Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
“Two hundred and fifty thousand? Are you out of your mind?” Mia stared at Bobby, her mouth hanging open. Akela only owed him a hundred K. How could he want her to raise another hundred and fifty thousand?
“That’s what you need to make me,” Bobby affirmed as he stood with his arms folded across his chest.
“You’re crazy!” Mia blurted out. “I know Akela and Kai don’t owe you that much.”
“I didn’t say that’s what they owe me. I said that’s what you need to make me if you want me to leave them and you alone.”
She glared at him. “You fucker. You’re just trying to make it outrageous so I can’t ever pay you back.”
Bobby shook his head. “No, you’re gonna do it and you’ve only got a couple of weeks to make it happen. I don’t have time for you to screw around.”
Mia’s voice cracked. “Are you insane? There’s no game in town where I can make that in a couple of weeks. I mean even back when you were running things, I’d be lucky to walk away with twenty grand after a week of playing blackjack every night.”
Bobby glanced out at the water. “Yeah, well things are different now. I’m not running the games anymore and the stakes are much bigger than they used to be.”
“Who the hell is running things?” Mia demanded.
Bobby took a step closer and got in her face. “It doesn’t matter who it is. You work for me. You’re gonna do this or suffer the consequences. Do you hear me?”
Mia wanted to slap the menacing look off Bobby’s face. She hated this man and she couldn’t believe she was about to do his bidding. It made her want to puke. “How am I supposed to make that kind of money?”
“I’m gonna give you the address of a gaming locale. You’re gonna put a dress on that hot little body of yours and show up and play blackjack. You’re gonna make enough to catch the eye of the guy who runs the place. He goes by Peter. Once you catch his eye, he’s gonna invite you to the real games where big money is on the line and that is where you’re gonna win me two hundred and fifty grand. Once you do that, you and Akela and her brother are all free as birds.”
Instinctively, Mia knew that Bobby was lying to her. They’d never be free. He’d never let her walk away if she could win him that kind of money. But she was between a rock and the proverbial hard place, with no option except to comply with his demands. She was going to play. Hopefully, she would figure something out as she was making the money. She swore silently. That was a shit ton of money and only having two weeks to do it was daunting.
“What do you need the money for?” Mia asked. She figured what the hell? Maybe he’d tell her something that might help her out somehow.
“None of your fucking business.”
“I know you’re trying to get your place back on the island. Time in jail really screwed up your hold on things. Looks like you’re out in the cold still after two long years.” And she was certain this freeze-out was pissing him all the way off.
Bobby slammed his fist on the top of the car next to her, and she shivered involuntarily. “Don’t push me, Mia, or I might decide you’re not worth the hassle and kill you myself.”
Mia bit her tongue to hold her retort in. She didn’t think Bobby would kill her, at least not until he got his money. Then all bets were off. “Fine. I’m going to need buy-in money.”
“It’s a grand and you need to supply it.”
Mia demanded. “You are insane. What makes you think I have a grand lying around that I can use to gamble with?”
Bobby leaned in again. “You better because I’m not supplying it. You’re an accountant, work some magic with some numbers and pull the money out of a hat. I don’t care how you do it but be at this address tonight by ten p.m. Look for Peter. I’ll tell him you’re coming. You better start earning because you don’t have much time.” With that, Bobby pushed away from the car and stomped across the parking lot to where two guys waited in an SUV. He climbed into the back, and they peeled out, accompanied by squealing tires.
Shoulders bunched high toward her ears, Mia watched them go. How the hell had she gotten herself involved in this mess? More importantly, how the hell was she going to get out of it?
Mia tugged at the short black cocktail dress. The hemline was higher than she’d like but Bobby had warned she’d have to dress to fit in with the gambling crowd. He’d been right. Calling her current location a backroom gambling den made it sound cheap and tawdry, with bad lighting and worse people. While she couldn’t attest to the people, the surroundings were anything but tawdry.
When Bobby had called a bit ago, to be sure she was on her way, she’d almost told him to fuck off. But at the last second, she’d stopped herself from deliberately baiting him. She wasn’t doing this so much for Akela and Kai, although they played a role, but more for herself. Maybe there was a way to get Bobby arrested again. Not to mention, he really could wreck her reputation and that would put her out of business.
She arrived at the address Bobby had supplied and was amazed by what she found. This upscale site wasn’t one of his usual backroom games. The building was a warehouse in the industrial district, but once she’d been allowed in, all thoughts of this being a warehouse vanished. Inside, it had been all dolled up. The walls had been blacked out with curtains and the vast floor was covered in flashy red carpet. The people there probably surprised her the most. All manner of attire clothed the guests. Everything from evening gowns and tuxedos to jeans and tank tops. One guy was even barefoot and wearing only board shorts. She shook her head.
