Ace of Hearts

by Gray, Khardine

  I narrowed my eyes when I saw that. It was weird and I didn’t know what they were going to do.

  Was it poker?

  I wasn’t sure what they were going to do.

  Four of Pa’s knights had been killed two weeks ago. Alex, Nicholai, Georgiou, and Lance. They were his foot soldiers who as far as I knew did most of the work on the streets and checked things out whenever there was a threat. All four were killed at the warehouse, gunned down. I wasn’t given much specifics other than that. It was sad when something like that happened. I had to say though that while some of them had worked for Pa for close to twenty years, I didn’t really know them. I knew them by sight but that was all. I called them the muscle.

  Pa had eight knights in total. Four on the street , four always with him.

  Armand, Frankie, Vinny, and Freddo were always around at the Marchesi because that was where we were the most. Those four were closer in the sense that they looked after the family and stood guard at the hotel and casino. They also travelled to the other sites and businesses.

  They was a clear distinction but they were all still knights.

  Armand may have been Pa’s most trusted, and a consigliore in the traditional sense, but to me he was the fucking joker.

  What I was trying to figure out now was how a card game would initiate someone into the fold.

  The men sat around the table and as Armand stood, another guy came from the corner carrying a tray with four cups that he set down in front of the men.

  “Welcome to this very rare recruitment session,” Pa rumbled. He straightened up and looked at each of the men.

  Each of them looked like something from a nightmare. No wonder Pa told me not to make eye contact. I doubted though, that any of these men would have dared to look at me directly.

  Even if they didn’t know me, they saw I was important to Pa because I was sitting next to him.

  I was watching whatever game this was unfold with curiosity, just staring ahead though. Not looking at anyone’s face in particular.

  “Drink,” Pa instructed and the men took a cup each and drank.

  I glanced at Pa when he shuffled and a wicked smile spread across his lips.

  “It’s good to see you take instructions well. Now, now let the games begin,” Pa chanted. “There will be a series of games. If you survive you’re in. You have four minutes to solve the puzzles my trusted knight will provide.” Pa’s voice grew louder and Armand moved to the table and picked up the first deck of cards. “Your drink contained a potent concoction of viper’s venom. You will be dead within four minutes.”

  I wasn’t sure who was more shocked - Me or the men.

  Given that it was they who’d drunk the poison, anyone guessing would place their bets on them being the most shocked and not me. I would however beg to differ because I couldn’t believe my ears.

  My father just gave those men poison to drink. Viper’s venom?

  I winced but Pa grabbed my hand and gave me a crude hard stare, warning me without words to keep my silence. The stare told me to shut the hell up and if I didn’t he couldn’t guarantee what the hell would happen to me.

  I looked away from him and gazed wide-eyed back to the men.

  Armand had laid out the cards in some kind of sequence of three stacks each per guy.

  I was a distance away but could still see the layout because the platform where we sat was raised. The first thing I noticed was that the cards weren’t ordinary playing cards at all. They looked more like tarot cards.

  “The first to solve the puzzle will receive an antidote for the poison,” Pa continued. “The aim is guessing, the skill I’m looking for is attention to detail. It’s up to you how you gather the information required to solve the puzzle. The cards are face-down. I want you to find me three red queens.”

  I didn’t know how the hell anybody was supposed to do that. I’d thought they were going to play poker.

  When Armand looked back to Pa with that smug smile, I hated that I knew this was part of the game. I knew too that these men wouldn’t be able to guess anything.

  Armand then turned to the men who had started to look sick. One of them looked pale, the one next to him actually looked green. My hands started shaking and I held back tears.

  The first guy at the left end of the table, who seemed to be the strongest, went first. He selected a card from the stack in the center and he was wrong. He selected another from the stack to the left. Wrong again. Stack to the right, wrong again. he continued searching. There were no red queens. It was all jacks and kings, Not even a black queen. It was clear Pa meant for him to go row by row, and as I watched the guy I started to think none of his stacks contained any red queens, let alone three.

  The guy who looked green had been doing the same but stopped midway, stood up and just dropped to the ground. The guy who looked pale followed suit.

  Tears ran down my cheeks and now I knew there was more reasoning to why I’d never been allowed to come here.

  This was business.

  God in heaven, this was business. A part of it.

  The darkness.

  The strong guy collapsed on the floor in a heap joining the others and the guy I hadn’t been paying attention to started shaking and screaming.

  He screamed so loud it pierced through me. Armand ended him with a bullet to the head. Blood splattered everywhere and Armand just laughed.

  Bile rose in my throat and my voice faded away.

  Pa released me and stood looking on at the four dead men lying on the ground.

  “I guess they didn’t make the cut,” Pa declared with a wicked chuckle. “It’s a lesson for the guys on the next round. If you want in, this is it. My test. I need the strongest. Who’s next?”

  I didn’t think anybody would get up. It was clear this was some death game and Pa had obviously made an example out of the first four men.

  I expected silence but shock flew through me when a blond man stood up from the back and walked forward. It took me two seconds to recognize him.

