Page 22 of One Night Gamble
That was worrying. He and Nick needed Darien. The stunt driver was unique and part of what was going to ensure that their casino stood out from the other offerings in Vegas.
“Why not?”
“I need to hire riders and train them, which means staying still. But I screw up when I’m not moving,” Darien said. “I don’t want that to affect you or Nick. Or Rio. He wants this to stay in one place.”
Casey walked over to one of the leather armchairs and sat down on it. He had always half craved the stability of staying in one place. His childhood hadn’t been exactly solid. The halfway house where he’d met Darien and Nick had been the only home he’d ever really claimed for himself. But that was a distant memory and he knew it as well as Darien did.
“You can’t keep running,” Casey said. Darien had told him he believed it was being on the road that had led to his father’s mistakes and ultimately his old man’s death. Everyone in the world thought that his dad had been the bravest man but Darien had said he was weak. He’d let fear drive him to take dumb risks.
Tonight, Casey felt like he understood that. When Talia had exploded at him, telling him that he didn’t get what had made her hate gamblers, he had realized that he’d made a dumb risk. He liked risk. He had made a living from it, but tonight, he realized that rolling the dice or cutting the deck was infinitely different than wagering on a person. He had looked at Talia and saw something that he thought he could control, never realizing that she might end up influencing him.
He’d never let another person have that kind of power over him…not since his mom had dropped him off at the halfway house and driven away. He had heard through the rumor mill that she’d died, but he’d been in Tokyo for a high-stakes game at the time and hadn’t been able to get back for the service that some of her friends had held for her. She was gone before he could resolve what had happened between them.
He’d never met her as an adult.
“Hell. Let’s get out of here,” Casey said. “I need to get out of my head.”
“Me too.”
They left the casino, Darien at the wheel of his classic ’69 Corvette Stingray. They had the T-top off and women smiled at them as they roared out of the city. Darien drove out to the big house on the outskirts of town where Nicholas lived when he wasn’t on tour.
Nick heard them and came out to meet them.
“What’s up?”
“We are blowing off steam, you in?”
“Hell. This has bad idea written all over it.”
But their friend climbed into the backseat and they headed toward the old dirt track that had been Darien’s dad’s practice track, back before he’d become famous. Then the three of them spent the night drinking and riding the motocross circuit. But when the night was over, Casey knew that nothing had been resolved. His issue with Talia was still there, but at least he wasn’t as alone as he’d felt earlier.
He might be a gambler who’d always gotten by on his wits, but tonight he’d been reminded that his friends were always by his side. He would never have gone after having his own casino if it wasn’t for Dare and Nick. Without them, he was just one more player, one more high-stakes gambler who drifted from table to table, following his luck.
…
Two days later, Talia was on her way to work when she got a text from Casey. It just said dinner and gave an address. She had been avoiding him for days, but she knew that had to stop.
On one hand, she was busy with work. Setting and developing a community was something that required a lot of hours and more time on Twitter than she’d have put in if she wasn’t being paid to be there. But on the other hand, she knew she was hiding from him.
It had been easy to pretend that one night with him was enough, that it was in the past. But she knew that was a lie. When she’d found herself standing underneath the poster of Casey, the gambler, she knew that she had a problem.
If only she didn’t have that same innate love for rogues and gamblers that her mother had had. She’d watched her father spiral further and further into his addiction and no matter how many tears she’d cried, or how many times she’d had to go and visit Paulie, the loan shark, to beg for more time, she’d never stopped loving him.
She and Gran had both loved her dad more than they acknowledged was healthy. But there was something so charming about him when he was on a winning streak, and he could talk her into anything. Just like Casey. It had almost made up for the darkness when he was losing.
Almost.
A part of her wanted to believe that what she felt for Casey was just an extension of that—she couldn’t resist a charmer. Except she knew it was more. Casey wasn’t on a winning streak that threatened to collapse at any moment. In fact, if she was being totally honest with herself, she’d have to admit that he seemed like the kind of man she’d always dreamed of finding.
He worked hard.
He had enough money to buy nice things, but didn’t waste it on being showy.
And he knew how to touch her in a way that made her very glad she was a woman.
That last bit…that was the part that was throwing her for a loop. She wasn’t normally a sexually obsessed person.
But she couldn’t stop thinking about Casey. At odd times, she’d remember the feel of his lips on hers, or she’d get distracted, remembering how he’d looked when he’d walked out of the bathroom wearing nothing but dress slacks, his torso bare.
