Vampire Beach: High Stakes (20 page)

Philippe shook his head, pleading.

‘Sorry, guy,’ Jason said, bringing the flashlight down with a
thunk
, ‘but I need some privacy here.’ He did remove the tie, though. Jason wanted to make sure Philippe could get enough oxygen.

Jason sat down in one of the empty chairs and checked the monitors. The players were returning to
the
table. He pulled on the headset and made sure the mic was live, then he gave a little cough so Marc would know his cheat system was operational.

He checked Paige. She still wasn’t looking great, but Maggie and Erin were clearly doing all they could to get her through.

Jason cracked his neck as the dealer whipped out the hole cards. He’d fooled Marc into believing he was Philippe once, when he’d spoken about three words. Was he going to be able to pull it off again?

‘Ten spades, seven hearts for Zach,’ he said, with his phony French accent, as he watched Zach check his cards on the monitor. ‘Ajax for the woman,’ he added, warning Marc of Sexy Actress’s ace/jack combo. He’d noticed that some of the screens showed the other players’ hands too.

Marc didn’t seem to notice anything wrong. He didn’t even seem to have noticed that some of the Malibu group had vanished. Paige was probably all he cared about.

On the other hand, Jason thought, Marc was a poker player. His poker face could just be that good.

Jason talked him through winning that hand and avoiding defeat on the next one, then got him started on another hand. Then he decided he had time to check the other monitors to see how the rest of the plan
was
coming along. Marc wouldn’t be expecting more help right away.

Jason walked around the corner to the next bank of monitors, his eyes darting back and forth as he scanned them. OK, yeah, there was Adam coming back into the casino with his backpack of funny money. Perfect.

Through the headset, Jason heard Marc expel a loud breath. Maybe he needed advice faster than Jason had thought he would. Jason circled to the monitors that showed the game.

‘The turn gave white suit three of a kind,’ he said, then he moved to a different wall of monitors and searched for Belle. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he spotted her striding through the hotel lobby with Brad and Van Dyke scurrying behind her, loaded down with luggage.

Jason flicked off the headset, pulled out his cell and hit speed dial four.

‘Whassup?’ Adam responded.

‘Belle and her boys have the suitcases. They should be at the staff-only door in two,’ Jason told him. ‘Wait for them, OK? I gave them directions, but the hallways are confusing. Actually, call me before you go in. It’s pretty empty in here still, but the cleaning guy is around, and some executive type is making microwave popcorn in the kitchen.’

‘Got it. Adam, out.’ He hung up.

Jason flicked the headset back on, and checked the monitors showing the game. Zach and Marc were heading into a showdown for the pot. Zach was about to lose. Excellent. Everything was coming together. For now, anyway.

Other Tuxedo Guy’s chips are really getting low
, Jason thought as he waited for Marc’s inevitable win.
He’s not going to last much longer
. Sexy Actress wasn’t doing badly, while Yakamoto had turned into some kind of a maniac, making all sorts of wild bets. It wasn’t working out entirely badly for him, though. Too Much Bling was looking nervous.

Jason’s cell rang. It was Adam. Jason flicked off his mic, then picked up the phone. ‘You ready to come in?’ he asked.

‘If you’re ready for us,’ Adam replied.

Jason found the TV screens that showed the staff-only section of the Bonheur. ‘Right, the exec is making another bag of popcorn. He burned the first one. The woman in the suit is still in her office, door almost closed. And the cleaning guy is in the big conference room. That’s everybody.’

As Jason watched, Adam, Belle, Van Dyke, and Brad came through the door. Jason did a quick check of all the other people in the staff area. None of
them
seemed curious about who was coming in.

The game!
Jason remembered suddenly. He put down the phone, flicked on the mic, and moved back around the corner to the bank of monitors showing the private poker room. The hole cards had just been dealt. Yakamoto was flying American Airlines.

‘Pair of aces, to your left,’ Jason told Marc. It couldn’t have made him happy. He was holding the three of clubs and the eight of diamonds. It was a bad opening hand. He didn’t need Jason to tell him to fold. He was already doing it.

