Jerry called out for the waitress, and like magic she produced a beer for the disgruntled Bud Light. It seemed to work like a pacifier would for a crying baby, because he stood behind his seat.
Thank God.
Now it was down to Sam and Mr. Meady McAntsy.
Now the blinds had increased to two-thousand and four-thousand. She had ninety-eight thousand chips, which left Mr. Antsy with sixty-two thousand chips.
This could take a while.
On the first hand of heads-up play, Sam was dealt a jack of hearts and a king of hearts. Suited connectors, she could hit a straight or even a flush. All in all, not a bad hand. She was first and called the big blind, then Mr. Antsy raised to twenty-thousand chips.
Okay then, maybe this will be faster than I thought.
She called his raise. And put in twenty-thousand.
The flop was queen of clubs, two of hearts, and a nine of hearts.
Mr. Antsy was first and bet ten-thousand chips. This left him thirty-two thousand behind. Sam decided if the next card was a heart, she was going to push all-in, but for now she just called the ten-thousand chips.
The next card was a five of diamonds. No help for her. Mr. Antsy checked, and she checked as well. The river was a three of hearts.
She had a flush!
He checked and Sam bet out thirty-two thousand. This bet would force Mr. Antsy to go all-in. By just saying the amount instead of the phrase all-in, would he think she was bluffing? Would he think she hadn’t realized that put him all-in?
He hesitated, the first time she saw him do it all night. She could have sworn he looked up to the game-runner for just a moment, before saying “call,” and then pushing his chips forward.
They laid down their hands.
“The lady has a flush. The gentleman has three queens. The lady wins,” Jerry said brightly.
Phil let out a squeal.
Mr. Mean Meade and Carl both gave her squinty eyes. The game-runner gave her a broad smile.
“You won, Miss Brooks,” the small man behind the dealer said. “Let’s get you to the office so that we can get you your money.”
“But I saw you put it in your briefcase, why do I need to go to an office?” Samantha pointed to the briefcase sitting beside him. “Can’t I see it now? I’ve never seen that much cash before.” Her eyes were wide and hopeful.
“That’s not the way we do things.” He smiled back at her. It was a nice smile, but it still creeped her out. She leaned forward, this time knowing she was showing off her bra. It was time to pull out maybe not the big guns, because she didn’t have big guns, but she had a pretty lacy bra…
“You can put it back into the briefcase after you’re done,” she promised. “After all, you’re going to give it to me anyway, right?” She gave him the pout that always worked with her dad.
He sighed. “All right.”
“Thank you ever so.”
I did not just say ‘ever so’.
He took out all of the hundred-dollar bills and handed them to Jerry. “Spread them out for our Queen of Hearts to see.”
“You got it, boss.”
She heard murmuring behind her. All the cash was getting attention from the other people in the cozy little casino. She ran her hand over the spread-out bills, taking her time, trying to figure out just how much was forty-thousand dollars.
“It feels so good,” she cooed.
Since the bathroom, she’d left the zipper on her purse unzipped. It didn’t sag open, but it made it easy for her to grab her mace if she needed it. Now it would make it easy to grab some cash when she distracted everyone. She leaned forward even more so that her breasts were practically resting on the table, and nobody could see her hand in her purse, holding onto her mace.
Forty-thousand dollars and Phil. Forty-thousand dollars and Phil. Oh yeah, let’s not get shot.
“I really like touching money,” she purred.
One last time, her fingers rifled through the bills, then she scooped up at least eighty-thousand dollars and threw it up over her shoulder high in the air.
Men yelled and whooped. Some even squealed. She and Mr. Antsy both grabbed at the remaining cash, everybody else was caught flat-footed. She pulled out her can of mace and shot Antsy in the face with it. He let go of the cash and she shoved what she’d grabbed into her purse. More cash was on the table. She threw it at the boss and Carl as she sprayed mace in their direction, then she ducked down under the table.
Men and some women ran around the table scrabbling for the cash that was floating in the air. She looked for Phil. He was still standing around looking stupid. She duck-walked over to him and pulled him down below the table so he’d be out of the line of fire. “We’ve gotta go.”
He just looked at her like a deer in headlights.
The bearded poker player she was pretty sure was Greg grabbed her by her arm. “Who are you? What are you doing with Phil?”
“Are you Greg?” she asked.
“Yes. Who are you?” he yelled above all the noise.
“Both of you, follow me.”
She was almost slammed to the ground and literally elbowed in the face as she tried to get to the bathroom hallways. Why did she say she would lead?
As she looked up at the bathroom corridor, she saw Murray.
