Fic: Club my Diamond Heart of Spades [2/?]
Nick was drunk, although he was too drunk to realize that he was drunk. His state of mind was totally shot and the only outlet for his anger was the hotel room he was currently massacring. He had money, although less than he should have; his figured that they could just bill him.
“Fuck!” he growled, picking up the straight-backed wooden desk chair and heaving it against the wall, hearing the satisfactory crack of wood as one of the legs snapped off. He had been here a week and a half, going to the same damned casino. Sure he had won a few hands while playing cards… but never when Ellis was dealing.
He was being played, they both knew it, didn’t matter what he tried to pull the hick always won! In his fury Nick didn’t step foot in the gambling establishment yesterday. The boredom from not having anything to do led to the drinking.
By the time he was done with his tirade the room looked like a storm has passed through it. The wooden chair was splintered and broken; the framed art prints were shattered and ripped. Other shards of glass from the former lamp which had met its fate against a wall, lying on top of the drapes that had been pulled down beforehand.
Then there was Nick, now past most of his rage, sitting on the king sized bed in the midst of this chaos. He was laughing, thinking over how stupid this whole week had been. He hadn’t lost in a long time, especially not that often. He wasn’t sure if he minded anymore. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford to lose; having a few off shore accounts and another couple within the U.S. tended to do that.
He got up, sorting himself out as best he could, and walked out the door, stepping over the ruined artwork as he went. He was determined to beat Ellis. It was going to happen tonight.
Nick went to his car, a new model Porsche that had every ‘extra’ you could equip it with. Not that he cared; he preferred the classics when it came to cars. The only thing he cared about was his car made an extremely loud statement to anyone that saw him pull up… well just about anywhere.
Getting to his car with minimal stumbling he started it up, listening to the engine purr. The drive from his hotel to the casino wasn’t far. He would have been at the casino itself, but he preferred Hiltons and it was only a few blocks away. When he got there, glad that there weren’t too many people on the road, he threw his keys at the valet and walked straight into the door. He knew the path well; he didn’t need to figure out which table he was heading for. Not that any living person could miss the young card dealer- his voice carried better than anything Nick had ever heard before.
The closer he got the more wrong it started to feel. There were no laughing card players or annoying southern drawls… his pace became faster. At the table the dealer wasn’t Ellis, instead a mild-mannered woman who was smiling patiently at the people stationed at her table.
Usually he would be thinking that she was easy prey.
Right now he was just pissed she wasn’t the southerner.
Glancing to his right he found clocks face, it wasn’t the top of the hour. Alright that might mean that the kid’s shift wasn’t up and he just needed to wait. By the time he was $300 up he was starting to grow impatient with this girl and how easy she was to play and read. Finally he just stared the girl down, “Where is Ellis?”
She blinked at him and her smile was almost apologetic as she asked, “I’m sorry, who?”
Nick growled lowly, not amused by her deliberate façade, “Where is Ellis?” he demanded again, a bit more of harshness to his tone this time. He had asked nicely once, he wasn’t extremely into asking again. He didn’t care of the other people at the table were staring at him as if he had grown another head, he wanted an answer.
“He… he…” she stammered, starting to look a little bit afraid of the conman. Then she straightened her back and gave him an even stare, not as effective as his own but still pretty intimidating, “I can’t divulge privileged information, sir.” The honorific was said with some acid to it, the intention to make him back down. Too bad the girl didn’t realize he had created that game way before the twenty-something was born.
“I’m sure you can’t, sweetheart, but I don’t think there is anything against betting for it.” He lounged back as much as he felt comfortable and just radiated calm and collected.
“I.. I don’t think I follow.” She was back to being uncertain. This made Nick chuckle to himself darkly, he always seemed to have that effect on people. He leaned in closer, looking her straight in the eyes as he spoke once again.
“All my chips against your information.”
The rest of the table gasped, some openly grinned ‘cause they found the whole ordeal terribly exciting. Nick paid them no mind, his soul focus was on the girl before him who didn’t know what to say. Finally she seemed to come to a decision; the right one. She nodded.
It wasn’t surprising that she had agreed, her employers would be glad she saved them the good chunk of change that Nick had won from them, was the location of one person really worth the chance to get a promotion? She didn’t even entertain the idea of losing to him.
It was a closed game, just the house against Nick who just stared at her blankly as if she wasn’t there. But every move that he made seemed to right, every hand lucky, and soon she found herself defeated. She could feel his calculating green eyes on him, waiting for his prize from her. She sighed in defeat and didn’t even look over at the small group that had seemed to gather to watch the proceedings between the two of them.
“Fine, you win. Ellis was only working here until the renovations were done at his shop…” Nick raised a brow at her in questioning, “…auto.”
Figured that he would have an auto-shop; a slick smirk came to his lips as he nodded at the girl before getting up. Making a stop at the bar for some whiskey a plan started to come to mind. Quickly downing the alcohol he left and waited for the valet to give him his car and keys.
“Thank you.” The boy said, looking down at the biggest damn tip he had ever gotten in his life. Seriously who just gave someone a thousand bucks? He watched the man in the white suit drive off in wonder.
Nick sped out of the parking lot and onto the road. He looked around at the almost deserted streets and went way over the seed limit, jerking in between lanes. That was when he saw it, the massive headlights of a semi driving down the same spit of street was. He couldn’t keep the insane smile off of his face.
It was all stopping, squealing tires, and the sickening crunch of metal on metal. The airbags deployed and Nick opened the door, rolling out of his now ruined vehicle. The impact had been harder than he was expected it to be, at least the other guy slowed before hitting the Porsche.
The truck being, well a truck, the driver simply got out of the massive cabin and came over to him. “Oh my God, are you alright? Your car must have stalled and I just couldn’t swerve in time and…” he looked over and saw what exactly he had just slammed into a cursed under his breath, “… fuck that is a nice car too and I totally ruined the back end! Man are you sure that you’re alri-” he stopped hearing something odd.
Nick was laughing, laughing halfway between drunk and the most fucking sober he had ever been in his life. He got up from where he had fallen onto the ground after escaping his vehicle. He eyes surveyed the damage, which was much more massive than the other guy’s much smaller dent after barreling over the luxury vehicle. His grin only grew wider.
“Guess I’m going to need a good mechanic.”
---Part III