Page 14 of Carter's Battle

“I see,” she said. What was she supposed to say now? I want a table to myself. There was no way they were going to offer that until she proved her ability, which meant she had hours of playing ahead of her. She was going to have to establish herself all over again. She’d asked Bobby why she couldn’t just play at his backroom games, but apparently, the only game he offered was poker.How the mighty have fallen.

“I’m Peter. Can I interest you in a seat at one of our tables?”

“I think I’ll just get the lay of the land first if that’s okay.” She offered him a small smile.

“Of course. Did Mr. Kamaka explain that the buy-in is one thousand dollars?”

She swallowed. She’d wanted to choke him when he’d demanded she supply the funds. To be honest, she still wanted to choke him. “Yes.”

Peter lifted his arm. “You may purchase your chips over there when you are ready.” He pointed towards a high counter where three women stood behind big plexiglass slabs with just enough room at the bottom to exchange money for chips.

She nodded and headed toward the counter. By her rough estimate, there were upwards of sixty people in the room. She recognized several of the top businessmen from the island and their wives. There was even a software giant who owned a house on the island. This little shindig was a Who’s Who of the rich on the Big Island. Whoever was running this site had major pull.

Bobby didn’t have that kind of juice, not even in his heyday. She didn’t think two hundred and fifty thousand was going to be enough for him to step in and take over this level of gaming.

That made her wonder what he was really trying to do. What was his goal?

As she exchanged her cash for chips, she was curious about the buy-in. It was low for this kind of crowd. Why would it be kept low? Mia wandered about the room, carefully watching the players. Then it hit her. Yes, there were bigwigs in the room, but the vast majority of players were people like her. People who wanted to play but weren’t super wealthy. She even spotted her dry cleaner.

This was what Bobby wanted. Not the high rollers, but the bread and butter crowd. People who maybe were barely making rent or buying groceries. Because that’s what these people were. Underneath the flash, this was just the middle class set, for lack of a better word. And Mia was willing to bet they came every week. Suddenly, this gambit made more sense. If Bobby hooked those people, then he would be raking it in and he wouldn’t have to fork out for champagne and fancy surroundings.

Mia finally made her way over to the blackjack table in the corner, where three other players were hunched over their cards. She watched them for a while and determined that only the woman on the end in the green sequined gown was good. She knew what she was doing and, judging by the stack of chips in front of her, was making some serious money. The man next to her in the tux was too drunk to pay any real attention to what he was doing, and the other gentleman at the far end wore chinos, a button down, and an air of desperation. The pile of chips in front of him was quickly diminishing.

Mia waited until the dealer, a young pretty blonde, opened a new deck. Then she grabbed the chair between the two men. The dealer, whose name tag read Patty, recited the rules and the buy-in. Mia nodded and put a couple of chips on the table. The chink of the chips as she stacked them started her heart hammering against her rib cage. A surge of adrenaline shivered through her, left her skin clammy. She swallowed.

It had been years since she’d allowed herself to play. While she was rusty, almost certainly the knowledge would come back to her as soon as she sorted the cards she was dealt. That familiarity was her big worry. She hadn’t quit gambling because she didn’t like it, or she sucked at it. On the contrary, she’d quit because she liked the thrill of winning too much. She made a lot of money very quickly and she wanted more. It had taken her parents staging an intervention… forcing her to sit down and face the dark road she’d been headed down, to make her stop. By the time they said something, Mia was already sleeping during the day and only going out to gamble at night. She’d stopped seeing any friends and she had no life outside of blackjack.

She’d never wanted to go back to that lifestyle, but here she was.

Taking a deep breath as the dealer dealt her cards, Mia knew she had to clear her mind and concentrate fully on the table. It would be doubly hard with these other players to make the right calls and she had to be smart with her money. That was the only way she’d make enough to stand out to Peter, hoping for an invitation to the big games. For her sake, and Akela’s and Kai’s, that’s what needed to happen. It would take her a month of Sundays to earn enough at a thousand-dollar table to pay off the two hundred and fifty thousand. There was a top limit of ten thousand.

