Page 31 of Gambler's Fallacy

I’m returning from yet another small errand of filling water bottles for the dancers when Linda steps close to me again. I tense up and inch away from her.

“Good job, Seven,” she says, smiling.

I eye her warily. “Thank you,” I reply.

For some reason, her smile doesn’t look as menacing as it had at the beginning of the day, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly trust her.

“If you’re always this diligent, I might have to beg Caleb to lend you to me more often.” She points across the auditorium. “Go take your well-deserved break.”

I follow her gaze, and am surprised to see Vortex standing there. “What? Did I screw up?”

“No, hon. You worked hard.” She laughs gently. “And apparently forgot to check your phone.”

I don’t know how that had happened. I’m usually so attentive to it, especially when I’m stressed out.

I guess the morning wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be.

“Okay. Thank you,” I tell her. I linger, feeling like I should say something else, but I have no idea what. “See you later.”

I head over to Vortex, immediately stepping into his arms. He wraps them around me, kissing the top of my head. “You okay?” he asks immediately.

I nod, surprised to find that I really am. “Just hungry,” I say.

“Then let’s remedy that,” he says. “We can get something simple.Then I think I promised we’d spend the afternoon together?” He quirks a brow at me.

I take a deep breath, inhaling the scent of his familiar cologne. “Yeah. There’s an anime I want to watch.”

Maybe it’ll even be better than the blackjack tables.

SEVEN

CALEB

Seven is snuggled upagainst me on the couch while we watch anime. I don’t think this one is particularly good, but Seven seems fascinated by it, so I don’t mind killing a few of my brain cells watching it.

“Why did the villain do that though?” Seven asks after another extremely predictable plot twist. Or maybe it’s not so predictable for somebody who hasn’t watched many shows of this kind.

“In the story? He had the upper hand and wanted to gloat. From the writing perspective? The creators thought it would be interesting,” I answer. My phone buzzes, and I reach for it in annoyance. If there’s some sort of emergency at the casino and the staff can’t handle it…

I scowl when I see the text from Trent.

“Apparently our nice evening is about to be ruined,” I tell Seven.

Seven frowns up at me. “What’s wrong?” he asks, only to let out a sigh. “Work stuff? It’s always work stuff. You need a better manager.”

I suppress a smile at Seven’s comment. “I guess Linda taught you the importance of good management and assistants.”

He tenses slightly, like he always does when any of us mention Linda, but he only says, “Yeah, and your manager must be shitty.”

Before I can answer, there’s a knock on the suite door. I sigh and move to let Trent in.

He doesn’t even say “hello” before he barges in past me and sits down at the dining table, laptop in arm.

“So, I was thinking—” Trent says.

“Do you know what time it is?” I interrupt.

Trent pauses and looks up at me. “Uh, evening? Does it matter? I had this great idea for the MMA fight. I got in touch with the event promoter, and he’s mostly on board with my plan, so all we need now is to hash out the details.”

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