The Gambler

by Silver, Jordan

  “Okay, okay. One little mistake months ago and you never let me live it down.

  “Vito.”

  “Yes boss, sorry I’m on it.” He hung up the phone before the other man started giving him his version of the so-called mistake again. He’d heard it a million fucking times and always came to the same conclusion. Your gun might possibly go off once by mistake, if you’re a complete asshole without a working brain cell. But there’s no way you can shoot a motherfucker eight times by mistake.

  Outside the car, they had to do the security check again. His guys had been circling and back tracking as they drove and keeping him posted by phone, so he knew there were no un-friendlies following them. “Garrett you called ahead?”

  “Yeah boss, I scheduled the flight; it was a bit last minute but they worked it out.”

  “Good.” He took one of her hands and squeezed softly to get her attention. He was in no way willing to force her onto that plane if she didn’t want to.

  He knew it was fucked, gramps had been there his whole life, after his sister he was his number one guy. But if he had to, he would let the guys go on without him, so he could stay and protect her. He’d made that decision in the last few minutes on the way here. It was a tough one, but he gladly accepted that there might be a lot of those in his future. Whatever it takes, as long as his little Jenna was happy, fuck everything else.

  “Angel ears?”

  “Ears, what’s wrong with your ears baby?”

  She flapped her arms and made the sound of a plane taking off. At least he thinks that’s what that was. He guessed that answered that question.

  “Damn baby, thanks.” He kissed her forehead and helped her up the stairs to the plane. The twelve-seater was just big enough to hold their detail. He found her the special headphones and put them on her head as she looked around with excitement. She practically bounced in her seat and clapped her hands as they cruised down the tarmac.

  Her eyes were peeled out the window and he left her side and went the short distance to where his men were seated. It was time to plan what the fuck they were gonna do once they got to this place. It was broad daylight and the stash house wasn’t exactly isolated. There will be people coming and going from the local businesses in the area. Not exactly ideal for a rescue mission that might end in a shootout. Maybe that’s what the enemy was banking on.

  It didn’t matter though, because if gramps really was there as he suspected he was, he wasn’t leaving without him. The locals will just have to deal with a little bloodshed.

  It took them half an hour to reach. Now he had another problem, what the fuck was he gonna do with her while he was in there? His head had been turned around way too much today, for some fucked up reason he wasn’t thinking straight.

  He couldn’t take her in there. What the fuck had been thinking. All the way there in the waiting car he pondered the question over and over. This vehicle, though equipped, was nowhere near as safe as the tank. Granted no one knew they were coming, but the thought of leaving her alone this close to their enemies didn’t sit too well. Fuck Andros you fuck, what the hell were you thinking?

  “We’ll be there in five boss.”

  Jenna had her eyes peeled out the window, watching the scenery go by. The GPS on the car where they’d plugged in the address was now saying ‘you’ve arrived at your destination’. The place looked like a warehouse that had seen better days.

  They made a wide circuit around the block to get the lay of the land. In back was another leg of the Hudson, this one dirtier than others. It looked like the area had once been an industrial park of some type that had since gone under. Most of the buildings were abandoned and they looked it. There looked to be a brand new speeding vessel of some sort tied up in the back of their destination though.

  Jenna hopped out of the car before he could stop her and he almost had a fucking heart attack. He couldn’t yell and bring attention to them, so he got out as well, before security was in place.

  She walked with a purpose, right up to the backdoor, and he thought his heart was gonna give the fuck out; until she stopped short and did some kind of duck and dive. He held Garrett and the others back as they made to follow her. That was because she’d turned back to him and placed a finger over her lips. What in the fuck was this?

  She was playing with that toy again, only this time her fingers were moving faster than he’d ever seen them. When she was finished doing whatever it was she was doing, he heard a soft whirring sound and realized there were cameras on the sides of the building that had stopped in mid swing.

  She started digging in the grass and he’s thinking ‘not now baby’. Her moods changed so rapidly from one moment to the next, he wasn’t sure what to expect. She turned to him with the sexiest fucking grin and beckoned him over.

  She’d uncovered a trap door that led down into the basement of the place. “Gramps here.” He couldn’t resist kissing her, even as the others filed past them and started down the steps. Who the fuck was this girl really? And how had his sister known?

  How could she have known all those years ago, that this one woman would exist, and that she would be his? And why had fate chosen now to bring her to him? He had a million questions that needed answers and he intended to find out each and every one of them in the not too distant future.

  He followed the men down the steps, intending to stash her somewhere down there out of harm’s way, until the shit was over. They could hear footsteps overhead and men talking and laughing. She held up her fingers to her mouth again, as the others came down the stairs behind them.

  Then she closed her eyes and seemed to be in deep concentration. He got that spooked feeling again and his gut churned. What the fuck was it gonna be this time? He was proud as fuck of her and what she could do, but everything so far pointed to her being trained as some sort of criminal.

