Naomi, however, didn’t bother looking up. She was squeezed in between Winona and Grim, tongue poking out between her lips as she studied the cards in her hand. “Okay. Tell me again what beats a pair,” she said.
Ian launched into a Texas Hold ’Em 101 lecture while Grim leaned over to look at her hand. “Raise ’em,” he advised.
Tentatively, she picked up a blue chip and looked at him. He shook his head. She added two more chips and, on his nod, tossed them into the pile at the center of the table. “Raise,” she announced, wiggling her ass in her seat.
I rounded the table and leaned in. “What the fuck are you doing, Naomi?”
She finally looked up at me, bemused. “Learning to play poker.”
“Fold,” Winona sighed. “Never trust a rookie’s luck.”
“I’ll see you and raise you,” Lucian decided, dropping a fistful of chips onto the table.
“Leave her alone, Morgan,” Ian told me. “Our drinks are full, and she’s never played.”
I bared my teeth.
“Relax, Morgan,” Winona said. “We all staked her some chips. It’s just a friendly hand.”
Lucian and Naomi were engaged in a stare down.
I leaned in again and whispered in her ear, “Do you know what those chips are worth?”
She shook her head, watching as the action returned to Ian, who folded. “They told me not to worry about it.”
“That’s twenty grand in the pot, Naomi.”
I’d pushed the right button. She stopped staring at Lucian and looked at me as she started to come out of her chair.
Grim put a hand on her shoulder to hold her in place, and I fixed him with a cold glare.
“Fucking relax, Knox,” he said. “Winona’s right. It’s a friendly hand. No loans. No interest. She’s a quick learner.”
“Twenty-thousand dollars?” Naomi squeaked.
“I’ll call,” Tanner decided, throwing in his chips.
“Show ’em,” Grim growled, shoving a matching stack of chips into the center of the table.
Tanner lay down a shitty two pair. Lucian took his time arranging his cards before revealing a nice little straight.
“Uh-oh,” Winona hummed under her breath.
“Your turn, sweetheart,” Grim said, his face unreadable.
Naomi dropped her cards face-up on the table.
“I believe this is a bigger straight than yours, Lucian,” she said.
The table erupted in cheers. “You just won $22,000,” Winona told her.
“Holy shit! Holy shit!” Naomi looked up at me, and the joy on her face was a sucker punch to my windpipe.
“Congratulations. Now get your ass up,” I said, still capable of being an ass.
Lucian groaned. “Suckered in by those innocent eyes. Every damn time.”
I didn’t want him looking at her eyes or any other part of her. I pulled Naomi’s chair out for her.
“Wait! Do I get a victory dance? How do I pay everyone back?”
“You definitely get a victory dance,” Tanner said, lecherously patting his lap. Ian saved me the trouble and slapped him in the back of the head.
“Naomi. Now,” I said, hooking my thumb toward the door.
“Hold your horses, Viking.” She carefully counted out equal shares of the chips and started returning them to their original owners.
Grim shook his head and covered her hand with his tattooed one. “You won fair and square. You’re keeping the winnings and you can have my stake.”
“Oh, but I couldn’t,” she began.
“I insist. And when I insist, people do what I tell them.”
Naomi didn’t see a scary biker sort-of-criminal making that proclamation. She saw a cuddly, tattooed fairy godfather. When she tossed her arms around his neck and gave him a noisy kiss on the cheek, I saw the man actually smile. A feat previously thought to be impossible.
“For that reaction, you’ll keep mine as well,” Lucian said. Naomi whooped and rounded the table and kissed him loudly on the cheek.
Ian and Winona did the same and laughed through Naomi’s stranglehold hugs.
“Get that niece of yours something pretty,” Winona told her.
Christ on a cracker, exactly how much of her autobiography had she shared with them?
“I’m, uh, just gonna hang on to mine,” Tanner said, pulling back the chips he’d loaned her.
The rest of the table glared at him.
“Cheap-ass,” Winona said.
“Come on. It’s been a rough week,” he whined.