  Mr. Gorgeous from the club!

  What was he doing here?

  I wasn’t sure if I should be annoyed, because he must have known who I was last night.

  It was just as I’d said. This was Vegas, you only tended to see people a second time if it was intentional. No one knew I’d be here tonight, but the only thing that connected us was Pa.

  Through my tear-stained gaze I watched him, and my heart stilled in my chest when he walked straight past the table, straight past Pa and Armand, and came up to me.

  He stopped just in front of me and those eyes held me in place. They made me forget my prior thoughts of last night and meeting him.

  There was something gentle in the stare that captured me and soothed me away from the horror that was taking place. He surprised me further by pulling a Kleenex from his back pocket and handing it to me.

  I took it even though I was still looking at him, still looking at the brightness of the hue of his eyes. He moved away before I could utter my thanks and walked up to the man who carried the drinks.

  A shudder swept through me when he grabbed a cup and knocked it back like a shot of vodka. He did it effortlessly, knowing it was poison. Then he took his place at the table, lowering to sit in the chair nearest Armand while two of Pa’s guys started clearing away the bodies of the fallen men.

  Both Pa and Armand looked him over with curiosity, as did everyone else.

  Who was this guy?

  Why in the hell did he seem so fearless?

  I thought Pa might ask for more people but it was obvious that no one else would be stepping forward tonight and if they did have plans to, they were clearly checking things out first before they put themselves in the danger of death like the first guys had.

  Armand took a stack of cards and did the same set up he’d done before.

  Three rows of cards laid out on the table before Mr. Gorgeous.

  “Go on, find the three red queens,” Armand tol
d him.

  Mr. Gorgeous looked to Armand and surprised everyone when he picked up the three stacks and placed them back together.

  He stood again and wowed everyone when he did some sort of shuffle with the deck that made the cards flicker out and back in again. As if each card were attached to a spring. It was fascinating and magical to watch.

  “This is a job interview right?” he asked, aiming the question at Pa who looked well and truly taken with him.

  “It sure is,” Pa answered.

  “Great, so why should I work for you?” Mr. Gorgeous asked.

  It was safe to say he had everyone’s attention.

  Pa chuckled. “Boy, either you’re not very bright or you have a death wish.”

  “I wasn’t aware there was any sort of threat here.” He threw back returning the smile and I knew I shouldn’t allow the beauty in his smile to do anything to me but I couldn’t help it.

  Pa laughed louder. “We have ourselves a comedian here, people. A comedian I’m starting to like. If you don’t see me as a threat, then that’s good for you, but you may be wary of the poison. You should be aware that you have roughly two and a half minutes before you die like the others.”

  “Thanks for the info, that’s sufficient time to establish whether or not I want to work for you. So tell me the job specs. Do I get a company car, vacation leave, stuff like that?”

  “Vacation leave?”

  “I play golf, and I have a cat who likes the beach,” Mr. Gorgeous answered as simply as that.

  I almost laughed. There were a few snickers across the room.

  “You get twenty five days and a company car.”

  “Perfect.” He walked up to Armand and did that shuffle thing again.

  This time he reminded me of Gambit from X-Men. My cousin Donny watched it religiously every day after school when we were kids.

  This guy looked like the character, with his mad card skills.

  Once he shuffled the deck he gave it to Armand and walked right up to Pa.

  I gasped and a ripple of whispers fluttered over the room when he reached into the pocket on Pa’s jacket and pulled out the three red queens.

  “Here you go Sir, here are your queens.”

  Everyone was stunned. I didn’t know how he knew.

  Pa nodded and stunned everyone further by clapping.

  “So, when can I start?” Mr. Gorgeous asked.

  “Tomorrow at eight,” Pa answered and handed him a little white pill he pulled from his pocket.

  Mr. Gorgeous took it, tossed it in his mouth and gave Pa a lopsided grin. “Cool, see you then.”

  Before he left his gaze shifted to me, but only for a split second.

  A split second, but heat washed over me.

  All that time and I still didn’t know his name.

  Who was he?

  Chapter 7

  Xander

  * * *

  Considering I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about her, I wasn’t doing a very good job.

  Jia hadn’t left my damn mind.

  Never mind the part about being totally taken by her beauty but I was as unprepared to see her last night as her father had been.

  She really shouldn’t have been there and if I were him I would have done more to get her out of the place before the show began.

  Fucking Ethan, forgot to tell me Giovanni was crazy.

  I’d heard Giovanni had some unsavory habits, that he could be unpredictable. Last night however, was something else.

  Even I had to admit that last night was of the inhumane variety.

  It was clear Giovanni had no intention of showing Jia or anybody else any sympathy. I just chose to be the one to do it, giving her the compassion he should have shown.

  Tonight was round two. A bigger night than last night for it being my first night on the job.

  To make sure I went in with a level head I’d decided on having dinner with Wes first.

  I watched him cut into his steak and pop a slice into his mouth. He held up a finger and nodded with satisfaction.

