It took guts for Annie Raye to come home to Vegas. With a cardsharp for a father and a convicted embezzler for an ex, she's already got two strikes against her. The last thing the struggling single mother needs is some private investigator deep-sixing her chance to go straight!

Annie, a former gambling protégé, isn't going to pull the wool over this ex-soldier's eyes--even if Sam Knight is finding the woman and her daughter impossible to resist. She certainly has an uncanny knack for counting cards, but Sam can read people. And everything about Annie tells him she wants the same things he only wishes he could have: a family and a love you can rely on.