by Mia Grandy
Drake was a little disappointed, but he shrugged his shoulders and decided that she probably just needed time and space alone to herself. Not to mention that this place was definitely worthy of exploration.
Even though she had left without him, he felt a sense of exhilaration at the recent developments. In fact, he could not seem to wipe the smile from his face as he got dressed and headed out the door.
*
The casino was huge, and Randa did not know how exactly she was supposed to scour the entire thing to see if Mike was in fact checked in. She knew that she could just wait and see if he checked into the tournament later, but she was trying to get out ahead of this thing. So, she craned her neck around each bank of machines as she twisted and turned along the maze like path that led from one end of the casino to the other.
Carrying around a Styrofoam cup of soda in one hand, she tried to look as casual as possible as she strolled through the area. Every now and then she would put a dollar into a machine and burn through it only so she didn’t attract too much attention. If Mike hadn’t spotted her yet, the advantage was still on her end.
She sighed as she sat down at some slot machine promising fun games and huge payouts and thought about the life she had lived just a few short years ago. She had ran away from her last foster home, and was holed up with some friends who had started camping out in an old abandoned manufacturing plant downtown.
That was where she had first met Mike. With his dark jet black hair and green eyes, he looked like some kind of model who was just slumming it for a bit. The one thing he had going for him that none of the others did was his ability to literally talk his way into or out of anything.
He was the one that first used her slight inclination at pool to start earning them money. He taught her how to search out her marks, and how to use body language against them. The slight curve of one’s hips or the artful twist of a butt cheek when going in for a shot; these are things that she learned could distract a man just enough to give her the upper edge when she was cutting the game close.
Toward the end of their relationship, though, she realized that he valued her little more than a pimp values his prostitute. She was nothing but a cash cow to him, and although they were sharing their life, their money, and their bed, she came to see that he didn’t really love her like she loved him.
He didn’t love anyone but himself.
When he had joined up with this team of pool hustlers, she thought life would get better. She assumed that he would back off of her if there were more people around to shoulder the burden and carry the weight and status of lead “earner.” Mike played too, but he wasn’t as good, and often this meant that he would help her set up the victims at the beginning of the night and then she would seal the deal.
At first it was great, they went in as a team, and split the earnings at the end of the night. It wasn’t all on her shoulders and she didn’t have to worry that one loss would make them have to live without food for the next few days.
That was before she started noticing Mike’s odd behavior. Whatever respect he had for her had started to fade, and at first she was proud of the fact that he appeared to be doing better at running the table. She did not have to work as much to earn the money and that was fine with her.
However, when she was cut from the team completely, she couldn’t stop the nagging suspicion that something wasn’t right. So, one night when Mike was out with the guys drinking, she went through his duffel and found weighted pool cues, swap balls, cheating sticks, and other items that would help to guarantee a win.
One thing Randa had always counted on in her life was that she played fair and therefore won fair. This way she didn’t feel bad about taking their money, and it had been a source of pride for her that she was good at what she did. This was why when she found out they were cheating, it severely bothered her.
It had bothered her enough that she’d thrown out all the items in the duffel and left with all of the spare money they had built up.
That was why the thought of finding him here, at this tournament, meant bad business. Not only did it mean that the group of cheaters had entered, it also meant that the long postponed confrontation was not going to be put off any longer. The thought of talking to Mike made her skin crawl, but she didn’t want to be caught off guard.
Plus, she would have to come clean about her past, all of it, to Drake. It was one thing for him to assume that she was down on her luck and living on the streets, but it was a whole other to have to admit that for awhile she was a street rat who was running from an abusive family because she’d been stripped from her abusive mother.
It had been a long line of people who had done nothing to help her, and she had done everything in her power to rise above the situation. When she was with Drake she could almost forget that other life existed, but even that small break from reality was about to get pulled away from her and she found herself reluctant to give it up.
Flicking her hand, she absentmindedly pushed down on the button which indicated she could repeat the bet but nothing happened. She realized that while she had been sitting there lamenting on the past regrets, she had managed to burn through ten dollars on the penny slot machine. No wonder people lost so much money in the casino; you just sat there dumbfounded and kept hitting the button until your money was all burned up.
A hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped out of her chair, spinning around as she rose. A strangled cry tangled in her throat, but she managed to choke it back down when she saw that it was only Drake.
“You sure are jumpy,” he said as she sank back down into the chair, her entire body trembling. The instant she had felt the hand on her shoulder she had been sure that she had been spotted by Mike while she was daydreaming and that this was the unavoidable moment of conflict. It felt as if her entire body had been perched on the edge of something major and now the energy that had propelled her upwards drained from her entire being and left her nothing more than an empty sack of flesh.
