Chapter Five #3
The way he’s acting has me concerned, but I’ve learned over the past few months of being around him that he has his moods. One minute, he’s the life of the party, and the next minute, he’s standoffish. I’m sure he’s as anxious as I am.
After I get dressed, I see his text with the room number and let him know I got it.
I try not to watch the clock, but it’s hard because I don’t want to arrive too early but arriving late isn’t an option either. A lot is riding on this game, and I can’t fuck this up. Twenty minutes before the game starts, I grab my wallet and head that way.
On the way to the top floor, my nerves get the best of me, but I shake that shit off. I don’t have time to be on edge and need to get my head straight. The room is at the end of the hallway, and there’s a bodyguard standing outside of it.
“ID?”
I pull my wallet from my back pocket and hand him my license.
He looks it over, then hands it back to me before opening the door.
Inside is a suite that’s larger than my entire house.
Where a conference table should go is a poker table, and the other players are already there.
A dealer, a pit boss, and three bodyguards stand against the wall, waiting for this to officially start.
Everyone’s quiet, and the only sound that can be heard is our collective breathing.
“Any weapons?”
I shake my head as a man dressed in all black pats me down. I lift my arms and allow him to search me.
“He’s clean,” he tells the other guy who’s obviously in charge.
I glance over and see a table with Glocks and knives placed on top.
While I should be concerned, I’m not, considering some of the shady situations I’ve been in with my job.
These players are millionaires, so of course they’re carrying weapons.
The pit boss introduces the game and the rules. Texas Hold ’em, regular tournament rules, which means we’ll play until one of us is left.
As I look around the table, I notice a guy I played with yesterday.
They give us our chips, and we start with what we paid to play.
The blind is five thousand, which means this game could be over fairly quickly.
The dealer shuffles the cards, and another person cuts the deck.
It’s much harder to play it safe with a six-person game, but I try to be as conservative as possible.
I’m up twenty grand, then down again, and I realize that I’m on a level playing field with them.
JJ said they weren’t good players, and I’m calling bullshit.
Not one of us is better than the other, and it’s going to come down to who’s smarter.
After hours of playing, we’re given a fifteen-minute break to piss.
Three guys have already been eliminated but they can’t leave until the game is over.
No one comes in, and no one goes out until the end.
They’re annoyed as fuck but don’t test it.
Two of the guys I’m playing against are older, more experienced, and I can tell they play games of this caliber regularly. One of them is completely unreadable. The other chews on the inside of his mouth when he has a good hand, and I’m positive he doesn’t realize he’s doing it.
The dealer passes out the cards, and I fold before betting, but the other two have a showdown.
Cheek chewer goes all in, and Mr. Robot calls him, which was a horrible mistake because Cheeky lays down a full house.
Even after losing so much money, the guy is completely emotionless.
Then it’s just the two of us left, and I can feel my blood pumping in my neck.
I don’t have nearly as much money as my opponent, but I have enough to make a comeback if I pick and choose when to bet. But when it gets down to two players, we’re forced to.
This round, I put in the big blind, and Cheeky matches it.
The dealer flips over the first three cards, and I have two pairs, sevens and threes.
It’s not the best hand, but it’s certainly not the worst, and I could still get a full house.
I’m not exactly oozing confidence at the moment, but I don’t see his tell, so I bet ten thousand.
He calls me, and the dealer turns another card.
I’m still holding steady with my two pair but notice I need a diamond to possibly have a flush.
There are so many possibilities, but I bet the minimum, knowing I’ve put a lot of money into this round.
Cheeky goes all in, forcing me into a showdown.
I nearly hold my breath as we show our cards, and he only has a pair of eights, but I don’t get excited yet. The final community card is dealt, and it’s an eight of spades, giving him three of a kind.
I lost. I lost half a million dollars.
The blood drains from my face, and I feel like I’m going to be fucking sick.
The guy shakes my hand and tells me it was a good game, and then we’re all escorted out of the room.
It’s so anticlimactic for what just happened the past seven hours.
I’m in shock, upset, and angry with myself for going all in.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I call JJ.
“Dude, finally,” he says eagerly. “So, where do I need to meet you to pick up my money?”
I’m silent for a moment, not sure how to articulate what happened. “JJ.”
It’s all I can say, and he immediately knows the outcome. “No.”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell him. “I’ll pay back my half.”
I can tell he’s on the move, and his voice gets softer but more direct. “That’s not good enough.”
