Unlucky (36 page)

The captain answered before the first ring was even complete, and Jake decided he must have been staring at the phone with one hand already on it. "Well?" the captain asked.

"I got the exchange, and the money's fake," Jake said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. "We've got him, Captain."

The captain blew out a breath and Jake could feel his relief over the phone. "That's great news, Randoll, great news. Now, you just keep you head down and stay out of the way of the ATF. We'll handle the rest when you dock."

"No problem. All I've got left to do is win a card game."

"Why? You've got the exchange. What difference does winning make?"

Jake stared at the picture that hid the wall safe and smiled. "All the difference in the world."

Mallory held her breath as Father Thomas considered his bet. "All in," the priest finally said, and pushed his remaining chips into the pot. This was it. Surprising them all, Father Thomas was the last player remaining besides Silas, but apparently even God had his limits when it came to poker.

Silas had already folded, so it was up to Jake to take the priest out. As much as Mallory loved Father Thomas, she prayed that Jake held the hand to remove the priest from the table. Then all his concentration could be on Silas. It was almost time for the afternoon break, and Silas had enough chips for at least two more antes, one more hand worth of chips if he stayed in.

Unfortunately, there was no way they were going to get that hand in before break time rolled around. Damn it. If the ATF made their move right after the break, technically Jake wouldn't win the table. Silas could still leave with his remaining money. Of course, he wouldn't get very far off the dock. Any cash he won would only be forwarded to an attorney, but he still wouldn't lose everything.

Mallory knew if things turned out all right for Reginald, he'd gladly give her the money she needed. But she still wanted Jake to win. Silas to lose. Silas had his voodoo doll, but Jake had Amy and Scooter. Mallory figured that leveled the playing field nicely.

Mallory looked back at the table as Jake pushed a matching bet into the center of the table. "Call," he said, and motioned to the priest.

Father Thomas made the sign of the cross, then placed his hand on the table. It was a good one--three of a kind, but it wasn't as good as Jake's flush. The priest stared at the cards for a moment, then raised his head toward the heavens. "Cards, cards, why hath thou forsaken me?"

Jake smiled. "Sir, you have a single rebuy option if you'd like to exercise it."

Father Thomas shook his head. "I think I'll pass. You're a tad too good for me to risk another ten thousand on, but this has been the most fun I've had in years." He stretched his hand across the table and Jake shook it.

"You played a great game, sir," Jake said. "It was my pleasure."

Father Thomas beamed. "May the force be with you."

Jake grinned. "And also with you."

Jake pulled the chips across the table into his pile and had just placed the spent cards into the shoe when the announcement came for the afternoon break. Silas Hebert rose from his stool without speaking and left the casino.

His frustration had been so clear all afternoon. The crook simply couldn't figure out how he was being beaten at his own game, and it was killing him.

Jake looked over at Mallory and grinned. "It was not nice of you to caress your legs during the signal. I'm supposed to be concentrating on poker, remember?"

"You're telling me a little leg action breaks your concentration on finally busting Silas Hebert?"

"That's
exactly
what I'm saying."

Mallory laughed and pointed to Silas's chips. "He's got enough for two more antes. Do you think we'll have time for two hands?"

Jake studied Silas's chips for a moment and blew out a breath. "I wish to God I knew. Let's just hope he gets something good enough to bet in the first and I get something better. Having Amy in the mix has really helped. Not that Scooter wasn't doing a fine job, but after all, it is Amy's research. She doesn't miss a trick."

"No, she doesn't," Mallory agreed as a glimmer of an idea began to form in her mind. "I'm going to pay them a quick visit right now, let them know how close we're running. I know they're doing everything they can, but maybe there's something Reginald can do to delay the bust until you can beat Silas."

Jake shook his head. "Like what? Reginald has no control over this--you know that."

"Yes, but the engine on this boat has been known to have problems," she said, letting her idea out. "You know, the kind of problems that might not get us close enough to shore until after you've won."

Jake stared at Mallory a moment, then smiled. "You know, you'd have been a hell of a criminal if you'd gone that route."

"With my luck--no thanks." She smiled at Jake and stepped away from the table. There was only ten minutes left in the break and she had a couple of people to talk to before that ten minutes was up.

She hurried down the hall to Reginald's office, pushed the door open and stepped inside. Then came to a complete halt and stared in shocked silence at the scene in front of her.

Amy and Scooter were sitting in her uncle's office, but they were sharing a chair--and lips.

Mallory sucked in a breath, not believing what she was seeing. That slight noise was all it took for Amy to bolt up off Scooter's lap like she'd been jolted with a million volts of electricity. Then she stood in the middle of the room, staring at Mallory with a terrified expression on her face, as if she'd been caught kissing someone else's husband and not Scooter.

Which brought Mallory right back around to Amy kissing Scooter. Of all the things that had been revealed to her that week, this had to top the list. Hell, even the voodoo curse made more sense than Amy kissing Scooter.

Scooter looked back and forth between Amy and Mallory, the indecision on his face clear as day. Apparently deciding he had no place sitting between two women of questionable mental status, he tore out of the room shouting over his shoulder that he had to go to the men's room. Mallory just watched him hurry down the hall, not even bothering to remind him that Reginald had a fully stocked bathroom not three feet from where Scooter had been sitting.

Amy swallowed visibly and finally blinked. "Uh, Mallory, I can explain."

Mallory raised her eyebrows and stared at her friend. "Really? Well, this I gotta hear."

Amy dropped her gaze to the carpet. "It just sorta happened."