  That he could not accept. To take advantage of her innocent gifts in such a way! He had no doubt that the gifts were hers naturally, whatever they were. But he knew that they had been used for something other than they were intended.

  No one moved as she did her thing. Even his men were coming to understand that there was something more than met the eye with her. She popped her eyes open and held up her fingers. “Five?” she nodded in answer to his question.

  Then she started pointing out locations, which he guessed represented where each man was stationed. Then she held her hand up again. “Two.”

  She nodded and mimed walking and someone tied to a chair. Get the fuck out. She was the fucking bionic woman what the fuck?

  “Angel chocolate.” Un-fucking-believable…

  He didn’t need to tell the men where to go, from the information she gave them they pretty much knew what needed to be done. First order of business was to neutralize the two on gramps, because chances are they’d been told to eliminate if there was a rescue attempt.

  He sent the men on ahead so he could talk to her before following them up. “Jenna I need you to stay down here baby okay.” He led her to a spot hidden behind an old furnace and hoped like fuck that she understood what he was saying. He heard gunfire erupt just as his foot hit the first step to go up, and started running.

  Gramps! There was chaos when he made it to the top. Two of the men were already dead on the floor and Jameson was untying the old man. He heard running feet and aimed his gun in the direction they were coming from. He wasn’t really interested in eliminating these fucks right now, not with Jenna and gramps on the scene, his first priority was getting them the fuck out. He’d have to deal with the fucks later, but it seemed like they were gonna force his hand.

  “Angel.” He heard her scream two seconds before she flew at him and his heart fell to his fucking knees. What the fuck? He heard the recoil and felt her weight hit him, a second before he raised his arm and shot the guy who’d been about to shoot him.

  “Jenna, baby?” He felt the warmth of her blood on his hand and her eyes glazed over before she passed out. Sna
tching her up he headed back for the stairs calling gramps to follow him, leaving the others to finish it. He never stopped moving until he reached the boat docked at the back of the property. Gramps was two steps behind him and it wasn’t long before the others came through the door.

  “Torch it.” One of the guys went back, and using a cloth soaked in gas from the car, lit the place on fire. If anyone were left alive in there, they would be trapped, since the front was boarded up and there was only one way in or out. “You guys head back to the plane, I’m taking the boat with gramps and Jenna.” It was a straight shot on the water to his place; besides, he couldn’t risk getting on a plane with her in this condition, too many eyes too many questions.

  Jameson and Garrett got on the boat with them of course, but it was gramps he entrusted her to. “Keep pressure on her shoulder gramps, I think it was a through and through.” Turning to the throttle, he sped across the water with his heart in his throat. She could’ve died. Why the fuck did she do it? He knew the answer to that of course, she was trying to save him and probably had.

  He couldn’t think about the fact that she was back there bleeding and unconscious, as he sped towards home. His only focus was on what he had to do once they got there. Thank fuck there wasn’t too much traffic on the water or he would’ve probably crashed at the rate he was going.

  He pulled up to his dock and waited for Garrett to hop out and tie them off, before taking her from the old man. “Call Dr. Pruitt, tell him to get here yesterday.” He was moving as he threw the order over his shoulder to the old man. Inside he yelled for his housekeeper even as Willy came rushing to the door. “Sue I need you upstairs.”

  “What happened to her?” She came rushing over to his side as he made his way up the stairs.

  “She’s been shot.”

  “Oh the poor little thing.”

  He placed her on their bed and hovered as the woman started tending to her. Now that the danger had passed and he’d got her home safely, he felt the full effects of what had happened, what could’ve happened. His knees started to shake when he saw all the blood that had soaked through the top of her dress. Shit, he hadn’t even shaken like that the one time he’d been shot.

  She was bleeding like stink and he started to worry that maybe it was worst than he’d thought. “How bad?” He looked over Sue’s shoulder, as she eased the dress away from the wound. There was a deep gash where the bullet had sliced through her skin.

  He saw red in that instant and wished he’d done more than shoot the fucker that had done that to her. Now for the rest of their lives he’d always be reminded that she’d taken a bullet for him, had risked her own life, which was worth so much more than his, to spare him a bullet to the heart.

  Chapter 13

  The doc showed up half an hour later and took over. “She’s gonna need stitches.”

  “Fuck, can we give her something to knock her out? She’s asleep now but I don’t want her to wake up with a needle in her skin, she’d freak the fuck out.” Alice had hated needles, was petrified of the shits.

  “I don’t want to risk it since she’s been unconscious since this happened. Let’s just see how it goes.” He climbed on the bed beside her and held her while the other man cleaned the wound. The whole time he was praying that she didn’t wake up. He couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering anymore than she already had.

  This is all my fault, why am I such a fuck up? I’ll protect you. Yeah, two days with you and she’s already been shot. Some protector you are, you can’t be fucking trusted. He beat himself up with every pierce of the needle into her precious skin. This shit ends today. I’ll level the whole fucking city until every last Bonata is in the ground. That thought sustained him and brought him back from the brink.

