“Yes, women. I refuse to own a club that wouldn’t have me as a member.”

Sighing, he stared at the wall, a muscle in his jaw working. “That makes sense.”

“Excellent. So keep your deed.” She tossed the legal papers on the floor. “Continue swindling your swells and intimidating your cheaters.”

“No, I’ve decided to get out. I think it’s best I stick with that plan.”

“Get out? What does that mean?”

Walking to the sofa, he lifted a stack of books into his arms and dropped them into an open trunk. “It means retire from the casino business. Move on. Go elsewhere.”

Panic stung her throat, and she struggled to pull in a breath as her mind whirred. Was he serious? “Go elsewhere, as in leave New York?”

“My mother lives outside Philadelphia. Perhaps I’ll settle there for a while.”

She put a hand to her mouth, stunned. As furious as she’d been with him, she hadn’t ever thought he’d leave. He was a part of this city, like the East River or Five Points. Anyone who’d ever held a pair of dice on the island knew his name. “What about the Bronze House?”

His big shoulders rose and fell. “Jack should have it. He’ll fight me on that decision, but he deserves it. I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today without him.”

Wrong. He was supposed to say he’d stay, that he couldn’t bear to part with the club. “So that’s it? You are just going to leave?”

“What would you have me do, Florence?” He flicked the lid of the trunk closed with a harsh snap that reverberated throughout the room. “I tried to win you back and I failed. There’s no reason to stay here. I’ve been going out of my mind because I cannot stop thinking about you. I cannot seem to stop loving you and it’s driving me insane.”

A buzzing started in her ears, disbelief echoing through her limbs. Had he just said . . . ? “You love me?”

He laughed, a bitter, ugly sound wrenched from the depths of his chest. “I gave you my club, Florence. I would give you everything I own, the clothes off my back, if it would make you come back to me.”

“You love me.”

Expression darkening, he put his hands on his hips. “I thought we covered this. Yes.”

“I needed to be certain I heard you correctly. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would it have mattered?”

“Of course. I never knew how you felt about me, about us. I never considered this could be something more, that we could have true feelings for one another.”

“Which I ruined by acquiring your grandmother’s home.”

“Acquiring,” she drawled. “What a polite word for what happened. I think you mean stealing.”