Vampire Beach: High Stakes (8 page)

‘She’s a vampire,’ Jason murmured to Sienna. ‘Doesn’t that mean she can handle a lot more alcohol than those guys?’

‘Mm-hmm. But they don’t know that,’ Sienna said.

Jason glanced at Paige. She was laughing and there was a wild look in her dark eyes. She was obviously having fun, but there was an edge to her mood that made Jason uneasy and she was drinking far too much.
She reminds me of Tyler
, he realized. His best friend from Michigan had been involved with drugs and it had really changed his behavior. Whenever they’d gone out, Tyler had seemed like the life of the party, but Jason knew that there was desperation underneath. The kind of desperation that had led Tyler to steal a valuable chalice from Zach’s house, and almost get himself killed by the DeVere Heights Vampire Council as a result.

There’s something strange going on with Paige
, he thought.
Maybe Sienna can figure it out
. ‘Sienna …’ Jason began, turning to his girlfriend.

‘Do I want to dance with you?’ she finished for him. ‘You bet I do!’ She stood up, took his hand, and pulled him after her toward the dance floor. This late at night,
the
music had turned to slow grooves, and the mood on the floor was sultry.

‘I wanted to ask you about Paige,’ Jason said.

‘Hmm?’ Sienna gestured to the speaker nearby. ‘I didn’t hear that.’ She was already moving to the music, her hips swaying, the red dress clinging to every curve of her body.

‘Never mind,’ Jason said, moving in close. He slid his hands along her hips and pulled her against him. He’d worry about Paige later.

They stayed on the dance floor until last call, then made their way back over to their friends. Paige had just finished helping the last frat brother out to a cab. She waved to the rest of them from the door of the club. ‘Hey, guys, the bouncers are holding cabs for us!’

Sienna grabbed her bag from the VIP table, and they all made their way out to the waiting taxis. By the time they got back to the Rouge et Noir, it was after three o’clock.

Belle yawned as they made their way into the lobby. ‘I am beat.’

‘Me too,’ Erin said.

‘Not me. I’m ready to gamble,’ Brad replied. ‘Wanna hit the tables for a bit, Van Dyke?’

‘You know it,’ Van Dyke replied. He turned to Maggie. ‘Coming?’

‘Nope. I want to get up early tomorrow and do some shopping,’ she said. ‘Vegas has the best boutiques ever.’

‘Ooh, count me in,’ Belle told her.

‘And me,’ Erin added. ‘So I’m going to get some sleep. What about the rest of you?’

Paige was staring off into the casino. ‘There’s a little crowd over there,’ she said. ‘And where there’s a crowd, there’s fun. I’m going to check it out.’

‘We’ll go with you,’ Jason offered. He had a feeling Paige’s idea of fun might lead to trouble tonight.

‘OK. See you in the morning,’ Belle said. She, Maggie and Erin headed for the elevator.

Paige stopped a cocktail waitress who was making her way out of the casino. ‘What’s going on over there?’

‘Oh, it’s a big money table. Texas Hold ‘Em,’ the waitress said. ‘It’s a real showdown.’

‘Poker, no can do,’ Brad said. ‘My game is roulette.’ With a wave, he and Van Dyke headed off to the roulette tables.

‘Let’s check out the big game,’ Paige giggled. She headed over to the table and worked her way right to the front of the crowd, Sienna on her heels. Jason followed. He noticed that the other spectators glared at him for cutting in front of them, but everyone just smiled at the Devereux sisters. When he got to the front, he caught his breath; there were two
players
at the table, and one of them was Zach!

‘He’s in a big money game?’ Jason whispered to Sienna.

‘I’ll say. Look at that stack of chips in front of him.’ Sienna laughed. ‘How can he even see over them?’

Zach did have a pretty big pile of chips. But so did the player across from him – an older, Japanese man, in a suit that obviously cost a couple of thousand, at least. The guy was flanked by two huge bodyguards, both of them staring at Zach as if he were a bug they’d like to squash.

Zach paid no attention to them. He kept his eyes fixed on the Japanese man.

Slowly, the man pushed his chips in for a bet. His expression was deadly serious, but that didn’t stop all the spectators from gasping and laughing in excitement.

