When I Became the House’s Chip

The cashier's cage on the ground floor of the casino.

Marco had cleared the other staff out in advance. He stood behind the counter himself and took me in, dripping.

He watched me pull the blood-smeared chips out of my soaked clothes. Something moved in his eyes. He didn't ask.

He counted fast and clean.

"Three million, exactly."

He hit the keys and cut me an unnamed Swiss bank card.

He reached under the counter for a dry towel and pushed it to me. Then he leaned toward the bulletproof glass and dropped his voice.

"Sabrina's men are waiting for you at the front and the side corridors."

He nodded at the passage to his left.

"Take the staff fire exit. No cameras."

He slid the card through the tray.

"Don't let this show. Go save her."

I took the card.

I pressed it flat against my chest and bowed to him.

"I won't forget this."

I didn't stay.

Dante could come down any minute.

If he saw me at a man's counter, saw that man count chips for me, hand me a towel, lean in to whisper—

I knew exactly what he'd think.

I turned and ran for the fire exit.

I was almost at the corner of the parking garage level when I saw her.

Sabrina was at the bottom of the stairs, blocking the way.

Couture gown. Arms crossed. Two bruisers flanking her.

"You think that money's going to keep your little bastard alive?"

She laughed, a small bright laugh. "Sienna. You were born a jinx."

"You killed your mother. Now you're going to kill your little bastard too."

I didn't answer her. I tried to go around.

The two bodyguards stepped in and sealed the way.

I stopped fighting.

For two years I'd been burning myself up in the casino and quietly digging into what happened to my father. What I'd found wasn't much. A dealer who'd vanished. A marked card nobody could account for. And a night nobody was willing to talk about.

Every thread ended at the same wall.

Sabrina crossed to me on her heels, one step at a time, and leaned in to my ear.

"Want to know why your father jumped off that roof?"

My body went stiff. I stared at her.

"Me."

"I paid the dealer. He slipped the marked card into your father's sleeve."

She paused. The corner of her mouth lifted.

"But a marked card alone wasn't enough. You know his temper—he only believes evidence. A marked card would've made him hate your father. It wouldn't have been enough to put you on that table."

"So I did one more thing."

"Remember the private OB clinic you went to when you got pregnant? The director of their lab—I'd already paid him off."

She raised a finger and ticked it slowly.

"The paternity test he delivered to Dante said exactly one line. No biological relationship. The seal was real. The format was real. The signature was real."

"I was right next to Dante the day he opened that report. He read it. Folded it. Put it in the inside pocket of his jacket. Didn't say a single word."

She reached up and patted my cheek.

"And from that day on, he didn't show his face again. I didn't have to lift another finger."

"The only way I get to sit in the Donna's chair is if you're in the mud."

I stared at her.

Two years.

I'd known someone set me up. I couldn't find the proof. I couldn't open my mouth. I'd been swallowing it.

"It was you."

I heard myself roar it.

I threw myself at her and clamped both hands around her throat.

"You killed my father! I'll kill you! I want your life!"

I used everything I had. My nails sank into her skin.

She went down under me against the stair railing.

But she wasn't fighting back. Her eyes had flicked up toward the fire door above us.

She'd timed it.

The instant the fire door was pushed open from outside—

Sabrina snapped her own couture diamond necklace off her neck and smashed it onto the concrete step.

Then she threw herself backward and slammed her head into the wall.

"AAH—"

A scream.

"Dante, help! Sienna's crazy! She's trying to kill me for my necklace!"

The fire door swung open. Dante's silhouette appeared in the greenish emergency light.

He took in the scattered diamonds on the floor. The woman under my hands, bleeding scratches across her throat.

He came down the stairs in long strides and his boot came up and caught me in the shoulder.

The kick threw me sideways. My head slammed into the iron railing. A dull thud.

Blood ran down my forehead into my eyes.

I grabbed a fistful of his trouser leg.

"It was her! She set up my father, and your father too!"

I pointed at her. My voice was raw.

"She broke the necklace herself! Dante, believe me. Once. Just once."

Sabrina sagged against the wall, sobbing. "Dante, I was so scared… she'd do anything for money…"

One of Sabrina's men stepped forward.

He hauled me off the floor and patted me down, head to foot.

A few seconds later, he pulled a single loose diamond from the pocket of my soaked jacket.

It was the one Sabrina had dropped in while I was attacking her.

He held the diamond up to Dante.

Dante looked at the stone.

And then, with something very ugly in his face, he looked at me.