Dead Man's Hand

by Steven Meehan

  With a genuine smile I answered, “You would be a very pleasant addition to my table.”

  As she began to sit down in the chair across from me I widened my field of vision to take her in completely. Her beauty wasn’t limited to her eyes, in fact it was accentuated by them. She was dressed simply so I guessed she was one of the professional gamblers. Definitely not one of the elite crowded into the room with us. The sleeveless teal shirt she wore emphasized just how pale her skin was. She had strawberry blond hair that cascaded down over her right shoulder and with her hair landing across her bare skin I was able to pick up on the very slight coloring. It had just the barest touch of honey.

  With an effort I tore my eyes from her exposed shoulder and was amazed when I realized she was wearing almost no makeup. And yet she still managed to look stunning. Her ruby red lips were widened with a warm smile and I was able to see her glisteningly white teeth. She was quite simply gorgeous and by the way she carried herself, she seemed to know it.

  As she settled in her chair I really wanted to say something smart, something clever. Instead, my idiot mouth blurted out, “Though I do hope we won’t start at the same table when the tournament begins.”

  By the time I finished speaking, her smile had been replaced by an ugly grimace full of an intense contempt for my words. While keeping that glare upon me she somehow managed to keep her pleasant tone, “So you’re one of those types of players.”

  As she started to back her chair from the table I rushed in to try and fix my stupidity, “I think you misunderstood what I was saying…”

  But she didn’t seem to be all that interested in letting me finish. As she interrupted me she managed to keep that pleasant tone in her voice, which was in complete contradiction to the angry look in her eyes. “No I understood perfectly, you don’t like women intruding into your precious game.”

  Forcing my body to relax I shook my head and clarified what I had meant, “No that’s not it at all. I love playing with women. I just don’t like the thought of separating a beautiful woman from her money.” For whatever reason I was actually attempting to keep her from leaving, and it certainly helped that I was being very sincere, though perhaps a bit too specific. Matt and I would run scams on just about anyone, but I did have one guiding rule when selecting our marks. I never targeted women or children, in fact sometime I would typically enlist random women or children and let them in on the take.

  Early on I had had to enforce the rule with Matt, he believed that everyone was fair game. Who they were didn’t matter to him. I certainly had to reign in his enthusiasm from time to time. Now-a-days he mostly lived by the same rule, though I could tell when he thought about going after the occasional rich woman. When those thoughts started creeping in, I took steps to present him with a better alternative, which usually worked.

  My words must have registered with her because she froze halfway out of her chair. And her scowl had eased itself into more of a neutral line. She must have been flattered by what I had said, though still a little wary. After another moment of consideration her smile reappeared. She then guessed at what I had left unsaid. “I’ll assume you don’t have the same sentiment when it comes to men.” She paused, pursed her lips a bit and asked, “Or ugly women?”

  Nodding I told her the rule that I, more or less lived my life by. “My dear lady, men are easily parted from their money. But should anyone dare to try and part a woman from hers; that poor fool will suffer for a lifetime.”

  This time she laughed as she eased herself back into her chair, “Should I take your flattery as a way to put me off balance.”

  “No, the flattery was sincere. You truly are a beautiful woman.”

  Ducking her head down ever so slightly she attempted to hide blushing checks. Since she had been trying to hide them I decided to be nice enough to oblige her and pretended not to notice the rosy coloring. Once her embarrassment had subsided a bit, she tilted her head back and asked, “Why not pick on women? Men can be even more vindictive than us.”

  Her words held a little bit of fire, she must love arguing with people. But I could tell from her tone that she was only halfheartedly fighting her point. “For the most part a man will be singular in his vengeance. But a woman, well now, she has the imagination to truly put the fear of God into any heart. As we all know, ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’”

  She smiled and lifted her finger in a chiding motion, “You have a point sir.” Ignoring the finger I did return a smile of my own as she asked, “So does that mean when the two of us meet at the tables that you will willingly surrender your chips to me?”

  I was surprised that she had taken my words and thrown them back so deftly. She was quick-witted. That was not the best thing for potential opponents to possess. I hesitated a moment, looking for an appropriate response. “Just because I don’t like to separate a woman from her money doesn’t mean I’ll hesitate to do so if she’s insistent.” I leaned back and spread my arms out as I finished my train of thought. “And I can only assume that since every woman here came willingly, they are insisting that their money should be taken away.”

  “Smooth recovery sir, very smooth. I applaud you.”

  “Well thank you…

  For a moment I felt her eyes examining me, trying to decide if I was worth anymore of her time or if I deserved to know her name. But then the moment passed and with that beautiful smile she said, “Bella. And you are?”

  “Marcus.”

  “Marcus, the name suits you.”

  “Thank you, Bella. And I do have to say it’s a pleasure to share some time with you before we get started.”

  “Thank you Marcus, but so far the pleasure has been entirely mine.”

  So far the pleasure had been hers? Well that was good to hear. But it seemed to be my day for saying stupid things. “That’s unfortunate.”