The goal was to earn a seat at the high-stakes table and the only way she’d get there was by invitation. It was going to take some doing and a lot of playing, but most of all, it was going to take every inch of her concentration and smarts to do this right. Mia picked up her cards with a small prayer that she didn’t screwup. If she didn’t get the money, it was game over for all three of them. She did not want that on her conscience. Not if she could help it.

CHAPTER 9

Mia floppeddown on her sofa, cup of coffee in her hand. It had been a long time since she’d pulled an all-nighter, and she was drained. Not only were her feet tired from being in spike heels all night, but her brain was toast from having to concentrate so hard on her game.

She’d been rustier than she’d thought, and it had taken her a while to find her groove again. Playing at the same table with other people hadn’t helped. Ed, the guy in the tux was a disaster. He kept taking cards when he should have stayed, causing her to miss out on some good hands. After two hours of mediocre results, Ed had finally wandered off and then she managed to get things back on track. Once the other two had left the table as well, then it was game on. She hadn’t planned on staying all night but once she had the table to herself and she seriously started to concentrate, everything clicked into place. It was as if the years had fallen away, and she was right back in the thick of it again.

Not somewhere she ever dreamed she be again.

Staring at the cash on the coffee table in front of her, she swore out loud. Yes, Bobby wanted two hundred and fifty thousand to make all of her and Akela’s problems go away, so itwasn’t like she had a choice. But the truth of the matter was that she’d reveled in the second half of the night. The fact that she’d made ten grand in the first night did not help. She could make up what Bobby wanted in a month if she played conservatively. Of course, she didn’t have a month which meant pushing the boundaries.Not good at all.

She sipped the steaming coffee and then set her mug down. She rubbed her bleary eyes. The situation was untenable. Mia picked up her phone and checked her calendar. She had lots of office visits scheduled for this week. Her real business demanded that she visit her clients at least once a month to make sure things were on track. They appreciated the personal touch, and it made her slightly higher rates easier to swallow. Her clients were paying her to be on call and they knew they could trust her to fix any problems and even catch some before they started.

And all that would go away if Bobby leaked that she’d been cooking the books for Akela.

She blew out a frustrated breath. No one would hire an accountant accused of cooking the books. Or at least no one she wanted to work for. Crap, that kind of information could even mean a visit from the cops. That was the last thing she wanted. Emery would find out and then Mia would be beyond embarrassed. She did not want Emery or any of her other friends to find out about any of this. EmeryandDahlia would be livid with Mia for not coming to tell them in the first place.

Mia took another sip of coffee and leaned back on the sofa. Was there an option to go to the cops? Not really. If she went to them, she figured they’d want her to continue what she was doing. For them having a person on the inside was huge.

But for her, being that inside person increased her personal danger level tenfold. If Bobby found out, he’d ruin her reputation unless, of course, he just flat-out killed her. Sheshuddered. Assuming he didn’t end her life, if she defended herself by claiming she’d been working for the cops, then her clients wouldn’t like it any better. How could they trust her to keep their secrets? Granted, no one was doing anything downright illegal but there were some gray areas where she was dabbling for certain clients who were willing to take a bit more risk. Nothing that could cause her trouble, but they could get their knuckles rapped if they were ever audited and things didn’t swing their way. Those people would never trust her again and those people made up half her client list.

She looked around at her little dream house. She loved the warm gray walls with white accents. The light-colored wood floors with the white furniture and bright blue pillows. The mantel above the fireplace where she displayed pictures of her family and friends. This house was her piece of heaven, serving her joy every day. She’d taken great pains to decorate it and get it just right. And sure, there were issued that required repair or outright replacement, but this little house was the one place in the world where she was completely comfortable.

Or it had been until Bobby arrived. No, she wouldn’t let him ruin it for her. This was her happy spot, and no one would take that from her, not even Bobby with all his threats.

But, she had to be realistic. He had the power to destroy what she’d built and working with the cops would not make it better. In fact, it would be worse. More danger for her, and prison time for Akela. She resented her friend for dragging her into this mess but there was no way she wanted to be responsible for sending the other woman to prison. She understood why Akela had done what she had. If the situation was reversed, Mia wasn’t sure she wouldn’t do the same thing.

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