Chapter 26 · Broker's Bet

"Put the card down, Cole, or I break her hand." Silas Quinn held Eve's wrist over the black table, his thumb pressed against the glowing mark burned into her skin.

Cole's hand stopped above the deck.

Eve didn't look at him. Her jaw was tight. Her breathing came fast through her nose, but she kept her chin up like Silas had asked her to pose for a portrait instead of threatening to crush her fingers.

"You heard him," she said. "Don't make this worse."

"That's your advice?" Cole asked. "After you sold my sister?"

Silas smiled. "There it is. The question we've all been waiting for."

The card under Cole's palm twitched. Black ink crawled across its face, forming the same name that had been burning on his wrist for three days.

SILAS QUINN.

The cursed deck didn't like being touched. It hated being trapped even more. Every card in the locked wooden case rattled at once, hard enough to make the brass corners scrape against the table.

Silas leaned closer to Eve. "Tell him."

"Tell him what?" Eve snapped.

"The truth."

"You wouldn't know the truth if it bit you."

His fingers tightened around her wrist.

Eve's breath caught.