“I love that woman, but I don’t understand why I need a musical accompaniment to what amounts to my humiliating ass kicking,” Claudia complained, as Laney proved her point by taking the blonde’s chin in the palm of her hand, hooking her heel around Claudia’s knee and throwing her into the mat.
Addison stopped playing her cello and asked with mild curiosity, “That seemed like an extra hard thump. Did that hurt, Claudia? Did she throw you very far?”
“Your sympathy would be a lot more believable if you weren’t playing the Mortal Kombat theme song,” Claudia grumbled, picking herself up off the mat. “Yeah, I’m a gamer, bitch. I know when I’m being mocked. Too bad you can’t see my repeated smack downs for yourself.”
Addison shook her long, wavy hair back and sat regally in her chair. Claudia only teased her because they all knew her lack of sight didn’t bother her. Addison had been born blind and, far from letting it hold her back, she had spent her life succeeding, despite parents who treated her like a handicap.
“Focus, Ms. Cantore,” Laney said severely, drawing Claudia’s attention. “We are on the clock. I am attempting to teach you self-defense at your fiancé’s insistence. It is upon his sufferance that we are both here.”
Claudia rolled her eyes and picked herself up off the floor. She ran manicured fingers over her high-end workout clothes and then gestured toward Addison. “Remind me why we have our own personal sarcastic orchestra while we pretend you can teach me how not to die?”
Laney lifted the edge of her lip in a semi-smile. “Daniel is having a boys’ night out and decided that Addison should do the same with us girls. Probably he just wants to keep her safe while he’s out of the house. I agreed that she should spend the night with one of us here in the tower and he dropped her off. She said she needed to practice before seeing Maestro on Monday, so I suggested she do so while we spar.”
Claudia stood with her mouth open, staring at one of the security cages, trying to process Laney’s words. Laney didn’t move, but Addison started giggling and said, “She’s gaping at nothing, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Laney acknowledged, somewhat confused. “I don’t understand.”
Addison clarified. “It’s because she can’t picture my boyfriend going on a ‘boy’s night out’.”
Claudia snorted. “Not unless it involves a gun and a bunch of dead bodies. No offence Addie, but your guy doesn’t play well with others.”
Addison shrugged and said mischievously, “He plays well with me.”
“Ew, Addie!” Claudia protested, laughing. “But seriously, has Daniel gone out on a murderous rampage? Should I be worried? Last I heard, Tyson is going to be home tonight and my man can usually reign senior psychopath in when darling Addison isn’t around to sex him up.”
“Tyson wasn’t invited to boy’s night. I think there’s a no gazillionaires rule or something, but I happen to know exactly who will be there,” Addison said, spreading her knees, wiggling her skirt out of the way and placing her cello back between her thighs.
“Oh. My. God!” Claudia said dramatically. “You have to tell me!”
“Can we please get on with the actual lesson,” Laney said, planting her feet into the mat and raising her hands in a defensive pose.
Claudia sighed and brought her hands up, but kept her eyes on Addison. Laney snapped her fingers, bringing Claudia’s bright green eyes back to her. Claudia rolled her eyes and let the smaller Japanese woman show her how she managed to throw her onto the mats. After a few practice attempts where Laney allowed Claudia to hook her knee around Laney’s leg and push her down, Claudia finally turned to Addison who was back to playing fight music.
“Okay, spill! Who’s going to boy’s night?”
Addison laughed and put her bow down. “They’re calling it the bodyguard’s poker night.”
“Seriously!?” Claudia shouted and laughed at the same time, rolling on the mat where Laney had roughly deposited her seconds before. “Not a creative bone between them, is there?”
“Oh yeah, I’m as dead serious as Daniel is about the last guy who flirted with me. Daniel is going, Anya’s cage fighter husband Ash, Boris and Jane Sitnokov’s business partner Mack Hudson. He’s some kind of bounty hunter, ex-military guy according to Jane. It’s like the deadliest poker game I’ve ever heard of. I’m not even sure how they plan on putting all these guys in one room without bloodshed.”
