Chapter Nine

Part 3

An hour later we had played three hands, and almost all the money Winter had lent me was gone. I would love to say that, once again, the cards were not in my favor, but this time I had to take some of the blame. I had underestimated my opponents. Winter’s pejorative comments about Lenny’s game had turned out to be dead on. I could practically catalog every nuance of his many tells and each of his betting tendencies already—but the other guys weren’t all that bad. And they had taken all the pots.

I glanced at my dwindling chips and at my cards, trying to maintain a staid appearance. If I didn’t win this hand, it would be my penultimate one. I had just enough money to play one more and then I would be broke and have to tell my parents what I’d been up to. That was not an option. Aside from cheating, all I could do was pray, and I’d already done a lot of that. I’d prayed for a queen on the first hand, a two on the second, and a jack on the third. Not a single one had been answered. Honestly, I was starting to think I should become an atheist. Or at the very least, an agnostic.

I took a deep breath and scanned the cards as Ogre laid out his bet. All I needed for a straight was a three, but I didn’t have it. The river was about to be dealt, and I wouldn’t be able to leave the room after that. It would be too obvious. If I was going to act, it would have to be now.

“Dealing the river,” Gray said.

“You guys, I’m sorry, but I gotta go to the bathroom,” I said.

“No one leaves the table in the middle of a game,” Lenny replied automatically, shifting in his seat.

“What? Like Mike Riley is going to cheat,” Rick said with a guffaw. His trust in me made me feel totally reprobate. What kind of disgusting jerk was I, crashing this game and then cheating these guys? But one more look at my pitiful chips assuaged my self-loathing. This was about survival. A guy had to do what a guy had to do.

“No one leaves the table in the middle of a game,” Lenny repeated through his teeth.

Damn, he was scary when that vein in his forehead started to throb. And now he was totally suspicious of me. If I ever did get up from this table, which wasn’t looking good, and I did get the card I needed, I would have to make absolutely sure I wasn’t caught. Otherwise I’d be on the lam by the end of the night, trying to come up with a good alias.

“Dude, let the kid take a piss,” Gray said. “Look at him. He’s gonna make on the floor.”

I guess my extreme tension was written all over my face.

Lenny blew out a sigh. “Fine. But he leaves his hole cards here.”

My throat went dry. “Fine,” I said, standing.

I walked on shaky legs over to the bathroom. Behind me, I could hear them whispering and wondered if they were scolding Lenny or speculating about me—trying to ascertain whether I was capable of messing with them. Probably a little bit of both.

Inside the bathroom I leaned against the sink and tried to breathe. I stared at myself in the mirror and realized I did look pained and rather pale. What was I thinking? I couldn’t go through with this. Especially not now. Now that Lenny had called me out those guys were going to be keeping their hawk eyes on me every second. I would never get away with it.

But you have to, a little voice in my head warned me. You have to do this or you’re done. Your life is over.

I felt hot and sick to my stomach. All the cigar smoke and junk food was not helping. I stood there for another long moment, vacillating between one option and the other. Cheat now and risk getting the crap kicked out of me, or don’t cheat and risk putting my parents through some serious pain. It was thinking about my mother that made up my mind. I thought about her and everything she had done for me. I thought about the way she would react when she found out what I had done. And as soon as I conjured up an image of her face, I knew I had to adhere to the plan.

Before I could rethink it, I flushed the toilet, opened the closet, and fumbled for the cards. I flipped through them, pulled out the one I needed, and shoved it up my sleeve. Then I tucked the superfluous cards back in their hiding spot. I would come back for them later—after the night was over.

If I lived that long.