one moment. The king of spades sat there in stark black and white. “Oh, bad luck. I guess it’s a good thing you have a second draw.”
Again he felt a change in momentum. It was true, of course he’d have to draw an ace, but he was feeling lucky. “So let me get this straight, I draw an ace I get double or nothing?”
“Ha, if you can draw an ace, then I’ll find a way to get you the 50K, and I’ll even throw in that help I told you about.” Lucy clucked.
Fueled by the promise of getting everything he needed he drew, his eyes closed and preyed every gambler’s prayer, Please, please let this go my way…
He opened his eyes, and saw her face-there was a strange smile. Then he looked down, a smiling clown face grinned back at him. It couldn’t be; he always remembered to take the jokers out, that was rule one. Yet there it was.
“Oh, bad luck it seems. Pity, but look on the bright side Nicky no nose won’t ever find you.”
“What…what do you mean?” Alex stuttered.
Lucy snickered at the fool, last words were seldom chosen well. “We had an arrangement Alex. Double or nothing, remember?”
“Right, I leave here with nothing, you keep the case, and your money.”
Still nothing noble spoken by this halfwit, “Oh no, my dear, stupid Alex Stetson, you misunderstood our arrangement. You get nothing. No case, no body, no life, and no soul.”
The impish creature raised her hand, and with a wisp of smoke reeking of brimstone snapped her fingers. In a flash Alex Stetson was gone. She retrieved the case, and placed it behind the counter. A moment later an ugly dark suited man with a misshapen nose pounded through the door, she knew it was Nicky.
“How can we help you sir?” She asked, her voice sickly sweet.
He regarded her for a moment, unsure why the hair on the back of his neck was starting to stand on end. She sat behind the counter gathering a deck of cards, “I’m looking for a guy with a silver suitcase, you seen him?”
“We see a lot of people everyday, we might have, but we haven’t purchased any suitcases today.”
“Oh yeah? Well if he comes here to sell that case, you’d better run him out. Oh and you
tell him Nicky is going to find him.”
“Will do, and I’m sure you’ll find him.” She saying still smiling as the gangster slipped back out into the night. “Sorry, Nicky, but when you do find him, you’ll have much bigger problems.”
She chuckled, picking up a single card from the pile. The joker still wore that ridiculous belled hat, but the face it wore no longer smiled, almost as if its wearer had bet on a sure thing and lost. She pulled her own deck of cards from an apron pocket, it was only half finished, but at least now it had a joker.
She sighed and smiled, “So desperate, so very foolish.”
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