WIN THE GAME

by Allison, Ketley

  “There’s no backing out,” I said, returning to the mirror. “I lost all the money, put myself in debt, and wagered the only thing I had left. My body. My choice.”

  “Jesus Christ.” I didn’t have be looking at Kai to see that realization was dawning. “You did this all on purpose.”

  I let my silence speak for itself.

  “I should’ve known.” Kai smacked a palm against the doorframe. “You had our guys panicking first about the earpiece you so conveniently forgot, then at your wager, meanwhile none of us figured that your massive loss was deliberate. My boss is going to kill us, do you understand? He’s gonna lynch me, then hog-tie you, then throw us off this balcony.”

  “No, he won’t.” I snapped my bag shut, then went after my toothbrush. “The FBI is in too deep now to pull me out.”

  “You think?” Kai stepped inside. “None of this is worth risking your life, Scarlet.”

  I turned to him, face bare. “Finding New York’s largest gun importer isn’t worth it? Stopping the river of laced heroine flowing into the city? Preventing child prostitution? I could go on, but I feel like I’ve made my point.” I pretended Kai didn’t just glance at my stomach. “I’m worth the sacrifice.”

  “If I knew those were the only reasons you were doing this…”

  “What?” I challenged him. “Don’t trail off now.”

  “I’m not continuing this plan, and you’re not getting any more money from me.” Kai let me pass once I threw down my toothbrush. And ignored him as I unclipped my bra and threw on an oversized t-shirt.

  “It’s not safe,” he said. “I can no longer trust you with the cash, as you so epically proved tonight. These past two years, you’ve become this … this suicide bomber.”

  “Oh yeah?” I peered at him over my shoulder. “And who do I have to thank for that?”

  Kai pretended my verbal swipe didn’t hurt, but knowing him as I did, it was easy to tell when he was faking it.

  He said, “You don’t give a shit anymore, Scar. That’s terrifying me.”

  “It’s my business how I cope with the deal the FBI threw my way while I was still recovering in a hospital bed,” I said.

  “Scarlet.” His voice took on a breathless reasoning, like he was unsure who he was talking to anymore. Not his friend. Certainly not a simple cocktail waitress he’d recruited to learn a few poker hands in order to get closer to a mob boss’s son. “You just sold your body to a man who collects saber-tooth tiger’s fangs to turn into knives. I don’t think you’re understanding the consequences of what you’ve done.”

  “I understand perfectly.” I arced back the covers of the tightly-made bed and shimmied in, tossing aside the little chocolate on the pillow. “You only need to recover from the shock that I premeditated the consequences of this night. It’ll ebb, and you’ll realize this was our only way into Neri’s games at his house. You’ll sleep on it, and then loan me the money to play even deeper underground where the real gossip happens … I promise.”

  “I don’t give a shit about that. I won’t be able to protect you.”

  “How do you think we got here? The government has no idea how to play the cash—I do.” I tapped my chest as I leaned back on the pillows. “I’m the one who’s been learning and winning and earning us a seat into the big plays.”

  “You’ve become cocky in your jaded age.”

  “It’s taken me years to come this far.” I tucked deeper into the covers and reached over to the lamp. “I’m not about to stop. Either you accept that, Kai, or I’m asking for a new supervisor.”

  Kai shook his head. I caught the glitter of disappointment in his eyes before I clicked off the light.

  “Good night.” My voice was muffled from pulling the comforter to my chin.

  “I love you, Scarlet.”

  My back was to him. Even cloaked in night, I hid my face in case any transparency managed to slip through the shadows.

  “We’ll talk more in the morning,” he said, and once I heard the sound of the door shutting behind him, I buried my face in the pillow, squeezed my eyes shut, and screamed.

  3 The Royal Saxon Flush

  Pretty good for a chick.

  It was an expression I heard routinely.

  Pretty good.

  Despite the hours I’d spent learning the craft, reading the books, eating mounds of M&Ms instead of dinner since they were the more appealing spheres to use as practice poker chips.

  For a chick.

