Dealing Her Final Card

“Sorry, Bree,” Vladimir said casually, and he tossed his card on the table.

Bree stared down at the King of Diamonds.

Her mind went blank. Then a tremble went through her, starting at her toes and shaking her body as she looked up at Vladimir, her eyes wide and uncomprehending.

“You … you’ve …” Bree couldn’t speak the words.

“I’ve won.” Vladimir looked at her, his blue eyes electric with dislike. He rose from his chair, all six feet four inches of him, and said coldly, “You have ten minutes to pack. I will collect my winnings in the lobby.”

As she gaped up at him he walked around the table to stand over her, so close she could feel the warmth of his body. He leaned over, his face inches from hers.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said softly. “But now, at last, Bree Dalton …” his lips slid into a hard, sensual smile “… you are mine.”

Only the most innocent touch can melt their ice-cold hearts

Introducing the notoriously ruthless and devilishly sexy Princes Kasimir and Vladimir Xendzov: two brothers torn apart by the past, bitter rivals in the present.

Vladimir’s enemy is most definitely in his sight—he can’t take his eyes off her! But she’s played her final card … and he knows he’s going to win.

DEALING HER FINAL CARD

February 2013

Kasimir will consume everything in his path on his road to revenge … even if the obstacle standing in his way is five feet five inches of pure desire.

A REPUTATION FOR REVENGE

March 2013

About the Author

JENNIE LUCAS grew up dreaming about faraway lands. At fifteen, hungry for experience beyond the borders of her small Idaho city, she went to a Connecticut boarding school on scholarship. She took her first solo trip to Europe at sixteen, then put off college and travelled around the US, supporting herself with jobs as diverse as gas station cashier and newspaper advertising assistant.

At twenty-two she met the man who would be her husband. After their marriage she graduated from Kent State with a degree in English. Seven years after she started writing she got the magical call from London that turned her into a published author.

Since then life has been hectic, with a new writing career, a sexy husband and two small children, but she’s having a wonderful (albeit sleepless) time. She loves immersing herself in dramatic, glamorous, passionate stories. Maybe she can’t physically travel to Morocco or Spain right now, but for a few hours a day, while her children are sleeping, she can be there in her books.

Jennie loves to hear from her readers. You can visit her website at www.jennielucas.com, or drop her a note at jennie@jennielucas.com

Recent titles by the same author:

TO LOVE, HONOUR AND BETRAY

A NIGHT OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

RECKLESS NIGHT IN RIO

THE VIRGIN’S CHOICE

Did you know these are also available as eBooks?

Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dealing Her Final Card

Jennie Lucas

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

“BREE, wake up!”

A hand roughly shook Bree Dalton awake. Startled, she sat up with a gasp, blinking in the darkness.

Her younger sister was sitting on the edge of the bed. Tears sparkled on Josie’s pale cheeks in the moonlight.

“What’s happened?” Bree dropped her bare feet to the tile floor, ready to run, ready to fight anyone who had made her baby sister cry. “What’s wrong?”

Josie took a deep breath.

“I really messed up this time.” She wiped her eyes. “But before you freak out, I want you to know it’s going to be fine. I know how to fix it.”

Rather than be comforted by this statement, Bree felt deepening fear. Her twenty-two-year-old sister, six years younger than Bree, had a knack for getting into trouble. And she was wearing the short, sexy dress of a Hale Ka’nani cocktail waitress instead of their gray housekeeping smock.

“Were you working at the bar?” Bree demanded.

“Still worried about some man hitting on me?” Josie barked a bitter laugh. “I wish that was the problem.”

“What is it, then?”

Josie ran a hand over her eyes. “I’m tired, Bree,” she whispered. “You gave up everything to take care of me. When I was twelve, I needed that, but now I am so tired of being your burden—”

“I’ve never thought of you that way,” Bree said, stung.

Josie looked at her clasped hands. “I thought this was my chance to pay off those debts, so we could go back to the Mainland. I’ve been practicing in secret. I thought I knew how to play. How to win.”

A chill went down Bree’s spine.

“You gambled?” she said numbly.