Zach had a mediocre hand and he’d just shoved what looked like $25,000 worth of chips out in front of him. The guy was good at everything – even losing.

Jason paced around to check out the staff section monitors.
Oh, no!
Where was his cell? He hurried back around and snatched it off the work station next to Philippe, who was still zonked. ‘Ad—’ He’d forgotten to turn off the mic. Damn. But he hadn’t said a whole name or a word or anything. He cut the microphone. ‘Adam, go left. Popcorn is coming your way.’ He checked the monitor that showed Adam and the others. They’d made the turn down the left hallway just in time. ‘You were right. Left is lucky.’ He watched the executive enter his office. ‘OK. You’re good to go. I’m going to open the door for you.’

Jason pulled off the headset. Marc had folded. He definitely didn’t need advice right now. He hurried over to the door and opened it just in time to usher Adam, Belle, Van Dyke, Brad, and the luggage inside. He made sure the door was locked behind them.

Belle resumed her regular appearance with a smile. ‘That was fun.’

‘Real fun, yeah!’ Van Dyke said sarcastically, dropping his load of bags to the ground.

‘Empty one of the carry-on bags and fill it with the counterfeit cash,’ Jason said.

‘You only needed one? Why did we carry them all down here then?’ Van Dyke whined.

‘What is your problem?’ Brad asked with a grin. ‘Were they too heavy for your little twig arms?’

‘If we only needed one, one bell boy would have been enough. And that bell boy would have been you,’ Van Dyke told him.

‘Put this in there, too,’ Adam said, pulling a gun out of the backpack.

Everybody scrambled away from Adam – fast. ‘Whoa! Where did you get that?’ Jason asked, staring at the gun in his friend’s hand.

‘It’s the one that lowlife pulled on Zach, when you guys had to ride to the rescue,’ Adam explained. ‘I asked myself, “Is it safer with me or with the lowlife?” and I
decided
it was safer with me. But now we have a worthy home for it – with another lowlife!’

‘You are—’ Jason began, but he was interrupted by a loud banging on the door to the security hub.

‘Why is this door locked?’ a man demanded from outside. ‘Open up immediately!’

JASON STARED AT
Adam. Adam stared at the gun in his hand. Belle stared from Jason, to the gun. Brad and Van Dyke stared at each other.

More pounding. ‘Who’s in there?’

‘Dirty money and a gun and breaking and entering. I’m going to be an old, old man when I get out of prison,’ Adam whispered, blinking rapidly. ‘An old, old virgin man.’

‘I’ll save you,’ Belle whispered back, the words coming out a little garbled as her lips became thinner. Her eyebrows straightened. Her hair lengthened. Her cheeks puffed out. And she was looking a lot like the hotel manager again.

‘It’s Hilary Mayer,’ Belle snapped. She whipped the door open, not waiting for Adam to hide the gun or for Van Dyke and Brad to deal with the counterfeit cash. ‘I reserved this time for crisis training for the new team. We’re covering a hostage scenario. Do you really need to be in here now?’

The lanky security guard stared at Belle.

‘Well, do you?’ she repeated.

‘I was scheduled—’ he began.

‘Then it’s not your fault,’ Belle interrupted, with an impatient wave of her hand. ‘I’ll speak to your supervisor. Somebody clearly isn’t reading their memos in a timely fashion. Go home. You’ll be paid for your shift.’

‘Thank you, Ms Mayer. S-s-sorry about the inconvenience,’ stammered the guard. He turned and rushed away.

Belle laughed as she locked the door behind him. ‘I think Ms Mayer kicks butt.’

‘I think
you
do,’ Adam said. ‘That was truly impressive.’

‘I have to check on Marc,’ Jason told them. He hurried back over to the monitors showing the game and pulled on his headset. The dealer was shuffling the cards.

Jason checked the chips piled in front of all the players. Zach’s had gone down significantly. Yakamoto had made a haul with his pair of aces. Marc hadn’t lost anything because he’d folded. And Other Tuxedo Guy was absent from the table. He must have gone all in and lost. Sexy Actress was doing OK. Too Much Bling still looked worried, and from the number of chips he was showing, he was right to be.

