With His Love (For His Pleasure, Book 16) (8 page)

Her first thought was that it just looked sleazy. Her next thought was that she didn’t trust Patrick, nor did she trust any game he was hosting.

There was no reason for her fears—it was just an instinctive suspicion—but she found herself resisting the urge to run over to Red and beg him to leave with her immediately.

Patrick leaned over and whispered in her ear. “He’s doing well—up probably close to half a million dollars right now.”

Nicole’s breath caught in her chest. “Are you serious?”

“I am.”

She could smell the strong scent of liquor on his clothes and breath. She moved a step forward to get away from him.

“You can go say hello to him,” Patrick said. “Just wait for the hand to finish up.”

“How will I know when it’s over?”

“You’ll see. Just watch.”

The dealer, a thin older man with a blank expression, had just laid three cards down in the center of the table.

A young looking black man in a tilted cap and baggy clothes tossed a handful of chips out.

“That’s Bill The Chill,” Patrick whispered, leaning forward now.

“Who’s he again?” she asked, curious despite herself.

“Only considered the toughest all-around player alive. Balls of steel, excuse my French. He just bet fifteen thousand dollars. Watch ‘em fold.”

Around the table five of the other players folded. When it came to Red, he seemed to be thinking. Nicole’s heart rate speeded up as she watched him consider what he wanted to do.

Patrick giggled quietly as time drew out. “Crazy bastard,” he muttered.

Red pushed a large stack of chips into the center of the table, and the other players took note, sitting up in the chairs and watching Bill’s reaction.

“What just happened?” Nicole asked, intrigued and frightened.

“Your crazy husband just raised to forty thousand dollars.”

Nicole put a hand to her chest. “Why would he do that?”

“Could be bluffing. Could have a good hand. Could be nuts. I vote option C.”

Everyone was watching now. The room had gone deadly silent, as Bill stared across the table at Red. Nicole’s mouth had gone dry. She stared at the massive amount of chips sitting in front of these men, trying to calculate how many millions of dollars were being represented in the room.

It felt dangerous. It felt wrong.

People would literally murder someone for just a fraction of the money that was changing hands right now.

Bill folded his hands under his chin and looked down at the three cards on the table, then glanced back at Red. He smiled a little. “No way you picked up aces,” he said.

Red didn’t respond. He looked still as a statue.

“I call,” Bill said suddenly, almost casually, pushing more chips into the already mountainous stacks in the middle of the table.

The dealer did a quick count. “Call twenty-five thousand,” he said. Then he took a card from the deck and placed it next to the other three cards. There were now four cards on the table that everyone could see.

Bill stared at Red and then slowly tapped the table with his finger. “Check.”

Red took a big, deep breath. He didn’t move for a long time. Nicole was internally begging him not to bet more money. But then he started putting his hand around an even bigger stack of chips, and slowly pushed it out.

She wanted to scream, tell them to stop the game, call it off.

“How much is that?” she whispered.

The dealer answered for her. “Player bets fifty thousand,” he said, sounding almost bored by the amount.

Nicole couldn’t even look now. She did the calculation in her head. There was over one hundred thousand dollars being gambled on one hand of poker. That was a good yearly salary in New York City, and a windfall just about anywhere else in the world.

What was Red thinking? He was an amateur playing with someone who might be the very best in the world at this game.

When Nicole looked up again, she saw that everyone at the table was frozen with anticipation. There was electricity in the room, and she could feel it too. Bill was staring at Red with a look of total, ferocious intensity. His eyes studied Red with practiced intimidation.

Nicole could only see Red’s profile, but he was looking down, not meeting the other man’s predatory gaze.

“You didn’t hit that flop, or the turn,” Bill said calmly. “But you thought you’d bet out and try and push me off, right?”

Red said nothing.

“I can smell this bluff a mile away,” Bill continued. He sat back, shaking his head and smirking. “I’ve got half a mind to put you all-in, but I just can’t do it.” He took his cards and threw them into the center, where the dealer magically swept them into his grasp and out of view, like well-honed slight of hand.

Red’s entire body relaxed.