“It fell into my lap.” Josie exhaled, visibly shivering in the warm Hawaiian night. “I’d finished cleaning the wedding reception in the ballroom when I ran into Mr. Hudson. He offered to pay me overtime if I’d serve drinks at his private poker game at midnight. I knew you’d say no, but I thought, just this once …”

“I told you not to trust him!”

“I’m sorry,” Josie cried. “When he invited me to join them at the table, I couldn’t say no!”

Bree clawed back her long blond hair. “What happened?”

“I won,” Josie said defiantly. Then she swallowed. “At least I did for a while. Then I started losing. First I lost the chips I’d won, then I lost our grocery money, and then …”

Cold understanding went through Bree. She finished dully, “Then Mr. Hudson kindly offered to loan you whatever you needed.”

Josie’s mouth fell open. “How did you know?”

Because Bree knew bullies like Greg Hudson and how they tried to gain the upper hand. She’d met his type before, long ago, in the life she’d given up ten years ago—before she’d fallen in love, and her life had fallen apart. Before the man she loved had betrayed her, leaving her to the sheriff and the wolves—orphaned and penniless at eighteen, with a heartbroken twelve-year-old sister.

But oh, yes. Bree knew Greg Hudson’s type. She closed her eyes, feeling sick as she thought of the hotel manager’s hard eyes above his jovial smile, of his cheerful Hawaiian shirt that barely covered his fat belly. The resort manager had slept with many of his female employees, particularly amongst the lower-paid housekeeping staff. In the two months since the Dalton sisters had arrived in Hawaii, Bree had wondered more than once why he’d gone to such trouble to hire them from Seattle. He claimed the girls had been recommended by their employment agency, but that didn’t ring true. Surely there were many people looking for jobs here in Honolulu.

Josie had laughed at her, teasing her for being “gloomy and doomy,” but as Bree had scrubbed the bathrooms and floors of the lavish resort, she’d tried to solve the puzzle in her mind, and her bad feeling only grew. Especially when their boss made it clear over the past few weeks that he was interested in Josie. And made it equally clear the one he really wanted was Bree.

But of course Josie, with her innocent, trusting spirit, never noticed evil around her. She didn’t fully understand why Bree had given up gambling, and insisted they work only low-wage jobs for the ten years since their father died, keeping them under the radar of unscrupulous, dangerous men. Josie didn’t know how wicked the world could be.

Bree did.

“Gambling doesn’t pay.” She kept her voice calm. “You should know that by now.”

“You’re wrong. It does!” Josie said angrily. “We had plenty of money ten years ago.” She turned and looked wistfully at the window, toward the moonlit Hawaiian night. “And I thought if I could just be more like you and Dad …”

“You were using us as role models? Have you lost your mind?” Bree exploded. “I’ve spent the last decade trying to give you a different life!”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Josie cried. “What you’ve sacrificed for me?”

Bree took a deep breath. “It wasn’t just for you.” Her throat ached as she rose to her feet. “How much money did you lose tonight?”

For a moment, her sister didn’t answer. Outside, Bree heard the distant plaintive call of seabirds as Josie stared mutinously at the floor, arms folded. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely audible.

“A hundred.”

Bree felt relief so fierce she almost cried. She’d been so afraid it would be worse. Reaching out, she gave her sister’s shoulder a squeeze. “It’ll be all right.” She exhaled in relief. “Our budget will be tight, but we’ll just eat a little more rice and beans this month.” Wiping her eyes, she tried to smile. “Let this be a good lesson …”

But Josie hadn’t moved from the end of the bed. She looked up, her face pale.

“A hundred thousand, Bree,” she whispered. “I owe Mr. Hudson a hundred thousand dollars.”

For a second, Bree couldn’t understand the words. Lingering tears of relief burned her eyes like acid as she stared at her sister.

A hundred thousand dollars.

Turning away, Bree started to pace, compulsively twisting a long tendril of blond hair into a tight ringlet around her finger as she struggled to make sense of all her worst fears coming true. She tried to control her shaking hands. Tried desperately to think of a way out.

“But I told you, you don’t have to worry!” Josie blurted out. “I have a plan.”