  Regardless of my professionalism, of playing to win, of wiping out most of my competition once I’d gotten a knack for it.

  Admittedly, I used my feminine wiles to my advantage. A flash of leg here, a bat of fake eyelashes there … it helped. But my salon-perfected hair and spin classes didn’t assist in spotting the right card in the river or playing the odds when they weren’t in my favor and winning anyway. The rush of success and the thundercrack of losing, the thousands of dollars more often than not slipping out of my fingers until I’d figure out how to rake them back. Nothing came without sacrifice. Not the fast way or with luck.

  And this time, I’d lost. Terribly and irrevocably, both at cards and in life. But I’d fought, and finally sat in a suite at a luxury hotel in the center of Los Angeles. Yet, to the FBI and players alike, I was still pretty good for a chick.

  Well, this chick had breakfast sent up to eat in her room.

  There was little cash to spare, but I figured the FBI could fork over a few more dollars for an omelet and some home fries.

  Yeesh. I cringed upon looking at the room service menu. Or maybe more like $45.

  Didn’t matter. I’d spent the better part of this year taking their ten grand sums and turning it to fifty. Eventually, I flipped that fifty into hundreds of thousands. On and on the wheel of fortune went as I took my seat at clandestine tables with no room for the tourists of casinos and hoteliers.

  My talent for cards had flourished. I was no longer the cocktail waitress with rainbow hair playing her first round. Once Kai had spotted me, he’d sensed my cravings for something more. And once I’d discovered he was an undercover FBI agent, he’d pushed me to become as good as he was in order to lure his most coveted prey: Theo Saxon, dark prince to New York’s eminent mob boss, who preferred to supervise illegal poker games rather than traffic weapons and young girls the way his older brother was wont to do.

  Unfortunately for Kai, within a year I’d surpassed his skill. Perhaps my determination to become better was because of my past, but more likely, it was due to the burn of losing the man I’d loved and the fact that he hadn’t said a word to me after he disappeared.

  Not. One. Entire. Syllable.

  Most of the time, I ignored the idea that Theo had long moved on. He wouldn’t—not with the kind of love we’d left on the table. Theo had to come back at some point. Whether it was to try to save, chastise, or just plain yell at me for refusing to exit sticky situations, well … that was up to him, because he’d have to fucking appear first.

  So, two years ago, when the FBI had proposed I become part of the tactical plan to chase down and eventually capture the fugitives, Theo and Trace Saxon, there’d been no room for hesitation.

  In other words, I didn’t have a choice.

  According to them, I was Theo’s weak spot. Using me, putting me into plays where I could be in danger and he’d be forced to swoop in and rescue the damsel. Somewhere in the midst of that, the FBI was convinced Theo would reveal where his older, more threatening brother, Trace, was—

  Ha.

  In the beginning, I’d followed the FBI’s rules and played into their idea that Theo wanted to be a hero, but underneath my guise, I’d planned. I’d learned and crafted, and instead of becoming a victim, I turned infamous.

  A young female in her mid-twenties playing strong and winning big in the New York City backrooms wasn’t the norm. Within a year, I’d received invitations to the biggest sharks around and eventually, was able to stretch my talents outside the city
limits.

  Pretty good for a girl.

  Theo had to hear of me. Unless he truly was a fugitive hiding under a rock. I’d made certain of it, winning big, taking on powerful men, earning notoriety.

  Yet, there was no sign of him.

  Two years of honing my skills with the government during the day and throwing chips in with the big boys at night, and I had yet to catch a single flash of his face.

  I searched for clues. With law enforcement bearing down so heavily, Theo wouldn’t pop in front of me in a line at Starbucks. He’d send me hints, hidden in napkins in restaurants or written in the steam of mirrors after I stepped out from hotel showers. It was such a hopeless wish that I scoffed every time I checked my medicine cabinet, but I had to believe that he’d get into contact with me somehow, to at least let me know he was all right.

  If Theo loved me, that was what he’d do.

  That thought bucketed me like rain.

