“So we have to figure out how to become the players.”

Each woman looked at Chance and he could see the agreement in their eyes.

“I think we’re going to need more bourbon,” Juliet said, still looking at him.

Katherine turned to her with a wry grin. “I think I’m beginning to like you.”

The three of them were sitting at Katherine’s dining room table with their glasses of bourbon in front of them. Chance was at the head with Katherine and Juliet on either side of him.

“So how do we become the players instead of the pawns?” Juliet finally asked.

“Find a way to beat them at their own game.”

“You mean poker? But you already play and play well, I thought.”

Chance gave his mother a look. She returned it and then looked away, bringing her glass up to her lips.

It wasn’t lost on Juliet. “What’s going on here?”

He turned to face her again, reaching out to take her hand. “Juliet, this isn’t a game of poker. This is a trap. Both of those men want me dead, almost as much as they want each other dead. They certainly aren’t going to let me walk out of there with not only three million dollars, but vengeance on my mind.”

She pulled her hand out of his and gave him an incredulous look. “What? Well then why the hell are you agreeing to play? Chance are you crazy?”

Neither of the other two said a word and she pushed her chair back to stand up. “Well?”

“Because it’s the only way to end this,” Katherine finally said, setting her glass down.

“Sit,” she said calmly, nodding to the chair Juliet had just leapt out of.

Juliet just stared at her.

“She’s right, Juliet. There’s only one reason why they would invite me. I’m not sure if they are in on it together—”

“They aren’t,” Katherine interrupted.

Now both Juliet and Chance were looking at her. She set her glass down. “You have no idea what it was like when I first married your father. I had been promised to Peter. I accepted it, it was my obligation.”

She smiled at them, then down into her glass. “Then I met your father. He was…like a breath of fresh air. So different from any man I’d known. He made me laugh. I knew that first night I was going to run away with him.”

She looked up at them again. “So I did. Peter never took a slight like that lying down, and I had humiliated him in front of every family in New York. We were hounded everywhere. Jackson couldn’t play at all on the east coast. He was beat up over and over. I honestly think they would have killed him eventually if not for my family putting a stop to it. Peter left it alone…or so I thought.” Her eyes clouded over, no doubt recalling the truth about how her husband had died.

“Now Peter has his chance for the ultimate revenge, my son. And he will take it, game or no game.”

Juliet sank into her chair.

“And Leo is paranoid enough to believe that we’ll hold Chip against him,” Chance said. “And he’d be right. So I have no choice but to play.”

Juliet looked back and forth between Chance and Katherine, then she took a long sip to consider everything they’d just said. Both of them waited, as if knowing she was coming to a decision.

She placed the glass down and stared at it for a while. Then she met their stares.

“So how do we kill two birds with one stone?”

* * *

“Cheating.”

The pizza had arrived and Juliet finished her bite. “You’re going to cheat? But you said that if you win then they’ll kill you.”

“Not me, them. We have to make them both think that the other is cheating.”

She gave a small laugh. “How do we get them to cheat?”

“We can’t,” he said. “But we can make it look like they did.”

“How?” Katherine asked. Juliet could hear the weariness in her voice. She could sympathize. This entire endeavor seemed overwhelming.

Chance fell back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

They all sat there staring at the half eaten pizza as their minds furiously went to work.

A few minutes later, Chance sat up with a thoughtful look on his face. “Mom, remember when Chip bought those magic trick cards? The design on back had little marks so you could guess what each card was. Dad threw them out because he said the McCoys weren’t cheats.”

She nodded, remembering it.

“So you’re going to sneak a trick deck of cards in?” Juliet asked doubtfully.

“No, but if there was a way I could mark the cards,” he said. His voice trailed off at the end as though he realized it was futile. He fell back in his seat with a look of intense concentration on his face.

“Yes!” Juliet said, an idea coming to her. She put her hands up, warning them to be still while she worked it out in her head.

The room was silent, as if the air itself was holding its breath. Then she snapped her fingers rapidly. “I’ve got it!”

She looked up at Chance. “Remember I told you about those glow in the dark stars my dad got me? During the day you could barely see them, but at night they glowed. There’s a gel that does the same thing.”

Both Chance and Katherine leaned forward, the air of hope in the room waking something in them.

“But how would we get this gel into the game?” Katherine asked.

A furrow came to Juliet’s brow. “Tell me everything about the game, from the moment you enter to the end.”

Chance began. “There’s a pat down. Every game. Mostly for weapons, but they look for any other contraband as well, so we’d have to be careful there. After that….”

When he was done, Juliet played around with everything she’d just heard. “So what can you take to the table?”

Chance went through the list. It was short.

Juliet thought some more. “What about jewelry?”

Chance gave her a considering look, then turned to his mother. Katherine had been watching Juliet with growing anticipation. Now she looked back at her son with a smile.

“The ring.”

“The ring,” he repeated.

* * *

“So it would have to be only the face cards,” Juliet said, “to make it seem legitimate.”

“Got it,” Chance said.

“You can’t do every card. It would just be a glow in the dark mess, and wouldn’t make sense. They’d just be confused, not suspicious. So when you get a face card, you just—”

“Rub the ring and mark an X. I got it.”

“Right. And make sure you go a few rounds before losing. Each of them needs to handle some of those cards at least a couple of times. When you turn off the lights they both have to think that the other was cheating. Otherwise—”

“Juliet,” Chance said reaching over to take her face in his hands. “I’ve got it.”

He knew she was just nervous, covering all bases on repeat for his sake.

“This is going to work. How can it not with that brain of yours at work?”

“Don’t say that,” she said, a wrinkle forming in her brow. “Already I’m thinking of all the ways it can go wrong.” She fell back in her chair. “Oh Chance, this is so risky. Are you sure about this? How do you even know they’ll both have guns?”

“They will. This isn’t a normal game, Juliet. This is a hit job. Definitely on me, probably on one another.”

Chance could see it all over her face. That did nothing to make her feel better. He needed to put her mind at ease, especially with what he was about to tell her.

“Juliet, this will work. You’ve come up with the plan. I’m the one acting on it. I’ll out of the game before either of them gets itchy fingers.”

She didn’t look convinced, but nodded all the same, probably realizing that her worrying was just making it worse. She gave a loud sigh.

“Okay, so I’ll get to work making the fake diamond. It’s the least I can do since—”

“No,” Chance said.

She blinked and then stared at him wide-eyed. “What?”

“I need you as removed from this as possible.”

“Chance,” she laughed. “Are you serious? No way am I leaving you in the middle of all this. We’re a team.”

“I’ll leave you two alone for a while,” Katherine said, rising out of her seat. She squeezed Chance’s shoulder as she passed by him.

Juliet watched her go with growing unease, then turned her attention back to Chance, waiting for him to explain.

“Juliet, if they think you mean anything to me at all, they’ll come after you. Especially if this plan fails…which it won’t,” he assured her.

“I already told you I can’t go to San Antonio. My family….”

“And I’m not asking you to. I don’t want them involved any more than you do. Which is all the more reason we have to make this seem real.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We need to break up.”