They could buy anything they wanted. The only thing I could really provide to help them was my skills to further the research.
But then I thought of surprising them with something very special. A trip.
I’d always wanted to go to Hawaii. Though the guys could both buy first class tickets and stay in a five-star hotel at the drop of a hat, I knew they’d appreciate it if I planned everything out. It was the thought that counted, right?
The perfect time to go would be spring break, right after the award ceremony for the Fields Medal. It would be a nice time to get away from the cold city and somewhere tropical.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was going to bring us even closer together. It would show them how special they were to me.
I looked online to look at the cost of flights to Hawaii, then at accommodations. We could figure everything out later.
I looked in my bank account to see how much money I had. It worked out to be about half of what I needed to take us all there for a week.
The money was from my winnings in online poker. If I wanted to have everything by Valentine’s Day, I had to find a way to double it quickly.
Playing online would take too long. Playing at the casino wouldn’t work either because most of the tournaments were already full.
I knew of a place in the city that was exactly what I was looking for.
One evening, when Sawyer was teaching an evening class, I left the house and took a bus that took me to the place.
It was a laundromat.
One that was almost always empty. The fluorescent lights made the sidewalk glow blue as I looked inside.
Above the windows looking into the laundromat was a sign that read, The Lost Sock. Underneath was a neon twenty-four hours sign.
A tall man wearing a baseball cap looked at me, then headed inside. He didn’t have any laundry. Instead, he disappeared through a set of doors with a red and black sign that read NO ENTRY.
I walked through the front door and held my hands close to my mouth, blowing warm air onto them trying to warm up.
The sounds of the whirling machines sent me into a trance, and my palms began to sweat. It wasn’t because I had some weird OCD about laundry machines. It was because the sound brought me back to when I’d gotten myself into this mess in the first place.
Because I dropped out of school and lost all my money, I had to turn to the casino to try and win it back. It was how I met Dominic who saved me before I did something even more stupid.
I headed towards the door in the back, and I had forgotten how dark it was there. The door slammed behind me, and I used my hands to feel my way down to try to not trip and fall.
In my pocket was about five thousand dollars cash. I needed to double it to have enough to pay for the vacation.
As I walked down, a tall dark man came up to me. I recognized him from before.
He patted me down to make sure I didn’t have any weapons, then he reached out his hand for my money.
I handed him the envelope in my inner coat pocket. He fed the bills through the counting machine to make sure it was real.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I watched the money feed through the machine. He nodded once the money was counted and handed me a box of chips that equaled the amount of money I’d given him.
He let me through.
There was another narrow corridor before I’d reach the room that I needed to go to. Each step made me more nervous as I made my way down.
I hesitated before I pushed through the set of doors. When I finally mustered up the courage, I put on my poker face and stepped inside.
There were seven men sitting at a roundtable.
I tried to remain cool, trying to hide my fear, but I was sure they could see right through me. I was the youngest guy there and their gaze was set on me and the chips in my hand like blood in shark-infested waters.
I sat down in the chair closest to the door.
It wasn’t long before the remaining three members walked into the room to fill up the rest of the seats at the table. We were in an unfinished concrete basement, and for how much money in chips was in there, the room sure wasn’t anything fancy.
The games here were nothing like the ones in the casino. The ones at the casino were by the rules and supervised. This was one of the few underground rings in the city.
Winner takes all.
It was going to be way more than enough for the trip I was planning for Sawyer and Dominic but I was willing to risk it. I’d be able to afford first class seats, I was sure it would be more of what Dominic and Sawyer are used to flying.
I closed my eyes and took in a breath, it’d become a bit of a ritual before I started a game.
It was a meditation I’d do to become grounded and not think I was something all high and mighty. I needed the confidence to win but I knew that one cocky move would cost me everything.
There was still a lot I had to learn playing live, especially in a place like this, where the best of the best come to play.
During my meditation, I thought of Sawyer and Dominic. I thought of how much they deserved this vacation and how much I owed them for helping me so many times. It was the only way I knew how to show them how much they meant to me. This was how I’d give back after everything they’d given me.
I scanned the room.
The men were dressed modestly, most of them were in sweaters and jeans, some of the guys I’d seen before. I knew that most of them had a lot of money.
They barely made eye contact with me, they didn’t even see me as competition. In their eyes, I was just a kid who they could easily knock out in the first round.
I had that to my advantage.
Being underestimated meant that I could fly under the radar until it truly mattered.
The same man who was standing by the door walked in and he had a deck of cards in his hands. The cards weren’t new or anything, in fact they looked pretty beat up. He was going to be our dealer.
In his other hand was a suitcase that had all the money inside. He locked the door behind him.
The game was about to begin.
I put my hands in my lap to hide the fact that they were completely drenched in sweat.
The dealer sat down and dealt the first hand.