“Did you have anything?” Bill asked him.

Red shrugged. “You should have put me all-in and found out,” he said, tossing his cards to the dealer.

The table relaxed and people started discussing the hand, as the dealer pushed the piles of chips over towards Red.

“Okay, you can go over now,” Patrick told her. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah. Pretty cool.” She tried not to roll her eyes, then walked to Red.

He saw her and broke into a big smile. “Hey, how long have you been here for?”

“Just got here,” she said.

“No wonder this guy keeps winning,” one of the older players said. “Look at this lucky charm he carries around.”

Red laughed. “Nicole, this is Brian Freeman. He won player of the year at The World Series of Poker last year.”

“Nice to meet you, Brian.”

She had no idea what any of that meant, but she tried to act like it was impressive.

“I’m just an old clown,” Brian said. “Your man’s making me feel like I just got too old for this game.”

Red grinned and laughed as he stacked the chips that he’d won.

“So, Patrick tells me you’re winning,” Nicole said softly.

Red nodded. “I’ve been having an unbelievable run,” he told her. “I’m on a high like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Do you think maybe it’s time to quit while you’re ahead?”

Red shook his head. “I’d look like a real dick if I left after winning such a big pot. It’s considered classless.”

“Why? Isn’t the point to win?”

“Yes, but not like that. It’s a gentleman’s game.”

“Oh.” She stared at the chips nervously. “It’s a lot of money, though.”

“I’m aware of that.”

A girl wearing a shirt that looked like it must have shrank in the wash (but probably wouldn’t have even fit beforehand), walked over and handed Red a bottle of beer. The girl smiled brightly. Her breasts were practically hitting Nicole in the arm.

“Thanks,” Red told the girl, and tipped her a red poker chip. The girl’s eyes widened.

“Thank you!” she cried, and then left.

“How much was that?” Nicole asked.

“It was just two hundred.”

“Red!”

“Those are the smallest chips I have right now,” he said.

Nicole crossed her arms. “This is nice, but I think I’m going to go back to the room,” she told him.

He looked up at her. “Come on, you only just got here.”

“I want to be fun and act like I’m a party girl, Red, but I just can’t. Watching that last hand of poker you played nearly made me sick to my stomach. I’m sorry, I wish I was the kind of girl who could hang out like that.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of,” Brian said, wiping his mouth with a small cocktail napkin. He looked at her out of the corner of one eye. “You seem like a very smart lady—probably smarter than this big goofball here.”

Red laughed. “Thanks a lot.”

“Listen,” Brian said, his voice lowering. “I’m going to be honest with you because your girlfriend—“

“She’s my wife, actually,” Red corrected him.

“—Your wife seems really sweet, and she’s bringing out the protective dad in me.

So I’m going to tell you the straight truth here. This game was built around you. Patrick called everyone here and let them know a big whale was coming to town.”

Red’s smile faded. “I’m aware of that,” he said, but Nicole wasn’t sure he’d known it was exactly that cold and calculated.

“Point is--you’re lucky to have made some money. If I was you, I’d pick up those chips and leave now, while you still feel like a big winner.”

Red’s jaw set. He picked up his beer and took a long swig from it. “I appreciate your kind words,” he said, after swallowing, “but I don’t think so. I think I’m going to make you all wish you hadn’t come looking for me tonight.”

Brian laughed, nodding. “Well all right then.”

Nicole sighed. “Like I said—I’m going.” She turned, and Red grabbed her hand.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” she told him. “Come back to the room soon.”

“If I was him, I wouldn’t waste a minute with these droolers,” Brian called, as Nicole left.

Patrick intercepted her on her way out. “Leaving so soon?”

“Yeah, it’s not really my scene.”

He nodded as if he understood. “I just want you to know that Red really wants to work here with me and Jeb. It’s family, Nicole. You understand that.”

“I’m not going to discuss it with you,” she said.

“We want to make you
both
welcome, Nicole. That penthouse suite you guys are in? You can have it for the next twelve months—free of charge. All the luxury in the world at your fingertips—and Red doing a job he truly loves, with people he enjoys. Just think about it, okay?”

