Vampire Beach: High Stakes (14 page)

‘You underestimate my father,’ Marc said flatly. ‘It would be simple for him to cover up any … mishap. You don’t realize how deep the loyalty to him runs, or how many secrets he knows about all the families, secrets they would do almost anything to protect.’

Paige lowered her head and stared at the ground. Jason could almost feel her trying to come up with another solution, anything that didn’t mean she had to leave with Marc.

‘Come with me. You know you want to. We can be dancing at Batofar tonight,’ Marc coaxed.

He really is delusional
, Jason thought.
He thinks all she wants is some sweet-talking, a few more flower deliveries
.

‘It’s true, what you said,’ Paige murmured, her voice so low that Jason had trouble hearing her. ‘There is something between us. I think about you all the time, even though mostly when I think about you now, it’s about how much I hate you, how much you’ve hurt me.’

Marc laughed again. ‘That’s a start.’

Paige raised her head, and when she did, the beginnings of a smile were on her lips. ‘But wouldn’t you rather have me go back to Paris with you because I
want
to, not because you found a way to force me?’

‘Of course,’ Marc replied. ‘It’s just that I know once you’re back there, you won’t believe you ever wanted to be anyplace else.’

‘Wanna bet?’ Paige asked, her little smile stretching into a grin, her eyes glittering feverishly.

She’s come up with some kind of plan
, Jason thought, uncertain whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Jason couldn’t guess what the plan was – or if it had a chance in hell of working – but he knew she’d concocted something.

Marc took off his sunglasses. ‘What did you have in mind?’

‘A game. A gamble. You still like to gamble, don’t you?’

‘Always,’ Marc answered with a smile.

‘Paige, I don’t think this is—’ Jason began.

She waved her hand at him impatiently, cutting him off. ‘You win, and I go to Paris with you. Willingly, I promise,
if
Sienna goes free.’ She tossed his hat on the ground and ran her fingers through his tousled blond hair.

‘And if I lose?’ Marc asked. ‘Not that I ever lose.’

‘You go back to Paris alone. Sienna goes free. It’s a winner takes all proposition,’ Paige explained. ‘Are you in?’ She was in full-on flirt mode, and Jason could see that she had Marc, hook, line and sinker.

‘Don’t I even get to know what we’re playing?’ Marc asked.

‘Does it matter, since you never lose?’ Paige taunted, moving a step nearer to him.

‘It does not matter. We will play any game you say.’ Marc closed the distance between them and kissed her. ‘To seal the deal.’

Paige kissed him back, a longer, deeper kiss. ‘Just so you’ll remember what you’re playing for.’

Was she as insane as Marc? Jason wondered. Did she even remember that her sister’s life was what they were
really
playing for?

‘The Ultimate High Stakes Invitational is tonight at the Bonheur. A Texas Hold ‘Em tournament for very high rollers. You and Zach will enter. Whoever loses
their
money first loses the private gamble as well.’ Paige glanced from Zach to Marc. ‘Acceptable?’

Jason noticed Zach’s eyes narrow slightly, and realized that he had been caught a little off guard – something that rarely happened. Nonetheless, Zach gave an almost imperceptible nod.

‘Marc?’ Paige asked.

‘I’m in,’ he told her. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’

‘Swear on your family name that you’ll honor the terms,’ Paige demanded, her face suddenly serious.

‘Couldn’t we just kiss on it again?’ Marc asked.

‘If you win, you can have all the kisses you want,’ Paige told him. ‘Now, swear!’

‘I swear on the Lessard family name,’ Marc answered gravely.

‘Until tonight then,’ Paige said softly, giving him a little wave as she, Zach, and Jason started back to the Escalade.

‘I’m going to be collecting on all those kisses,’ Marc called after her.

‘I’m going to be getting my sister back,’ Paige answered, too quietly for him to hear.

Jason glanced at Zach. He had the feeling Zach wasn’t too happy about the way this meeting had gone down. Jason definitely wasn’t.

‘
AM I ABSOLUTELY
brilliant? Or am I absolutely brilliant?’ Paige demanded as Zach got the Escalade turned around. ‘I played him like a violin!’ She gave a trill of laugher, high and long, and bordering on the hysterical.

