Riverboat Named Desire by Jovana

Author:Jovana [Jovana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2018-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The cabin was smoky and close. As soon as Lila entered, she was hit with an overwhelming odor of cigars mixed with cologne that was being quickly stifled by the stinging hint of whiskey. A round, green-topped card table sat in the center with six men sitting around it. In among the playing cards were stacks of colorful chips, shot glasses, tall bottles of half-filled amber liquid, and mugs of beer. Some of the cowboys looked as if they’d just come in off the range with six-guns strapped to their hips while others dressed like rich riverboat gamblers or oil men in lace-edged shirts, vests, string ties, and Derringers.

The rich ones looked as if they belonged there, but the cowboys had a look of hunger in their eyes. The higher the pot grew, the more they sweated until they had bet everything they had and still lost. Depending on who lost and who won, there might be hearty laughter, or foul language. Those that lost wanted to blame their bad luck on everything except their lack of skill. All had a predatory look in their eyes, their gazes shifting around the table, watching each other. The cabin was filled with a dappled darkness from the wall sconces. Sweat glistened on their foreheads, and flames inside the globes leapt as if from some imaginary wind.

Clint was right. It was a cabin filled with tension, right down to the table of food that looked as if it had been picked over. For some reason, the whole scene frightened her. She could tell at a glance that these men were dangerous. The look and the feel of the cabin deflated her, and she felt like wilting right down through the cracks in the plank floor.

Did she have the courage to carry out her plan?

When she moved further into the cabin, the darting glances from the men felt like daggers. Scowls from some, blatant interest from others, made a chill creep up her spine. She stood there watching, and then whispered to Clint, “When do you and Val play?”

“When the table is full, we have to wait until someone folds, and then one of us takes his place.”

“How long does the game last?”

“It can go on for days.”

Days? She wanted to scream! Was she expected to sit here for days? She’d been frightened before, but the thought of hanging around this stuffy cabin for days gave her backbone the steel it needed. She looked the men over, deciding which one she would approach. The one that looked the least dangerous was a pot-bellied, half-bald farmer. Lila didn’t have time to put her plan into motion before a rough looking cowboy itching to put a notch on his gun took out his six-gun and laid it on the table. Moving hands passing out flying cards suddenly stopped.

“I saw that, friend,” the cowboy said.

Lila looked at the dealer whose dark, midnight gaze darted over at him. “And what is it you think you saw, Dakota?”

“You’re

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.