Call My Bluff_A Las Vegas Themed Anthology - Elizabeth Knox

Prologue

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

~ C.S. Lewis

Declan

10 years ago . . .

Sitting in my study, my elbow resting on the arm of my chair with my knuckles pressed against my lips. I still can’t believe it. All my life I’ve been the type of man who is logical. There is a reason for everything, but no matter what I can’t think of a reason for doing this.

A group of men scatter through my house, searching for anything she might’ve left behind. Something that could point them in her direction. The emotions haven’t fully hit me from today, so I sit here by myself and sip on the tall glass of scotch I poured hours ago. Not touching it until I heard the worst of the news. Fuck, I don’t even know if it’s the worst of it. I pray it is.

“Mr. O’Hare, are you alright?” Samira, my estate manager, asks from the doorway of my study. Her voice comes in softer than usual, attempting to soothe me right now. She’s terrified of how I’ll respond and I can’t even blame her. It’s not every day that something as ghastly as this happens.

Removing my hand from my mouth, I look up to her. She’s a sweet little thing, can’t be older than I am. I’m twenty-nine. Actually, let me take that back. I’ll be twenty-nine at eleven-thirty tonight. I gave her the job after her predecessor fucked with me. Apparently, he thought he could veto my decisions when this is my house. So, Samira was granted a very high promotion in my household. Now Edward empties the fucking trash and cleans the toilets.

I let out a deep breath before I answer her, “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just give me some time, Samira.” I just blatantly lied to the woman which causes me to take another swig of scotch. Fuck, this has been the worst birthday of my life.

This morning when I woke up I was a self-made man, never having to tap into the inheritance my mother left for me when she passed. My father on the other hand has offered to invest in my company for years, and I’ve denied him at every turn because I refuse to be like everyone else we know. The ones who are only successful because they’ve relied on their parents for everything in life.

I haven’t informed him about what my fiancé has just done, but I’m sure he’ll hear about it soon enough. Charli King was a fraud. The woman who slept in my bed every night. The first woman to ever make me want to settle down for the rest of my life. She was a fake.

I discovered the hard way that she took me for everything I earned. Charli is a gold-digging whore like all my friends said she was. In the beginning of our relationship I dodged so much criticism for dating a woman who worked at a local coffee shop. Alec, one of my longest friends said she’d stick around when she found out who I was. He was right. She stuck around, long enough to trick me into falling in love with her, implant herself into my everyday life, steal everything important to me and take the fortune I created for myself.

Charli King snubbed me.

Charli King made me look a fool, taking off with over eighty million dollars.

What Charli King lacks understanding of is how far I will go to even the odds. She may have tried to destroy my life, but I’ll make sure I’m successful in destroying hers.

Chapter One

“It’s hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; but it’s harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want.”

~ Unknown

Declan

Present Day

“No, you’re not understanding what I’m telling you. There is no way to safely do what you envision to bring it to code. It won’t be structurally sound.” I tell one of my new clients, Roger Saint, while we’re on a conference call with my team. He simply wants something that isn’t obtainable.

The old privileged man snorts on the other end of the line, reminding me far too much of my own father. Hell, they’d be best buddies. Maybe I should suggest he reach out to him and schedule a golfing trip, or perhaps a weekend getaway on the yacht. “You’re supposed to be the best of the best. So, you can make this happen.”

Immediately I roll my eyes, glaring