There are already several men and women seated at the table. They’re in the middle of the game, but Jackson snaps his fingers, and the dealer stops. The players groan and complain, but as soon as they see Jackson, they leap from their chairs and rush away.
“Don’t you want to know what my chip is?” Leilani asks.
“I don’t want anything from you,” Jackson says with an arrogant laugh. “I’m just playing this game as a favor to Andrew.”
Jackson sits down and rocks back and forth in the chair. A waiter rushes over and brings him another glass of wine. Leilani sits down, rolling her eyes at his confidence. The dealer collects the old cards and starts to discard them, but Leilani stops her.
“There’s nothing wrong with these cards,” Leilani says. “We don’t need to ruin new ones for this little game.”
Jackson shrugs and says, “Just listen to her.”
“Since it’s my first time playing, would you mind playing a practice round or two?” Leilani asks. “I want to get a feel for the game before we really begin.”
“Whatever,” Jackson says. “But I don’t want to waste too much time on this.”
A crowd begins to form around the table. Everyone wants to see the powerful Mr. Oliver play cards with such a beautiful and headstrong woman. Leilani tries to ignore them, but she can’t help but hear their whispers.
“She should play stupid,” a man whispers. “If I were playing with such a beautiful woman, I’d lose a few hands-on purposes.”
“How many rounds do you want to play?” Jackson asks.
Leilani looks at Gabrielle. She’s stopped crying, but she’s shaking with fear, and her face is deathly pale. She looks back at Jackson and takes a deep breath.
“Best two out of three,” she says.
The dealer shuffles the cards and places them into the automatic dealing machine. She closes the top of the device and presses the button with her long, manicured finger. The machine spits out two cards: one for Leilani and one for Jackson. Leilani lifts up the corner of her card and peeks at the number—it’s a nine. She has no idea what Jackson has, but she knows that nine isn’t very good.
She calls, and Jackson calls too. The dealer passes her another card, and Leilani glances at it—another nine. Together, she was eighteen. It’s not a bad hand, but it’s not twenty-one. Still, if she gets another card, her hand might go over twenty-one. She signals to the dealer that she’s done, and Jackson does the same.
“Okay, please show us your cards,” the dealer says.
Leilani tosses her cards into the middle of the table. A small crowd has started to form around them; everyone seems eager to watch Jackson play. They go quiet as they wait to see what Jackson has. With a casual flick of his wrist, he throws the cards on top of Leilani’s he has twenty-one.
They play another round, and Leilani gets only sixteen, but Jackson gets a perfect twenty-one. They play over and over, and each time Jackson wins with twenty-one while Leilani’s cards never add up to anything more than nineteen. The audience seems to get bored, and they begin to talk among themselves.
“Jackson really is a gambling god,” a man says, with admiration and respect. “I just don’t understand why he’d waste his time playing such an obvious rookie.”
“Don’t you have eyes, man,” his friend says. “Do you see whom he’s playing? She’s stunning. I’d love to have the chance to play with such beauty. If it were me, I might even let her win a few hands.”
“Pshh, Jackson doesn’t seem to care,” the first man says. “He’s absolutely merciless with her.”
They play a few more rounds, and Jackson’s hands go from twenty-ones to some twenties and even one nineteen. Still, he wins every round. After their tenth game, he taps his cards impatiently against the table.
“I think that’s been enough practice, Mrs. Clifford,” he says. “Can we begin the real games now?”
“Of course,” Leilani says. “Remember, best two out of three wins.”
Jackson nods, and the dealer takes the cards and loads them back into the machine. She deals, and Leilani peeks at her first card. She fights the urge to smile—it’s terrible. She calls and checks her next card, finding that it’s even worse than the last. With a bored yawn, Jackson flips his cards over revealing twenty. Leilani does the same, and the audience groans with sympathy; she only has fifteen.
“Could we play with another set of cards?” Leilani asks. “Maybe a set that doesn’t have the seahorses on them. I’m starting to feel like they might be unlucky for me.”
She shoots a meaningful look at Jackson and waits to see how he’ll react. Though his posture is casual, there’s a slight wrinkle between his flawless eyebrows—it’s his tell. Leilani smiles innocently at the dealer.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we only have the seahorse cards,” she says. “They’re exclusive to this casino.”
Waylen’s deep voice echoes over the crowd, “I happen to have a brand new deck with me.”
Leilani turns in time to see the crowd part to make room for Waylen.He strides toward the table with calm confidence. He’s wearing his signature three-piece black suit, and his eyes flash with power. If Leilani didn’t know better, she’d think he was the casino’s owner. He tosses the deck onto the table and smiles at Leilani with something like affection.
It takes her a moment to tear her eyes away, but when she does, the dealer is pushing the cards away with the tip of her manicured finger. She wrinkles her nose as if the cards smell bad and casts a frosty glare at Leilani.
“We don’t allow outside cards here,” she says. “It’s a basic casino policy.”
“Why’s that?” Leilani asks, raising her voice so the entire crowd can hear. “Is there something special about the seahorse cards?”
Jackson bites his lip and looks at the large crowd. He shrugs and takes a sip of his wine.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he says. “Just use the new cards.”
The dealer pouts and takes the cards out of their box. She shuffles them and takes the seahorse deck out of the machine. Then she shoots one of the cards at Leilani. Leilani peeks at the card—it’s a six. She calls and Jackson does the same. The next card is an eight, bringing her total to fourteen. She calls again. She looks at the third card, and her heart hammers in her chest—it’s a seven.
The dealer asks them to show their hands, and Leilani calmly flips the cards over. Everyone gasps when they see she has twenty-one. Jackson smiles and tosses his cards on top of hers: he only has twenty.
“Well, it turns out he has a soft spot for beauty after all,” the man behind Leilani says. “He just let her win that hand.”
Jackson raises his eyebrows and looks at her across the table. She shrugs and smiles as if she’s surprised and pleased. He gestures for the next round to begin, and the dealer gives them new cards. Leilani calls the first round and then the second. The dealer asks them to reveal their cards, and she shows her twenty confidently. Jackson laughs and flips his cards over, revealing another twenty.
“Are you sure you want to keep playing?” she asks sweetly.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Jackson says, crossing his legs. “The game’s just starting to get interesting.”
Leilani wipes her palms on her skirt and smiles. This last hand will be crucial. The dealer shuffles the cards and loads them into the machine.
Jessica leans against the balcony railing and stares at the blackjack table below. Leilani has been playing with Jackson for over an hour, and Jessica is starting to get impatient. She twirls her long red hair around her finger and sighs dramatically.
“Can’t they hurry up,” she complains. “Leilani is nowhere near our little trap.”
“Patience,” James says with a small smirk. “You should know that gambling is all about waiting for the right moment to play your hand.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
Leave a Reply