Just One Drop Page 76


"Okay, now we just need the -" Before Crina could finish her sentence, the gym door opened and in walked four wolves.

"Where's the fifth man?" Jen asked with a wink.

"Alpha had business for him to take care of, so you ladies will have to make do with the four of us," Damion answered.

"I'm sure we'll manage somehow," Crina flirted.

Jen indicated where they should sit and Marianna passed out the shots.

"Okay, let's start this night out right." Jen lifted her glass filled with just enough vodka to throw back. "Here's to a night to remember!"

Everyone raised their glasses and clinks filled the room as they tapped them together and drank.

Jen watched the four wolves to see if there was any indication that they'd realized their drinks were laced. She grinned when they held their glasses out for another. Crina poured the shots as Jen began shuffling the deck.

"Okay, so you boys know how to play poker?"

"We looked up the specifics on the internet," Adrian informed her.

Jen looked at Crina and Marianna out of the corner of her eye. "Excellent," is what came from her lips, but she was thinking, Like taking candy from a baby.

She dealt out the cards. "We're going to keep it simple and play five card draw. Now, just like in a regular game, you can chose to fold, you can bluff, and you can call. Since we aren't playing for money, the easiest way to determine how the clothes come off are based on the bets. For example, if you bet a dollar that would equal a sock. If you were to bet five dollars that would be a shirt, so on and so forth. Make sense?"

"So the higher the bet the more intimate the apparel that is removed?" Damion asked.

"Exactly." Jen smiled.

"You've really put some thought into this, haven't you?" Josif asked.

"We Westerners take our poker very seriously, regardless of the method of pay." She set down the cards left in the deck and picked up her own. Everyone followed suit and looked at their hands.

"Okay. So, starting with the player to my left – Crina, place your bets." Jen looked at her expectantly.

Earlier, Jen had told them to only stay in the game when the bet was under five bucks, and fold any other time. She didn't like to brag, but she knew poker. She'd have these guys in their skivvies in no time. She would make the big bets to bait them, and regardless of the fact that they were wolves, they were men and she was just a little ol' girl. They wouldn't want to fold – it would make them appear unconfident and weak.

Jen had grinned at Crina and Marianna and made them laugh when she broke Kenny Rogers' “The Gambler.” Marianna had asked, "Do you Americans have a song for everything?"

Her response had been, "Youshould see our reality TV."

Crina placed her bet.

And so it begins, Jen thought.

"Okay, let's go." Costin rubbed his hands together nervously.

"You okay Costin?" Sally asked. "You seem a little jumpy."

Costin looked at her and grinned. "Ask me after I survive this with my manhood intact."

Sally blushed and quickly followed Jacque.

They made it to the bottom of the staircase on the east side of the mansion. The Serbian pack's rooms were nearby.

"Okay.” Costin pointed. "I'll come up with you and make sure the rooms are empty. Then Cynthia and I will go wait beneath the windows for you to start chucking out the goods."

Jacque nodded.

Sally cringed. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Jacque grabbed her by the shoulders. "Hold it together, Sal. We got this, okay?"

"We got this," Sally repeated, sounding anything but confident.

Costin tried the doorknob of the first room that he knew to be Damion and Adrian's. It opened smoothly into a dark interior. He grinned. "Good to go, ladies." He motioned them inside. "I'll check the other two and be on my way. You two hurry, alright?"

Sally and Jacque nodded as they began moving into the dark room.

Jacque made a beeline for the closet while Sally started stripping the beds.

"I really think we should be wearing gloves for this." Sally cringed as she pulled the sheets off and rolled them into a tight ball.

"Hey, leave one of those sheets unrolled. We can put all the clothes in a pile on the sheet and throw it out all together," Jacque hollered from the closet.

"Good call."

Jacque came out of the closet, arms full of clothes."Let's do this."

Sally laughed. She went to the window and pushed it open. Then she nudged the screen out and it fell three stories below, where Cynthia and Costin stood.

Costin waved and motioned for her to start throwing stuff down. Sally grinned and gave a thumbs up. She grabbed the first set of bedding and tossed it out. She looked down and saw Cynthia gather it up and put it in a wheelbarrow.

From there on out they worked like a well-oiled machine. Jacque ran around grabbing anything that could possibly cover a body part, Sally threw it out the window, and Costin and Cynthia stowed it in the wheelbarrow.

Five minutes later, they moved onto the next room.

Sally started pulling the sheets off the beds again as Jacque busted out a whispered version of “Heartless.” Sally joined in as they worked.

On the third and final room, Sally leaned out the window as she dropped the final article of clothing. "How's the bonfire looking?" she whispered as loud as she could.

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