‘The bet is eleven thousand, that’s all in for Mr Yakamoto,’ the dealer announced. Jason checked out the cards on the table. Five face up: the king of hearts, the five of diamonds, the seven of diamonds, the king of spades, and the four of diamonds.

Zach matched Mr Yakamoto’s bet.

The dealer turned to the Japanese man. ‘Mr Yakamoto?’ she said.

He put down the two cards in his hand: the other
two
kings. ‘Four kings,’ he announced proudly. Everybody gasped, and a few people applauded.

‘Uh-oh,’ Paige murmured.

‘Yup. It doesn’t look good for Zach,’ Jason agreed.

But Zach seemed unruffled. He waited for all the talking to die down, still holding his two cards. Mr Yakamoto stared at him.

‘Mr Lafrenière?’ the dealer invited.

Zach put his cards on the table: the three of diamonds and the six of diamonds. ‘Straight flush,’ he announced.

The place went wild. People gasped in shock, and then burst into clapping and whooping.

‘Straight flush beats four of a kind. All to Mr Lafrenière,’ the dealer announced, pushing Yakamoto’s chips over to Zach’s pile.

Finally, Zach allowed himself a smile, which only made the onlookers cheer louder. Mr Yakamoto angrily shoved his chair back from the table and stalked out, followed by his bodyguards.

‘Any other takers?’ the dealer asked. ‘Another hand, Mr Lafrenière?’

‘No thanks,’ Zach replied. ‘Can you cash in the chips for me?’

‘Of course, sir.’ The dealer shot him an appraising look. ‘You know, there’s a tournament this week over at
the
Bonheur: the Ultimate High Stakes Invitational. You’ve got what it takes.’

‘Think so?’ Zach asked.

She nodded. ‘It’s 250,000 dollars to buy in, but you never know. You could make yourself a millionaire in just one night.’

Jason waited for Zach to laugh at the outrageously expensive buy-in, but Zach just nodded. ‘I’ll keep it in mind.’

A quarter of a million dollars?
Jason thought, stupefied.
He’ll keep that in mind?
Jason glanced around at the swanky hotel, at his supermodel-gorgeous girlfriend, at their high-school friend who could apparently afford a poker game that held the title of ‘Ultimate High Stakes’. ‘I think maybe I fell asleep in the Escalade and I’m still dreaming,’ he said.

Sienna ran her fingers lightly over the back of his neck. ‘No dream,’ she murmured. ‘Let’s go to your room. Maybe Adam is still out and we can be alone.’

Jason’s pulse quickened at the idea of Sienna alone in his hotel room. ‘What about your sister?’ he asked.

‘She’s busy.’ Sienna nodded toward Paige, who had run over to give Zach a congratulatory hug. ‘She won’t miss us.’

‘Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go,’ he said, pulling her away from the crowd. He kept his hand on
the
small of her back as they walked back toward the lobby.

‘I’ve been wanting to get you alone all night,’ Sienna told him. ‘And the VIP lounge didn’t count.’

Jason opened his mouth to answer – just as his cell phone gave off a loud beep. He and Sienna both looked at it in dismay. With a sigh, Jason flipped it open and glanced at the screen. ‘It’s a text.’

‘From who?’

‘Adam.’ Jason frowned at the message. ‘It just says I
N TROUBLE
. R
ED
L
AKE
.’

‘What does that mean?’ Sienna asked anxiously. ‘What kind of trouble?’

‘I don’t know.’ Jason quickly dialed Adam’s number. Before it even rang, the call went straight to voicemail. Jason hung up and dialed again, a worried feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He got voicemail again. ‘Dammit, he’s not answering!’ he cried.

A few people nearby looked over, and he realized he was yelling. ‘What does Red Lake mean?’ he asked Sienna desperately, trying to quiet down.

‘Jason? What’s going on?’ Paige came rushing over, followed by Zach. ‘You sound upset.’

‘It’s Adam,’ Sienna answered for him. ‘He sent a text that says he’s in trouble.’

‘What trouble?’ Paige asked. ‘Wasn’t he just off filming?’

‘It just says trouble and Red Lake,’ Jason told her. ‘And I think his phone is turned off now. He won’t answer.’