‘Yeah, brilliant,’ Jason answered sarcastically. ‘Now whether Sienna lives or dies is going to be decided on a couple of hands of Texas Hold ’Em.’ Not that he’d ever actually let it come to that.

‘You left out the part that it’s a couple of hands of Texas Hold ’Em
played by Zach
,’ Paige countered. ‘
You
think I’m brilliant, don’t you, Zach?’ She reminded Jason of a three-year-old hitting the peak of a sugar high.

‘I think only an idiot would have baited him the way you did,’ Zach said abruptly, concentrating on the narrow road.

Marc tore by in the SUV, passing on the left so he could blow Paige a big, juicy kiss. She pressed her lips
against
the side window in response, leaving a dark cherry lip print. The sight of it made her laugh again.

‘It worked, didn’t it?’ Paige asked. ‘I said what I needed to say to get him to agree to the gamble. That’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I did, because I’m – everybody say it …’

Nobody cooperated.

‘… brilliant,’ Paige finished alone, clearly frustrated that Jason and Zach weren’t in celebration mode.

It’s probably relief more than anything making her act like this
, Jason thought, deciding to cut Paige some slack. It had to be nerve-twitching getting face to face with Marc, flirting with him,
kissing
him, even though she knew he was a murderer and that he was holding her sister hostage. She probably had a gallon of extra adrenalin running through her veins right now.

‘So we have a few things to figure out,’ Jason began. ‘Things like Zach might, just possibly, lose. Then what? You can’t seriously be thinking of going to Paris with that sociopath.’

‘I’ve seen Zach play poker. I’m not that worried,’ Paige said.

‘How’s he even going to get in the game? Or Marc?’ Jason protested. ‘It’s invitational, as in
you have to be invited
.’

‘I can make a few calls,’ Zach said, with a grim smile.
‘And
Marc will have no problem. But let’s assume for a minute that I
do
win. Do you really think Marc’s just going to release Sienna and leave you alone forever?’ he asked Paige.

‘He swore on his family name,’ Paige reminded him. ‘That means something to us.’

‘To
most
of us,’ Zach corrected. ‘Are you actually going to trust the word of a guy who kills to get his own way?’

‘Good point.
Excellent
point, in fact,’ Jason put in. ‘Plus the game has a quarter mill buy-in. Zach can’t even sit down at the table for less than that. How are we supposed to come up with that kind of cash?’

‘I’ll handle that part,’ Zach answered, without elaboration.

For Jason, coming up with $250,000 would require a lot of elaboration, but, whatever.

‘So, we’re back to having to trust the word of a deranged killer,’ Jason said.

‘Marc’s father is completely obsessed with what it means to be one of the Thirteen. He’s all about family honor, and so is Marc. He’ll keep his promise,’ Paige insisted. ‘And even if he doesn’t, which he will, the whole point of the deal was to buy us some time. If we work fast, Zach won’t even have to enter the tournament tonight. We’ll find Sienna before the game
even
starts.’ She flicked Zach in the arm. ‘Right?’ she asked. She flicked Jason. ‘Right?’

‘Right,’ Jason said.

Zach gave one of his trademark nods.

Paige nibbled her lower lip. ‘Worst case scenario, we don’t find her before the tournament, Zach kicks Marc’s butt at poker, and Marc hands Sienna over.’

No
, Jason thought.
Worst case scenario, we don’t find Sienna before the tournament. Marc kicks
Zach’s
butt at poker, and the only way to get Marc to hand Sienna over is for Paige to go to Paris with the guy – who happens to be about a half a minute away from beginning to foam at the mouth
.

Not an acceptable scenario.

He checked his watch: eight-thirty a.m. The tournament started in less than twelve hours. That’s all the time they had to find Sienna.

‘So, we have less than eleven hours to find her,’ Jason said, wrapping up his recap of the meeting with Marc. ‘Any ideas?’ He glanced around the group gathered in Paige’s suite.

‘I’d say follow him,’ Zach suggested. ‘But we have no idea where to start looking.’

