Game On

A twenty-year-old heir loses everything by design

Tyler Neumann runs an underground gambling empire from the shadows of the city, hosting lavish illegal parties for the elite aboard an abandoned freight ship.

A twenty-year-old heir loses everything by design

Tyler Neumann runs an underground gambling empire from the shadows of the city, hosting lavish illegal parties for the elite aboard an abandoned freight ship. His latest operation has a specific target: Blake McCormick, the twenty-year-old brother of a woman named Stella. Tyler seats Blake with expert poker players, has bartenders overserve him, and offers house credit whenever the kid runs dry. By night's end, Blake owes three million dollars—his entire inheritance. But the money was never the point. Tyler needs Stella as his way into her family's inner circle, and specifically to their business partner Richard Lawson—the man Tyler believes is his father, the man he moved to this city to destroy. Blake's debt is just the bait on the hook.

Enemies lock lips before they know what they are

Under the alias Theo Strickland, Tyler books a late-night consultation at Stella's Gothic tattoo parlor. She's a neo-traditionalist artist—pierced, tattooed, sharp-tongued—and she makes him wait ten minutes, which he punishes with arrogance. Their chemistry is immediate and combative: insults traded like currency, each landing closer to flirtation. When he peels off his shirt for the consultation, she nearly loses her composure. His hand grazes her ankle. She freezes. Then she climbs into his lap, and they kiss with the ferocity of people who've been fighting for hours, not minutes. Derrick, her ex-biker colleague, interrupts by returning for forgotten keys. Tyler had planned to reveal the blackmail tonight, but the timing is ruined. The kiss—messy, furious, electric—becomes unfinished business.

Stella realizes the man she kissed ruined her brother

Blake shows up at Stella's apartment past midnight, reeking of stale alcohol, looking a decade older. He confesses he attended a masked gambling party, got blackout drunk after his boyfriend Alex cheated on him, and lost his entire inheritance to a man called Mr. Strickland—tall, blond, blue-eyed. Stella's blood freezes. The name and description match the man who sat in her tattoo chair hours earlier. She tears through security footage, but the image is too pixelated for Blake to confirm. Her emails to the alias that night are volcanic: death threats, demands, accusations. His replies are mocking. He invites her to dinner on Sunday, promising to explain. She has no leverage, no alternative, and no choice but to show up.

Three million buys a fake girlfriend and access to old money At a secluded Italian restaurant, Tyler has already planted an ultrasonic jammer beneath the table to corrupt any recording. He confirms Blake's…