Betting on an Omega's Life: She's the Legendary Gambler novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Terms

She signs Rafe's contract and throws Cormac out of the Halcyon. Castiglioni sends a video of Junie eating cereal at his table.

The contract was four pages long, and I read every word of it standing up.

Zielinski's penthouse office looked out over the whole city, gold and black at four in the morning.

His lawyer waited at the far end of a long glass table, yawning into a coffee.

"Thirty percent of whatever you win above the debt," Zielinski said. "That's my cut for opening the room and putting my name on it."

"And the Halcyon gets a year of me at its table."

"As a house player. Your name on the card, your own seat."

"Under my name."

"Under whatever name you choose."

I turned to the last page.

There was a line near the bottom that did not belong with the others.

"The player will reside in the Zielinski suite until the match is complete," I read aloud.

"Castiglioni's men are outside your apartment," Zielinski said. "I had them photographed an hour ago."

"I don't like being told where to sleep."

"You don't like being taken from a parking lot either."

He had a point, and I hated that he had it.

"Fifty percent of the winnings above the debt to me," I said. "Not seventy."

His lawyer lifted his eyebrows.

Zielinski only watched me.

"Forty," he said.

"Thirty-five, and my daughter's marker is torn up in front of me, not in front of you."

"Done."

I signed.

My hand did not shake, and I was proud of that for about four seconds.

The door burst open.

Cormac stood in it with two guards hanging off his arms, his collar torn, his hair wild.

"Lena! You can't sign with him, he'll take everything!"

"There is nothing left to take."

"I'm the Legend! They'll want me!"

"They want a man who can win," Zielinski said without standing. "Remove him."

The guards pulled, and Cormac planted his feet.

"Lena, I'm her father! I have rights!"

"You had rights," I said. "You signed them away with a gold pen."

His face crumpled, and for one second I almost felt sorry for him.

Then I remembered the stairs at the Blue Door, and the strawberry shampoo.

"You don't come near her," I said. "You don't come near me, and you don't say my name to Castiglioni."

"You're my wife."

"Tonight I'm a woman with a deadline."

They dragged him out.

His voice carried down the hall, calling my name, then calling the jacket, then calling nothing.

The lawyer collected the papers and left without a word.

Zielinski poured me a glass of water and set it down in front of me.

"He'll try again," he said.

"I know."

"He doesn't know what he's got."

"He never did."

I drank half the water and found my hands were finally shaking.

Zielinski noticed and did not say a word about it.

My phone buzzed against the table.

It was a number I did not know.

The message was a short video clip.

I pressed play.

Junie sat at a huge dark table in the Blue Door's kitchen, eating cereal out of a mixing bowl.

She wore a new yellow dress with the tags still on the collar.

A man's hand slid a glass of orange juice into the frame.

"Are you having fun, Junie?" Castiglioni's voice asked.

"The man has a dog," Junie said, with her mouth full. "A fat one. He lets me feed it."

"Tell Mommy what I told you."

Junie looked right into the camera, and I saw her missing tooth.

"Mr. Castiglioni says I can stay till you win, Mama."

The video ended.

I stood very still.

Across the table, Zielinski watched my face and did not move.

"Mrs. Tarrant," he said quietly.

"Don't."

"I only want to say..."

"Please don't be kind to me right now," I said. "I'll fall apart, and I have two days."

He nodded once.

I put the phone face down on the glass.

Then I picked up the cards he had left lying on the table, and I shuffled them until my hands stopped.

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