I was given a bad hand and since I was superstitious, I was nervous that it meant it was going to be a bad game.
I folded and waited for the round to finish. Then, we were dealt the next hand. It was shitty again. I folded and swallowed the lump in my throat.
What had I gotten myself into?
I wondered if I made a mistake.
I focused. It was my paranoia talking and if I wanted to win, I knew I needed patience.
My nerves weren’t going to help me, they would only show everyone how weak I was. I pictured myself to be still like Sawyer, unwavering like he was at the front of a classroom.
I pictured myself to be stoic like Dominic, like when he was on the phone making an important business call.
I channeled both men in me and got dealt the next hand. It was a good one, decent, not the best, I got a jack of diamonds and queen of hearts.
I waited for my opportunity to play in the pot. A few people folded and four guys remained in the round.
I could sense their eyes on me, trying to read me to see what I had, but I remained calm. The dealer flipped the first three cards and I managed to get a queen to pair up with the one in my hand.
Another deep breath.
I had top pair and the chances of winning the pot were high. Two of the guys folded.
The gentlemen who were left were sitting across from me, and one of them had a smirk on his face. It was a condescending one. It reminded me of my dad’s smile. Usually, something like that was enough to break me, but I remained stoic, still, calm.
The dealer flipped another card. We checked.
Then the last card was flipped over. I got another jack on the last card, giving me t
wo pairs. I wanted to smile, I was hardly able to contain my excitement.
I was almost certain that I had the best hand. I raised the pot by a thousand. It was modest, just enough for them to take the bait and fall into my trap.
One of the men folded their cards.
“All in,” said the one with the smirk.
I felt goosebumps on my arms. I wasn’t expecting him to go that aggressive so soon.
Did he really have something?
Or was he underestimating me?
I was too far into the round to back out. If I did, I’d be at a huge disadvantage and it’d take me a long time to get back to where I was.
I thought for a moment, staring into his eyes to try and see if I could read him.
I could sense his uncertainty.
“Call,” I said.
Everyone at the table was silent. I turned my cards over, and everyone looked at them.
The man’s smile disappeared and it was replaced with a look of horror.
“No way,” he said. “I lost to a kid? No fucking way.”
He flipped his cards over and he only had one pair. I’d won the hand and a pretty hefty pot.
He stood up quickly, his chair pushed back against the concrete wall as he swore under his breath. He was shocked.
He walked towards me. I wasn’t sure if he was going to pull a knife on me or something. It wasn’t that uncommon for something like that to happen. But instead, he reached out to shake my hand.
“Good game, kiddo, and good luck,” he said.
I thanked him and shook his hand. With my lead, I could play fairly modestly for the rest of the game.
Other players knocked each other out and I only played the hands that I needed to.
Some would call that luck, some would call that skill. I wasn’t experienced enough to know the difference. All I knew was that I saw the end in sight as one by one, the guys lost all their chips and exit the room until it was down to me and someone else.
He was the man who I saw walk into the laundromat with the baseball cap over his eyes.
He hadn’t looked at me or anyone else for that matter the entire game. He was focused on just the cards and it had taken him pretty far. There was something unnerving about being in a room with someone for hours without them making any sort of eye contact.
We were pretty even in chips and by the time it was down to just two of us, I knew that I needed to find the first opportunity to take him out.
I was dealt a hand, and it was two Aces.
I almost cried. I didn’t even care at that point. I was so happy. It was my chance to win.
I imagined the smell of coconuts in Hawaii, or maybe it was just the smell of Sawyer and Dominic lying next to me on a beach.
I waited for the right time, baiting him into my trap, increasing the pot ever so slightly.
The final card turned. On the table was another Ace and two Jacks, making a full house.
“All in,” I said.
It was the first time the man looked at me. I was met with a ferocity that sent chills down my spine.
Did I make a mistake?
I didn’t know.
“Call,” he said.
It was it. I was either going to walk away with nothing or everything. He flipped his cards over.
Fuck.
It was over.
He had two jacks in his hand, and two jacks on the table. Four of a kind, the highest combination of cards in the game.
My jaw almost dropped to the floor. It felt like time was slowing down and neither the man nor the dealer said a word.
The dealer gave the winner the case of money.
Both of them made their way to the door as I stay seated at the table, unable to move or say anything. The only thing on my mind was the trip that was one hand away from becoming a reality slip out of any realm of possibility.
“One more hand. Double or nothing,” I said.
It caught the man’s attention, as he turned just as he was about to leave the door.
“There is fifty grand in my hand. You only lost five thousand dollars tonight. You’re willing to lose ten times that?”
I nodded, knowing that I didn’t have that kind of money, but the thought of winning that much money made it all worth it. I was doing it for Sawyer and Dominic. I needed to win it to prove to them my worth.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dominic
I was with Sawyer at my office in the city when I got a call from Adrian.