  I could see the annoyance building in her eyes. Two words, with two simple words I had undone some of the friendship I had managed to build. Two stupid words! Wait a second, was I really gathering information for the tournament when this conversation began? Focus, Marcus. Focus. I was just about to explain my comment when she straightened her head and seemed to size me up with those flashing, grey eyes. “Why is that?”

  She could slip between emotions about as easily as I could breathe, good to know. But that calmness was more distracting than any kind of emotion would have been. Wait a second, could this all be an act? Could she be probing me for my reactions? Or is she just very particular? If she was playing me she was good, and at that moment I preferred to think of her as that good, which meant I needed to pretend like she really was offended. So what to say to pull my foot out of my mouth? “To me, a simple name like Bella does nothing to signify or enhance your beauty.”

  Well if she was trying to play me she certainly knew enough to get all of the details right. Because the storm that had been brewing in her eyes began to die down bit by bit. Raising an eyebrow she leaned towards me, whispering so I had to strain to make out the comment. “You do know that my name actually means beautiful, right?”

  Well that was a news to me, so I shook my head and her eyes bulged out just enough to let me know that she was dubious about my convenient lack of knowledge. But she went on, “You’re either a brilliant flirt…”

  “Or?”

  “Or the luckiest man alive that those were the words that came out of your mouth.”

  As if I was offended I asked, “Did you think I was going to say something else?”

  With a wry smile she waved that finger in front of my face as she answered. “Marcus, Marcus, Marcus. We’ve only just met. So please tell me what I was supposed to think you were going to say.” After inhaling with deliberate slowness she sighed heavily and said with a wink, “Though you had been making the most pleasant contradictions, so I guess I should have had some clue. But do you know what you’ve shown yourself to be very good at?” She asked. When I shook my head she told me. “You’ve show
n yourself to be quite good at provoking strong emotions in me.”

  “Well that could be good or bad.”

  “Good?” She asked with incredulity in her eyes.

  “I managed to capture your attention, haven’t I?” Smiling back at me I could tell that she was on the verge of blushing again. Or was she? Well even if she was playing me I really was good at evoking strong emotions from people.

  With a wry smile she replied quickly. “That you did, but what makes you think it’s a good impression?”

  “The fact that you’re still here.” I replied flatly. She was just starting to scrunch up her eyebrows when I explained my logic. “You don’t seem unwilling to just get up and leave if I offend you. In fact you’ve tried to do just that a couple of time so far.”

  “But that…”

  “Granted you could be sitting here just to listen to me prattle on in the hopes that you’ll find something that you can use against me in the tournament.” She offered me a very playful grin as if to ask me, so which one is it? “In truth, I don’t know. But I have a gut feeling that you’re mostly a good person.”

  “Mostly?”

  Shrugging my shoulders I offered the first response that leapt to my mind. “No one is ever wholly good.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Okay almost no one. Is that more accurate for you?”

  “What makes you think that I’m not one of the good ones?”

  “Personal experience.”

  “Personal experience?”

  “Yes, personal experience. If you go about in life expecting the worst of everything then when things don’t go the way you expect, you’ll only ever be unpleasantly surprised.”

  “Okay, but…”

  “Now as for why you’re here, if I’m going to assume that you’re mostly good then you wouldn’t stoop to just scoping me out before the tournament. So if that’s not the reason why you’re here then you must enjoy the company.”

  Laughing she looked at me and shook her head. Her laughter seemed to flow naturally from her, like she did it a lot. “Well despite your measuring stick. You are a good person, Marcus. It would be nice if we could become friends.”

  “I’d certainly like that.” I replied as she started to lean toward me.

  But she rocked back when one of the other chairs was pulled out from under the table as someone asked, “Would I be able to join you two?” The voice was slightly raspy as if he had been sick just a few days ago, or was that how he always sounded? Either way that voice sent a shiver down my spine.

  Without waiting for an answer the man sat down and made himself at home, which made me instantly dislike him. And it was not just because he had interrupted a very private conversation or that he had been rude enough not to wait for a reply. There was just something that I couldn’t stand about his bearing. So when I answered him I may have used more sarcasm than I should have. “By all means join us…” I paused and started to spin my fingers in his direction, silently prompting him for his name.

  “Ohhh… that’s right. My name’s Patrick Wallace. Now I know Bella here but I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you yet.”

  “Marcus.” I replied curtly. Like I said, I really didn’t like the man.

  Placing his beer back on the table the man clapped his hands together with evident cheer, “Now that we’re all introduced, hopefully we can become friends.”

  “Well isn’t it my lucky day.” I said as I shifted my martini just to make sure that my dripping sarcasm wouldn’t fall into it.

  “Feel free to ignore his sarcasm. And you already know the limits of our friendship.” Bella said as she flashed me a look that I guessed meant, please play nice.

  “Me, not playing nice? Bella you wound me.” I said with perfect sincerity. While still addressing her I turned my head just enough to look at them both easily enough. “I’m always eager to make new friends. With that said I prefer to make friends with those who are polite.”

