Crooked

by Bronwen John

  “The stuff you drink is too fancy for my taste, Ez.” A shake of the head while Ezra grumbled at the name. “She’s enjoying the poker, more than anything. Looks like she’s retired.”

  “People like her don’t retire,” said Holmes, deciding that he didn’t like this man one bit. If the kid had retired, it meant they wouldn’t have the opportunity to try to con her… or for her to be in his debt. “They find cons.”

  “They also have a strange moral code,” Ezra said, smirking into the drink that he’d lifted to his lips with apparent casualness. “I happen to want to let her know I’m aboard.” He chuckled at the disbelieving expression on Holmes’s face. “As my own moral code still tells me that, as a Southern gentleman, I am obliged to meet her and attempt to find out her scheme.” He looked across at Devin. “Go back before you’re missed.”

  “You trust him?” Harry asked as Vin nodded, giving Ezra a small almost-salute before walking off back indoors. “He did protect her first.”

  “‘Trust is another con’, in the words of my darling mother,” Ezra said, sipping the last of the bourbon. “I just want to ruin her. Like you, I suspect that she’s up to no good… but I have a plan for that.”

  Morning was ushered in by several knocks on the suite door by their steward delivering a late breakfast in bed. When Ash had awoken and dressed, she’d found Vin sitting drinking coffee and eating a Danish pastry, his long brown hair tied into a ponytail, and looking more comfortable now.

  “Mornin’, Ash,” he greeted her.

  She grunted.

  “Est went out in the early hours, no doubt to help the kids out.”

  “Figure she’ll be banned from the blackjack tables?”

  “Nah, she wins too much on them,” the man stated with a chuckle. “Lets people think she’s terrible… Eleanor’s been trying to draw her in for about four years.”

  “She told me she couldn’t play,” Ash said, sitting down opposite him and pouring herself a coffee.

  “Ambrosia,” Vin said, his voice suddenly a touch sad. He shook himself. “She tells people that. Every con artist needs to be poor at one aspect… and she’d not be a croupier for the kids’ game if she were. Why anyone would bring a kid on board a ship while they gamble is beyond me.”

  “Honing their senses?” Ash joked lightly.

  “Possibly.” He looked thoughtful.

  Ash shook her head.

  “At least they’re with them… some would dump them or use them for a con.”

  “Is that what got her into the game?” Ash asked quietly.

  Vin shook his head.

  “Her mother?”

  “Her mother… I knew both parties… when Holmes killed her it turned the kid remorseless.” He bit his lip. “Determined to see him through, but she didn’t know enough to kill him. Nearly got herself sold into the trade for that.”

  Ash looked up sharply.

  “She broke into the mansion he had in Hollywood – let’s just say, as the kid’s proud of saying, she ain’t no thief. Proved it when she got caught breaking in… but he figured he would make a profit on her. Kid was pretty and a virgin. Worth every penny of hard-earned money, and she’d be a prize. Barely saved her from that one. You know how Holmes has a chipped tooth?”

  Ash nodded.

  “That was Chris getting her out… broke his jaw in three places too. So her old father decides to make her promise to wait for a rainmaker.”

  “That’d be me.”

  Vin nodded. “I guessed… has she told you what the con is?”

  Ash was about to say when she caught a glimpse of something in Vin’s eye. She didn’t know what, but it wasn’t good. She thought of Luke Gaines in the darkness of the dramatic end of his life, and yet his words of wisdom: Scratch the lie – kick the truth in the teeth and go with your gut. “No. Well, not much. She’s enjoying the poker right now; been playing illegal matches in Norway.”

  Vin clicked his tongue, obviously unsatisfied with her response. “Well, she’s just like her dear father, paranoid bastard.”

  Who trusts you with his daughter? Ash felt herself tense before saying casually, “Probably waiting for an idea.”

  “More likely.” He sipped his coffee. “Innocent’s aboard.”

  “You what?!” Ash snapped.

  “Innocent is aboard.” Vin sipped his coffee again as Ash jumped to her feet. “And where are you going?”

