Keeping Christmas by B.J. Daniels

Author:B.J. Daniels
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2006-08-09T22:00:00+00:00

CARL BONNER STOOD behind the two-way mirror that allowed him to look into the Ashbury Room and watch the poker game—and Oliver Lancaster.

Carl had kept an eye on Oliver from the first. Not that he’d told Beau. He watched Oliver dig himself a hole the arrogant bastard would never be able to climb out of.

“How much has he lost?” Carl asked the man who’d let him into this room.

“Tonight? Over a hundred thousand.”

Carl said nothing as he mentally totaled just how deep Oliver was down. And the fool kept playing, like all gamblers, believing eventually he would win.

He’d never liked Oliver and over the years had grown to despise him. Oliver was a lousy husband and father. Carl was tired of seeing the man hurt Rebecca.

Carl watched Oliver sweat. Beauregard paid Oliver well, but not well enough to lose this kind of money almost every night of the week. Oliver had to be getting desperate to cover his compulsive gambling—and his debts. He couldn’t go to Beauregard. Nor Rebecca.

So who did that leave poor Oliver?

Ace, Carl thought, with a smile. Only Oliver would be stupid enough to go to a known criminal for help.

“Put more pressure on him,” Carl told the man waiting next to him. “Let him play, though. Don’t worry, I’ll see that he meets his obligations.”

“As you say, sir.”

Yes, Carl thought as he left. As I say. Carl turned and saw another window, this one into the Bradbury Room. Like other nights he’d come here to check on Oliver, Carl saw Mason sitting at one of the poker tables.

“What about Mr. Roberts?” Carl asked.

The man hesitated and Carl had to look hard at him for a moment before the man said, “He enjoys a good game. He wins some, loses some. He always quits before he loses too much.”

Yes, that sounded just like Mason. Careful. But still a gambler at heart.

“You can tell a lot about a man by the way he plays cards, don’t you think?” Carl said.

“Yes, sir. I assume that’s why you don’t play.”

Carl laughed. Life was enough of a gamble, he thought as he followed the man out. Not that a man didn’t have to take chances. Otherwise, he was doomed to live a truly mediocre existence. No one knew that better than Carl Bonner. He remembered the day that he’d changed his luck and his life so many years before—with just one roll of the dice.

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