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I don’t really see any reason to hide it, other than a sadistic satisfaction in being in control of the conversations for once. But either way, I’m sure Nathan will tell him, if he hasn’t already and he’s just pretending not to know.
"I… run an agency providing poker prop players to some private poker clubs in Hong Kong and casinos in Macau." Beside me, I feel something strike the air, interest maybe. And he’s listening… and not judging, so I continue. "The girls who stay with us, I train them to play, and if they’re good, then they’re paid a retainer for the nights they work and get 70% of their winnings. They can stay with us as long as they need to. Usually what happens is they make close friends here and after a few months, they move out together. Some stay and mentor new girls and some move onto other jobs. I help the girls find those jobs if they need help.”
He doesn’t say anything for the longest time.
And then finally, he turns around, pulls the sunglasses up onto his head, and looks at me with an indecipherable expression.
"Kiki, do you believe in fate?"
ten
Kylian
The drive from Kiara's apartment home last night after I dropped her off from the police station was one of the most confusing fifteen minutes of my life.
Her bombshell about her business of rescuing girls in jobs they hated cut and healed me all at once. As I’d told her, it shouldn’t have been surprising considering what she was like when she was a child, but it was. I hadn't wanted to show that surprise because I imagine that was the usual reaction she elicited from people she told about her job, especially the ones who traveled in the same circles as her family did.
For all the money in the pockets of billionaires, many of the ones I'd met didn't really have a proclivity for sharing it. I more or less expected that from those who'd been born with platinum spoons in their mouths, but that selfishness showed even in those who'd scraped from humble beginnings to now sit at the top of the food chain. Instead of trying to make it easier for those like them to succeed, they carried this chip on their shoulder about how “if they could do it, anyone could."
Money does things to people's brains and morality.
It's a drug, a poison. One that I have to check every day to make sure it hasn't infiltrated my brain and turned it, changing what I view as right and what I view as wrong.
But when I'm in Kiara's presence, it's clear that that line is blurred.
Last night, I'd waited for almost ten minutes outside her building, just in case she came back, having forgotten something... or forgotten to say something.
But she hadn't, she'd returned to the life that just a day ago, didn’t have me in it...
A life where she's doing more with her life than I could’ve imagined.
As a child at school she was barely ten years old before she organized competitions for her classmates, marble games, running races, hopscotch tournaments. The teachers wrote home about how resourceful she was, great at rallying her friends, a leader. What they hadn't known was the sheer amount of candy that was changing hands in the school yard. Kiara had set up a gambling ring that remained undetected until one of the mothers found her child’s hidden candy stash and asked where it came from. The gambling ring was dismantled… temporarily. The pattern continued well into high school. And now she'd turned it into an outlet, a living, not only for herself, but for those needing a fresh start in life as well.
In this moment, it was the best thing she could have ever told me.
"Kiki, do you believe in fate?"
Her left brow turns into a question mark, curled into a mix of curiosity and confusion. I'm not going to let her wonder forever.
"Do you remember I told you about opening the casino last night?"
She nods, almost scared to.
"Well, we're looking for staff right now. Among them, croupiers, dealers, and of course, prop players. Most importantly, for our VIP rooms. There's a lot of money that's just begging to be lost. Would you be interested sourcing my casino with your players? Whatever deal you're considering with your other contracts, I promise you, I can top it."
Her jaw drops. And then everything happens so fast, I can't react.
She reaches over and slaps me across the cheek, flinging her car door open then running out into the traffic.
"What the...?" I shout, still reeling from the slap.
My eyes still blurry, I hear a car horn honking ahead and look up to see she's running between the columns of cars.
"Fuck!"
I kick my car door open just as the cars start to move, and jump out right into traffic. Thank fuck, no one’s going anywhere fast. Except Kiara.
Ahead of me, she’s reached the curb, out of imminent danger, and I follow as fast as I can, ducking and dodging between the rows and rows of cars. There's no room for me to cross the bumper-to-bumper lanes and over onto the curb.