  “I got to warn her – if she knows Innocent’s aboard she might pull the con!” Even to her own ears, Ash knew she sounded like a whining sixteen-year-old. Selfishly whining.

  “So you’re thinking of yourself, not the kid?” Vin snorted. “And she trusted you to be her slider?”

  “She told you?”

  “Guessed.” He stood. “What else can she be planning solo?”

  Ash felt like snapping that she had a team, but bit her lip. She didn’t trust Vin. She didn’t trust herself, either. Esther had warned her that two people seeking revenge was a recipe for disaster. “Where are you going?” she asked quietly.

  “It’s near enough time for the poker match; figure I can be a friend and warn her.” He threw a look back at her. “I reckon it’s the least I can do.”

  The ship was large enough to lose yourself and your soul on, with various games played in different areas. There was also a cinema and a swimming pool. Vin had investigated the pool area while Ash had gone to the cinema – and, nearly two hours later, Vin with suspiciously wet hair and Ash wearing glasses that looked like 3D glasses, the two agreed she was in neither spot.

  “She must’ve gone to the coffee shop,” Vin said quietly as he glanced at his watch. “Would’ve heard if she’d been caught dealing that kids’ match she was on about.”

  “Is that Esther Crook you’re discussing?” came a scratchy voice from the left.

  Both spun around to see a young man studying a rather large emerald necklace on the display stand of a nearby shop. His green eyes flicked up at them, before he returned to making a note in a notepad. He offered a curved, innocent smile.

  “How’d you know?” Ash asked curiously.

  “I met her this morning with my geology professor after breakfast. I’m Anton Pavlov.” The young man offered a slight quirk of the lip and a hand outstretched. Ash shook it quickly, as did Vin. “We’re going to be meeting later for dinner.”

  “Know where she’s gotten to?” Vin asked quickly.

  “Look where the crowd is.” Pavlov gestured abstractedly and returned to his examination of a new ruby and emerald that shared a display case. “They’ve been going half an hour, and it’s been an even keel.”

  Ash and Vin moved to the atrium staircase. Looking down, they could see a throng of admirers surrounding a small coffee table, and Ash spotted Esther’s scarlet leather jacket and what she took to be Brett Higgins’s shoulders.

  “Thank you,” Vin said to Pavlov, heading downstairs immediately. He glanced at Ash as she paused, continuing to admire the scene from above. “Ash, I’ll meet you down the front?”

  “Of course.” She paused to look back at the student, who pushed his glasses up his nose. “Thank you for your advice, Mr Pavlov.”

  “If I may, I’d like to request that dinner between myself and Miss Voleur solo? She seemed to be very interested in the Burmese ruby,” he said, not looking up from his study.

  Ash was about to give a pointed response, but then she turned smartly on her heel and headed downstairs. She soon found Vin, who was smiling at the ongoing game and brought her forward.

  “Rare you see this, iffun you ever do,” he said with a certain satisfaction. “Ash, watch two masters at work.”

  From Ash’s perspective, the poker game was going well. Both parties had decided to use circular chocolate mints wrapped in green foil from the coffee bar to symbolise coinage, although it was mo
re a matter of enjoyment than a proper game. It was also gathering a steady stream of admirers of the fine art; even Vin’s lips had twitched when Esther had dealt a particularly fine flush. It was olden-day poker in a modern-day setting, and if Ash closed her eyes she could imagine the scene playing out on the old Mississippi riverboats.

  “May I join you?” It didn’t sound like a request.

  Ash looked at Vin, who was growling at Holmes’s appearance. Harry Holmes looked out of place in his casual jeans and shirt, in comparison to Esther and Brett Higgins, who were casually dressed but somehow fitted into the entire scene. They both glanced at the interloper.

  “Just don’t expect conversation.”

  The infamous gangster’s lips twitched; the twist of them was nowhere near a smile. It reminded Ash of a predator eyeing a particularly sweet morsel, and it sent an unpleasant shudder through her. The son had the same expression.

  Esther merely glanced at him, as did Higgins, a look of utter contempt on both their faces. “You seem to have an interesting effect on people, Mr Holmes.”