Bree stopped abruptly. “What is it?”

“I’m going to sell the land.”

Her eyes went wide as she stared at her sister.

“There’s no choice now. Even you must see that,” Josie argued, blinking fast as she clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “We’ll sell it, pay off the debt, and then pay off those men who are after us. You’ll finally be free—”

“That land is in trust.” Bree’s voice was hard. “You don’t get possession until you’re twenty-five or married. So put it out of your mind.”

Josie shook her head desperately. “But I know how I could—”

“You can’t,” she said coldly. “And even if you could, I wouldn’t let you. Dad put that land into an unbreakable trust for a reason.”

“Because he thought I was helpless to take care of myself.”

“Because from the day you were born, you’ve had a knack for trusting people and believing the best of them.”

“You mean I’m stupid and naive.”

Controlling herself, Bree clenched her hands at her sides.

“It’s a good quality, Josie,” she said quietly. “I wish I had more of it.”

And it was true. Josie had always put concern for others over her own safety and well-being. As a chubby girl of five, she’d once wandered out of their Alaskan cabin into the snow, hoping to find their neighbor’s cat, which had disappeared the day before. Eleven-year-old Bree had searched their rural street with their panicked father and half a dozen neighbors for hours, until they’d finally found her, lost in the forest, dazed and half-frozen.

Josie had nearly died that day, for the sake of a cat that was found later, snug and warm in a nearby barn.

Bree took a deep breath. Her little sister’s heart was as big as the world. It was why she needed someone not nearly so kind or innocent to protect her. “Are they still playing?”

“Yes,” Josie said in a small voice.

“Who’s at the table?”

“Mr. Hudson and a few owners. Texas Big-Hat, Silicon Valley, Belgian Bob,” she said, using the housekeeping staff’s nicknames for the villa owners. Her eyes narrowed. “And one more man I didn’t recognize. Handsome. Arrogant. He kicked me out of the game.” She scowled. “The others would’ve let me stay longer—”

“You would have just lost more,” Bree said coldly. Turning away, she went behind her closet door and yanked off her oversized sleep shirt, pulling on a bra and then a snug black T-shirt. “We’d owe a million dollars now, instead of just a hundred thousand.”

“It might as well be a million, for all our chance of paying,” Josie grumbled. “For all the good it will do them if I don’t sell that land. They can’t get blood out of a stone!”

Bree pulled on her skinny dark jeans over her slim legs. “And what do you think will happen when you don’t pay?”

“Mr. Hudson will make me scrub his floors for free?” she replied weakly.

Coming around the closet door, Bree stared at her in disbelief. “Scrub his floors?”

“What else can he do?”

Bree turned away, muttering to herself. Josie didn’t understand the situation she was dealing with. How could she? Bree had made it her mission in life to protect her from knowing.

She’d hoped they would find peace in Hawaii, three thousand miles away from the ice and snow of Alaska. She’d prayed she would find her own peace, and finally stop dreaming of the blue-eyed, dark-haired man she’d once loved. But it hadn’t worked. Every night, she still felt Vladimir’s arms around her, still heard his low, sensual voice. I love you, Breanna. She still saw the brightness of his eyes as he held up a sparkling diamond beneath the Christmas tree. Will you marry me?

Ugh. Furiously, Bree pushed the memory away. No wonder she still hated Christmas. Let other women go home to their turkeys and children and brightly lit trees. To Bree, yesterday had been just another workday. She never let herself remember that one magical Christmas night when she was eighteen, when she’d wanted to change her life to be worthy of Vladimir’s love. The night she’d promised herself that she would never—for any reason—gamble or cheat or lie again. Even though he’d left her, she’d kept that promise.

Until now. She reached into the back of her closet, pulling out her black boots with the sharp stiletto heels.

“Bree?” Josie said anxiously.

Not answering, Bree sat down heavily on the bed. Putting her feet into her boots, she zipped up the backs. It was the first time she’d worn these stiletto boots since she was a rebellious teenager with a flexible conscience and a greedy heart. It took Bree back to the woman she’d never thought she would be again. The woman she’d have to be tonight to save her sister. She glanced at the illuminated red letters of the clock. Three in the morning. A perfect time to start.