‘Red Lake?’ Zach’s voice was grim. ‘There’s a bar called the Red Lake.’

Jason didn’t like his tone. ‘Where is it?’

‘Off the Strip, in the seedy part of town,’ Zach replied. ‘It’s a dive bar. If Adam is in trouble there, he could be in
real
trouble.’

Jason met his eye. ‘Let’s go.’

‘
WHAT THE HELL
was he thinking?’ Zach asked as the cab turned down yet another dark and deserted street.

‘He wanted to film the seedy underbelly,’ Jason explained.

Zach raised an eyebrow.

Jason sighed. ‘I didn’t really think he’d
find
the seedy underbelly. I mean, it’s Adam.’

‘Exactly.’ Zach shook his head. ‘Adam at the Red Lake. That’s the kind of place even I wouldn’t visit alone.’ He let the “and I have superhuman strength and can jump thirty feet in the air and fight like Jackie Chan” part go unsaid, which Jason appreciated. In fact, he was appreciating Zach a lot right now. What with paying for them to stay in the amazing hotel, arranging the incredible dinner, and now helping bail Adam out of trouble, Zach was starting to seem like the greatest guy ever.

‘This place is nowhere near the Strip. How did Adam end up here?’ Jason wondered aloud.

‘Hopefully he’ll still be here, so he can tell us himself. Try his cell again.’

Jason dialed. Voicemail picked up. ‘It’s still not working.’

The driver pulled over in front of a dingy one-story building with a single yellowish light bulb hanging outside. ‘Ten dollars, fifty,’ he said.

Jason shoved some money into his hand. ‘Can you wait for us?’

The driver snorted. ‘Not for ten dollars, fifty.’

‘Fifty dollars for you to wait,’ Zach told him. ‘Fifty more to take us back to the hotel when we’re done here.’

The driver sized him up. ‘It’s your money, kid. But I think you’re crazy going in that place.’

Zach just handed him a fifty and climbed out of the car.

Jason followed. ‘Fifty bucks?’ he queried.

‘We’re not going to find a cab in this neighborhood, and we may need to leave in a hurry,’ Zach told him. ‘It’s worth the money.’

They walked over to the metal door and pulled it open. A fat guy in a faded Metallica T-shirt sat on a stool inside. He took one look at them and laughed.

‘Our friend is inside,’ Jason told him.

‘No, he’s not,’ the bouncer replied. ‘You boys just get
back
in your taxi and go drink on the Strip like you’re supposed to.’

‘We’d rather drink here,’ Zach told him, walking inside.

The guy stuck out a beefy arm that hit Zach across the chest. ‘This is a local place. You two are tourists.
Stupid
tourists,’ he said. ‘You think you’re gonna slum it in here, get a taste of the real Las Vegas?’

‘We just want to get our friend,’ Jason explained.

‘No.’

‘And who’s going to stop us?’ Zach asked. Something in his voice made Jason look over at him, and he saw that Zach had changed. His face looked sharper, his neck thicker. His whole body just looked
bigger
somehow. And Jason could swear that his dark brown eyes had become flat-out black.

He’s changing his appearance
, Jason realized. The vampires could alter the way they looked to do more than simply tone down their supernatural beauty when they wanted to. He’d learnt that back when he was fighting Luke Archer, the bloodlusting vampire who’d made himself look like an entirely different person when he was on the hunt.

The bouncer stared at Zach, too, obviously thrown.

‘We’re going in,’ Zach told him.

The guy dropped his arm. ‘Fine. But if you get into
trouble,
it’s on your head. I told you, you don’t belong here.’

He’s right about that
, Jason thought as they walked in. The Red Lake was dark, but that didn’t disguise how filthy the floors were. The air smelled like stale cigarettes and stale beer. And the clientele consisted entirely of big, mean-looking guys. Jason suddenly felt like an idiot in his polo shirt and sport coat. At least Zach could make himself look large and nasty.

‘Freeman.’ Zach nodded toward the back of the room. There was a table under a hanging light, and a bunch of guys were gathered around it playing poker.

Adam sat in the corner, surrounded by dangerous-looking dudes. He held a few tattered cards in his hands, and a stack of money was piled on the table in front of him.