  “This is so good. Oh, so good. Better than what we would have gotten in Rio and better than sex,” he stated.

  I shook my head at him. Wes and steak. I’d never known anybody to love steak as much as him.

  “Man if you think a piece of steak can be better than sex, there’s something you aren’t doing right.”

  He wagged his finger and blinked several times at me. “Nah man, I treat my ladies just right and I know what I’m talking about. The steak is divine.”

  “God, you are something else Wes.”

  I continued to watch him tucking into his meal.

  I couldn’t blame him, it felt like days since we’d had anything decent. Even I was happy for the steak we were eating in the five star restaurant my best friend had chosen.

  It was my treat for the shit we’d landed ourselves in.

  I had to call it shit because, damn it to hell, what else could it be called with Giovanni’s crazy ass?

  I’d never been in a situation like that before, and thank God I’d developed a good stomach over the years to counteract the fucking poison I’d drunk.

  Thank fuck I had, because I would have at least turned pale or green like one of the other guys.

  The years of eating whatever I could in the desert and building up an immunity had made me hard. Would have still killed me within the four minutes though if I didn’t get the antidote. I could feel it starting to shut me down, but I put on a good show of playing Mr. Cool.

  “You know what…I’ve been thinking about this whole mission,” Wes stated, cutting into my thoughts. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Great, he seemed to be working overtime to rattle me. “Nothing ever feels right Wes.”

  He leaned forward and set down his utensils. “Xander, It just feels like a big mess and I hate that there are no specifics. What about the bigger picture?” He frowned.

  “Bigger picture?” I asked. I knew where he was going with this because I’d considered it myself. I just thought I had enough on my plate and wanted to focus on one thing at a time. Especially since I had just got my foot through the door with Giovanni.

  “Yeah.” He leaned closer and whispered. “Like knowing who Giovanni is working for. I know Ethan has people working on figuring that out, but I hate the lack of information. We don’t have a time scale. We just know we have to work fast. It’s not good enough.” He shrugged.

  “Wes, it’s not ideal but the way the unit works is to identify a problem and nip it straight away. That eliminates the bigger picture. I get the prints and there is no big picture.”

  That was true. Which was why I was focusing on the parts I needed to.

  “Just like that? And intel? Intel can be wrong you know.”

  I nodded. “Yes, intel can definitely be wrong but we have to go with what we know.”

  “And, that’s the problem I have. It feels like we don’t know enough. Come on Xander if this was you and me we’d be looking at people like The Chameleon? Get to the head and see what the rest of the body is doing.”

  He wasn’t wrong but it didn’t work that way. This was my world. Working with the unknown and filling in the blanks. It was different.

  “Everything you’re saying makes sense. You are right, but in all my time I’ve never known anyone to be successful in locating The Chameleon for more than five minutes in any location. Ethan is going with what can be localized and contained.”

  “I hear you but there’s gonna be a point where things start moving along and you won’t know what’s happening because we don’t know the bigger picture.”

  This was all going to be hard.

  “I just have to focus.”

  “Well, you should know we’re being watched and I’m not moving. This meal is too good.” He smiled and nodded.

  I stifled a groan.

  The fact that he knew we were being watched and I hadn’t even sensed it was not good. I had to be at th
e hotel in an hour to meet my new boss. This was supposed to be my time to gather my thoughts before I left.

  “We’re not leaving,” I agreed. I hadn’t even eaten yet.

  “Well I’m glad to hear that blondie.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Two guys to the far left. Don’t look, you’ll look obvious. They’re Giovanni’s guys.”

  I cut into my steak and started eating. Once I’d swallowed, I took a sip of my wine and rested my hands on the table before me.

  “I guess they’re still impressed by last night.” I could be a real show off when I wanted to be and last night I didn’t hold back.

  Attention to detail was me. I damn well paid attention to everything and saw the slight outline of the cards in Giovanni’s pocket.

  I was only half certain that was where he was keeping them, then got it confirmed when I watched one guy look through nearly his whole deck of cards before the poison took him. I knew then there wouldn’t be any red queens in the stacks.

  Like my childhood games, it was a game of chance. Risk. I took it and seized the chance to shine. That was why these guys were here.

  “I can’t say I’m loving my new job.”

  Wes shook his head. “Me neither friend, but I’m here. It gets to me that I can’t do more to help.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  The most Wes could do was listen in. I was going in with a virtually undetectable wire. A state of the art flesh colored spec of a device no bigger than the nib of a pen that molded to the back of my ear. It switched on and off with the tap of my finger

  Giovanni’s people would not have been able to detect it. It was something far more high tech than what Wes and I used on the usual run of the mill. Definitely impressive and most appreciated since I would have hated to get caught with something that would blow my cover. The first thing Giovanni would think was that I was a cop or a fed come to spy on him. He wouldn’t know that I was so much worse than that.

  “Just gotta figure out what I need to,” I added.

  Wes nodded then a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “And the girl? You mentioned she was there last night, but you didn’t elaborate.”

  How observant of him. I had my reasons for not elaborating last night, or the night before and I still had them now.