For Batter or Worse by Jenn McKinlay

Author:Jenn McKinlay [McKinlay, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Speculative
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

“My dude, you look like a pimp,” Oz said. He was sitting at the steel table in the bakery, taking in Marty’s poker outfit.

“Shows what you know,” Marty said. He tugged his shirtsleeves so they were just visible beneath the cuffs of his navy blue velvet jacket.

Angie had her head down but her shoulders were shaking and Mel suspected she was doing her best to keep from laughing out loud. The struggle was real. Mel opted to bite her tongue until the pain squashed any urge that she had to laugh.

“You look very dapper,” she said. “Very Frank Sinatra Rat Pack.”

“Without the hair,” Oz added.

Marty scowled at him.

“Who’s ready for some action?” Ray asked as he pushed through the bakery doors into the kitchen. Unlike Marty, he was dressed in black leather pants and an open-at-the-throat dress shirt, which again left the thick gold chain he wore around his neck visible. Mel tried not to wonder how he disentangled it from his chest hair without hurting himself. Al and Tony arrived next, looking reassuringly normal in jeans and T-shirts, followed by Paulie, who had kicked it up a notch by wearing a suit. Neither Sal nor Dominick were participating in the game and so far none of them had realized that they’d included Joe on the group text.

“I’m ready for a big hand,” Paulie said.

Angie rolled her eyes. “Paulie, you can’t even win at Yahtzee. What are you thinking, trying to play in a high-stakes poker game?”

“Yahtzee is for old ladies,” he protested. He ran a hand through his curly hair and tipped his chin up. “Texas Hold’em and me are like this.” He held up two crossed fingers.

“Really?” Al asked. “Because the last time you played it was more like this.” He made an obscene gesture with his hand and Ray slapped his hand down.

“Not in front of the girls,” he said.

“Girls?” Angie turned and looked at Mel. Her expression seemed to say Can you believe this guy?

Given that it was Ray, not known to be the most forward thinking of the DeLaura brothers, Mel shrugged. There was simply no enlightening Ray—besides, he was his girlfriend’s problem now.

“Tony, how is this going to work?” she asked. Tony was the gadget guy of the family. While no one knew exactly what he did (he went by the generic title technical director), he had some serious espionage skills, and Mel and Joe had decided between themselves that he was some sort of corporate fraud investigator. There was simply no other explanation for his high income and affinity for spy gear.

“We’re all microphoned up,” Tony said. He handed Angie a small portable Bluetooth speaker. “I have the conversation recording to a cloud, but you two can listen in during the game. That way if Ray gets into trouble, you can call for backup from Uncle Stan.”

Mel looked at Angie. “Oh, he’s going to love getting that call.”

“The plan is for you to not need to make the call,” Tony said. “You’re just backup.

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