A server came by and offered Mia a glass of champagne. She declined. As much as she wanted to down a glass or three, she knew she needed to keep her wits about her. Surreptitiously wiping her sweaty palms on her dress, she studied the room. There were several poker tables and even a roulette wheel, but she was searching for blackjack. That was her thing. She could play poker, but it wasn’t her strength. She hated having the decisions other people made affect her chances of winning. Before when she’d played, Bobby knew that and had allowed her to have a table with a dealer all to herself. Back then he hadn’t run the small back room shit he was running today. Back before he went to prison, his operation was more upscale, not quite to this level, but closer to this than what he was doing now. He really had come down in the world. And now he wanted back up and apparently, she was supposed to be his ticket.
“Ms. Ryan.” A tall gentleman with well-groomed hair and high cheekbones approached her. He was very attractive and offered her a smile. “Mr. Kamaka said you might be dropping by.”
“I see,” she said. What was she supposed to say now? I want a table to myself. There was no way they were going to offer that until she proved her ability, which meant she had hours of playing ahead of her. She was going to have to establish herself all over again. She’d asked Bobby why she couldn’t just play at his backroom games, but apparently, the only game he offered was poker. How the mighty have fallen.
“I’m Peter. Can I interest you in a seat at one of our tables?”
“I think I’ll just get the lay of the land first if that’s okay.” She offered him a small smile.
“Of course. Did Mr. Kamaka explain that the buy-in is one thousand dollars?”
She swallowed. She’d wanted to choke him when he’d demanded she supply the funds. To be honest, she still wanted to choke him. “Yes.”
Peter lifted his arm. “You may purchase your chips over there when you are ready.” He pointed towards a high counter where three women stood behind big plexiglass slabs with just enough room at the bottom to exchange money for chips.
She nodded and headed toward the counter. By her rough estimate, there were upwards of sixty people in the room. She recognized several of the top businessmen from the island and their wives. There was even a software giant who owned a house on the island. This little shindig was a Who’s Who of the rich on the Big Island. Whoever was running this site had major pull.
Bobby didn’t have that kind of juice, not even in his heyday. She didn’t think two hundred and fifty thousand was going to be enough for him to step in and take over this level of gaming.
That made her wonder what he was really trying to do. What was his goal?
As she exchanged her cash for chips, she was curious about the buy-in. It was low for this kind of crowd. Why would it be kept low? Mia wandered about the room, carefully watching the players. Then it hit her. Yes, there were bigwigs in the room, but the vast majority of players were people like her. People who wanted to play but weren’t super wealthy. She even spotted her dry cleaner.
This was what Bobby wanted. Not the high rollers, but the bread and butter crowd. People who maybe were barely making rent or buying groceries. Because that’s what these people were. Underneath the flash, this was just the middle class set, for lack of a better word. And Mia was willing to bet they came every week. Suddenly, this gambit made more sense. If Bobby hooked those people, then he would be raking it in and he wouldn’t have to fork out for champagne and fancy surroundings.
Mia finally made her way over to the blackjack table in the corner, where three other players were hunched over their cards. She watched them for a while and determined that only the woman on the end in the green sequined gown was good. She knew what she was doing and, judging by the stack of chips in front of her, was making some serious money. The man next to her in the tux was too drunk to pay any real attention to what he was doing, and the other gentleman at the far end wore chinos, a button down, and an air of desperation. The pile of chips in front of him was quickly diminishing.
Mia waited until the dealer, a young pretty blonde, opened a new deck. Then she grabbed the chair between the two men. The dealer, whose name tag read Patty, recited the rules and the buy- in. Mia nodded and put a couple of chips on the table. The chink of the chips as she stacked them started her heart hammering against her rib cage. A surge of adrenaline shivered through her, left her skin clammy. She swallowed.
It had been years since she’d allowed herself to play. While she was rusty, almost certainly the knowledge would come back to her as soon as she sorted the cards she was dealt. That familiarity was her big worry. She hadn’t quit gambling because she didn’t like it, or she sucked at it. On the contrary, she’d quit because she liked the thrill of winning too much. She made a lot of money very quickly and she wanted more. It had taken her parents staging an intervention… forcing her to sit down and face the dark road she’d been headed down, to make her stop. By the time they said something, Mia was already sleeping during the day and only going out to gamble at night. She’d stopped seeing any friends and she had no life outside of blackjack.
She’d never wanted to go back to that lifestyle, but here she was.
Taking a deep breath as the dealer dealt her cards, Mia knew she had to clear her mind and concentrate fully on the table. It would be doubly hard with these other players to make the right calls and she had to be smart with her money. That was the only way she’d make enough to stand out to Peter, hoping for an invitation to the big games. For her sake, and Akela’s and Kai’s, that’s what needed to happen. It would take her a month of Sundays to earn enough at a thousand-dollar table to pay off the two hundred and fifty thousand. There was a top limit of ten thousand.
The goal was to earn a seat at the high-stakes table and the only way she’d get there was by invitation. It was going to take some doing and a lot of playing, but most of all, it was going to take every inch of her concentration and smarts to do this right. Mia picked up her cards with a small prayer that she didn’t screw up. If she didn’t get the money, it was game over for all three of them. She did not want that on her conscience. Not if she could help it.