He glanced at Lawson. “You mind sitting in on a grudge match? The soft meat across the table and I seem to have gotten sideways with each other. Could get a little bloody, and I don’t want you caught in the crossfire.”

“Mister, I’m in!” Step declared, a grin widening on his face and squinting his already black eye. Figured. Step was always ready for trouble.

Lawson, now cautious, said, “I’ll bail. Maybe find a quieter game at Betty Able’s.”

Dek gave him a two-fingered wave as the man departed. To Tompzen, he called, “Closed game tonight, Kalen. Just me, the soft meat, and Step.”

“Whatever you say,” Kalen agreed, shooting a suspicious glance at Clarice and Ednund, who still stood protectively at Falise’s shoulders.

“What’s your limit, Lady?” Dek asked as he took the cards and shuffled. “I assume you have plunder?”

“You assume I’d deign to play cards with a mongrel-bred half-breed freak like you. It’s quetzal TriNA, isn’t it? That makes you look so misshapen?”

“Give the soft meat a point. Wait. No, better idea.” Dek tossed a five-SDR coin across the table. “There. Now you’ve got something to start with.”

“I refuse to involve myself with the likes of street cur such as yourself.” Falise leaned forward, her eyes green ice.

“You’re already involved,” Dek said. “It started when you told Ednund to break me up and toss me out on the street. Now, you willing to put your vaunted Taglioni superiority on the line? Or is my old friend Derek the only Taglioni within sixty light-years of this rock who’s not afraid of a little card game?”

Step looked like it was all he could do to keep from gaping. As it was, the big man was half-choking the guffaws that tried to rise from deep in his belly.

Falise might have been entirely out of her element, but she sensed the trap. Was trying to figure where it lay. More to the point, she was really looking at him, now. Seeing him for the first time, some fingers of doubt stroking her innate caution.

Dek began dealing the cards, saying, “Nothing fancy. Five-card draw. Five SDRs to ante.”

Step tossed out a coin from his belt pouch, his curious gaze going to Falise.

“Oh, and soft meat? Have your people stand back against the wall like they were. Dan Wirth taught us all the trick of having a spotter. Surely you met Dan in Transluna? This used to be his table. His game. Think of it as coming full circle.”

Falise waved Ednund and Clarice back and took her cards. Glanced at them.

As they played the hand out, Allison Chomko appeared from the back, noticed the growing crowd that Kalen was monitoring. She crossed over, and Kalen whispered in her ear. She nodded, stepped up to the table, asking, “Can I get anyone anything?”