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I meet his gaze. “The man offering you a game.”

Vasco leans back. “This is my world, stranger. You don’t walk in here and start buying pieces of it.”

The men behind him chuckle, but the sound dies quickly when no one else joins in. The tables around us have gone quiet.

“Then I suppose you’ll have to decide how badly you want what I’m offering.”

His fingers stop on the deck. “And what could possibly be worth more than Calder?”

“A place in the Vultures. Unless you have no interest in joining the most exclusive brotherhood in the Reach.” I sit back. “My granddad has a chair at that table. You can’t buy your way in, Mr. Vasco, but I guess you already know that. However, a Clement can open the door.”

“And I suppose you’re a Clement?”

“Asher Clement the Third.” I pick up my whiskey. “Pleasure.”

For the first time since we sat down, Vasco has nothing ready.

Then he looks at the deck and grins. “My company against a spot in the Vultures?”

“That’s the game.”

He holds my gaze for a moment, then pushes the cards toward the dealer. “Deal.”

“Well.” Ryven settles back. “Now we’re finally gambling.”

The dealer fans the cards across the felt. “First hand, gentlemen.”

Vasco checks his cards before pushing out the opening bet, relaxed enough to look at me rather than the table. “You still have time to walk away.”

Light, the man is an ass.

I glance at mine. “So do you.”

It takes me less than a minute to take the first hand. Shame. I was hoping he’d make me work for it.

“First hand to Tempest,” the dealer announces, drawing the pot across the felt and gathering the cards.

Vasco reaches for his whiskey, his smile slipping by a fraction. “A fortunate opening, nothing more.”

“Second hand,” the dealer says, dealing again.

Vasco stops talking while he plays. His fingers begin tapping the edge of the table between bets, a rhythm that wasn’t there before. Across from him, I become aware of my own heartbeat, too fast and too loud.

I don’t know when it happened. This, this, whatever the fuck this is. I just remember Jade pulling me out from under a tree, setting my shoulder against a rock, and keeping a fire going.

He put his hands on me like I was worth the trouble, then slipped away before I woke up and could keep him.

My hand moves before I’ve decided anything, pushing past the number I meant to stop at. Vasco’s eyes flick to it. Ryven’s go still beside me.

Too much. I know it’s too much the second it’s out of my hand and on the felt.

This stopped being about finding Jade Mercer three raises ago.

Now it’s about making sure no one else ever owns him but me.

Whatever it costs.

Vasco looks at me over the top of his cards. “You don’t strike me as a gambler.”