  The lips twitched again, and Holmes reached for the pack of cards. Esther, however, picked them up before he touched them and began to cut them, shuffling them and dealing left-handed.

  “Very impressive, Miss Voleur.”

  “It was a case of learn to deal left-handed or stop playing. I like my cards too much,” Esther said shortly. “Anyway, I play well either way, as Mr Higgins will ascertain.”

  “That I will.”

  Despite having no play in the game, Holmes began to filter his fingers through the forfeited cards. Ash watched as both players tensed up. It was considered poor conduct, and it was evident both sides recognised the transgression.

  “Sir,” Higgins’s soft Texan drawl held menace, “please desist from going through the discarded cards. You have no right to a game.”

  “Not committing a crime.” Holmes smirked.

  “Well, as my father always says, ‘Worst crime a man can commit is interrupting a poker game’, so you must be committing at least a dozen other crimes.” Esther looked up into Holmes’s cold eyes. “You are interrupting a private play for pleasure. Myself and Mr Higgins had a rather stimulating game yesterday. And this is proper poker… as you are no doubt aware.”

  “But, Miss Crook… or is it Voleur?” Harry mocked, and Ash saw Esther cock her eyebrows with open disdain. “I couldn’t quite keep up.”

  “Crook. Voleur is a family name, but I forget you didn’t know your father, isn’t that right?”

  Holmes glared, his ears turning a subtle shade redder. Ash hid a snort behind a cough as Esther returned to her card game with increased nonchalance.

  “Please leave the table.”

  “No, no, would much rather watch.” He pulled out a chair and sat next to Esther. She grimaced at the closeness and returned to eyeing her hand. “A dead man’s hand… how appropriate.”

  “Sir, your manners are abysmal,” Brett Higgins said quietly. “Myself and the lady were trying to enjoy a friendly card game.”

  Ash turned away from the game, as a man crossed the room slowly, followed by two bodyguards, but with a panther-like grace.

  “Mr Ezra Innocent, on your left,” Vin said quietly in her ear.

  Ash trembled, though she felt Vin at her back, keeping her eyes fixed on Innocent’s approach. A curt nod in his direction from Vin. Ash winced at that. But Esther had said he needed to preserve himself here. Ash was stunned by the youth of the man. He looked barely into his forties with dark hair and sharp green eyes that took everything in. A smart Armani suit which showed off his square and tight body, but then there was a glint from his mouth…

  Ezra slid into the now-empty seat as Esther dealt the hand, all too focused on the ‘friendly’ practice. She was smiling at something Higgins had said and agreeing when she glanced in Ezra’s direction. Instantly, her poker face fell. Even when there had been a flash of annoyance with Holmes, she’d maintained an ice-cold expression. There was now only true, unadulterated fear.

  “Oh, Miss Crook.” Holmes was grinning now at her wide-eyed stare at the man. “I believe you know this gentleman?”

  “It’s a pleasure again, Miss Crook.”

  “Innocent.”

  Nine

  Esther briefly tapped the top of the cards, almost in frustration, as she saw Holmes smirk and step back allowing for Innocent begin playing. She offered a small, reassuring smile to Brett Higgins, who glanced between the two with growing anxiousness.

  “Mr Innocent is an old acquaintance,” Esther stated to Higgins.

  “Seems a surprise to see him?” asked Higgins.

  “I thought you were still Stateside, Mr Innocent?” she said quietly.

  “Business needs.”

  “I heard you were doing business with reprobates, but this? This is a new low.” Her eyes flicked to Holmes. “You do realise the part he had to play in your wife’s death?”

  “And Mr Holmes has given me a rather compelling account of your duplicity in it… surely you realised that I would be waiting?”

  Esther nodded curtly. “Mr Higgins and I enjoyed a rather excellent game last night. We’re playing for who pays for the coffee.”

  “Fantastic odds,” Innocent agreed, smirking. He stood. “Though if you don’t mind some disagreeable manners, Mr Higgins, I’d like to facilitate Miss Crook’s coffee.”