“Fuck me,” Claudia breathed. “That is a lot of testosterone at one table.”
“Yeah, I frisked Daniel before he left and made him leave his weapons behind. He wasn’t happy. He complained that the others wouldn’t go weaponless.”
“Daniel is like a machine. He needs no weapons to take other people down,” Laney pointed out.
“Exactly,” agreed Addison. “I thought I should at least give the other poker players a fighting chance if things get violent.”
“If!” Claudia snorted.
“I really hope Daniel doesn’t maim anyone,” Addison murmured anxiously.
“Ah, relationship goals,” Claudia said, grinning.
“Says the woman who’s trying to figure out how to put a Russian mob boss and an Italian mob boss in the same room together for her wedding to a shady billionaire. At least you have my Daniel and your Laney to make sure things don’t go south on you, bridezilla,” Addison replied, setting her bow to cello and playing softly while Laney scooped Claudia off the mat and set her on her feet.
It was time to quit playing with the blind but razor-sharp musician, Claudia decided, and turned her focus on the quiet ninja. Swinging her long blond ponytail over one shoulder she let her green gaze drift over Laney’s utilitarian outfit of sports bra and work out shorts. Basic, but cute. Which was pretty much Laney to a tee.
“So… Boris is going to be at this bodyguard’s poker game…” Claudia said, letting her words drift off in the hopes that Laney might pick up what she was putting down.
No such luck. Laney just gave Claudia her usual blank stare. Claudia stood and put up her guard. Both women stepped around each other, with Laney taking jabs while Claudia blocked. In general, Claudia understood the importance of taking lessons with Laney. But she was beginning to think the lessons would never stick. In fact, she thought she might be getting worse at self-defense instead of better, given the amount of ass kicking Laney dealt her on a regular basis. She only ended up with bruises for her efforts and very few useful new skills.
She still had her smart mouth to protect her though.
“So, do you think Boris will try to get info out of Daniel about his favourite obsession?” she asked, seconds before she found herself flat on the mat with Laney’s fist planted in her chest.
“Now that sounded like a hard fall!” Addison shouted cheerfully, playing a dramatic crescendo on her cello.
***
“Who the fuck invited him?” muttered Mack Hudson, eying Daniel as Boris opened the door to let the deadly head of Tyson King security into his apartment. “This is the worst fucking poker game I’ve ever been invited to. I felt like there was a fifty-fifty chance of getting out of here alive before he showed.”
Ash chuckled and shrugged his broad shoulders. “You guys are calling this the bodyguard’s poker game. He’s a bodyguard. Besides, you need at least four for a table.”
“Fuck,” Hudson grumbled, sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed. “From what I’ve heard of his reputation, literally anyone would be safer to gamble with. Dude used to be a mercenary. Like special ops shit that no one else would sign on for. Dead bodies littered across deserts and rainforests. Fuck. I think I’d rather spend time with my ex-wife. And that’s really saying something.”
Ash snorted and turned a raised brow toward Hudson while Boris and Daniel talked quietly by the door. “You going to pretend you’ve always been on the right side of the law, bounty hunter?”
Hudson opened his mouth to reply when Daniel slammed a six pack of beer down on the table causing everything to rattle. They looked up at the man who radiated deadly intensity. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt that did nothing to hide muscles chiseled to lethal precision.
“Hey, man,” Ash said, nodding at Daniel.
“Brought beer,” Daniel grunted.
“Let’s put them in the fridge,” Ash said, picking the six-pack up off the table and standing.
When the two men left, Boris turned to Hudson and said, “Ash invited him. Do you have gun? I have extras in the bedroom.”
It said a lot for the dynamics of the bodyguard’s poker game that they were willing to set aside certain hostilities to play a game of cards in the same room together. It was remarkable that Boris would even consider being friendly to Hudson, who had once been complicit in tazering him, twice, before handcuffing him to a radiator. Ash was living with the sister of the deadliest mob boss in the city, Boris’ employer. If Ash so much as hurt Anastasia’s feelings it would be Boris’ job to cut off Ash’s head. Yet they were able to play a diplomatic game of poker together. Probably.
