Dangerous Victor: (Soldiering On #3)

by Aislinn Kearns

  “What are you going to do?” she hissed.

  He pointed at the office door they were standing next to, and she realised it was the Finance Officer’s. “I’m going to break into this office,” he whispered, as if it was obvious.

  Radha’s eyes widened. “You can’t do that! What if you get caught?”

  He raised his left eyebrow. “How else do you suggest we get these financial records? You said yourself that only she and Jeri have access. If you want me to ask her…?” He trailed off on a question.

  Radha shook her head. “Jeri can’t know.”

  “That’s what I thought. So, I have to break in.” He stood there, his hand on the doorknob, waiting for her permission to proceed.

  “What if someone sees you?”

  “I disabled the cameras in this part of the corridor and in the office. The only danger is that someone might see me come in or out. That’s why I have you.”

  She chewed her lip, worry gnawing at her. But she had to see this through. She had to find the source of this anomaly before it ruined all of Jeri’s hard work, even if Jeri didn’t want her to.

  She gave a sharp nod. Zack gave her an approving smile and knelt. He pulled a small packet from his pocket—lock picks she realised a moment later, as he pulled the appropriate ones from their holds.

  The slight sound of metal hitting metal was impossibly loud in the silent corridor. Radha’s breathing sped up as she looked down both ends of the corridor. They couldn’t be caught. She’d lose her job, and Jeri’s respect. She knew which was worse.

  It was barely seconds before the door swung open and Zack slipped inside. The door clicked shut behind him. Radha strained her ears into the office to hear what he was doing, but it was completely silent.

  She stood awkwardly for a moment, not sure what she should do. In the end, she pulled out her phone, pretending to check emails while casting an occasional glance towards the ends of the corridor. She had expected Zack to only be a few moments, but the minutes ticked by. It was made worse by her nerves, slowing time to a crawl.

  The sound of heels clicking against linoleum floor didn’t register until they were too close for Radha to subtly alert Zack. She glanced up to see Jeri only a few feet away, her handbag looped over her shoulder. She prayed the woman would say goodbye and walk on past, but no such luck.

  “Radha,” Jeri said. “I’m glad I caught you.”

  “Jeri!” Radha exclaimed, a little too loudly. She cleared her throat, hoping Zack heard her and would stay put in the office.

  Jeri gave her an odd sideways glance. “Are you all right, Radha? Your aura is a little off.”

  Radha nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

  Understanding dawned. “Yes, I understand. I was so sorry to hear about Louis. I know he was your friend.”

  Tears sprang to Radha eyes, and she nodded. “Yes, he was.”

  Jeri laid a hand on her arm. “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. I’ll lend you my meditation CD, if you’d like. It’s very soul-cleansing.”

  Radha offered a weak smile. “Thank you.”

  Jeri squeezed her arm and let go. “I really must talk to you, though.”

  “About?” Radha asked with a frown.

  “About this new Head of Security.”

  The bottom dropped out of Radha stomach. “What about him?” she squeaked.

  “Well, do you really think he’s the right man for this job?”

  Radha swallowed. “Yes? His resume is solid, and he seems competent so far.”

  Jeri nodded thoughtfully at this. “Hmmm.”

  “Do you…do you have some concerns?” Radha asked, regretting the words as soon as they came out of her mouth.

  “Well, now that you mention it, he’s quite…intimidating, don’t you think?”

  “Oh,” said Radha. “I hadn’t thought about it.” Was Jeri talking about his scars?

  “I suppose he doesn’t have a front of house job,” Jeri mused. “But I’m not sure his vibe fits in with the rest of the staff. There’s something off about him.”

  Radha made a noise, somewhere between vague agreement and dissension.

  “Keep an eye on him,” said Jeri. The implication was clear—Jeri didn’t trust him.

  With that, Jeri traipsed down the corridor. Radha watched her go, apprehension and shame warring within her.

  The office door cracked open, and Zack peered around. “She’s gone?” he asked.

