“You do that.”

“And bring Lara to the game, I want to take her with me the minute I win. Any problem?”

Tanner gazed at Lara across the room. “I’m certain she’ll be eager to see you.” He pressed the disconnect.

“So there we are,” he said as he put his phone on the end table. “Will you be eager to see him, Lara?”

“Yes.” She smiled wryly. “I’ll be glad to see the end of him. I believe it went fairly smoothly, don’t you?”

“As well as it could.” He smiled bitterly. “Considering I was selling you down the river.”

“But you did such a wonderful job of it.”

“Not amusing. I was praying he wouldn’t demand it.”

She shook her head. “There wasn’t even a chance. You heard him; it wasn’t going to work unless he had everything his own way. I could have told you that. And you gave him what he wanted.”

“The hell I did. I felt like a pimp.”

“Don’t be an idiot. This was my call, and I made it.”

“Tell that to Maria.”

She sighed. “She cornered you?”

“Twice. I did everything I could. But how can I blame her?”

“You can’t. She’s feeling helpless.”

“And you’re not?”

She shook her head. “I think we’re going to be fine, Tanner. We’ve gone over everything. You know what you’re going to do, and you keep telling me what a fantastic gambler you are.”

He grimaced. “You don’t even know what that means.”

She smiled. “You’ll show me tomorrow night.”

He shook his head. “You’re impossible.”

“I trust you,” she said simply. “It’s what you wanted, don’t knock it.”

“Far be it from me.” He got to his feet and crossed to where she was sitting. “I won’t knock it; I’ll just thank my lucky stars.” He brushed his hand along her cheekbone. “Go to bed. It will probably be a rough day tomorrow. And you might not be as serene as you are now.”

“We’ll get through it.” She let him pull her to her feet and started toward the door. “And it’s not exactly serenity; I just feel that it’s our turn, Tanner. All the terrible things have to end sometime, and then there will be the music and the dazzle. And even if it’s not quite our turn, we can make it that way. Because we deserve it. All we have to do is take it.” She smiled, lifted her hand in a half farewell, and then closed the door behind her.

* * *

Lara took a deep breath, hesitated, and then quietly opened Tanner’s bedroom door. It was dark in the room, but she knew exactly where he was. She could hear him breathing and saw him sitting in the chair by the balcony doors. She took another deep breath and then started to glide toward him “You knew I was coming. I thought you might. That one-step-ahead thing again? Were you waiting for me?”

“I was trying not to. I saw how emotional you were yesterday. Hell, you were positively aching with sympathy for me. I should have locked the door to keep you out.”