This is the second episode of the novel I'm currently writing. The title is The Big Gamble in Paradise. I'm about halfway through my first rewrite, and I think it will be completed in six or eight weeks.
I hope you enjoy this episode, and more will follow.
Episode 3
The bartender returned. He placed two business cards in front of Trace and Parker. “As you leave the lounge at the right side of the casino’s main room is a hallway. A man stands in the hallway. Show him these cards and a thousand in cash. If you want to get into a private poker game, he will escort you to one of the rooms where one is held.”
“Why…” Trace started to say.
The bartender interrupted, “Please, no questions.” He smiled and walked away.
“I’m in uncharted waters,” Trace picked up the card and saw a signature scribbled on the other side of the casino’s business card.
“I’m guessing the casino wants some of their money back,” Parker said. “They don’t mind losing it out front but they want it returned in the back room.”
“I think I need something in that seltzer,” Trace said.
“This one time you don’t want it,” Parker said.
“If what you are saying is so, I either lose it in the back room or on my way back to the motel,” Trace said.
“A lot can happen in a block,” Parker said.
“So much for R and R,” Trace sipped.
“Given a choice between two beatings, I’d take the least,” Parker said.
“Robert Frost?” Trace joked.
“Nah, another Robert, Robby Rossi, from the old neighborhood,” Parker said. “He’s got a flat nose but he still eats with a fork and not from a straw.”
“Walk over to the chip booth with me?” Trace asked.
“I’m a lousy bodyguard,” Parker said.
“But you do know Robby Rossi,” Trace said. “That has to mean something.”
“Let’s go,” Parker said and downed his final swallow of seltzer and stood.
Trace walked to the chip booth and cashed in all his chips.
He counted out a thousand dollars and handed it to Parker. “Let’s go play some poker.”
“You’re kidding me!” Parker said.
“Take the thousand and have a good time someplace else, I don’t care,” Trace shrugged, “but being a part of a high-stakes poker game, how often does that happen.”
“The biggest game I’d ever been in was a ten-dollar pot,” Parker said.
“Welcome to the big time,” Trace flipped Parker’s chest with the back of his hand. “And besides, it’s my birthday.”
“Okay, birthday boy,” Parker smiled. “Let’s see how good I am and see if your luck holds.”
Trace and Parker made their way through the casino gambling floor. They approached the man standing in the hallway. They showed him the business cards. He examined the signatures on the back.
“Second door on the left has three players waiting for a fourth and fifth player. Just walk in,” the man said.
Trace and Parker walked into the room. It was already full of cigarette and cigar smoke.
A short round man with thin slicked back hair introduced himself, “Ted.”
A shot-thin man wearing a brightly flowered shirt. “My name is Baxter.”
A grizzled bearded man wearing a soiled seaman’s clothing and captain’s hat gave a half smile. “Jasper Spence.”
Trace and Parker introduced themselves.
The men sat without saying a word. It was as if they had done this many times over. Another man in the room dressed in a dealer's uniform; black slacks, a white shirt, a black vest, and a black bowtie.
He removed the wrapper from a fresh deck of cards. He shuffled and cut them. He dealt one card to each man. “High card deals first.”
Ted had a queen of spades, the high card.
And so the game began.
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