  Radha nodded. He stepped out, shutting the door behind him with a definitive click, automatically locking it.

  “Did you get what you needed?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. It was all in a locked filing cabinet. No biggie.”

  His shoulders were stiff as he moved, and he didn’t meet her eye when he sent her a tight smile.

  “You heard,” Radha surmised.

  He shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

  “But it is,” she insisted.

  Something flashed in his eyes, gone as quickly as it had come. “Then maybe you should have taken that up with Jeri,” he said. The rebuke was soft, but had all the power of a swinging anvil.

  He gave her a sad smile. “Thanks for your help tonight. I’ll just go photocopy these so no one will notice they’re gone.” Then, he turned and left, leaving Radha alone with her shame.

  Chapter 5

  The roulette wheel spun, catching the artificial light overhead. Cards were dealt at high speed, and the flashing of a slot machine declaring a winner passed unnoticed by the surrounding players.

  Zack caught sight of Radha as she passed one of the cameras, lovely as usual. He sighed, frustrated with himself. Even if he didn’t already know what he looked like, her conversation with Jeri had made it fairly clear where he stood with her. She hadn’t said anything negative about him, but she hadn’t defended him, either.

  He wasn’t blaming her—her loyalty to Jeri was clear, and despite Zack’s own feelings, they had only just met. But her silence had played on the dark, vulnerable part of him, deep in his soul. And, yet, when he saw her, he couldn’t help but look. The clench low in his gut was the last nail in the coffin—he had a crush.

  He’d had crushes before. He just had to hope he’d get over this one sooner rather than later, before he did something stupid like make a move. It would only be embarrassing for both of them.

  He forcibly dismissed thoughts of her from his mind and concentrated on the screens. He had a job to do, and he intended to get it over with as soon as possible.

  The financial documents he’d looked over briefly were big. Months and months of data, with thousands of transactions each day. It would take him weeks to go through it all. Worse, he had to do it in his free time, lest he get caught at work with information he shouldn’t possess.

  He could still investigate during the day, but it was almost impossible to know what to look for without knowing what was happening with the money.

  His eyes landed on the blackjack table. Something about it struck him as odd, so he watched for a while. There were five people around the table. The dealer—Sandy, whom he’d met briefly yesterday—made six. He ignored most of them, but two young guys sitting across from each other caught his attention. They must have been barely over the legal age limit, if they were over at all.

  But that wasn’t what bothered him.

  The door to the office opened with a clatter, pouring light in from the hall. Zack winced at the sudden brightness, squinting to make out the shape of the intruder.

  Brett Dickson stood in silhouette, peering into the room.

  “Oh, you’re in here,” he said, as he caught sight of Zack. “I figured this place was empty, with all the lights off.” It was a dig, Zack knew, but he didn’t rise to the bait.

  “You’re late,” he said instead.

  Brett shrugged and flicked on the light. The fluorescent bulb stuttered into action, revealing the dull grey office they’d been assigned.


  In Brett’s hands was an oversized meal from a takeaway joint, complete with a bucket-sized cup of soda. The smell of cheap grease instantly filled the room.

  Zack tried not to gag.

  “We’ve got some card counters down there,” Zack told him.

  “Uh huh,” Brett replied as he threw himself into his seat on the other side of the room. Brett only had a single screen to watch that cycled through all the cameras. Zack was the only one that had the bank of them.

  “Well, are you going to do something about it?” Zack prompted.

  Brett frowned. “I’m on break.”

  “You just got here.”

  “Still. I’m taking an early lunch.”

  Zack made a sound halfway between annoyance and disgust. He didn’t want to show his face on the floor. He’d been pleased when he’d heard he had a second-in-command for exactly that reason. But it was still technically within the rules to take an early break, and start late. As long as one didn’t make a habit of it.

  At least Brett looked him in the eye when talking to him. It was his one saving grace.