  My home fries were cold by the time I got to them. I pushed them aside and tugged the plush white robe tighter as I curled up in the standard sofa chair of hotel rooms and gazed out the window.

  LA provided blue skies today, its cityscape so different from New York. They had the tall, concrete towers in common, the multi-level stacks of buildings playing out like a giant’s version of Tetris on his cell phone. But LA had wider roadways. It was flatter, greener, and, I thought as I made a face at my half-eaten egg white omelet filled with more spinach than goat cheese, a helluva lot more health conscious. I missed my street bagel piled with pasteurized dairy.

  A ding came from my purse, and despite the lurch in my stomach, I uncurled from my position and retrieved my phone. I half expected to see a summons from Neri.

  I’m stopping by in ten was Kai’s message.

  “Great,” I mumbled and stripped off my robe. I hadn’t yet showered, but Kai wouldn’t care. Instead, I threw my bleached blond hair into a messy bun and donned my denim shorts and white tee I’d slept in. My toes had nasty blisters from the shoes last night, so I kept them bare, curling them into the plush carpet surrounding the bed, enjoying the sting the friction brought. If all went according to plan, this would be my last night in the five-star hotel.

  Kai was staying in a motel down the street. While Kai was a patron of the fine poker establishment I’d been to last night, he wasn’t as known as I’d come to be. He didn’t have to keep up appearances once he exited the room, and the FBI wasn’t about to fund it.

  I’ll miss you, I mouthed to the extra-fluffy down pillows, when Kai knocked.

  I padded over as his pounding became more insistent.

  “Change your mind yet?” he asked in greeting as he strode past me. He brought with him the scent of fresh air and his leather jacket. His cheeks were tinged pink from either the light chill outside, the exertion from his walk, or his incredible rage at me.

  “No.” I gestured to the settee where I’d been sitting. “Coffee?”

  “No—dammit, yes.” He poured himself a cup out of the sterling carafe. “Haven’t slept a wink, thanks to you.”

  I resumed my seat, picked up my mug, and sipped.

  “You’re fucking calm considering you just gave yourself over to a middle-aged mafia owner,” he said.

  I took a larger sip to settle my nerves as I continued vigilance out the window, watching a plane silently cut through the sky.

  “Did you even plan out the terms with him? Like, I dunno, for how long?” Kai gestured with his ceramic cup. “Or when? How? What is required of you?”

  I set my drink down on the glass table with a rattling clink. “I figure we’ll get to the details once I go over there.”

  “Scarlet.” A hand came down on my own. His was startlingly cold to my warm. “This is me you’re talking to. No one else is here, I’m not wired, Chenko isn’t listening,” he said, referring to his supervisor. “So, tell me, truly, what is going on with you.”

  “I’ve tried everything.” The words came out mainly as breath as I stared at the table between us. “I excel at this game so well that I’m requested at all the high stakes tables and whored out by the FBI and—and all for what?” I met Kai’s stare, and to my chagrin he was blurry. “Theo doesn’t see me, Kai.”

  Kai leaned forward. “I see you, honey, and it’s not looking good. What you’re doing…we discussed this. Said that if it became too much for you, if searching for Trace and Theo took its toll and had you turning back into that girl who throws herself in front of flying bullets, we’d stop.”

  I squeezed his hand then let go. “You’re sweet to think that.”

  I hadn’t told him what Peter Chenko had said to me while I was still recovering in the hospital bed after being shot, the moment he came in and shut the door. And I didn’t plan to tell Kai. To Kai, the FBI was a living, breathing Superman. He still believed they were the good guys.

  “Oh, no?” Kai cocked his head. “From my perspective it’s looking like we were done weeks ago. This isn’t flushing any Saxon out. You should’ve stopped playing, Scar.”

  “You’re wrong. We’ve finally gotten our lead. Trace has been staying with Neri. I overheard it at a game a week ago, and he may still be there.”

  “We’ve been down this road before. It’s probably another of Trace’s plants, to put us off the scent. I’ll call Chenko right now.” He pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket. “We can—”

  “No, Kai. I’m going through with this. Tell Chenko I’ll speak with him directly.”

