Game Over (2010) by Michaels Fern

Author:Michaels, Fern [Fern, Michaels,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-01-14T19:11:25.046000+00:00

Chapter 15

It was totally dark outside, but there were stars in the sky when the group left the dining hall, stuffed to the gills, as Jack put it. They chattered among themselves as they walked through the melting snow to the command center.

Inside, they shed their outerwear and their rubber boots. The men knew the drill and stayed in the main room, while the women followed Charles to the command center to plot strategy.

“Gather round, boys. A little five-card stud.” Bert whipped out a deck of cards from a drawer in the coffee table.

Ted removed the candy bowl and a stack of magazines and books. They all sat down cross-legged and watched as Bert shuffled the deck.

A box of elbow macaroni was plopped in the middle of the table by Espinosa. “Because,” he said virtuously, “gambling is illegal.”

The others hooted and hollered at this over-the-top declaration.

Still miffed with his current financial situation, Ted started to grumble. “This is pissing me off, gentlemen. We’re members of the vigilantes, and yet we can’t sit in on the strategy-planning meetings. Why the hell is that?” Not waiting for a reply, he rumbled on. “We do the legwork, put our asses on the line, but we have to sit out here.”

“Shut up, Robinson. You’re whining,” Harry said. “I think they think we couldn’t handle it. They’re wrong, of course, but then again, they’re women.”

Jack smacked his friend on the back. “Jesus, Harry, that was profound.”

“Deal,” Espinosa said as he counted out the elbow macaroni. Each player received ten pieces of pasta.

Around the corner, in the hallway that led to the command center, Nikki poked her head out. Satisfied the guys were indeed playing cards, she whispered to Kathryn, “None of them have a clue about gambling. And not one of them has a poker face. I bet if we sat down with them, we could clean them out in minutes just by watching their expressions.”

Kathryn giggled as she watched Bert try to come to terms with his hand.

“Annie and Myra, excellent poker players that they are, could wipe up the floor with all of them,” Nikki whispered.

The moment Nikki and Kathryn took their seats at the table, Charles called the meeting to order, and Myra took the floor. “Lizzie is our first order of business. We need to decide right now how we want to handle all of this. Maggie?”

“Why don’t we set up the webcam and talk to her face-to-face? Let’s let her make the decision for us,” Maggie suggested. “She has got to be sick to her soul that Martine Connor would abuse their friendship after all Lizzie and the rest of us did for her. To play Lizzie like that is unforgivable. But we have to bear in mind that Lizzie is not supposed to know any of this. It is entirely possible that the president has some game plan in mind, and we aren’t reading it right. It’s a slim possibility, but it nonetheless exists.”

“We can put a plan in place to ensure that Lizzie gets the nomination, if that’s what she wants.

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