  Zack pushed himself away from his desk and stepped out into the hallway. He kept his head down—as if that would help. He tucked his hands into the pocket of his crisp work pants and tried to be unobtrusive.

  A few other casino employees passed him as he walked through the staff-only corridors. They all either gave him, quick, brittle smiles before looking away, or not looking at him at all.

  Once he made it out onto the casino floor most people didn’t even look his way, but he still felt on display. Zack told himself it was his fierce scowl that was making people nervous.

  He reached the blackjack table with the two boys. They were even younger than he’d thought. Definitely not twenty-one.

  He grabbed one by the scruff of his neck, and reached across the table to grip the collar of the kid across from him. The scarred skin on his hand pinched as he did so, not liking the fast tightening of his fist, and Zack nearly let go. But thankfully the kid stared at him with wide, horrified eyes, too distracted to squirm out of his weak grip.

  “You’re coming with me,” Zack said gruffly. They didn’t argue.

  He turned to Sandy. “Can you clear the table?” The young blonde nodded vigorously. She, too, eyed him warily. He tried to smile, to soften his aggression. She relaxed and turned her attention to the table as he dragged the kids away.

  He pulled the kids roughly to their feet and hauled them away. He marched them across the lobby, the sharp click of low heels not registering until Radha appeared before him. He came to a sudden stop.

  “Hi Zack,” she murmured. Her dark eyes gazed at him full in the face.

  Zack swallowed around a tongue that was suddenly thick in his mouth. “Hi.”

  “Who are these two? They underage?” she asked, glancing at the two boys he’d captured.

  He shrugged. “Probably. But they were also counting cards.”

  The boys sputtered. “We were not!” one exclaimed. He was Asian, probably Chinese, and had glasses perched on his nose, giving him a studious look. Zack suspected they were fake. His fierce expression told Zack the kid was probably the leader in this little operation and was going to deny wrongdoing until the bitter end. Or he’d try.

  “Sure,” was all Zack said.

  Radha placed a gentle hand on his arm—his ruined arm, the one covered in burn scars—and leaned in so she could drop her voice. Zack almost couldn’t hear her words; his heart was thundering so loudly in his ears from her touch.

  “Should I call the police?”

  Zack looked at the two kids. The other kid, blond, with a weak chin, looked back at him miserably. The leader still had some defiance in him.

  “Not yet. I’m going to chat with them first.”

  She nodded, trusting his judgment. After her conversation with Jeri last night, he was pleased she believed in him that far.

  Zack tried to shake off how distracted he was by her and maneuvred through the crowd and into a small room off to one side of the lobby. It used to be someone’s office, but now stood empty other than the basic furniture.

  The air was close and stuffy from disuse, and the bustle of patrons in the lobby permeated the thin door. Everything in the room was a different shade of beige.

  He sat the kids in empty chairs, circled them to lean against the desk. He glowered at them for a minute, not moving a muscle. Once he decided the kids were sufficiently scared of him, he dropped the scowl.

  “What’s your name?” he asked the Asian kid.

  He hesitated, and Zack was sure for a long minute that the kid wasn’t going to answer. “Russell,” he said eventually. “Russell Chen.”

  Zack turned to the other kid. “And you?”

  “It wasn’t his fault!” Russell burst in. “I made him come.”

  “Uh-huh,” Zack said disbelievingly. “How about letting him talk for himself?”

  Russell sunk into sullen silence.

  “My name’s Stanley. Stanley Graham.” His words were quiet. The kid was staring shyly at his hands.

  “So. Russell, Stanley. You boys want to tell me what you were doing here today?”

  “Playing blackjack.” Russell’s sulkiness gave away the fact that he was underage more than anything else could have done. He was slumped in his seat, arms crossed over his chest, chin tucked in. The very portrait of a moody teen.

  “Yeah, I could see. Where did you learn to count cards like that?”

  The two boys shared a look, and Zack wondered what communication passed between them.

  “Books,” Russell answered. “From the library.”