The hole cards were dealt.

‘Zach has a jack of hearts and a three of diamonds,’ Jason said into the mic. ‘And there’s a pair of tens behind the dealer button.’

Belle came over and opened her mouth to speak.

Jason held up one finger until he’d flicked off the mic. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘Marc’s bag is all packed,’ she said. ‘We ended up getting his cases from the luggage storage area. He was already checked out. He’s definitely in a hurry to hit the airport. So, now the bell boys should just take everything back, right?’

‘Yep,’ Jason agreed.

‘Zach doing OK?’ Belle asked as the dealer showed the flop.

Jason checked out the community cards. No jack. ‘I’m pretty sure he’s about to lose again,’ Jason told her.

‘Good,’ Belle said.

Jason checked the other monitors. Thanks to the flop, Marc now had a pair of aces – good enough to beat the two tens Too Much Bling was holding. ‘You’d better tell Brad and Van Dyke to hurry,’ he warned Belle. ‘As soon as Zach is out of the game, Marc’s going to want to leave for the airport. His bags need to be ready.’

Belle nodded and disappeared around the bank of monitors. Monitors!

Jason hurried after Belle. ‘Don’t leave yet,’ he told Brad and Van Dyke. ‘Let’s check the monitors first.’ He pointed to the ones that showed the staff section where the hub was located. ‘The cleaning guy is vacuuming one of the smaller conference rooms now, and the two execs are in their offices. You should be OK,’ he told them. ‘Go!’

‘If you get caught, just use the uniforms,’ Belle put in.

‘Yeah, we can come up with a work reason to be in here. We
are
staff,’ Van Dyke agreed.

‘No, I meant use them to flirt your way out, because you guys are so irresistibly cute in them,’ Belle answered.

Jason felt a flicker of paranoia – either paranoia or reasonable fear – and decided he needed to do a Philippe check. It looked like the guy was still out. Two head-smashes in such a short time would probably do that to someone, Jason figured.

‘Check it. It’s happening!’ Adam exclaimed, watching the game on the monitors.

‘Zach’s going all in!’ Belle cried.

Jason scanned the monitors, checking the turn card and the river. ‘Yup, this is it. He’s going to lose. And he’ll be bankrupt with this hand.’ Jason pulled on the headset; he wanted to hear what was happening.
The
dealer confirmed that Marc had won the hand and that Zach was now out of the game.

‘I want to cash out,’ Marc announced immediately.

‘What?’ Sexy Actress cried, her voice a squeak.

‘You can’t do that,’ Too Much Bling said flatly.

‘I can do whatever I like,’ Marc told him.

The director stepped forward. ‘In a regular game, you could, of course, cash out whenever you wished,’ he said politely. ‘But this is a tournament. Each player’s buy-in is part of the tournament pot. You are welcome to continue to play and perhaps win the pot, but you cannot take any part of the pot while the tournament is in play.’

‘Damn right you can’t,’ Too Much Bling said, fingering his small pile of chips.

‘Fine. Keep the money. I’ve won something much more valuable,’ Marc said calmly. With a silky smile, he rose from the table, climbed the steps to the gallery, and held out his hand to Paige. He was all romance and gallantry, just as if he wasn’t insane at all.

Paige put her hand in Marc’s, and even on the monitor, Jason could see her fingers were trembling. Together they walked back down the stairs.

Jason took off the headset. ‘Let’s get out of here. I want to be ready to roll.’

‘Marc just said something to Zach,’ Belle said. She leant close to one of the monitors. ‘I don’t know what it was, but Zach and Paige both reacted. I couldn’t tell if they were just surprised or …’

‘Or what?’ Jason asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Belle said. ‘Paige might have looked scared.’

Jason, Adam, and Belle watched the monitor as Marc led Paige from the room. As soon as they were out of the private room, a man hurried up to Marc.

‘That’s Didier, the guy we were following today,’ Adam pointed out.

Jason grabbed the headset again, but Marc had switched off the receiver. Jason saw Zach nod at something Didier said, then the two of them left the room together.