Free Princess Wanted - The Complete Book Set: An Alpha Billionaire Prince Trilogy by Autumn Star Page B

Pete.
    “Can we talk?”
    Pete looked him up and down with disdain. “You’re the Prince aren’t you? No hard feelings. Sorry for ratting you out but you’d have done the same to me. And you still got the horse. So we’re all happy.”
    “Except Jody.”
    Pete scoffed. “You think I don’t know how to make a woman happy? You don’t know Pete Jackson.”
    “I’ll trade you.” It was probably not the way any girl likes to be treated, but Chris could not allow this man to use Jody. “Jody for Silmarillion.”
    Pete laughed. “So you fancy the stables as well? No dice. You got the horse, and I think you should consider yourself pretty lucky to get that. Walk away.”
    “The stables will be Jody’s when her Uncle dies,” Chris pressed. “Silmarillion would be all yours right now.”
    Pete shrugged. “I can wait. And we’ll see about who owns that stable. A wife’s got to do as her husband says, and if she doesn’t… well we’ll just see about that too. Besides, I’m not walking away from Jody just yet. A man’s got needs other than money and a woman like Jody…” he chuckled to himself.
    Chris resisted the urge to punch Pete in the face, not because the man could have tied his spine in knots, but because right now he had to think about Jody, and that meant striking a deal.
    “Take Silmarillion and you’ll be walking out of here with a million dollars in your pocket.”
    The immediacy of that image made Pete stop and think but he still shook his head. “No. Look, a horse is a horse.”
    “Of course.”
    “Of course. But a stable; well that’s whole bunch of horses. That’s a man set for the rest of his life. Nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the ride. If you know what I mean.” He laughed and all his friends followed suit.
    Chris slumped – he couldn’t let this happen to Jody but seemed powerless to stop it. He could warn her but there was no way she would believe him, not after what he had done.
    Pete stood. “Who’s for poker?”
    Chris’s racing mind came to a screaming stop. “You like a bet?”
    Pete shrugged. “Who doesn’t?”
    “I’ll bet you; you win, you get Silmarillion; I win, you leave Jody.” She would never take him back, but at least he could save her from this man.
    “Poker?” Pete shook his head. “I ain’t chancing those stables on cards.”
    “I’m guessing you ride,” said Chris
    “Sure.”
    “A race then.”
    But Pete still shook his head. “Why would I risk it?”
    “You get Silmarillion regardless.”
    Pete frowned. “What?”
    “You win, you get Silmarillion, the stable and Jody; I win, you still get Silmarillion but you leave Jody. No matter what, you walk away a winner.”
    Pete stroked his chin. “You really want that stable, don’t you?”
    Chris said nothing.
    Pete sat back. “No. Too risky. You’d be riding Silmarillion. I’ve seen that horse run. But I’ll do you a favor, since you’re desperate; I ride Silmarillion, you ride the horse I choose. Then you gotta bet.”
    That sounded to Chris an awful lot like just giving everything away. Silmarillion was, by all accounts, the fastest horse at the stables; he was going to win. And it wasn’t like Pete would give Chris the second fastest horse just to make things interesting. Chris would be getting some useless nag that had never won anything. Pete was playing on Chris’s obvious desperation. There was no hope.
    But there was always a chance. Chris recalled a Damon Runyon quote: ‘The race is not always to the swift or the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.’ Runyon was right, but the first half of the sentence revealed something that a gambler like Chris knew well: the race is not always to the swift. In a lifetime of gambling he had seen hundred-to-one shots come in, he had seen bad luck scupper the favorite, he had seen miracles. And while it was not safe to bet on a miracle, that was where the big money was. And right now the stakes were the biggest he could