‘Yes we do. Brad and I found out where Marc is staying,’ Erin volunteered. ‘The Bonheur.’

‘Happiness,’ Jason translated aloud, remembering the French Sienna had managed to inject into his brain.

‘You’d think he’d get enough French atmosphere at home,’ Adam commented. ‘Why didn’t he go for the hotel with the sphinx out front, or Circus, Circus? Although circuses always seem sort of French to me. I don’t know why. There’s something about the red coat the ringmaster wears, and some of the clowns are mimes, so—’

‘He’s probably not staying there for the atmosphere,’ Brad interrupted. ‘He’s probably staying there because it’s free.’

‘His daddy owns the place,’ Erin explained.

‘Unbelievable!’ Jason burst out. ‘We challenged him to a poker tournament being held in the casino his father owns. Why didn’t we just say Zach would play blindfolded and make it even easier for Marc to cheat?’

‘He’s not going to cheat,’ Paige insisted. ‘Family honor is a huge deal to Marc. And his father. His dad would never allow a crooked game in his casino.’

‘Besides, there’s always a director at a tournament to oversee the game, someone unaffiliated with the casino,’ Zach explained. ‘So there will be an outsider to enforce all the rules.’

‘We need to get over to the Bonheur and see if we can spot Marc before the game.’ Van Dyke stood up. ‘Then we stay on him.’

‘He probably has at least a couple of his boys with him,’ Paige said. ‘Marc doesn’t like to travel without an entourage. They’re probably taking turns watching Sienna. Somebody should follow them too. Anybody have a laptop? I can find pictures of the key players.’

‘I’ll get mine. I brought it so I could edit my seedy underbelly footage,’ Adam answered. He hurried out of the room.

‘Do you think Marc could be holding Sienna at the Bonheur?’ Maggie asked. ‘Since his dad owns it and everything?’

‘Unlikely,’ Brad said. ‘Too many people. It would be hard to whisk Sienna past all the hotel guests and the gamblers down in the casino. She wouldn’t be going willingly, and if they’d drugged her—’

Jason heard Paige suck in a sharp breath.

‘It isn’t likely that they did,’ Brad added quickly. ‘Because that would make it even harder to transport her into the hotel unnoticed.’

‘Laptop,’ Adam announced as he came back into the room. He set it down on the coffee table and opened it. Paige went online and quickly found some pictures of Marc. It seemed like he was Paris’s Paris Hilton – if
Paris
Hilton was a guy and wasn’t arrested so often.

‘Here’s one with Olivier, Marc’s cousin and chief lapdog,’ Paige said, tapping the screen. ‘And here’s one of Didier, who is basically a hunk of muscle that does Marc’s dirty work.’

‘A yummy hunk of muscle,’ Erin commented.

Paige continued. ‘Both of those guys should be with Marc. He takes them everywhere.’ She brought up another picture from a gossip site. ‘This weasely looking creature might be with him too. His name’s Gilles. Half the time Marc’s pissed off at him for something. The rest of the time, he’s one of the regulars.’

‘Brad and Van Dyke, I want you to take Marc,’ Zach instructed. ‘He might decide to check in on Sienna personally.’

‘If he does, I want to be there,’ Jason protested.

Zach shook his head. ‘From what Paige said, Marc isn’t likely to be alone. The meet in the desert was an exception. I want two of our kind on him and whoever he has as back-up. Besides, he got a good look at you in the desert.’

‘I’m not just sitting on my butt while Sienna’s being held hostage,’ Jason said. ‘I’ll follow Didier.’

‘Fine,’ Zach agreed. ‘Take Adam and Belle with you.’

Jason nodded.

‘Maggie and Erin, you’re on Olivier,’ Zach continued.
‘Let’s
not worry about Gilles unless one of us sees something to indicate we should. It doesn’t sound like Marc would trust Gilles enough to deal with Sienna by himself anyway.’

‘Doubtful,’ Paige agreed. ‘But why don’t I follow him?’

‘I don’t want you out of this room,’ Zach answered. ‘If Marc or one of his guys spots you, they could drag you straight to the airport. You could be on your way back to Paris before any of us even knows what happened.’