They were midway through the second game when a soft knock at the door interrupted what could only be described as a tense scene interspersed with very little conversation. Talking business was out of the question and a tasteless joke could be taken badly. Boris stood to answer the door, pushing away from the table. The others seemed to take the unspoken cue as break time and drifted away from the table.
Boris opened the door to find Laney on the other side.
Shock turned rapidly to pleasure and he immediately turned to shout over his shoulder, “Get the fuck out, I have new guest!”
Chuckles greeted his rude comment, but no one moved to leave. Boris turned back to Laney and asked softly, “What are you doing here, kotenok. Did not know you knew where I lived. You should have come much sooner.”
She frowned at him and looked around his massive body to see inside his apartment, taking in the others. “I’m a bodyguard, correct? Isn’t this the bodyguard’s poker game?”
He arched a thick brow at her. “Yes, but game is invitation only.”
Her wide blue eyes travelled up his body, turning his fucking dick to stone. He nearly turned back around to bellow at the others to get out again. He would have followed up his words with action if he wasn’t pretty certain Daniel would kill him before he could lay hands on the man.
“Last I checked, I had at least a dozen invitations to your home,” she whispered with a wink.
He cleared his throat. Damn, she was playing him and he knew it. Fucked if he wasn’t just about to fall for it, though. This was the closest he’d gotten the sexy little ninja to his bed since he’d met her. He stepped aside and let her pass into his home. His fingers itched to grab her and drag her into the heat of his body.
She sauntered over to the table and eyed the cards and poker chips spread across the surface. Boris thought she looked beautiful in her black cargo pants and olive-green fatigue jacket. Her hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail instead of her customary braids. Daniel strode out of the kitchen with a beer in his fist. He stopped and frowned when he saw her.
His quick mind deduced her reason for being there. “Which one sent you?”
Laney didn’t say anything, just continued to look curiously around her. Boris realized she’d probably been sent by her employer to check up on the bodyguards to make sure they were behaving. Daniel, the wild card, in particular. Boris was still pleased to see her, to have her in his home. To watch the way her eyes caressed his belongings. He wished now that his home wasn’t so sparse, that he had more things for her to look at and to glean particulars of his personality from. He didn’t care if that made him a pussy. He was long past caring when it came to this woman. She could walk all over him with those tiny feet and he knew he would love it.
“May I join?” she asked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a large stack of bills.
She dropped them on the table as though they had no meaning to her and then slid into the only vacant chair, which had belonged to Boris. She looked up at him with her jewel-like blue eyes, contrasting exotically with her black hair and he knew he was lost. He nodded and went into the spare room to find another chair.
“King,” Daniel grunted.
Ash chuckled. “He’ll be pleased when she reports the lack of severed limbs and blood.”
“Actually, it was Addison that asked me to come. And she used Claudia’s club money to buy me into the game,” Laney announced, picking up her cards and tossing in her chips.
Daniel stared at Laney for a moment and then nodded knowingly. His tone softened as he said, “Should’ve known she’s the only one that could talk you into doing something like this.”
Laney didn’t respond, simply keeping her eyes on her cards.
Daniel stared at her steadily and said, “You’re a good friend to her. I don’t forget that.”
No one at the table said anything, but they all felt the intensity of the interaction.
Finally, Hudson broke the tension. “Jesus, was that the kiss of death or was he pledging his ever-lasting friendship? You people are fucking insane. Remind me never to accept another poker invitation or a Facebook friend request from any of you.”
Ash and Boris laughed.
Ash replied, “You’re only saying that because I’m taking every penny you’re putting down, my friend. You suck at this game. Didn’t anyone teach you how poker works?”
“Fuck you, man. You work in a fucking casino!” Hudson shouted, laughing. “We’re sitting with a goddamed poker shark! I have half a mind to let that Daniel guy do his thing to you and just walk away. It’s not like anyone here is legit enough to report it.”