“Please, you don’t have to do this,” her sister whimpered. Her voice choked as she whispered helplessly, “I have a plan.”

Ignoring the guilt and anguish in her sister’s voice, Bree rose to her feet. “Stay here.” Squaring her shoulders, she severed the connection between her brain and her pounding heart. Emotion would only be a liability from here on out. “I’ll take care of it.”

“No! It’s my fault, Bree, and I can fix it. Listen. On Christmas Eve, I met a man who told me how …”

But Bree didn’t wait to hear whatever cockamamy sob story someone might have fed her softhearted sister this time. She grabbed her black leather motorcycle jacket and headed for the door.

“Bree, wait!”

She didn’t look back. She walked out of the tiny apartment and went down the open-air hallway to the moss-covered, crumbling concrete steps of the aging building where all the Hale Ka’nani Resort’s staff lived.

It’s just like riding a bike, Bree told herself fiercely as she raced down the steps. Even after ten years away from the game, she could win at poker. She could.

Warm trade winds blew against her cold skin. Pulling on her black leather jacket, she went down the illuminated paths of the five-star resort toward the beautiful, brand-new buildings used by wealthy tourists and the even wealthier villa owners, clustered around the edge of a private, white-sand beach.

My heart is cold, she repeated to herself. I feel nothing.

The moon was full over the Pacific, leaving a ghostly trail across the black water. Palm trees swayed in the warmth of the Hawaiian breeze. She heard the distant call of night birds, smelled the exotic scent of fruit and spice mingling with the salt of the sea.

Above her, dark silhouettes of tall, slender palm trees swayed in a violet sky twinkling with stars. Even with the bright full moon, the night seemed black to her, wide and endless as the sea. She followed the illuminated path around the deserted pool between the beach and the main lobby. As she grew closer to the beach, she heard the sound of the surf build to a roar.

The open-air bar was nearly empty beneath its long thatched roof. Hanging lights swayed in the breeze over a few drunk tourists and cuddling honeymooners. Bree nodded at the tired-eyed bartender, then went past the bar into a connecting hall that led to the private rooms reserved for the villa owners and their guests. Where rich men brought their cheap mistresses and played private, illegal games.

Opening the door, Bree stumbled in her stiletto boots.

Clenching her hands at her sides, she took a deep breath and told her heart to be a lump of ice. Cold. Cold. Cold. She had no feelings of any kind. Poker was easy. By the time she was fourteen, she’d been fleecing tourists in Alaskan ports. And she’d learned the best way not to show emotion was not to feel it in the first place.

Never play with your heart, kiddo. Only a sucker plays with his heart. Even if you win, you lose.

Her father had said those words to her a million times growing up, but she’d still had to learn the hard way. Once, she’d played with all her heart. And lost—everything.

Don’t think about it. But in spite of her best efforts, the memory brought a chill of fear. She’d been so determined to leave that life behind. What if she’d forgotten how to play? What if she’d lost her gift? What if she couldn’t lure the men in, convince them to let her ante up without money, and get the cards she needed—or bluff them into believing she had?

If she failed at this, then … Bree felt a flash of sweat on her forehead. Running for the Mainland might be their only option. Or, since they had no money or credit cards and it was doubtful they’d even make it to the airport before they were caught, swimming for the Mainland.

She exhaled, forcing her body to calm down and her heart to slow. It’s just poker, she told herself firmly. Your heart is cold. You feel nothing.

Bree went all the way down the long, air-conditioned hall. A large man weighing perhaps three hundred pounds sat at a polished oak door.

She forced a crooked smile in his direction. “Hey, Kai.”

The enormous security guard nodded with a single jerk of his chins. “What you doing here, Bree? Saw your sister take off. She sick or something?”

“Something like that.”

“You working in her place?” Kai frowned, looking over her dark, tight jeans, her black leather jacket and black stiletto boots. “Where’s the uniform?”

“This is my outfit.” Her voice was cool as she stared him down. “For poker.”

“Oh.” His round, friendly face looked confused. “Well. Okay. Go in, then.”

