Card Master

Chapter 11: Card Master vs. The Family (Part 1)

Chapter 11: Card Master vs. The Family (Part 1)

My legs were shaking, my knees knocking and the my forehead starting to become damp with sweat. Not because I was scared on anything.

Okay, I’ll admit it.

I was freaking terrified. I was about to meet his parents. The Kinsley’s. Judging by Jace’s mood swings, they must be some pretty scary people, and the fact that the house was so big that we still hadn’t reached them definitely didn’t help things. With Jace still in his ‘businessman-persona’, the only sound being made was the soft slapping sound of my flats on the marble floor, and it was making me sick.

“H…hey,” I pulled on Jace’s sleeve a little to get him to stop walking.he looked back at me, his eyes cold and calculating as if I had messed up his whole day by making him wait a few seconds.

“Is…um…do you guys have a bathroom or something down here?”

Call me crazy, but I swear his face softened for a moment as he pointed me towards a huge white door.

Without a second glance, I bolted for the door and threw myself into the room, instantly heading for one of the marble sinks.

I turned on the faucet and sighed when I felt the cold water running over my hands. It was soothing. You have no idea how much I wanted to splash some on my face as well, but thanks to the stupid makeup that wasn’t an option. So, I just sat there for a little while, letting the water wash over my fingertips as I gave myself a pep-talk.

“Now look here Alex, stop being such a pansy. Put on your big-boy pants, grow a pair of balls, kick yourself in them, and for gods sakes take it like a man! You can do this! You can do this! Yeah! LET’S DO IT!”

Feeling pumped with sudden adrenaline (hey, I can be pretty inspiring when I want to be), I grinned and thrust my fist in the air with a victorious whoop.

“Bravo. Very classy,”

I’m good, but I’m not so good that I can morph my voice into that of a guy’s. I spun around and saw a guy I had, quite frankly, never seen in my life.

He had hair that was slightly darker than Jace’s, cut short and above hus head. He was also wearing a dress shirt and tie, but he paired it with back jeans and rolled up the sleeves.

“I must say, that even inspired me a little bit,” he grinnedbefore stepping around me and turning on the second sink.

“Who…wait…what are you doing here?”

He looked up, slightly shocked for a moment, then smiled.

“Well, seeing as I live here, I think a better question would be what are you doing here,” he grinned and reminded me so much like Jace in that moment that I shuddered.

“I know that…actually, I didn’t know that until just now, but what I meant was what are you doing here? Right now? At this very moment in time when no one else is supposed to be in the bathroom!?”

This time he laughed and smiled up at me from where he was washing his hands,

“Well, I don’t exactly remember seeing a sign on the door. I just came in to wash up before lunch,” he grinned. “So let me rephrase my question: you are here…why?”

Usually I would have growled at him for acting all snooty, but combined with the huge smile on his face it looked more like he was teasing with me.

I swear, that smile was contageous. Soon, I found the corners of my mouth tilting up in return.

“Um…well, to be honest I don’t really know why I’m here. Jace brought me to-” I cut myself off. Although he never specified that the blackmail induced missions were a secret, I’m not stupid enough to go ahead and tell people about it. So instead I coughed and tried again, “to meet his family.”