5. Dante

Chapter five

Dante

“ W ho is he?” For almost an hour, I’d watched the man sitting at the blackjack table, his furtive glances leaving me in no doubt what he was doing.

“We don’t know, boss,” Conrad said. “He’s never been here before.”

He was young, but then, compared to me, everyone was. Mid to late twenties, with dark curly hair. Slim, from what I could tell, pale arms resting on the green table.

“How much has he won?” I steepled my fingers and watched him intently on the CCTV.

“Hard to tell without counting it, but he’s won at every table he’s visited. He looks to have accomplices. Seems he’s handing off chips to them before sitting at the next table. They’re cashing them in, taking it in turns, then pocketing the cash.”

“Is he counting cards?” Hmm, winning all the time relied on an enormous amount of luck. That or magic, but sensors on the doors usually alerted us to any trinket or artefact and disabled them before they could make it to the floor. I’d made sure of that. No one was cheating me out of my money.

Except this guy clearly was. But how the fuck was he doing it?

Intrigued as I was, I should put a stop to it.

I watched for a few more minutes as he raked in the chips. He took a sip from a glass next to him and licked his lips. Something shifted inside me, but I pushed it down.

“Why did it take us so long to spot him?”

“There’s been multiple altercations this evening. Seems like every drunk has come out of the woodwork. We’ve had our work cut out trying to keep them under control before throwing them out.”

“A distraction?”

“Possibly. What do you want us to do with him?”

“I want you to pick off his accomplices, one by one, and take them to the basement. Let’s see what he does then.”

The basement was where I did some of my best work. No one escaped, and many didn’t leave alive. The majority found out that crossing me wasn’t in their best interest.

A thrill ran through me at the thought. Finally, something to do, worthy of my name. It had been too long, or so it seemed.

Conrad left, and I watched the man. He won the next hand and the next but lost the one after. He must’ve done that on purpose so as not to be noticed, but it was too late for that. He had my full attention.

Tempted as I was to allow him to continue winning, his lucky streak needed to end.

At the edge of the screen, Conrad silently extricated his friends with barely a scuffle, leaving him alone and unprotected.

“Do you want us to remove him now, boss?” Conrad asked over the comms.

“No. I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Leave him for a while. Are the other two secure?”

“In the basement. Waiting for you.”

I’d have some fun with them. The money meant nothing. I had more than enough. It was the principle of the matter. No one stole from me, and that cheating low-life was stealing from me.

No way could I let that go unpunished. I had a reputation to uphold, and if others found out it could be done, people would follow in their footsteps. A message needed to be sent.

His agitation showed as he looked around for his friends. He shifted in his seat, turning this way and that.

He said something to the dealer and threw his cards onto the table, then collected the stack of chips in front of him and stood.

I switched the camera view and followed his progress through the main room towards the foyer. If I wanted to catch him, I needed to make my move.

“Conrad, I’m on my way. Don’t let him leave.”

Fortunately, my office wasn’t far, and within a couple of minutes, I’d reached the foyer. Conrad stood off to the side, not interfering.

The man in question was at the coat check, flustered.

“No, that’s not my coat either. Look, you must have put the wrong number on my coat. It’s black, not brown.”

“Excuse me. Would you like to come with me?” I placed my hand on his shoulder, and he turned to face me. A flush reached his cheeks.

“I, erm, just need my coat. My friends are waiting for me outside.”

“I think we both know that’s not true. I’m not exactly sure how you’ve been doing it, but you and I need to talk.”

His shoulders slumped, and his chin dropped to his chest in defeat. He knew the game was up.

I nodded to Conrad and led the thief to a doorway down to the basement.

“How did you do it?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, I think you do. I can hear your heart racing.”

“Yours would race too if someone had accosted you when all you were trying to do was get your coat, find your friends, and go home.”

He had a point, but I smelt the fear radiating from him. It nourished me, feeding a part of me I’d neglected for far too long.

I’d become apathetic. Everything had become too much effort, which for me was unheard of.

Modern life made everything far too easy, and maybe that was my problem.

“What do you want, and where are you taking me?”

The time to talk was over, and I ushered him through dimly lit corridors and down stairwells into the heart of the casino, a place not many knew about. Only Conrad and a few trusted employees were aware of its existence.

“I have to get back to my grandpa. He’ll be waiting for me.”

The worry in his voice was palpable, and his heart rate increased. An interesting fact, which I tucked away for use later on. This would not be a quick telling-off.

He and his friends had stolen from me, and they would receive their just punishment, however I saw fit.

I’d not decided yet how I’d play this. Someone needed to be taught a lesson, but was it this guy, or was someone else running the show?

