn only makes things more complicated.”

“Well, I got the data off his phone.”

When I sat down, I lifted Danny’s cell and passed it to Jason, who was prepared to extract the data from it. He returned the phone to me while I was messing with the cards, which I stuck back in Danny’s pocket, and then he tossed me the USB stick on my way out.

“Good,” Axel breathes. “Let’s hope he doesn’t take off before we’ve had a chance to analyze it.”

“He won’t leave until his scheduled checkout. I sliced through his pride. Onto phase two.”

CASH

PREP WEEK

STRATEGIZING

“Our target is located in a highly protected bunker, beneath a venue hosting an event full of people who could have various motives to interfere,” Sylvie begins, curled up next to me on the couch in our great room. “But aside from that, we’re dealing with heavy guard detail, private security for the high-profile guests, an elevator that requires key-card access, two lower-level coded entries with codes that change every twenty-four hours, heat sensors connected to an alarm, a state-of-the-art security system, a location in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, players who may already be suspicious, my handler who will be keeping close tabs on everything we do, and a narrow window to grab our multimillion-dollar mystery prize and get out. Any questions?”

And as the rapid-fire ensues, she volleys it all with ease.

Ryker pecks his coffee cup with his index finger. “Do we have a guest list?”

“No.”

Axel studies the ball bouncing on his watch before snapping his focus to the master thief. “Do you know who keeps the codes?”

“The managing director—Auguste Dubois. The codes are generated at noon each day and given to him in a sealed envelope by his general manager. He always has a guard with him.”

Latching on to how a place is manned is so ingrained in Zara that she jumps on that. “Do you have the identities of the resort’s guards?”

“Most of them.”

Maddox controls our heist-scheming theme music from the jukebox, selecting Pink Floyd’s “Money” while still locked into the discussion. “The plan for the heat sensors?”

“Liquid nitrogen.”