Chapter 169 Cleaning House

• The con had gone smoother than anyone expected. Ellerei and Decker had executed their parts with the kind of practiced ease that only came from years of running the game. Inside the smoke-hazed room of the private poker club, Decker played the reckless investor with too much money and not enough sense. His laugh was loud, his confidence louder, and he wore his charm like a loaded weapon.
• Ellerei, in a slinky black dress that hugged her like a second skin, didn’t need to say much. Her presence alone kept the table on edge—cool, unreadable, deadly. She wasn’t there to win cards; she was there to win the mark. And every so often, when she leaned forward just enough to show a sliver more skin or met Santo Grimaldi’s gaze with the barest flicker of interest, she could feel Knox’s stare burning into her from across the room.
• He stood in the corner, suited in black, jaw locked and hands folded behind his back, playing her bodyguard. But his white-knuckled grip on the back of a leather chair didn’t escape her. The tension in him was visible—unmistakable to anyone who knew what to look for.