A Chance to Get Even (A Story From the Dark Side)

by Lawrence Block

  “One thing I learned in Atlantic City,” he said. “A pot like that, you damn well tip the dealer.”

  She picked up the chip, looked at it.

  “It’s a joke,” Krale said. “Give it back.”

  “It’s not a joke,” Taggert said. “You keep it, Teen.”

  Teen?

  “Well, thanks,” she said, and grinned, and tucked the chip into her cleavage.

  And all at once Krale didn’t mind losing.

  ♠♥♣♦

  The cards didn’t favor either of them, not really. The hands tended to average out. Krale sat there and played what Tina dealt him, and he won his share of hands, pulled in his share of pots.

  But two hands killed him. Two moves, really. In one hand, he limped along with four small spades, filled his flush on sixth street, and called a big bet because Taggert needed the case nine for a full house, that was his only out, and Krale just didn’t believe he had it.

  Wrong.

  A little while later, he just flat knew Taggert had a busted flush, and no backup pair for his pair of aces. The aces were enough to beat Krale’s jacks, but how could Taggert call a big bet if all he had was aces?

  Wrong again. Right about the unsupported aces, but the sonofabitch called all the same, and aces beat jacks, the way they always do.

  Beaten, Krale didn’t curse his luck, or the cards, or Taggert. What he did do was note the expression on Taggert’s face, and the one on Tina’s, and the look that passed between them.

  “Kills me,” he announced. “How you made that call... Well, I guess that’s poker.”

  “Maybe it’s time to call it a night.”

  “Maybe,” Krale said, and found that he could read Taggert now as if the man had subtitles etched on his forehead. Because Taggert didn’t want to quit. He’d wanted to earlier, but not now.

  Nice.

  “All I want,” Krale said, “is a chance to get even.”

  “Seems reasonable.”

  “But I’m running out of money to play with. If I had to write you a check for what I owe you right this minute, I’d have to do some fancy footwork to keep it from bouncing.”

  “I hate to take a marker,” Taggert said, “but in this case—”

  “I hate to give one. Here’s my thought. I’m going to stake myself to a thousand dollars worth of chips. If I win, I win. And if I lose the lot...”

  He had their attention.

  “...then you can take Tina in the bedroom,” he said, “and play dealer’s choice for as long as you want.”

  “You know, if I thought you were serious—”

  “Oh, he’s serious,” Tina said.

  “Really? Dick, don’t you figure Tina has some say in the matter?”

  “Tina wouldn’t mind.”

  “Is that true, Teen?”

  Teen.

  “You sonofabitch,” she said to Krale. “No,” she said to Taggert. “No, Mark, I wouldn’t mind.”

  ♠♥♣♦

  At first they took turns picking up small pots. The cards were uninteresting, and the hands generally ended with the second up card, but Krale could feel the game’s level of intensity rise in spite of the cards.

  Fifteen or twenty minutes in, Tina dealt Krale a pair of tens in the hole and a seven on board. Taggert’s face card was a queen; he bet and Krale called.

  On the next round, Krale paired his seven while Taggert picked up a king. Krale bet, Taggert called.

  Krale caught a ten on fifth street, filling his hand, while Taggert paired his king and made a medium-size bet. He had kings and queens, Krale decided, and didn’t want to chase Krale out of the pot. Krale thought it over and called.

  Taggert’s next card was a queen. Two pair on board, and Krale read him for a boat.

  His own card was a ten, giving him two pair showing.

  “Maybe you’re not full yet,” Taggert said, and bet into him.

  Maybe you’re not full yet. Like it mattered to Taggert, who clearly was full himself, with a boat that would swamp tens full or sevens full or anything Krale might have.

  Krale just called.

  And Tina dealt the river cards. Krale looked at his, for form’s sake, and it was a queen, which meant that Taggert couldn’t have four of them. He could still have four kings, though.

  Taggert made a show of looking at his river card, squeezing it out between his other two down cards. Nothing showed on his face. He sat there considering, and pushed chips into the pot.

  “Here’s your chance to double up,” he said. “My bet’s whatever you’ve got in front of you.”

  “Oh, what the hell,” Krale said. “Let’s get this over with.” And he shoved his chips to the middle of the table. “I call, Mark. What have you got?”

  Big surprise—Taggert showed a king and a queen, giving him the full house Krale had read him for all along.

  “Kings full,” Krale said. He felt the blood in his veins, felt energy pulsing through his body. He noted the way Taggert was trying not to look at Tina, and the way Tina was allowing herself to look at Taggert. And then he turned over one of the two tens he had in the hole.

  “Tens full,” he announced. “I just didn’t believe you had it, Mark.” He dropped his other two hole cards face-down on the table, mixed them in with the pack Tina had been dealing from.

  He stood up. “That’s it,” he said. “Enjoy yourself, kids. You deserve it.”

  ♠♥♣♦

  He poured himself a brandy, and held the glass to the light while he listened to their footsteps on the staircase.

  Now they’re at the top of the stairs, he thought. Now they’re in the bedroom, our bedroom. Now he’s kissing her, now he’s got his hand on her ass, now she’s pressing herself into him the way she does.

  He sipped the brandy.

  Suppose Taggert had caught a fourth king. Then he could have shown the fourth ten, and he’d still be sipping brandy and they’d still be up in the bedroom.

  He thought about them up there, and he took another small sip of brandy.

  Better this way, he decided. Better that he’d had the winning hand and refrained from showing it. This way he had a secret, and he liked that.

  Noble of him. Self-sacrificing.

  He finished the brandy, went to his desk, opened the upper lefthand drawer, took out the gun. Assured himself once again that all the chambers were loaded.

