Page 60 of Business or Pleasure

Right. That envelope wasn’t the only thing I needed to worry about. I might lose my job pretty quick, but it was just work. I had no doubt Snake and his boss would sell me in one way or another to pay off Franklin’s debt if we didn’t find the money.

First thing first then.

“Lucius Alesini,” I said, “is that the poker player? The mob boss who plays in his own games?”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to ask how fucking stupid could one person be. “Did you borrow the money from him or lose it to him?”

Franklin looked embarrassed, but answered my question, “Lost it to him.”

“How? I mean, what exactly were you gambling on?” An idea was starting to form, but I needed more information to be sure it would work.

“Poker,” my dad said. “High stakes poker at his club.”

I nodded. “All right. When’s the next game?”

His eyebrows went up and I saw the understanding in his eyes. “No–”

“Yes.” I cut him off. “You’re going to tell me how to get into a game and I’m going to get the money to pay off that debt…from Mr. Alesini himself.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I don’t care.”

We glared at each other for a minute before he sighed. “All right, but we need buy-in money. What can you get?”

I snorted a laugh. “I think I have two hundred bucks in my bank account right now.”

“We need ten grand.”

I cursed. “Any bright ideas?”

He nodded. “I know someone we can get the money from.”

“I’m assuming that someone will charge interest,” I said dryly.

“You have some rich boyfriend who can give you the money?” he asked.

The knife twisted in my heart. “Not anymore,” I muttered.

“What was that?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

“Did you drive?” Franklin asked as we walked outside.

I didn’t bother asking why he didn’t have a car here. Honestly, I didn’t care. I didn’t have the energy to even be curious. “Yeah. I’ll take you to your ‘friend.’”

“You don’t have to,” he said. “I can drop you off somewhere–”

“I don’t trust you to have ten thousand dollars and not lose it.” We both knew I didn’t mean he’d misplace it, and he didn’t even pretend to be offended.

As we got into my car, he told me where to go and I put the address into my GPS. Even before I left the parking lot, he began telling me everything he knew about Lucius Alesini’s playing style. Franklin had only played against him once since my father rarely won enough to afford the fifty-thousand-dollar buy-in for the main table Alesini played at, but he still had useful information.

“Now, you’ll want to get out as soon as you win enough money,” Franklin continued. “Alesini will be pissed that he lost and if you turn around and hand him back the chips to pay him off, he’ll lose it. You need to leave with the chips, and we’ll lay low for a couple days. Then I’ll take the chips and cash them in. I’ll pay off Alesini and the guy we’re going to see.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything. Maybe Alesini would be suspicious if my father came in with the same number of chips I won a couple days before, but maybe he wouldn’t. As long as Snake, Len, and Remy weren’t at the game, I thought I had a pretty good chance to not be connected to Franklin.

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