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Prologue
MARCUS
High card–Ace.I picked up my second card cheering internally. I had to win this hand to walk out of here with the fifty grand I lost. I’d break even and wouldn’t have to worry about how I was going to pay bills for the next three months.
Admittedly, I knew I had a gambling problem. It didn’t make it easier to shake. I tried to keep myself away from betting situations, but sometimes it snuck up on me. It was part of the reason why I’d gotten a divorce from Simone. The other reasons…
A pair-Aces.I glanced up from my hand to see the other five men at this table sweating. We’d all lost at the other tables and hoped this one proved lucky. By their expressions, they weren’t fairing so well. The guy across from me whom I’d nicknamed Duck liked to purse his lips whenever he thought something big was going to happen. His thin lips remained in a tense line as he studied those damn cards as if something was going to change.
Three of a kind–Aces.The first card was laid down by the dealer. Was I being played? Three aces? It sounded like a setup. I hadn’t touched the deck and it was proving to be lucky right now. At the same time that I tried to keep a smile from my face, I saw Duck’s lips as he conveyed that his luck had just changed. By how much though?
Four of a kind–Aces.Stop playing. The second card was flipped over making for a four-of-a-kind. This hand was mine and it took every ounce of willpower not to fidget in my seat. Instead, I’d rather see how everybody else was fairing. Duck had that look on his face, so his luck was heating up. He needed a royal flush or a straight one to beat me. Were the odds in his favor or mine?
Whiskey, I’d named the man it after he’d ordered one every time he’d lost a hand. He was probably too sloshed to be playing right now. He’d have the perfect cards in his hand and wouldn’t know it because he kept blinking to see the numbers.
Sniffles was the guy who appeared to have a coke habit. He paid more attention to snorting his nose as if he’d missed some in one of his nostrils. He hadn’t and the congested honks from his nose into his throat was irritating. The man could play though. He was also a beast at bluffing. He’d won two hands that way. Most of my money was in his pockets.
Paying attention to my cards, I had the highest four of a kind that I could get, but how had the others faired? A straight or a royal flush could knock it out of the park. Now, I just had to hope that the poker gods had only been nice to me and no one else.
“I’ll raise you 10.” Duck slid his chips forward, and I watched him slide an additional ten thousand dollars into the pot.
“Okay,” Sniffles added his ten into the pot upping it to fifty thousand.
Chips, the guy who kept the potato chip bowl in front of his face, was up next. “Fold.”
I wasn’t surprised since he’d been doing that the entire game.
It was my turn. I added more chips to the pile, I wasn’t ready to fold yet.
“Fold.” Logan, an old friend of mine said before he tossed his cards to the dealer and stood up. He downed the last of his drink, nodded at me, and walked off. His way of saying he was done for the night.
“Fold.” Whiskey put his cards face down and finished off his drink. He raised his glass and the waitress nodded and moved to the bar.
That left Duck, Sniffles, and me. Duck raised and Sniffles raised it again, I swallowed hoping that I wouldn’t regret matching them. Then, it was time. Duck turned over his cards to reveal a second pair, kings. Nice work. It wasn’t enough though. Sniffles flipped his cards to show a straight. Holy fuck. I’d won.
I flipped my cards over and both men hissed. With all the money we’d raised, the pot was one hundred thousand dollars. I pulled the chips my way and stacked them neatly on my side.
“What do you say?” I asked them, wondering if I could beat the stakes a second time.
“My wife is going to kill me.” Sniffles stood and walked away without saying another word.
Whiskey finished the drink he’d be just given and stumbled from the table as well. Chips stared at the table without saying anything. Duck’s lips were back in a tight line.
“I want a chance to win that back.” Chips said as he watched me set up piles of chips.
“I’m game.” I cleared my thought, needing water to get me through another intense round.
“I want in.” A man sat down in what used to be Whiskey’s seat. Two guards stood behind him and one of them carried a briefcase. “I’ve been watching you all night and you haven’t done badly. I want to know if this hand was a lucky one or if you’re on your way up to a streak.”
“Ten thousand is the starting bet,” I warned him.
“You’ve just won a hundred thousand dollars. Let’s play big. All or nothing. Your hundred grand for mine.” He leaned forward to stretch his shoulders and then sat back in his seat. “You two can join in if you want.” He looked to Chips and Duck.
Chips raised his hands and shook his head. He then stood up and left the table muttering words I couldn’t make out. Duck ordered more chips and he set them up on the table, all in.
Three hundred grand was enough to make the game more than worth it. Who was this smooth motherfucka though? Did he work here?
“Who are you, man?” I asked before I made a decision.
