RAISING THE ANTE

  THE KINGS: WILD CARDS BOOK 2

  CHARLIE COCHET

  CONTENTS

  Four Kings Security Universe

  Synopsis

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  A Note From the Author

  Also by Charlie Cochet

  About the Author

  Raising the Ante

  Copyright © 2020 Charlie Cochet

  http://charliecochet.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of author imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  Cover Art Copyright © 2021 Reese Dante

  https://reesedante.com/

  Edits by Deniz Durand

  Proofing by Brian Holliday

  ** Please note this story contains scenes dealing with sensitive issues that may trigger some readers. While not graphic, scenes include characters discussing sexual assault and suicide.

  FOUR KINGS SECURITY UNIVERSE

  Welcome to the Four Kings Security Universe! The current reading order for the universe is as follows:

  FOUR KINGS SECURITY UNIVERSE

  STANDALONES

  Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts - Standalone

  (Spencer and Quinn. Quinn is Ace and Lucky’s cousin.) Can be read any time before In the Cards.

  FOUR KINGS SECURITY

  Love in Spades - Book 1 (Ace and Colton)

  Ante Up - Book 1.5 (Seth and Kit)

  Free short story

  Be Still My Heart - Book 2 (Red and Laz)

  Join the Club - Book 3 (Lucky and Mason)

  Diamond in the Rough - Book 4 (King and Leo)

  In the Cards - Book 4.5 (Spencer and Quinn’s wedding.)

  FOUR KINGS SECURITY BOXED SET

  Boxed Set includes all 4 main Four Kings Security novels: Love in Spades, Be Still My Heart, Join the Club, and Diamond in the Rough.

  BLACK OPS: OPERATION ORION’S BELT

  Kept in the Dark - Book 1 (Standalone series can be read anytime)

  THE KINGS: WILD CARDS

  Stacking the Deck - Book 1 (Jack and Fitz).

  Raising the Ante - Book 2 (Frank and Joshua)

  Sleight of Hand - Book 3 (Joker and Gio)

  THE KINGS: WILD CARDS BOXED SET

  Boxed Set includes all 3 main The Kings: Wild Cards books: Stacking the Deck, Raising the Ante, Sleight of Hand, and bonus story In the Cards.

  RUNAWAY GROOMS SERIES

  Aisle Be There

  SYNOPSIS

  Former firefighter Frank Ramirez has never been afraid of the heat until it came in the form of the sweet and sinful Joshua Sterling.

  Frank’s days of rushing into burning buildings might be behind him, but as the owner of one of the most prestigious gay nightclubs in Florida, he’s still putting out fires. Lately, it’s been one disaster after another, making Frank grumpier than usual. If that wasn’t enough, someone is out to sabotage his business.

  Joshua has a plan. He’s done pining after the man of his dreams and ready to do something about the sizzling attraction between them. He sets out to help Frank, and as executive assistant to billionaire Colton Connolly—and friend to his mayhem-magnet husband—Joshua knows a thing or two about managing chaos.

  When a hidden threat raises the stakes, Joshua and Frank are put to the test. Can they win the fight for their love… and their lives?

  ONE

  This was a nightmare.

  Frank rubbed his temples, hoping to ease the growing ache. He sat back in his chair with a heavy sigh, his eyes narrowing at the blue feather that delicately floated to the carpet of his usually pristine office to join the other dozen or so that had accumulated in the last ten minutes. Damn feather boas shed just from looking at them.

  Much like his office, the sleek black surface of his desk resembled a small warzone where chaos had been the clear victor. A twitch in his right eye had him pressing a finger to it. His office had become a ramshackle staging area for his club’s upcoming Winterland Gala—one of the club’s biggest events of the year, next to its charity masquerade.

  Sapphire Sands threw several lavish parties throughout the year, many benefitting LGBTQA+ charities. No event, no matter how perfectly planned, went off without a hiccup or two, but this one decided to declare diva status and become the biggest pain in his ass, starting with this morning’s burst pipe in the employee lounge.

  With current repairs making the lounge unusable for who the hell knew how long, they’d relocated the staff to the next adequately sized room, meaning the props, decorations, and costumes were moved out of the club’s staging area and crammed into storage closets. The leftover decorations, along with racks of costumes, were moved into Frank’s office. He would have welcomed the intrusion of feathers and sequins were it the only problem he faced.

  “This is what I get for giving Alejandro time off. Why didn’t you talk me out of it? Can’t we call him back in?”

  From his spot on the black leather sofa on the other side of Frank’s desk, Seth pressed his lips together like he was trying hard not to laugh. The bastard.

  “Sure, Frank. I mean, he’s kind of in the middle of his honeymoon, but let’s call and say we need him to leave his new husband in Paris so he can come home to put out your fires. Wait, weren’t you a firefighter in another life? Isn’t putting out fires what you do?”

  Frank leveled his unimpressed gaze on Seth. “You know, you’ve gotten awful mouthy since you got promoted to house manager.”