She took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm herself before she answered him, but when she looked up she saw the concern that was now very plainly visible over his face and knew that there would be no distractions this time.
Glancing over to the side, she went to pick up her cup and saw Mike two machines over. He wasn’t playing though, instead he was intently focused on her every move. She found herself wondering how long he had been sitting there, watching her. When she looked back up at Drake she saw that he had noticed as well.
“Randa, what is going on?” he asked, the concern on his face morphing into something else. It looked as if he might just march over to Mike and ask him in person, but then when she looked back over she saw that he was gone, melted back into the crowd.
Just as she opened her mouth to speak, she heard the announcement over the loudspeaker that the registration for the tournament was about to begin in fifteen minutes.
“We don’t have enough time right now, but I need you to trust me. There are some things about my past that I’m not proud of and today one of them is apparently showing up to bite me right about now,” she told him, taking a deep breath as she stood up and faced the registration table. “I just want you to know that I never cheated anyone. However, there are people here that have. I used to know people who were on a hustling team that used methods that were not orthodox to win. They are here now.”
He stopped, grabbing her arm to keep her from walking forward. “Which ones? That guy that was eying you back there?”
Randa nodded and sighed. “He’s one of them, but he’s not the only one. I doubt that they came in just one team. In fact, I would bet that there were five more on the crew split into three teams of two.”
“Okay, which other ones are in on it? We’ll just go and report them to the authorities and have them disqualified.”
“It’s not that easy. See, I know him, but I don’t know any of the others. I seriously doubt that they will rat each other out, after
all, they share in the pay.” She looked away nervously and then back toward the line that was developing at the check in. “Look, we need to go now. I don’t want you to miss out on the tournament.”
“But if we…” he began and she shook her head vigorously to stop him.
“No, we don’t have to know who they are. We just have to be extra vigilant about who we are playing and what they are doing. We can report the team that Mike is on later, but chances are that if he saw me he’s not going to risk playing dirty and losing the money. I would go so far as to bet that he won’t even register his team.”
Drake looked at her, his hand still around her arm while he weighed everything she had told him. She knew that he was deciding whether or not to trust her. She thought of just a few short hours ago when she had been encircled in his embrace and he had been so confident in her. Now she was sure that he could see her for the worthless street vagabond she was.
She bowed her head and looked at the brightly patterned carpet on the floor, certain that she would never again feel as completely at peace and accepted as she had been before. Because even if he decided to believe her, he was still going to have the lingering moments of doubt at the back of his mind about her and her past.
It was the same old story she had been living since she was twelve, but this time it stung a little deeper than before. Maybe because she had let herself believe in the possibility of happy endings with prince charming. Maybe because for a moment she had not guarded her feelings and her hope as diligently as she should.
Whatever the reason, she knew that after this tournament was over, there was very little chance that he would want to be with her. When he didn’t make a move, she chanced a look up and saw that he was still studying her. His grip on her arm had relaxed, but he still had not made a move toward the registration line.
Finally, when she thought the silence between them and the whistling bells and dings from the other machines would drive her insane, he spoke. “Okay. You’ll have to fill me in on the rest of this later, but tell me what we need to look out for.”
As he talked he started walking over to the desk to check in. He took out his registration paperwork and looked it over while Randa filled him in on all of the ways that people could try to cheat at billiards.
“It’s going to be a lot tougher here than it would be at some dive pool hall. There are people here watching the tables and checking all of the shots. I would bet that if they were planning something they would have a man on the inside that they would use to set up the bad equipment beforehand. So, look for shots that go horribly wrong and balls that have far too much spin for the area where you hit them. If you run into this ask for the balls to be weighed and checked.”
“Why not just do that before the game even starts?” he asked.
“I thought of that too, but if they have someone on the inside then they would just pull everything when it was checked beforehand and then put it back out again later. No, we will need to catch them while they are cheating. That way the balls can be taken and measured from the table immediately. It lessens the risk of them being able to hide it.”
He looked at her, his eyebrow raised. “I start doing that too much and it’s going to slow the whole tournament down to such an extent they won’t listen to me after awhile.”
“No. Trust me. If they find one table that has been tampered with, then they will go through and check all of them. It will cause a giant reset button on the entire tournament.”
“So they would cancel it?” he asked, worry creeping into his voice.
Randa looked around the room and paid attention to all of the people who were obviously checking in for this tournament. “I don’t think so. There are at least fifty teams. More than one hundred people who have come to this casino. A lot of people who are just casual players might bring their friends and family to help root them on. It is highly unlikely that the higher ups at the casino would allow them to lose that much income and publicity because of a rigged game. Instead, they would probably just restart the games for the remainder of the tournament.”