“Hello?” I answered, getting to hear his voice always put a smile on my face no matter how stressed I was. We were weeks away from Sawyer’s deadline, and I was very fucking stressed.
“Hey...” Adrian answered.
The way he trailed off his sentence made me realize that something was wrong.
“I need your help,” he said.
I put him on speaker so that Sawyer could listen to the conversation.
“I am in the basement of The Lost Sock, I just lost in a game of poker...and I lost fifty grand. I’m wondering if you can come bail me out.”
“You what?” I asked.
He remained quiet.
“Fifty grand?” Sawyer repeated.
Sawyer and I looked at each other, we were in disbelief, but at the same time not totally shocked. Adrian was a risk taker, and though he was smart, he had the gambler’s gene in him that I had as well. Losing often meant that I would dig myself in deeper holes.
“Are you safe at least?” Sawyer asked.
“I am, just kinda taken hostage until he gets his money,” Adrian said.
I shook my head. Sawyer sighed. “We’ll come get you,” Sawyer said.
I hung up the phone. “He’s going to be in so much trouble once he gets home,” I said.
“Fifty grand? What was he doing?” Sawyer said.
Sawyer looked tired. He hadn’t slept in the past couple days after we’d realized how close we were to finally finishing his research.
“What should we do?” I asked.
“Well, we should definitely bail him out. It’s not going to end well if we leave him there seeing as how young and naive he is.”
“I was thinking we could scare him, stall for a few hours so he’d learn his lesson on not to do something so idiotic.”
The money wasn’t a big deal. Sure, fifty grand was a lot, but it was pretty normal to lose that in an evening in the poker world. There was always that hope of winning it back.
Sawyer and I dropped what we were doing and I headed back to my place where I’d stashed some money in a safe. I took out what I needed and packed it in a black duffel bag. Being a poker player meant I always had large amounts of money at home in my safe in case of situations like this.
Sawyer didn’t look good when I got back downstairs. He was sitting in the passenger seat.
“You alright?” I asked.
“Yeah, just a bit nauseous thinking about Adrian.”
“I hear ya. I’m just glad he called before things got really bad. I’m glad he trusts us enough to realize that we’re here to help him in times like this.”
I leaned over and gave Sawyer a kiss on the lips to try and calm him down.
I had grown a lot closer to Sawyer since working with him for the past few weeks.
The love I had for him transcended so much more than when we were growing up together as kids. I respected Sawyer after he had shown me that I could trust him again.
It was Adrian who brought out the best in both of us. Even in a situation where Adrian fucked up, it somehow managed to bring the three of us closer together.
A part of me was still afraid to be so intertwined with the lives of not one but two other people. For most of my life, I’d been a lone wolf, and I liked that. It was exactly what I needed to get stuff done on my own time and focus on my own goals.
I never chased people, I never dated anyone.
But there I was helping someone else meet a deadline to win a prize. Someone I loved. My former
stepbrother for that matter. There I was saving a nineteen-year-old young man who’d stolen my heart, someone who called me daddy.
We drove to where Adrian was.
Sawyer was holding the duffle bag in his lap as I weaved through traffic to get there sooner. We’d agreed to get there as soon as we could instead of teaching him a lesson by waiting. I pulled up to a parking spot directly in front of the laundromat.
I was familiar with this place, though I hadn’t been there in a long time. The place hadn’t changed at all since the last time I was there, which was a few years ago at least.
I walked inside, Sawyer followed behind me. We went down the stairs, to the room at the end of the corridor.
We stepped inside and Adrian was there with a tight smile on his face. He was obviously happy to see us, but I shook my head in disapproval.
He made a stupid mistake, he knew it, I knew it, Sawyer knew it. The man sitting across from him who we owed fifty grand knew it.
I couldn’t wait to get home so that I could spank him. He was adorable even though I was so annoyed with him.
“What’s the damage?” I asked.
The man who had his baseball cap pulled low on his eyes said the number which I’d known ahead of time. But wanted to make it more dramatic, mostly to scare Adrian and let him know how grave the situation was.
“Fifty grand,” he answered.
“Fifty grand,” I repeated.
I looked over at Sawyer, and we both knew from a single glance what we wanted to do. We were poker players and we weren’t dumb.
Neither of us were going to walk out of there without the opportunity to play. We weren’t going to hand over money just like that so easily.
Especially at a poker table.
“We have fifty grand in this bag,” I said. “We’ll play you in a match. We’ll buy in twenty-five grand each. If we win, we don’t pay you and we call it even. If you win, we will double your winnings to a hundred grand. I will transfer you the money instantly to your bank account.”
Without hesitation, the man smiled and nodded.
Adrian didn’t say anything as he sat back and watched.
Sawyer and I took a seat at the table.
Kings of Hearts (An M/M/M Romance Novel) Page 15