  Bella grimaced at my words, though to be honest I felt no desire to hide my attempts to poke the bear. She wasn’t stupid so she backed up ever so slightly.

  He was here for me. So when his eyes turned my way they were still a pair of green lifeless orbs, betraying nothing. “Marcus you’re not deaf are you, because I was fairly certain that I did ask.”

  I had been hoping for some kind of reaction. A wavering in his face, a twitch of an eye, a tremor in his voice. I mean I would take an oddly flickering strand of hair, anything. I had known that it was too much to hope for but hope is still hope. It didn’t take much to realize that he was a master at controlling his emotions. It also looked like he was a master of compartmentalizing those emotions so he would only feel what he wanted to feel at any given time. So he was better than I was, and that was not the worst of it. The worst thing was that Patrick knew he was better.

  There are certain times when you just know something about someone, you have absolutely no reason to know it but you do anyway. Patrick was quite simply going to be one of the better players, if not the best who was going to enter the room. Every year I try to watch the World Series of Poker, in order to keep up on the top players in the business, but I have never seen Patrick’s face before. And his confidence told me that this wasn’t his first time playing at this level. He had the air of someone who was capable of winning this tournament. Going up against him wasn’t going to be easy, and I found myself hoping that he would get knocked out of the tournament before I had that pleasure.

  If I did meet him once we started I certainly wasn’t going to waive a white flag just because I knew he was better than me, not a chance. Now I just needed to make sure he knew that, so I attempted to match his tone as I retorted. “But you didn’t wait for a reply did you? No you just sat down. You may as well have not even asked, Pat.” I wasn’t all that sure I managed to keep my face quite as impassive as I had hoped for. But then again I was pretty sure I didn’t do as poorly as I had feared.

  With a slight smile Patrick responded, “True that would have been polite, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.”

  The smile on his face was infuriating, if this were a football field there would have been a flag thrown for taunting. I tried to respond with as little emotion as possible. “Fun?”

  “Well it certainly was fun for me.”

  Breaking into the conversation with a laugh Bella managed to ease the mounting tension between us with a few soft spoken words. “He has you there Marcus.” With a shrug she also admitted that she was quite entertained by the scene.

  “I’m glad I could help entertain you Bella.” I said as I attempted to waive down a passing waitress.

  As the one continuing to walk right past our table another one appeared right beside me straight out of thin air and asked, “What can I do for you sir?”

  Looking up I instantly recognized the waitress. She was the one who had fetched my current and now mostly empty martini. I offered her a glowing smile before responding. “My dear, I would love for you to get me another martini from Simon.” Looking over to Bella I asked, “Would you care for anything?”

  “Did you just ask for a specific bartender?” I simply nodded and noticed genuine curiosity in her eyes. “Well if you’re going to make request like that I’ll just have to sample the work.” Looking over at the waitress she added, “Could I have one of those as well?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  I glanced over to Patrick and asked the polite question. “I know you have something to drink already but could the lovely waitress get you another beer or something else for when you finish that one?”

  As if it were on cue he deflected the question by taking a healthy sip from the bottle. When he was able, he looked up at the waitress and spoke to her instead of answering me. “I’m still working through my first drink. And I wouldn’t think of ordering anything else while I still have more than half of my drink left.

  “Very good, sir.” She said to Patrick before returning her a
ttention to me. “Is there anything else you require, sir?”

  I shook my head as I replied, “No I think that should be all we need for now.” I leveled my gaze to Patrick and said in an all too casual manor, “Though I’m sure you act this way so you can get your read on people.”

  As he went perfectly still I knew my hunch had been right. Before he could formulate a reply I continued. “That bombastic attitude you’re throwing around is what tipped me off. Yeah you’ll learn about people and their play,” I granted. “Well it’s certainly one way to learn about people. With all of your outrageous behavior I’m pretty sure you provoke quite the accurate reactions.” On a whim I made sure to pay particular attention to his eyes as I finished my thought, I wasn’t expecting a miracle but they have been known to happen upon occasion. “But there is no guarantee that the accurate reaction isn’t just in character.”

  Apparently Patrick didn’t want to verbally agree with me because all I got out of him was a very slight shrug. How does he manage to control himself like this? At this point I wasn’t going to back down, I was going to get him to react at some point today. “It’s a clever tactic, when it works and you get an honest reaction.”

  “I’ll be the first to admit that there are some who manage to wrap themselves in an alternate persona so well that the technique is of little use.” Well that was nicely worded. He never admitted or even denied that he was doing just that. To hear him speak you would think from his tone that he was merely chatting about the weather.

  Though his acknowledgement did show me a glimpse of something that I could latch onto and assault. It wasn’t a big target to be sure but it was still a target to attack, weaknesses are weaknesses no matter how hard to manipulate. So with a nod of agreement I offered my own honest opinion of his obviously favored technique. “Every trick has its own weakness, that’s for sure. But that is the very reason I refuse to use that kind of strategy.”