Dealing Her Final Card. Jennie Lucas
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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.”