“Thanks.” Forcing the ice in her voice to fully infuse her heart, she pushed open the door.

The private room for the villa residents had a cavernous ceiling and no windows. The walls were soundproofed with thick red fabric that swooped from a center point on the ceiling. The effect made the room glamorous and cozy and claustrophobic all at once. To Bree, it felt like entering the tent of a sheikh’s harem. But as she approached the wealthy men who were playing at the single large table, if there was a stab of fear down her spine, she didn’t feel it.

She’d succeeded. She’d turned off her heart.

There were no women players. The only females in the room stood in a circle behind the men, smiling with hawkish red lips, wearing low-cut, tight silk gowns. At the table, she saw the dealer, Chris—what was his last name?—whose eyes widened with surprise when he saw her.

The four players at the table were Greg Hudson and three owners she recognized: a Belgian land developer, a long-mustached oil man from Texas and a short, bald tycoon from Silicon Valley. But where was the arrogant stranger Josie had mentioned? Had he already quit the game?

Whatever. It was time to play.

In her black leather jacket and jeans, Bree pushed through the venomous, overdressed women. Without a word, she sat down at one of the two empty seats at the table around the dealer, beside Greg Hudson.

“Deal me in,” she said coolly.

The men blinked, staring at her in shock that was almost comical. One of the men snorted a laugh. Another frowned. “Another cocktail waitress?” one scoffed.

“Actually,” Bree said with a grin, “I’m with the housekeeping staff, and so was my sister.”

The men glanced at each other uncertainly.

“Well, well. Bree Dalton.” Greg Hudson licked his lips, looking at her with beady eyes in his florid, sweaty face. “So. Did you bring the hundred thousand dollars your sister owes me?”

“You know we don’t have that kind of money.”

“Then I’ll send my men to take it out of her hide.”

Bree’s knees shook beneath the table, but she did not feel fear. Her body might feel whatever it liked, but she’d disconnected it from her heart. Crossing her legs, she leaned back in her chair. “I will play for her debt.”

“You!” He snorted. “What will you wager? This game has a five-thousand-dollar buy-in. You could scrub the bathrooms of the entire Hale Ka’nani Resort for years and not have that kind of money.”

“I offer a trade.”

“You have nothing of value.”

“I have myself.”

Her boss stared at her, then licked his lips. “You mean—”

“Yes. I mean you could have me in bed.” She looked at him steadily, feeling nothing. Her skin felt cold, her heart as frozen as the blue iceberg that sank the Titanic. “You wanted me, Mr. Hudson. Here I am.”

There was a low whistle, an intake of breath around the room.

Bree slowly gazed around the table. She had everyone’s complete attention. Without flinching, she let her gaze taunt each man in turn, all of them larger, older and more powerful than she could ever be. “Who will take the gamble?”

“Well now.” Looking her over, the Texas oil baron thoughtfully tilted back his cowboy hat. “This game just got a lot more interesting.”

In the corner of her eye, she saw a dark, hulking shadow come around the table. A man sat down in the empty chair on the other side of the dealer, and Bree instantly turned to him with languid eyes. “Allow me to join your game, and I could be yours….”

Bree’s voice choked off midsentence as she sucked in her breath.

She knew those cold blue eyes. The high cheekbones, sharp as a razor blade. The strong jaw that proclaimed ruthless, almost thuggish strength. So powerful, so darkly handsome, so sensual.

So impossible.

“No,” she whispered. Not after ten years. Not here. “It can’t be.”

Vladimir Xendzov’s eyes narrowed with recognition, and then she felt the rush of his sudden searing hatred like fire.

“Have you met Prince Vladimir?” Greg Hudson purred.

“Prince?” Bree choked out. She was unable to look away from Vladimir’s face, the face of the man she’d dreamed about unwillingly for the past ten years.

His cruel, sensual lips curved as he leaned back in his chair.

“Miss Dalton,” he drawled. “I didn’t know you were in Hawaii. And gambling. What a pleasant surprise.”

His low, husky voice, so close to her, so real, caused a shiver across her skin. She stared at him in shock.