  Seth let out a bark of laughter. “You mean since we became friends and I realized you weren’t actually a fire-breathing dragon?”

  “Dragons are very sexy,” Kit pitched in from the floor, where he sat adding translucent glitter to a giant Styrofoam snowflake, his platinum blond hair sporting several stray glitter specks.

  Frank was very confused. “Your boyfriend isn’t making any sense.”

  “Don’t mind him,” Seth replied, shaking his head in obvious amusement. “He’s obsessed with gay dragons right now.”

  “I don’t want to know,” Frank muttered. “What I do want to know is where the hell the new event manager is. The event company was supposed to send a replacement before Alejandro left.” He waved two handfuls of documents at Seth. “Look at all this shit. We have the biggest winter event of the year happening in four weeks, and not only does our old event company disappear into the fucking night, but the new company—who’s assured us everything would be taken care of, by the way—hasn’t even sent me a fucking event manager!”

  Technically they had sent an event manager. The guy had been a disaster. Didn’t know what the fuck he was doing, and Frank told him as much. They were supposed to send someone competent the next day. A week later and Frank was still waiting.

  “It’s okay,” Seth said, his tone soothing as he held up his hands. “It’s going to be just fine. We’ll work through this.”

  Thank God for Seth. He was a force to be reckoned with, despite his friendly smile and laid-back nature. He’d quickly become Frank’s right-hand man, someone Frank could depend on to help maintain their reputation as the most exclusive members-only gay nightclub in the state.

  Frank took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly through his mouth. Seth was right. This was a minor inconvenience. So what if he didn’t have decorations, tables, chairs, settings, a catering company, menu, price list, flower arrangements, or anything he needed for one of his club’s most anticipated events? Sure, the invitations had been sent out months ago, and all his clients who’d be in attendance already RSVP’d. No big deal. For years he’d risked his life running into burning structures. He could handle an event gone wrong.

  It wasn’t as if things hadn’t gone wrong in the past. He’d been doing this for fourteen years. Jesus Christ, he was getting too old for this shit. His cellphone rang and he picked up. “What is it, Davie?”

  “There’s been a delivery, and, um… I think you need to come out here.”

  “What now?” Perfect. One more thing to add to his list. Fine. It was fine.

  “You really need to see it,” Davie murmured. Something about his tone sent a deep sense of foreboding through Frank.

  “On my way.” With a sigh, Frank hung up and stood. “There’s a problem out on the floor.” He left the office with Seth and Kit on his heels. In addition to Seth, he reminded himself he had Kit, the club’s dance choreographer. Of course Kit needed the extra dancers he’d hired for the event to show dance moves to, and the event company had yet to send those either.

  Whatever awaited Frank, he’d deal with it as soon as possible so he could move on to the next disaster. Leaving the back of house area, he headed for the club’s dance floor.

  His bloo
d pressure spiked—he could feel it—when he saw the monstrosity taking up half the dance floor. “The fuck is that?” Frank stopped and stared.

  “It’s a snowman.”

  Frank held a warning finger up to Davie, his eyes still glued to the eighteen-foot snowman that he sure as shit hadn’t ordered.

  “Why does it look surprised?” Kit asked, coming to stand to Frank’s right.

  “More importantly, why is it holding its crotch?” Seth asked from his left. He pointed to the blue mittens pressed against the snowman’s front. That, coupled with the snowman’s O-shaped mouth, concerned Frank. Greatly.

  “Do snowmen have crotches?” Davie asked as he moved around the snowman. “There’s a button back here.”

  Frank threw out a hand. “Don’t you touch a damn—”

  The most horrific guttural moan pierced the air seconds before a torrent of white glitter exploded from the snowman’s crotch, slamming into Frank with such force it threw him off his feet. He soared through the air and hit the floor hard, his world reduced to a haze of sparkling white.

  “Holy shit!” Seth appeared, hovering over him, his dark curls dusted with white glitter and his brows knit together in concern. “Are you okay?”

  Frank didn’t move. He simply lay there, staring at the ceiling as snowman jizz continued to float down around him. “Seth, be honest with me.”

  “Of course.”

  “Did a snowman just ejaculate on me? Is that what happened?”

  Seth’s lips quivered. He shook his head, lips pressed together as his face turned red from his obvious attempt to hold back his laughter. Other than the noises coming from Seth as he valiantly tried not to burst, the place had plunged into silence. Everyone had cleared out—most likely scrambling to the nearest safe place to lose their shit and laugh their asses off.

  Taking Seth’s outstretched hand, Frank got up with a groan, his body aching. Layers of white glitter drifted to the floor, and he glared down at his once pitch-black Armani suit.

  “I fucking hate glitter,” Frank growled as he attempted to brush the glitter off his suit. All that did was add an extra layer of white to his palms. “¡Me cago en diez, hijo de puta!”

  Seth’s eyes went huge. “Shit. We’ve reached the Spanish cursing stage. Kit—”

  “I’ll grab the Beluga Gold.” Kit hurried off to grab Frank’s favorite bottle of vodka. It was going to be one of those nights.

