Page 18 of Bound to Him
“Mr. Bouchard,” he drawled. “Care to share the word of the week with me?”
“Swiss mistake,” I said and grinned.
“Can’t wait for that password to change,” the man said with a sigh, not bothering to straighten up. “Derek thinks he’s funny. Go ahead, sir.”
“Have a good night,” I said, because it never hurt to lay on some charm with the doormen here, and I went inside with Noah’s hand still firmly in mine.
“What was that?”
I smirked at him. “We’re at New Gothenburg’s casino and he’s a guard here.” Inside I was waved quickly past another guard with a clipboard who didn’t even bother checking for my name.
Noah’s brows furrowed as he stared around himself. “New Gothenburg doesn’t have a casino. I think there’s some gambling at the Yacht Club, but that’s it.”
The guard snorted out a small laugh, but he was on his way to the front door.
Dragging Noah along now, I pushed between two thick black curtains, and the noise and light of the first floor washed over us. The white walls were so bright I blinked for a few seconds. Men and women were spread out around the large room that could probably hold everyone who was supposedly showing up to our wedding tomorrow plus a few. There were at least twenty different gaming tables, maybe more, because it seemed like it had changed up a bit since the last time I’d been here for casual play. Noah gawked and his mouth fell open, and it was a special treat to touch his chin and close it for him. He glared at me as I guided him toward the stairs in the front corner of the room. There was a black board with the wordRoulettestuck on it in white plastic letters along with an arrow pointing up.
“You want to play that?” he asked.
“No,” I said with a chuckle.
We went up the stairs but didn’t stop on the second floor. We kept going to the third floor and came out on a landing in front of a heavy gold metal door with two bulky security men in front of it. I liked to stay in shape, but they looked like they swallowed a side of steroids with breakfast every morning. They wore earpieces and had semiautomatic guns strapped to their chests, which I doubted were for show. Noah cringed against my side and stepped slightly behind me. My chest puffed up, and I didn’t hate that he trusted me to keep him safe. I nodded to the men, and they smiled.
The man on the left took the duffel bag from me. “How much, Mr. Bouchard?” he asked, raising and lowering the bag with one hand. “Twenty-five?”
“Thirty.”
He smiled and nodded. “To the dollar?”
“Oh yes, you have my word on that. Had it counted twice.”
“And what is your bet?” the man on the right asked.
“The red seat. Fourth trigger.”
“Very good, sir.” The man on the right tapped something into his phone, I guessed my bet, and Noah squinted at the men and me as if he couldn’t decide who his glaring would affect most; sorry to say, the answer to that was none of us. The man on the left opened the door wide and let us go inside.
Derek Uhlig, the entrepreneur who ran this joint, called this the Finale Room if you asked about it, and it wasn’t exceptionally large, probably about the size of a basketball court from wall to wall, with four levels of standard tiered seating made up of black leather chairs that ran the entirety of each level of the room. There was a dull roar from all the conversations happening, and nearly every seat was filled, but an attendant led us to two good chairs on the floor level, right in front of a thick glass box, about the size of an elevator cab, set dead in the middle. Inside was a black chair and a red chair.
The confused furrow on Noah’s brow was exceptionally adorable. I squeezed his hand, and he jumped, almost like he’d forgotten I was holding it. “What is this?”
“You’ll see,” I said quietly and touched his shoulder, putting pressure there until he sank into the seat beside mine. I sat and nodded at the man to my left, but he was busy gabbing on his phone.
“I thought we were going to dinner?” Noah asked, and as I stared around I began to have second thoughts. I’d been pissed off before we left, and I should’ve been the better man, but now we were already here.
I tightened my grip on his hand, and he glared but let me hold it on my thigh. “We will.” I winked at him. “After a quick game.”
“Whyare we here? What are we seeing? This isn’t horse racing or anything. My dad took me to casinos before because he sometimes likes to bet. I’ve never been in a room like this.” He bit at the inside of his cheek, and I leaned over, unable to stop myself. I brushed a kiss onto his mouth, and he shoved me away. I couldn’t let that go, so I pushed forward and sucked on his bottom lip until he stopped and let me do it. There was the smallest sound from him and the tension eased out of his shoulders.
I sat back. “Was it so hard to let me kiss you?”
“No, husband,” he ground out through gritted teeth.
“In answer to your question, we’re here to let those men over there see you with me.” I glanced at four men sitting on the other side of the rectangle of seats surrounding the box in the center of the room. They were busy talking with one another, but I knew I’d been spotted. They weren’t the type to miss much.
“Who are they?”
Smiling, I turned in my chair toward Noah, and he glared at me with those pretty gray eyes he’d inherited. It was strange because I’d never thought Edison was all that attractive, but on Noah the gray was spectacular. “You don’t know?”