Drake nodded as he signed the papers and passed it over to her. She took the clipboard and signed it as well, her hand shaking a little as she did so.
They were about to begin playing in a tournament for a sentimental piece of Drake’s family property and there was a good chance that the games were fixed. Randa felt an incredible sense of guilt for every associating with those guys in the first place. Rationally she knew that there was no reason why she should feel responsible for another person’s actions, but that did not stop her from having a base level response.
Even when she handed him back the clipboard and her hand touched his, she flinched. Where before there had been passion, now there was just cold flesh. Her body still strummed, still longed to be with him, but it was as if she had turned off the switch in her head that allowed her to feel more. Right now she was operating in pure survival mode.
Drake seemed to be doing the same, “We’ll have to play it by ear for now. You can fill me in on more while we wait for the first games to get set up.”
She nodded and turned her head to survey the crowd. There was no sign of Mike, and she didn’t readily see anyone else she recognized from the old crew, but she didn’t stop searching. If she did she would have to see the disappointment in his face again, and she was sincerely worried that it would break her heart if she did. Blinking back tears, she took a deep breath and not for the first time cursed her life and her luck.
Happiness was obviously not something she was meant to find in this lifetime.
Chapter 8
After they checked in, Drake led her over to a side table at the end of the bar and ordered two beers. They sat down across from each other and for the first time since she’d told him about the possibility of a rigged game, he looked her dead in the face. She had been avoiding looking at him, and he could see the worry spread across her features as plain as day.
He didn’t speak at first, but rather let her drink down a couple of swallows. If nothing else, he had learned from all those years of being stuck in situations where he felt out of place that you could tell almost everything from body language. Even as he watched, he saw that her hands were shaking just a little as she raised and lowered her glass, her eyes were darting around the room, and it was clear that her skin was practically itching its way across her bones.
This run in with her old hustling buddies had clearly shaken her up. He couldn’t believe that she would be this upset just because she realized there was going to be cheating going on. After all, she had alerted him to this fact and they were going to do their best to compensate for it. In his book that was like a major bonus, but apparently to her it was something to be ashamed of.
He wasn’t really following her logic, but he knew that he would not be able to understand her side of it. After all, he’d lived a life of luxury while she’d struggled just to stay alive.
Once he had let her finish about half her beer she appeared a lot calmer and more relaxed, and then he decided to go ahead and start the conversation.
“It’s going to be okay. Now that we know the games could be rigged, we know what to watch out for. I say it’s a good thing. A win, even.”
Randa smiled a little nervous smile and laughed under her breath. “Yeah, a real win.”
“I don’t think I understand.”
“No, you wouldn’t…it’s just…” she allowed her voice to trail off as she once again looked around the room. Drake didn’t say anything to interrupt her train of thought. Instead he watched as she cupped both her hands around the mug and stared at them.
“You have to understand I am not at all thrilled with the idea of dredging up my past. I’m not proud of any of it, not living on the streets, not hustling people to survive or stealing food to eat. My life was not filled with the angst of a would-be normal teenager. I have spent most of my life on pure gut instinct.” She paused and a tear slid down her cheek.
As much as he wanted to reach across the table and comfort her, wipe the tear away, he held his ground. He knew that she would seize any excuse now to stop talking. If they were going to walk into this game here in a little bit he wanted to completely understand her. He’d assumed her past was safely behind her, but obviously it was just lying in wait. If she didn’t deal with it, it would end up haunting her.
“Every single time I think I am about to get a solid head’s up it ends up falling apart. This, this was supposed to be my chance to do something real with my life. I was going to use the money to get an apartment, a car, get a head start on life. I even thought this might be my chance to go to college.”
Drake said nothing, but he tilted his head in acknowledgment.
“Don’t get me wrong. I know I can’t do all of those things with ten thousand dollars, but I know I can get my foot in the door. Trust me, if there’s anything I can do it is work my way up from the bottom. I was sure that if I just had a couple of months of breathing room I could do something to get myself ahead.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? Because this, is all I have to cling to right now. If we lose then I don’t have anything to fall back on, nowhere to live.” Randa’s eyes got wide when she realized what she was saying and she put her hand up to her mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
She started to apologize, but just then the voice over the loudspeaker announced their names and instructed them to go to table ten.
Drake didn’t say anything, but drained his beer and then stood up and walked over to the table, not waiting to see if she followed. He was angry, but not at her. Rather he was frustrated with life in general in much the same fashion as she was.
But right now he didn’t have the time to focus on that. Instead, when he got to the table he put his head one hundred percent in the game. If nothing else, he was going to make sure that he wasn’t the reason they lost. He needed to have his cabin back, and Randa needed that money.
