“Katherine, my dear,” Jacob said, taking her hand and kissing the top of it. “Gorgeous as ever.”

“Don’t even try it you dirty old fool,” Katherine said, giving Jacob a cool smile. He just laughed good-naturedly in response.

They were meeting at the Backstreet Cafe for a late breakfast meeting. Jacob turned to Chance, his eyebrows raised in appreciation as he saw Juliet by his side.

“And who is this lovely creature?”

“Juliet,” Chance said. “She’s…,” he turned to look at her with a strained expression. “She’s a part of this as well.”

“Ah,” Jacob said, nodding in understanding. “Collateral damage is one of the downsides of our world. That’s why I, myself have never married. Fortunately, it leaves me available for all the lovely women out there.”

Katherine gave a sarcastic snort at that.

“They’re both here because they both have a right to know everything that is going on.”

Jacob shrugged, nodding his head in understanding.

As they took their seats, Chance looked over at Juliet who had been quiet all morning. Her body language spoke volumes: the way she didn’t immediately respond to his touch; the way she ever so subtly pulled away from him to take her seat; the eyes that were focused on the ground in thought; the firm set to her lips.

One would have to be blind not to see that she was having serious misgivings about this whole endeavor, perhaps about him as well.

“So you’re interested in the participating in the game I take it,” Jacob said with a pleased smile. “I should have known tempting you with that juicy tidbit would get you to bite. You are your father’s son. Poker’s in your blood.”

Chance didn’t want his father being brought up at all. He had enough emotions to keep in check right now. Starting with the ones he had about the woman sitting next to him, who was still staring at the table, her mind no doubt working a mile a minute.

“Just tell us if this game is legit, Jacob,” Katherine said, then leaned in to give him a direct stare. “I need to make sure my son is actually coming back home to his mother.”

Jacob gave both of them a placating smile. “The game is legitimate. I’ve propositioned both parties and they are interested in what you are offering. The usual rules will apply of course.”

Both Chance and Katherine knew those rules backward and forward, having spent a good number of years around Jackson McCoy.

“What rules are those?” Juliet asked, looking up for the first time.

Jacob raised his eyebrows at her. “No phones, no weapons, no friends, or associates. Just you and poker.” He turned to Chance with a smile. “Right?”

“So basically, Chance will be sitting there with two known mobsters. Because that’s what they are right?”

Jacob just pursed his lips, as though answering that question would be distasteful.

“I’ll take that as a yes. So he’ll be there defenseless. And the rest of us will be stuck here hoping nothing happens to us in the meantime, or after the fact?”

“Juliet,” Chance said in a warning tone, watching her face and body become more and more animated.

“Don’t tell me it’s going to be okay, Chance. First that damn bear and now this,” she said shaking her head in frustration.

“What’s this about a bear?” Jacob said, totally lost.

Juliet ignored him, turning to Chance with an accusatory stare. “They’ll kill you, you know it. And when they’re done with you, they’ll come for me. And maybe your mother. Who knows, maybe they’ll even throw in my family for good measure. That’s what these people do, right?”

“Now, now. It would never come to that,” Jacob interjected.

“Stop it,” she said sitting up in her chair. “Everyone stop telling me it’s going to be okay or that I’m going to be fine or that this is just a silly game of poker. It’s not. This is not normal!”

She began breathing heavier and her eyes darted wildly around the table. “I can’t believe this. What the hell am I even doing here? This—this is not my life. I’m a college professor. I go to spin class and Starbucks and spend boring Saturdays watching Netflix. I don’t get involved with underground poker games or the mob or the—the Bratva,” she spat the name as she gave Chance a hard look, “or whatever you call it.”

Everyone around the table was too stunned to interrupt her.

She stood up and frowned at Chance. “I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I should have known from the start. You are nothing like the men I’ve dated before. I thought that was a good thing. And yes, it was fun, but it’s not fun anymore. I need to go back to men who are…normal.”

Chance felt his temperature rise and he knew his eyes were getting dark. He wouldn’t let that one go. “You mean the doctors and lawyers? The men who are so much better than me?”

Now he was standing, giving Juliet a hard look that she shot right back at him.

“You know what? Yes. Yes, they are better than you. They at least wouldn’t get me killed.”

“So you’re blaming me for all this? In case you’d forgotten I’m a victim here too Juliet.”

“And I’m only a victim because I decided to go slumming for two weeks,” she spat.

A stunned look came to his face. Even though he could see the instant regret in her eyes when she said it, those words were meant to sting hard.

He thought about last night. How they had made love so fiercely. He thought about the absolute assurance Juliet wanted from him that he would come back to her. He thought of how she had sleepily told him she loved him. Everything from the past two weeks was completely destroyed by those words from her mouth.

Chance tensed his muscles in response, hardening his jaw. He had no choice but to give it right back to her. Show her how it felt to be whittled down to nothing more than a piece of meat. If they were going to end this thing, he had no problem sending her off with a bitter little pill to swallow. “Well, I have to say. For someone who was nothing more than a two-week fuck buddy to me, you’ve certainly caused your own share of headaches.”

Juliet gasped, a stunned look on her face. Then she slapped him hard across the face. She looked at him defiantly, as though daring him to slap her back.

Chance wasn’t about to go that far. The last thing he needed was to have the police storming in. As it was everyone in the restaurant was already focused on them. “Go then. Good luck with your fucking doctors and lawyers. Good riddance.”

She stared at him a moment longer, then stormed out.

Katherine gave a loud sniff. “Well, I certainly overestimated that one. What were you thinking, Chance?” she said giving him a look of disdain.

Jacob still looked stunned by the whole scenario. His eyes were on Chance as he settled back down in his chair. He could feel the expression of shock and defeat on his face.

“Collateral damage,” Jacob said ruefully. “Perhaps this is for the best, Chance. You have a lot on your plate.”

“Fuck her,” Chance said coldly. “Just tell me what I need to do to get this ball rolling.”

Jacob gave him one last sympathetic look, then exhaled and got down to business.

“First of all, do you have the money?”

Chance looked at his mother. Her eyes darted briefly away.

“We have the money,” he assured Jacob.

He sat back with a satisfied air. “Good. Good. It’s also good that you were restrained in your terms. I know both of you would like to see these men dead, but let’s face it, that won’t be happening.”

He looked at Chance. “However, if Leo is out before you, the debt you and Chip owe is gone and you’re free to play poker…unless you lose to Peter in which case he gets his way.

“If you win to Peter, then he’ll give up the actual man who murdered your father. That’s the best you’ll get.”

So Peter Antonov was a coward and a rat.

“And if I lose?”

“Aside from the money? You all have to let bad blood lay. No seeking out revenge, either on your own or through…associates.” He gave Katherine a meaningful look. She gave nothing away in her expression.