“I promise you, I have and I will. But now I just want to go.”

Patrick raised his arms, as if declaring his own innocence. “Okay, okay. Take care, Nicole.”

She didn’t reply, she just left.

***

Red didn’t return until very late.

Nicole fell asleep waiting for him, and didn’t wake again until he came back to the room.

She startled as the hotel room door slammed. Immediately, she glanced at the clock. It read 5:47 a.m.

“Oh my God,” she said, sitting up in bed. Dim light was filtering through the blinds over the windows. “Red, is that you?” she called out.

“Yes,” his voice replied. And then he appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, looking like a ghost. His shirt was a mess, wrinkled, his suit coat flung over one arm.

His hair was tousled, and she could tell, even in this dim light, that his face was pale.

“Are you okay?” she asked, suddenly worried. Had he been robbed, hurt, drugged in some way? She would put none of it past Patrick.

“About as okay as I can be—all things considered.” He dropped the coat on the chair by the window and then sat down, slowly peeling off his shoes and socks. He looked like he’d aged a decade since she’d seen him.

“What happened? You were gone all night.”

“What happened is, I kept playing. And then I played some more. And then I played some more.”

“Why, were you winning that much?” It occurred to her that perhaps he’d gone on some massive winning streak and he’d made a million dollars or more.

But Red laughed bitterly at the suggestion. “To the contrary. You saw me at my best. Everything went downhill from there. But I was too stupid to go with you.”

“Oh, honey. I’m sorry.”

“Why should you be sorry?”

“Because. I know how upset you must be. But if you lost that money back, it was really all someone else’s money you’d won in the first place.”

“I did lose that money back,” he admitted. “And then I lost the rest of my money.”

“How much?”

“At first, I lost my initial buy-in of fifty thousand. That was after losing back all my winnings. I was so annoyed at myself that I immediately bought back into the game, only they said they wanted to raise the stakes. So I bought in for a hundred thousand. I lost that and bought in for more.”

Nicole felt her blood run cold and she shivered. “How much did you lose, Red?”

“All told, I lost just over two million.”

“Oh no.” She felt like she’d just been punched in the stomach. “Red, you lost all of that money playing poker? Why?”

“I just…I don’t know. I was angry. I knew that they’d come there to feast on me, and I wanted to get it back, prove them wrong.”

“And Patrick didn’t try and stop you from playing?” she said.

Red laughed weakly. “He sort of pretended, but no. I could tell he was happy to see me lose. Quite likely, he was getting some sort of kickback for bringing me to the game in the first place. The only one who seemed to feel a little bad about the whole thing was that guy Brian you met.”

Nicole was stunned. “Is two million enough to be trouble for us? How much does that hurt us financially?”

Red rubbed his face and eyes. He yawned. “Oh, it sucks, but it doesn’t change our financial picture one bit, really. I could probably afford to lose like that for the next six months if I wanted to.”

She was somewhat relieved to hear it. “But you won’t, right?”

“Right now, I can’t even think straight, Nicole. I just need sleep. Can we talk in the morning?”

“It is the morning.”

“Well, a little later this morning, then?”

“Sure.” She sighed, shaking her head.

He got out of his clothes and climbed under the covers. He turned onto his stomach and she slowly rubbed his back.

“I love you, Nicole,” he said. “I’m sorry about this pathetic excuse for a romantic getaway. Really sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just sleep. Rest.” She continued to caress and rub his back until he was sleeping soundly. A little while later, she went back to sleep as well.

***

Red didn’t wake up until about ten o’clock the next morning. Nicole had already showered, dressed, packed as much of their stuff as she could, and ordered room service.

She was drinking coffee out on the deck and reading a magazine when she heard the sliding glass door open and saw Red coming out, dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt, squinting in the bright sunlight.

“Hey there,” she said. “I got coffee for you inside.”

“Thanks.” He walked over to where she was sitting and started rubbing her shoulders. Then he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I can’t apologize enough for the way I behaved this weekend. It’s inexcusable.”