  “I think she’ll be okay, it wasn’t as bad as it looked.” The doctor closed up his bag and prepared to leave.

  “Stick around doc, you have to take a look at gramps and I need you here when she wakes up, she might need something.”

  “I’ll have a look at your grandfather, but he called me away in the middle of…I’ll stick around.” The look Andros gave him didn’t bode well if he didn’t.

  He stayed there with her wrapped in his arms, just staring at the wall, willing her to wake up. It was an hour later when he heard Vito’s voice downstairs and remembered the mother. He hated like hell to leave her, but he needed answers. He called Sue back up the stairs to watch over her while he took care of business.

  She was sitting in the study, a little slip of a woman in her early fifties. He could see some of his flower in her, in the hair and the mouth, but that was it. His Jenna’s beauty came from somewhere else altogether he was sure. She looked up from the book she’d been reading when he walked in. Her eyes widened as she stood.

  “Are you Andros?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re hurt.” He looked down and noticed the blood that covered him for the first time.

  “That’s your daughter’s blood. Your friend Bonata’s doing.”

  “Jenna, where is she is she…

  “She’s alive no thanks to you and your family. I need some answers and you’re going to give them to me, and trust me lady, the mood I’m in, you do not want to fuck with me. I have the need to shed blood and yours will do just as well as any other.” She backed away back to her seat.

  “What is it that you want to know?”

  “For starters what the fuck were the Bonatas using her for?”

  “I don’t…

  He drew his gun and pointed it at her. “I told you, don’t fuck with me.”

  “It was nothing, she just helped them out a little with…stuff.”

  “What kinda stuff?”

  “I don’t know I swear. Look she was good with numbers and other things. She hears things that no one else does, and sees things I guess. It started when she was a teenager. The men made such a big deal out of it, all these things that I didn’t understand.

  So when they made such a big deal and then Mr. Bonata came to me and asked me to let her help them with the business, I saw nothing wrong with it. I was so proud of her, finally there was something she was good at. And she seemed to enjoy it, I never would’ve agreed otherwise.”

  “Do you know what kind of business she was helping them with?”

  “I don’t know, computers or something like that. We got her one for Xmas when she was sixteen and she became a whole new person. When they told me how good she was, a genius they said. My daughter who’d been shunned all her life could do something these great men were amazed at. I was so proud of my girl.”

  “They trained her to be a fucking criminal you ass.”

  “No…they never said…I thought…”

  “Were they paying her?”

  “She…Jenna doesn’t understand money and stuff like that. Her father and I took a little something.”

  “And what did she get out of it?” She took a minute to answer.

  “When she was little, each time she did something good, or learned something new, I gave her chocolate.”

  “I’ll wring your fucking neck you bitch. You and your husband and your piece a shit son got rich off of her and you gave her chocolate? Tell me why I shouldn’t put two in your head?”

  “I didn’t know what they were doing I swear to you.”

  “I don’t believe you. Do you know how fucking special she is? She’s worth more than all of you combined.” He was pissed beyond measure, hearing her talk so casually about squandering her daughter’s gift for something so dark, and to gain from it…

  “Who is senator Winthrop?”

  “I don’t know the name doesn’t sound familiar.” He studied her to see if she was telling him the truth. There was something amiss he was sure, but he was too fucked up to think straight.

  “Your daughter in law’s sister was working for me, was she a plant?” Again she took her time answering and he could see the fear coming off of her in waves.

  “
Yes.”

  “Why? I never had any dealings with the Bonatas. What the fuck did they want with me?”

  “That was Jenna’s doing?”

  “What?” Her answer threw him. Eileen had been working for him for two years; he’d only known Jenna for two days. “Explain.

  “She saw you. He felt that tingling shit down his spine again.

  “In a news article I think it was. She kept calling you Angel. At first I thought it was because she had difficulty saying your name, but then she started talking crazy. Saying how you were her angel and you were gonna come for her.”

  “Two years?”

  “Yes, Alphonso Bonata didn’t like it, and we couldn’t understand what was going on in her head, but with everything else that she was capable of, they got spooked I think. He thought it was a good idea to keep an eye on you just in case.” His thoughts were racing; this was all crazy. How could she have known about him when he’d never heard of her? Maybe the same way Alice had known that you’d meet a woman who would call you her Angel.

  He stormed out of the room sick to his stomach. He had even more questions now than when he started.

  “Will you take me to her?”

  “Lady of you go anywhere near her I’ll throw you off the fucking roof.” He slammed the door as he left. “She stays in there, if she tries to come near those stairs shoot her.” He headed back up the stairs after giving his man those orders.

  Chapter 14

  JENNA

  “ANGEL.”

  “Shh, shh, it’s okay.”

  “Hey I know you.”

  “I know.” The pretty lady took her hand and started leading her away.

  “Come sit with me for a spell.”

  She looked back over her shoulder, looking for her angel.