  Zack raised his left eyebrow. “Is that so?”

  Both boys nodded.

  “And what were these books called?”

  That stumped them.

  “Um…Card Counting for Dummies?” Russell guessed.

  Zack cracked a grin. “Nice try.” He sobered. “How about you tell me what’s really going on? Why risk jail time like this?”

  The two boys looked at each other again, and Zack had that same feeling that they were communicating with each other.

  Eventually, Russell cleared his throat. “We just…we just needed the money.”

  Zack gentled his words. “Why did you need the money? What was it for?”

  Russell sighed, and in that moment, he looked like a small boy, not the teen verging on manhood he really was.

  “Stanley’s dad owes some people some money. We thought we could get it back.”

  His eyes were sad, defeated. Zack’s heart melted.

  “Why did you think this was your best option? There was no one you could go to for help?”

  They shook their heads.

  “I take it this person that your father owes money to is not the forgiving sort?” he asked Stanley. The kid shook his head in reply.

  “His name is Victor. He lives in my neighbourhood. Everyone is afraid of him.”

  “Why?” Zack asked. The kids obviously trusted him, now. A warm sensation washed over him, and Zack realised it was pride. He liked these kids were placing themselves in his hands.

  “Lots of people owe him money. And he threatens some bad shit to get what he feels he’s owed,” Russell told him.

  Stanley piped in. “They aren’t just threats. My dad said so.”

  Zack went cold. “He sounds like a nasty dude.”

  The two boys nodded.

  “And you two were very brave trying to protect Stanley’s father from him.”

  The two boys puffed out a little at this, pride giving them a lift.

  “But this kind of thing is too dangerous for you guys to get messed up in. If you’d picked a different casino, this conversation would be happening very differently.”

  The two boys glanced sheepishly at each other.

  “What? What is it?”

  Russell shifted in his chair. “We didn’t pick this casino.”

  “What do you mean? Someone told you
to come here?”

  They nodded. “Victor did.”

  Zack’s blood turned to ice. “Victor told you to come here and count cards?”

  They nodded. “He was the one that found out we could do it, and suggested we try it here to save Stanley’s dad. He promised he’d wipe the debt if we weren’t caught.”

  They looked miserable now, and burdened with more worry than any kids should bear.

  “Do you know why, specifically, he told you to come here?”

  They shook their heads. “Maybe he thought it had the worst security,” Stanley ventured. Zack narrowed his eyes.

  “Well, then he thought wrong.”

  Zack fell silent for a moment, considering the options. “Okay. You know I’m going to have to confiscate your winnings and ban you from this place. I can’t set a bad precedent.”

  “Are you going to call the cops?” Stanley asked.

  Zack shook his head. “No, that would only make things worse for you. I’m going to let you go.”

  The boys rose to leave, excitement on their faces. Zack interrupted them.

  “But I’m going to give you this card.” He dug one out of his back pocket. “And I’m going to make you promise to call it.”

  Russell took the card, hesitant. “Who is it?”

  “It’s a friend of mine. I think he can help you guys out with this Victor guy.”

  “Really?” Russell asked. “Why would he do that?”

  “It’s his job.”

  Russell deflated. “Oh. But we don’t have any money.”

  “Call him anyway. Tell him I sent you.”

  He made them promise. Then, he shook their hands—they grasped his scarred right one without hesitation—and escorted them to the parking lot.

  He had to hope this Victor guy was someone Duncan could handle.

  Chapter 6

  Radha waited for Zack in his office, perched on his office chair and watching him on the monitors as he wound his way through the employee-only corridors.

  Brett slurped at his drink, and Radha’s jaw tightened at the sound. “Don’t you have some work to be doing?” she asked over her shoulder, turning her chair slightly so she could see him without her neck going The Exorcist on her. Brett lounged in his swivel chair, his booted feet on the desk. The remains of whatever he’d been eating lay strew across his desk and had fallen unnoticed on the floor.