  Kai lifted his phone out of my reach when I went for it. “This department will wring you out until there’s nothing left but a husk. You know it, yet you continue to let them ask more of you.”

  “My choice,” I repeated from last night.

  “You’re right. You’re good at this. Too good. You could leave us behind and run your own empire. But instead you’re here, pining after a fugitive who we may never catch. We’ve lost resources, attention, we’re basically all down to you, Scar. You’re the only one bringing in the funds to continue this espionage.”

  “Exactly. We can’t stop now.”

  “You’re not hearing me. I’m ending this. We’ve relied too much on you and in return you’ve become…”

  He didn’t have to say it. Cold. Unfeeling. Simply imitating humanity. A sociopath.

  “Theo did it to you first,” he continued. “But I’m part of this creation, too.”

  “I’m not a monster.”

  Kai sighed while keeping me, unblinkingly, in his sights. “Not yet.”

  I lifted out of my seat, massaging my neck as I padded to the bathroom. “You should leave. I don’t know what kind of surveillance Neri’s guys have put me under.”

  “I made sure I wasn’t followed.”

  “Doesn’t matter. We have to be safe.”

  “Scarlet…”

  “What?” I swung around. “This discussion is over. We’re continuing the play—actually, no, I’m continuing, whether or not I have you or Chenko behind me.”

  Kai stood. “If this is your version of a last stand—”

  “Theo’s come for nothing else.”

  I blurted it out. Unthinking, the words uncurled and arced out of my throat like a viper darting at a threat. I’d inadvertently exposed a weakness and instantly hated myself for it.

  Kai waited a beat, while I got my breaths under control, until he said, “Theo is not a bear you can draw out of hibernation. The only person you’re trapping is you.”

  “I have it under control,” I said and entered the bathroom.

  “That’s what worries me,” I heard him mutter before I twisted on the tap.

  Kai wouldn’t be there when I got out of the shower. If these past two years had taught Kai anything, it was that I did what I wanted. And because it got results, he let me. But I was responsible for those new lines in his forehead, the fading tint to his brown eyes. He met me, and his world began losing color.

  I scrubbed any lingering guilt away by using the comp
limentary brown sugar scented soap. The included lemon shampoo helped massage some hope into my scalp. I’d carefully planned my moves last night. I’d been practicing, honing, ever since receiving news that Trace had been spotted at one of Neri’s games. Or maybe Theo. They looked so much alike, it was hard to tell sometimes.

  The FBI wanted Trace, but there was no question who I was aiming for. The police could continue to focus their efforts on the older brother, and by all accounts I’d been helping them do so, but in the shadows, I searched for my own escape. Despite what it was doing to Kai—and I hated carving a wedge between the only friend who remained—I had to find Theo.

  As I combed my wet hair, I realized this was the most danger I’d ever put myself in.

  And the closest I’d ever come.

  4 Clueless Mansion

  Neri Sabastiani’s summons was as I expected.

  Slid under my door at the random afternoon hour of 4 PM, an embossed ivory envelope rested on the luxurious white carpet with the innocence and appeal of a wedding invitation.

  But forever vows, it was not.

  I bounded over from my usual seat by the window where I pretended I wasn’t nervous by chewing on my cuticles. Without pause, I ripped it open where I stood.

  Your presence is requested at 19:00 this evening.

  Be ready in the lobby.

  A car will be waiting.

  Neri

  Holy shit. It was actually happening. I held the card to my chest and took a few deep, penetrating breaths.

  You can do this.

  I’d come this far. It would be a mistake to stop.

  My hair was already done. To pass the time I’d wandered the city streets and found a blow-out salon in between sampling the juice bars and gluten-free pastries at the coffee shops. My strands now rested in romantic waves slightly past my collarbone with a deep side-part. I planned to pair it with the second dress I’d rented, a deep cobalt off-the-shoulder designer gown. The envelope didn’t say black tie, but it didn’t have to. Neri was fancy enough to demand “dress to the nines” through silence.