  Esther shook her head. “If you’d like, we can play a game ourselves? If Mr Higgins has no objections?” A quick shake of the head before Esther glanced at her watch. “And then if you’d like to facilitate me, as you’d say, to go to this convention on the Star of Burma?”

  Ash tensed, as did Vin’s hand on her shoulder, as Innocent could be seen considering the offer.

  “And your friends join me?”

  “Only me and the kid aboard, Mr Innocent,” Esther said quietly. She looked up. “Mr Higgins and me are just competitors.”

  Innocent nodded and sat down, taking off his coat in one swift movement and hooking it to the back of the seat. “Mr Holmes, I have a feeling that you should step back and watch the game and give us privacy for our conversation on this…” he pondered over the word, “…matter.”

  Ash watched as Esther settled into the game, playing evenly with Innocent and completing her game with Higgins. Higgins would have the honour of not buying the coffee, which she promptly gave to him and asked for him to pick her up a cup of tea and some sweet tea for Ezra Innocent. She received a slight tilt of the head as an acknowledgement of a well-played hand and game. The teas arrived shortly afterwards.

  Ash felt her eyes water as small mistakes and tells became apparent through Esther’s nerves, the gambling man playing opposite revealing nothing that she could see other than a small tap at the top of the cards. Esther looked to be bearing it well, though there was a slight tremor to her hand as she dealt one card. Ash couldn’t see Vin, but she could hear his sharp intake of breath as Ezra Innocent laid down the last card and produced a stunning full house which reduced Esther’s hand to nothing.

  “I feel here is the time to complete our sojourn. Competing, or just enjoying the amateurs?” Esther asked cordially as Brett Higgins returned to her side. “Thank you, Brett. I hope to see you later.”

  He looked hurt at the dismissal, until Esther pressed a light kiss onto his cheek, a chaste but polite goodbye, for now at least. “I hope to see you too… perhaps we could meet for dinner?”

  “I’m afraid not; a friend has promised me the conversation of a doctor who is an expert on the Burmese ruby that’s on display. But I can promise myself for afternoon tea? Shall we say three o’clock?”

  “I’d say that’s fine.”

  She smiled at his eagerness, before he headed off and she took her tea and sipped from it. Ezra Innocent waited politely, gesturing for his two goons, and Ash felt Vin
tighten his hold on her before bringing her over to them.

  Esther cocked her eyebrows at Vin before shaking her head. “Should’ve guessed you’d be helping him, Vin,” she said quietly.

  “Self-preservation,” Vin said but Ash could feel his hand slacken on her; obviously a sign that she understood that this was necessary.

  “Big word; learn it from the dictionary? Oh, I’m sorry.” Esther put on a taunting air of apology. “Vin the turncoat is dyslexic, Miss Azeri. Or just plain stupid.”

  Despite knowing it was an act, Ash gasped at the harsh words before Esther’s arm was snatched by Innocent. She winced and threw an angry look at him.

  “Manners maketh the man, let alone woman, Esther Crook. Accept this and take a lesson from it, as I do detest a sore loser. Accept it as part of my education on good poker and we will alight together.”

  Esther kept her gaze steady before nodding.

  “I’m glad we agree. Now, I believe you were wishing to see this famous gem?”

  “I believe that was a condition of the win?” Esther nodded again, and Innocent’s grip slackened. “I’m not bringing Holmes.”

  “Lady’s privilege,” Innocent said, smirking. “But this is not a—”

  “I rather guess you’re going to say this is your show? Fine, then.” Esther tilted her head. “Let’s go.”

  The group began their walk to the exhibition, Ezra and Esther talking lightly between themselves as the two bodyguards, Ash, Vin and Holmes followed in perfect silence.

  “You know the exhibition is worth several million pounds?” Esther was saying conversationally, and it took a squeeze to Ash’s shoulder to reveal that Esther was talking to her. “Quite a steal.”

  “If you can get by the security,” Ash said politely.

  Esther walked around the security guards, Ezra Innocent’s hand at the small of her back, and if Ash hadn’t known about the underlying fear that had ruined the game, she would’ve said they were an affectionate father and his daughter, despite the fact that Innocent looked barely old enough to have an adult daughter.