Mallory waited a couple of seconds for her friend to continue, but apparently Amy couldn't explain after all. It was all Mallory could do to hold back a smile. If genius Amy could come up with a logical explanation for this one, Mallory was recommending her for the Brainiac Hall of Fame. "You just sorta fell on top of Scooter and your lips locked together?" she said, unable to keep herself from having a little fun.

Amy looked back up at her and sighed. "Now you sound like my mother."

Mallory just couldn't hold it any longer, and her smile broke through. Amy stared at her for a moment and finally realized that Mallory had been teasing her all along.

"Bitch," Amy said, and giggled.

"Oh, c'mon, Amy. You have to admit it's a pretty shocking sort of thing to see. How was I not going to play with it?"

Amy blushed. "I really don't know how it happened. I mean one minute we're there making poker calls, and Scooter was right almost every time. Then I started throwing in some of the advanced points of my thesis, really minute things that only a small portion of people would even get much less be able to use. He not only got them, he started using them in every hand."

"Uh-huh. So you had to kiss him?"

Amy grinned. "No, I wanted to, and darn if I don't want to do it again. Who would have ever figured?"

"Not me. Hell, no, not ever. But I think it's great. Just think how good Scooter's going to look in D.C. He'll probably park his boat in that fountain in front of the Washington Monument."

Amy giggled. "So he's a work in progress."

"You could always play poker for a living."

"I was hoping for a job with longer skirts."

"And you thought politics was the answer? Amateur."

Mallory scanned the room as she took her seat at the table. Her brief meeting with Reginald had set her uncle into action with the engine idea, maybe buying them another twenty or thirty minutes. That would hopefully be enough.

The room was crowded, and Mallory hoped the noise level dropped when play began. The last thing she needed was to miss a message from Amy and Scooter and since most of the losers had chosen to watch the play rather than hang out in the bar, there wasn't a lot of room left to maneuver the casino floor. Even the kitchen staff had come into the main room to see the final showdown. Since a big lot of the losers and the staff alike were hoping to see a Yankee take down Silas Hebert, the crowd around Jake's table was the biggest.

She gave Jake an encouraging smile as he began to deal and he nodded, his face full of grim determination. Silas lifted the corners of his cards from the table and studied them for a second. His expression never changed, not at all, and Mallory hoped like hell that Scooter and Amy had gotten a peek at his hand. She wanted Silas to lose before the ATF takedown, especially now that all these people were gathered around watching.

Even Father Thomas had stuck around for the finale and stood to the left of the table, clutching a beer and tossing in intermittent prayers. Whether for Jake or Silas or simply that the casino wouldn't run out of liquor before they docked, Mallory wasn't sure, but either way, it probably couldn't hurt anything.

She heard the faint click of the earpiece and grew still, waiting for the instructions that would follow.

"We got a clear look at both hands," Amy said. "There's no way Jake can lose this one, but I doubt Silas will stay in for play. Have Jake raise and Silas will probably fold. That leaves him enough ante for one more hand. Pray that we get a good shot of it, and Jake gets another favorable deal."

Mallory let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, then crossed her right leg over her left--the signal for Jake to up the bet. He never once even glanced in her direction but reached for a stack of chips as soon as her leg began to shift and tossed them onto the stack in the center of the table.

"HI raise five thousand," Jake said.

Silas didn't even bother to look at his cards again. He simply pushed them across the table to Jake. The mumbling began among the crowd and Mallory knew they were antsy to see how this played out. Even Brad, who'd shut down his table just before lunch, stood off to the side near Father Thomas, studying the game before him and alleviating some of Mallory's worry since she figured the whole takedown wasn't going to start if Brad was watching a poker game.

She caught his eye and he gave her a barely imperceptible nod. That hopefully meant they had at least another hand to go. She looked back to the table and watched Jake deal, silently reciting every prayer she could remember and making up a couple extra along the way.

Jake finished dealing the last card and pushed the shoe slightly to the side. He and Silas lifted the edges of their cards from the table, and Mallory's gaze darted between them like she was watching a tennis match. Except this tennis match was made up of almost no movement and absolutely no expression.

The bet was to Jake and he passed, putting the ball squarely in Silas's court. Mallory figured Jake wasn't positive the hand he held was going to make him a winner, so he was holding back this round in the hopes he had a good hand and signal from Mallory for the final bet. She turned her gaze to Silas, who looked briefly at Jake, then waved his hand across the table. Pass.

Jake tossed in two cards and Silas one. There was no need for a signal on this one since it wasn't costing either of the men anything to draw. Jake dealt the one card to Silas and two to himself and lifted the corner of his cards off the table. Silas pulled the single card toward him, then stopped midway across the table and lifted the end of the card.

Mallory watched him from the corner of her eye, silently willing him to pull the card farther across the table while he still had the edge lifted, afraid that he hadn't placed the card close enough to the rest for it to be caught by the camera. She waited anxiously for a couple of seconds, then fretted a bit more when he pressed the card back flat and dragged it into the rest of his hand, never lifting the cards again.

Jake studied his hand, and even though his face was the usual blank that he wore so well while playing, Mallory knew he was silently willing her to give him the signal. Was it takedown time, or did they have to hope to stretch the play for another hand?

Crap! Mallory reached up for the earring, willing a message to come from Amy and Scooter, caught herself halfway and lowered her hand back to her lap. There were a few mumblings in the crowd as Silas looked up at
Jake, studying him carefully. There were only two options left at this point. He could fold and have half the ante for the next hand--which Jake would play out at half himself, or he could go all-in as he didn't have enough chips left for the bet minimum. All or nothing.

Silas picked up a single chip and tapped it on another, still studying Jake's face, then dropped his hand to the stack of chips and pushed them all to the center of the table. "All-in."