  First things first. “Get that… thing out of here. The glitter too. I’m going to change.” The club opened in a little over an hour.

  “On it.”

  Seth darted off, and Frank shook as much glitter off as he could before heading into the back of house. He opened the double doors and froze. Fuck. My. Life. He’d completely forgotten about his pre-opening meeting with the staff, which he shouldn’t have, seeing as how he’d been conducting these meetings every night since he’d opened the damn club.

  Two rows of wide eyes stared at him, though no one dared so much as blink, much less crack a smile. Stepping through the doors, he laced his fingers in front of him and addressed his staff like he always did, ignoring the waves of glitter that flowed from his person every time he moved his arms. A speck of glitter fell onto his eyelash, the light hitting it just right and almost blinding him.

  “Motherf—” He quickly composed himself. Maybe if he squinted a few times, the little fucker would fall off. Nope. It hung in there.

  “Let me, um…” Ruby, one of his go-go boys, slowly inched closer. “I’ll just, uh, get that for you.” He reached up and carefully plucked the blinding speck off Frank’s eyelash.

  “Thanks. As I was saying, I should hear back from the event company soon. Once I have the details ironed out, I’ll get the schedule up. Have a good night and stay safe.”

  They all murmured their thanks before hurrying off like someone had lit their asses on fire. He considered undressing in the hall, but his office had already been invaded by all manner of sparkly, fluffy things. Inside, he closed the door behind him and got undressed, remaining in his black boxer-briefs in the hopes of keeping the spread of glitter as far from his private bathroom as possible.

  Grabbing a roll of paper towels and a bottle of baby oil from the closet, he started the painstaking process of removing the glitter from his person. By the time he was done and dressed in one of the three black suits and shirts he kept in his office wardrobe, Kit had knocked on his door. He smiled brightly as he held up Frank’s favorite vodka.

  It took the staff almost an hour to get rid of the glitter on the dance floor—though they all knew it would never truly be gone—and deflate the obscene snowman with permanent orgasm face.

  “I see what happened,” Seth said an hour later from the sofa, tablet in hand. “When Alejandro entered the SKU number for the Giant Snow Confetti-Filled Bauble reversed the last two numbers, which is how we ended up with, um… Frosty Surprise.”

  “We were definitely surprised,” Kit said with a snort. “In more ways than one.”

  Frank took a seat behind his desk. “I’m glad to hear my unfortunate experience brings you amusement.”

  “And will continue to do so for years to come. Pun intended.” Kit waggled his dark eyebrows, and Frank groaned. He looked to Seth, who blinked at his boyfriend before letting out a loud laugh.

  When had he started to lose his touch? At one time Kit and Seth had jumped at his approaching footsteps. Now they made themselves comfortable in his office and tortured him with terrible puns.

  “There must have been a malfunction,” Seth said, studying his tablet. “Frosty Surprise was supposed to release a soft puff of…” He snorted. “Snowman essence.”

  “It does not say that.” Kit jumped to his feet from where he’d been sitting on the floor working on another giant snowflake. He darted over to his boyfriend and dropped onto the couch beside him. “Oh my God, it does say that!” He keeled over onto his side in a fit of laughter. “Snowman essence!”

  “Anyway, it’s supposed to release a soft puff, not a jet stream capable of taking out a two-hundred-pound man.”

  “I had an ex-boyfriend with that problem,” Kit mused. “My boss sent me home from work the next day because he thought I had pink eye.”

  “Wait a minute.” Frank remembered that day. “That was me.”

  Seth eyed Frank. “You shot in his eye?”

  “What? No!” Frank glared at Kit, who was absolutely no help at all. Why he found this whole thing hilarious was anyone’s guess. “I’m the one who sent him home.”

  Before Kit had been hired as the club’s dance instructor and choreographer, he’d been one of Frank’s go-go boys. The club dancers were off-limits to everyone, both client and staff, but there’d been no way to stop Kit from falling for Seth. Quite literally. The guy fell off his plinth during a routine because he’d been distracted by the handsome bartender. Thankfully Seth had seen Kit dancing too close to the edge and broke Kit’s fall.

  Despite them insisting nothing was going on, Frank knew better. The two were ridiculous in their attempts to avoid each other, and soon it became obvious Frank had to intervene. So he’d fired Kit.

  Frank never did anything without a good deal of thought. Kit was an exceptionally talented dancer, working his way to opening his own dance studio. Suddenly, a better opportunity presented itself. Frank rehired Kit as the club’s dance instructor and choreographer. With all the events and parties the club hosted, it made more financial sense for him to just hire his own. Seth often teased Frank, insisting he was a romantic at heart, and Frank would promptly tell him to fuck off.

  “Right. Time for me to make the rounds,” Seth said. He popped a kiss on his boyfriend’s mouth before standing. “Frosty Surprise is packed up and in the loading bay awaiting pickup tomorrow morning.”