“What do you mean? That wasn’t the deal,” I say, panicking as I get on the elevator. “The seventy-five I won yesterday, it’s yours. I just need to get it.”
“See, that’s where we have an issue. The money wasn’t mine.”
I make it to my room and shut the door, locking it behind me. “What the fuck?”
“I need to replace it as soon as possible before someone notices it’s gone.”
I think back to how Victoria called him her idiot brother, and God was she right. He really is a fucking idiot.
“You’re telling me you took a large sum of money from someone and hoped they didn’t notice? This was a big fucking mistake.”
“Yeah, it was,” he tells me sternly. “I thought you were better than that. People have been killed for less.”
I hold back the urge to laugh, but nothing about this is funny. “You steal from the mob or something?”
“Actually, my dad is the boss,” he admits.
What the hell?
“And we’re in big fuckin’ trouble, and when I say we, I mean you.
I have my half of the money to give back, but you’re on the line for one-fifty, Liam.
Minus what you won yesterday, that’s still seventy-five thousand you’ll need to get me as soon as possible.
My father doesn’t mess around when it comes to people who owe him money. ”
I can’t fucking breathe and am livid that I got myself into this stupid mess and trusted him.
How the hell can he be a part of the mob, and I had no idea?
Thinking back now, it kinda makes sense given the way he was able to get into elite tourneys and had that much cash on hand.
I was fuckin’ stupid for not seeing it sooner.
“Why would you gamble that kind of money?” Jesus fuck. This is insane. “I thought it was yours, but either way, I don’t have that kind of cash.”
“You have to play and win more games, that’s the bottom line. You’ve got until the end of the week,” he warns.
“I can’t get it that fast,” I shout, overly frustrated at the turn of events.
“Well, you better find it. My dad will be back in Vegas soon, and it’ll be unfortunate if I have to give him your name.” He ends the call, and I’m left speechless.
This motherfucker blindsided me, then threatened my life.
What was supposed to be a fun vacation has officially become my worst nightmare.
For the rest of the week, I play small blind games and break even, not winning a single penny.
I meet up with JJ and give him the seventy-five thousand and promise to pay back the other half as quickly as I can.
But it’ll be slow going since I don’t have anywhere near that amount saved up.
It’s different playing poker for pleasure versus for necessity.
Before I leave town, I meet up with JJ one last time. He’s still more than pissed off with me, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Winning was never a guarantee, and I’m so angry, I want to kick his twerpy ass for not telling me the whole truth beforehand.
“You have until the end of next week. I’ll be in contact then,” he threatens before I get into my Uber.
The anxiety of all this weighs heavily on me as I walk through the airport. If I could take this all back and not get involved with him, I would, but it’s too late for that now.
It’s been two weeks since I made the biggest fucking mistake of my life. JJ has sent dozens of harassing texts, and I keep begging for more time. I’ve been working my ass off, picking up as many bounty jobs as I can, but it’s gonna take a while to come up with the full amount.
Against my better judgment, I return to Vegas and meet up with him.
While he verbally threatens me, the little punk doesn’t dare touch me because he knows I’ll lay him down flat.
I’m twice his size, and while he’s as dumb as fuck, he knows better.
I join as many games as possible and win a measly ten thousand dollars.
Before I fly out, I try to give JJ the money, knowing I still owe sixty-five, but he doesn’t take it.
“I have bad news,” he tells me, and that’s when I notice his face is bruised and his nose is broken. “Interest has been added. Another twenty-five grand. I don’t want it in chunks, Liam. I need the whole amount at once.”
“Fuck,” I say, running my fingers through my hair and pacing as I wait for my Uber to take me to the airport.
“They’re getting impatient with me. If you don’t pay it back soon, you’ll be dealing with my father. Trust me when I say you don’t want it brought to that level.”
I let out a frustrated groan. “Why?”
“You don’t want to find out, but I’ll say this.
He doesn’t follow any laws, Liam. He creates his own.
People you love and care about—he starts there.
And by the time he gets to you, you’ll wish you were already dead.
A guy stole five thousand from him one time, and my father cut off all his fingers.
” His serious tone has my entire body shaking.
“When he realized what I did, his bodyguards beat me until I blacked out, and I’m his fucking son.
No one’s off-limits to him, and you’re next. ”
My car arrives, and JJ doesn’t say another word. I get inside and decide I won’t be returning to Vegas until I have every penny that’s owed. I’ve done some stupid shit in my life, but getting involved with the goddamn mob is at the top of my list.
It’s no longer a game.
It’s no longer fun.
And someone could get hurt.
That someone is me.