Page 18 of The Devil's Dilemma

He looked even better in the flesh, and as he walked by, his alluring scent wafted over me. I wanted to follow him and burymy nose in his neck. He was taller than I’d anticipated and so much bigger built in person.

“Austin. Let’s go.” Joel pulled on my sleeve.

“What? Yeah, of course.”

I needed to forget him and concentrate on the task at hand, namely stealing from him.

“I’ll start with roulette.” It was always an easy starter, and most newbie players played it.

Funny, but although I could feel the chip in my shoe, I couldn’tfeelit. The buzzing sensation when I carried it was missing. What did that mean? I couldn’t afford to worry about it now. I had work to do.

“Let’s get started. As soon as we can, we fuck off out of here.”

I walked towards the roulette table, my insides quaking.

There was no turning back. It was now or never.

Chapter five

Dante

“Who is he?” Foralmost an hour, I’d watched the man sitting at the blackjack table, his furtive glances leaving me in no doubt what he was doing.

“We don’t know, boss,” Conrad said. “He’s never been here before.”

He was young, but then, compared to me, everyone was. Mid to late twenties, with dark curly hair. Slim, from what I could tell, pale arms resting on the green table.

“How much has he won?” I steepled my fingers and watched him intently on the CCTV.

“Hard to tell without counting it, but he’s won at every table he’s visited. He looks to have accomplices. Seems he’s handing off chips to them before sitting at the next table. They’re cashing them in, taking it in turns, then pocketing the cash.”

“Is he counting cards?” Hmm, winning all the time relied on an enormous amount of luck. That or magic, but sensors on the doors usually alerted us to any trinket or artefact and disabledthem before they could make it to the floor. I’d made sure of that. No one was cheating me out of my money.

Except this guy clearly was. But how the fuck was he doing it?

Intrigued as I was, I should put a stop to it.

I watched for a few more minutes as he raked in the chips. He took a sip from a glass next to him and licked his lips. Something shifted inside me, but I pushed it down.

“Why did it take us so long to spot him?”

“There’s been multiple altercations this evening. Seems like every drunk has come out of the woodwork. We’ve had our work cut out trying to keep them under control before throwing them out.”

“A distraction?”

“Possibly. What do you want us to do with him?”

“I want you to pick off his accomplices, one by one, and take them to the basement. Let’s see what he does then.”

The basement was where I did some of my best work. No one escaped, and many didn’t leave alive. The majority found out that crossing me wasn’t in their best interest.

A thrill ran through me at the thought. Finally, something to do, worthy of my name. It had been too long, or so it seemed.

Conrad left, and I watched the man. He won the next hand and the next but lost the one after. He must’ve done that on purpose so as not to be noticed, but it was too late for that. He had my full attention.

Tempted as I was to allow him to continue winning, his lucky streak needed to end.

At the edge of the screen, Conrad silently extricated his friends with barely a scuffle, leaving him alone and unprotected.

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