In The Darkness (Project Artemis #1)(47)
Roman began shuffling the cards. “Bad for Dax but good for me. I don’t leave until later tonight, so I get to see if I can win some of the money I lost to you guys last time we played.”
Xavier spread the stacks of chips out in front of him and held up a purple one. “What’s this?”
“You’re in the big leagues now, X,” Hunter said with a chuckle. “That’s a five hundred dollar chip.”
For a moment, the young hacker looked a little surprised. They’d always only played with white chips for a dollar, red for five, blue for ten, green for twenty-five, and black for a hundred.
“Five hundred, huh? Well, when in Rome,” Xavier said with a cocky grin as he began to parse out the chips to each player like he usually did in their games.
As Roman began to deal out the first cards of five card stud, he looked over at Julian. “You play much poker?”
Nick watched as a slow smile spread across Julian’s face. “Oh, you know. Here and there.”
He hadn’t played before with him, but Nick had a feeling a man who had a photographic memory and experience counting cards would be able to hold his own just fine with the rest of them around the poker table.
“Well, since this isn’t blackjack, I think we’re safe,” Nick joked as he picked up his hole card to see what he got to match the seven of spades he had in his face up card.
An ace of diamonds. Certainly not the worst way to start a game.
He scanned the table and saw he had the lowest face up card, so he tossed a red chip into the center of the table. He had an ace, but better to start off slow. Their games had a tendency to go all night.
“I’m in for five.”
As everyone placed their bets, Marius asked, “So Persephone doesn’t have a problem with you spending your night here with us playing poker?”
Before he could answer, Gideon joked, “If it’s Nick, it’s losing at poker.”
Some things never changed.
Roman began dealing out the third card of the hand to everyone, and Nick saw he got a king of diamonds to go with his ace. Maybe Gideon would be proven wrong tonight.
Looking over at Marius, he said, “She had a few deliveries for the bedroom she wanted to deal with, so I’m sure she’s not missing me at all.”
No sooner had the word bedroom left his mouth, Gideon and Xavier began ribbing him with their sexual innuendo. Those two certainly never changed.
But as the game continued and he saw Roman deal him a king of hearts to go with his king of diamonds, he didn’t care as much that the two bust asses were at it again. Tossing out a blue chip into the pile, Nick liked his chances tonight.
Especially since both Gideon and Xavier both had garbage cards facing up on the table.
“Ten? You must have something good,” Hunter joked as he matched the bet.
Nick smiled but didn’t say a thing. He had more than something good now. He had a team of men he respected that he led doing the kind of work he’d always wanted to do. Even more, he had Persephone, someone he could finally share his life with.
He definitely had more than good in his life now.
Epilogue
After a long day of the seven new men getting used to being at the estate, Persephone knew more than ever she needed an assistant. Not that she didn’t appreciate the men Nick had brought on to Project Artemis, but dealing with all of them had proven to be exhausting, and it was only the first full day.
Climbing into her brand new tub, she closed her eyes as the hot water enveloped her, easing away the stress of the day moment by moment. Persephone slid her back down the smooth porcelain of the soaker tub until the water and lavender scented bubbles covered up to her chin.
She would have to get used to having all these people around her home from now on. For three years, she’d lived alone in her two-bedroom apartment and had gotten accustomed to being by herself.
But now all that had changed, and in exchange for her independence, she had a team of professionals who would help her achieve the goal that had become everything to her. That trade off was more than worth it, even if all that testosterone threatened to take over the estate after just one day.
“What is it with women and baths?” she heard Nick ask with a chuckle.
She opened her eyes to see him leaning against the doorframe a few feet away. Smiling at her, he repeated his question. “I’m serious. What is it with baths with women? Is it the bubbles?”
Lifting her arm out of the bubbly water, she smiled and blew a handful of suds toward him. “It’s a way to relax. You men have watching sports and eating chicken wings, and we women have soaker tubs full of bubbles. You don’t see me questioning your love of greasy chicken, do you?”
Nick took a step into the room and stopped. “So this is the famous tub you were talking about this morning. That explains why I haven’t seen you for hours.”
“You haven’t seen me for hours because I needed a break from all those men. There’s a cloud of testosterone hanging over this house and the whole estate. If I don’t get some women around me quick, this place is going to drive me out of my mind. I figured they’d all stay in their part of the house, but everywhere I turned today, one of them was there. In the kitchen when I wanted to grab an iced tea, Gideon and Xavier were there having some kind of heated discussion about which way hot dogs should be cooked. I thought it was going to end up in a fist fight.”