  Another brandy?

  No, he didn’t need it.

  He was quiet on the stairs, avoiding the one that creaked. Not that they’d be likely to hear him, not that they’d be paying attention to anything but each other.

  He walked the length of the hall. They hadn’t bother to close the door. He saw their clothes, scattered here and there, and then he saw them, looking for all the world like internet porn.

  He approached to within ten feet of the bed. He was within Tina’s peripheral vision, and he could tell when she registered his presence. She froze, and then so did Taggert.

  “Nice,” Krale said.

  They looked at him, and saw his face, his poker face, and then they saw the gun.

  God, the look on their faces!

  “I had four tens,” Krale said. “So you both lose.”

  I hope you enjoyed

  ● A Chance To Get Even ●

  A Story From The Dark Side, by Lawrence Block

  Lawrence Block is a Grandmaster of the Mystery Writers of America, and winner of multiple awards, including the Edgar and the Shamus awards for his novels.

  I hope you enjoyed this story. If so, I’d love to hear from you.

  Email: lawbloc@gmail.com

  Twitter: @LawrenceBlock

  Blog:

  http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/

  Facebook:

  http://www.facebook.com/lawrence.block

  Website:

  www.lawrenceblock.com

  If you did in fact like this story, you might enjoy more of my short fiction. Three collections of my short fiction are a
vailable as ebooks:

  Enough Rope

  One Night Stands & Lost Weekends

  Ehrengraf for the Defense

  Also available as special edition ebooks are Single Short Stories, Novellas, and a play. Subscribe to LB’s blog and sign up for the newsletter to get the latest updates on sales, new releases and special offers.

  Stories From the Dark Side

  “Catch & Release” (a fisherman)

  “A Chance to Get Even” (a poker game)

  “Dolly’s Trash & Treasures” (a hoarder)

  “Headaches and Bad Dreams” (a psychic)

  “In For a Penny” (New York noir)

  “Like a Bone in the Throat” (revenge)

  “Scenarios” (a man with imagination)

  “Sweet Little Hands” (a cheating wife)

  “Three In The Side Pocket” (a failed scam)

  “Welcome to the Real World” (a golfer)

  “Who Knows Where It Goes” (a job hunter)

  “You Don’t Even Feel It” (a boxer’s wife)

  Bernie Rhodenbarr

  “The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke”

  “Like a Thief in the Night”

  Chip Harrison

  “As Dark As Christmas Gets”

  Ehrengraf For The Defense

  “The Ehrengraf Defense”

  “The Ehrengraf Presumption”

  “The Ehrengraf Experience”

  “The Ehrengraf Apointment”

  “The Ehrengraf Riposte”

  “The Ehrengraf Obligation”

  “The Ehrengraf Alternative”

  “The Ehrengraf Nostrum”

  “The Ehrengraf Affirmation”

  “The Ehrengraf Reverse”

  “The Ehrengraf Settlement

  Keller

  “Keller in Dallas”

  Four-Part Novellas

  “Speaking of Greed”

  “Speaking of Lust”

  A One-Act Stage Play

  “How Far”

  Short Stories

  “Almost Perfect” (baseball and adultery)

  “A Bad Night for Burglars” (a bad-luck burglar)

  “Terrible Tommy Terhune” (a tennis player)

  “A Vision in White” (another tennis player)

  For a list of all my available fiction, with my series novels listed in chronological order, go to About LB’s Fiction. And if you LOVE any of these stories, I’d really appreciate it if you’d tell your friends—including the friends you haven’t met, by blogging, posting an online review, or otherwise spreading the word.

  Thanks!

  Lawrence Block

  Available Now! The complete collection of Martin H. Ehrengraf stories.

  Includes the newest story, The Ehrengraf Settlement.

  You've never met a lawyer like Martin Ehrengraf. He never loses a case, and rarely sees the inside of a courtroom. Nor does he pass his hours poring over dusty legal volumes, or searching the Lexis database. Ehrengraf is a criminal lawyer who takes cases on a contingency basis; he collects a fee only when his client goes free. And that somehow never fails to happen happens, because his clients always turn out to be innocent.

  Ehrengraf's debut came in 1978, in Ellery Queen. Ten stories appeared between then and 2003, and now, after almost a decade, the dapper little lawyer is back (only in eBook form, and only for Kindle) in "The Ehrengraf Settlement." All eleven Ehrengraf stories, exclusively eVailable as Kindle Select titles, have now been gathered up into this full-length eBook.

  In 1994, when there were only eight stories about the fellow, a small press collected them in a limited edition of Ehrengraf for the Defense. (That little volume commands $250 to $1250 on the collector market—if you can find it.) Edward D. Hoch, acknowledged master of short mystery fiction, wrote an appreciative introduction, and Lawrence Block added an afterword. Hoch's introduction is reprinted in our new enlarged eDition of the stories, and Block has updated his afterword.

  Lawrence Block has peopled his fictional universe with a host of memorable characters. If you want a walk through the dark and gritty streets of Manhattan and the outer boroughs, Matt Scudder's your man. If you need a lighthearted and lightfingered companion to lift something from a safe in a triple-locked apartment, you want Bernie Rhodenbarr. If you have to get someone out of your hair once and for all, you'd better get Keller on the case.

  But if you're facing a murder charge, and if the evidence is overwhelming, you want the one man who's not only prepared to believe in your innocence but able to demonstrate it to the world. You want Ehrengraf.

  Just make sure you pay his fee...

  Available now on Amazon

  Ehrengraf For The Defense

  The Complete Short Story Collection