After several more flights of stairs, we arrived at a door protected by a keypad.

I entered the twelve-digit number known only to me and Conrad. No one could enter here without one of us.

The door swung open, revealing a dark grey, spacious room. I felt more at home here than upstairs in the casino.

“Austin, thank God.” One man tied to the chair looked up, relief in his eyes.

So that was his name. Not that I cared. Knowing his name wouldn’t make me show him any leniency.

He struggled against my grip, trying to remove his elbow from my grasp, but that would never work. I was stronger than him in more ways than one.

“Don’t fight me. You’ll only make it worse for you and for them.” But I released him and forced him to the floor.

Conrad followed me and closed the door with a resounding click.

“Need a hand, boss?”

“Tie him to a chair with the others.”

I sat behind the only desk in the room and fired up my computer as Conrad tied Austin to the chair and tightened the ropes holding the other two men.

“So, who’s going to talk first?” I asked.

Silence filled the room. It didn’t matter. I had all day and night if it came to it. I didn’t need sleep, but no doubt these three would at some point.

Conrad sat on the sofa and got out his phone. We could both play the waiting game. We were no strangers to this.

Seconds passed, then minutes, and still no one spoke.

I browsed the internet, trying to find out who these men were, but other than a few minor offences, their records didn’t show anything on this scale.

Interesting that the one known as Austin had nothing, not even a parking ticket.

But it was clear to me they had an agenda.

I sent a few stills from the CCTV to another couple of casino owners, and sure enough, they’d pulled the same stunt there.

The estimated haul was just under three-quarters of a million.

“Empty their pockets.”

I walked towards the trio, the smell of their combined sweat assaulting my senses.

Conrad dug deep into the first man’s pockets and pulled out a stack of chips and plaques. Emptying the others revealed cash, but not that much. Maybe we’d got it wrong? Misread the whole situation, but my gut told me I hadn’t.

He did the same with the other guy, who carried much the same. Adding it up, it only came to about ￡200,000. Pocket change for me and not illegal, yet I knew deep down their intention was to win more.

“Now him.” I pointed to Austin.

But before Conrad could place a hand on him, I stopped him.

“Actually, I’ll do this one.” The thought of Conrad touching him aggravated me in a way I couldn’t explain.

I bent in front of Austin and looked deep into his eyes. Something was different about him. I couldn’t pinpoint what.

He couldn’t move, his arms bound behind the chair, and I slowly slid my hands into his pockets.

They were full of chips and some higher denomination plaques. He’d not had a chance to cash these in and was leaving the casino when I apprehended him.

I took them to my desk and laid them out. Most were high-value chips, totalling thirty thousand pounds. Twelve five-thousand-pound plaques gave him another sixty. Still not a huge amount, but at our casino, we carried plaques worth ￡25,000. He had ten of these.

“How did you win all this?” I walked back to him.

Every casino’s goal was to take money from the customers. No matter how hard they tried, the odds of someone winning big were small. If we hadn’t spotted them, they’d have walked out with over half a million pounds. I couldn’t let that happen.

But I was more concerned about who was stealing from me.

“Who put you up to this?”

“I’m telling you nothing. We just wanted to win some money.” I spun on my heel and faced the one called Joel.

“You think you can come in here and steal my money?” My temperature rose, a sure sign of my annoyance, but I needed to keep calm if I wanted more information.

“Not stealing if we won it fair and square.” Joel’s list of criminal records was the longest, but his transgressions were still only petty shit. Something didn’t fit.

“Well, Joel.” He paled. “Ordinarily, I would agree with you. People come here and win all the time. Sometimes big money, but I have this feeling that your intention”—I pointed to the three of them—“was to steal from me, and I have to ask why.”

“I’m not telling you shit.” I was on the right track, all right.

“Austin here. I watched him for a while, and no one wins that consistently. Not at blackjack nor at roulette. The odds are always stacked in the dealer’s favour. No doubt the other footage we have of him will show him winning consistently on other tables too.”

What was it about him? Something was masking him from me, not exactly hiding but muddying the waters. I couldn’t get a read on him.

“He’s just lucky,” the other guy, Freddie, said.

“No. Lucky is winning on a scratch card. Lucky is putting your hand in your pocket and finding a twenty-pound note. Lucky is finding that priceless heirloom in your attic.”

I stood before Austin and closed my eyes, inhaling deeply. Definitely something. I opened them again and scanned his face, looking for any clue that would tell me what he was. He appeared human.

“You are an enigma,” I whispered, more to myself than to him.

“And you are in my face.” He jerked forward, but I jumped back out of his reach.

“Now, now, Austin. Play nicely.”

I’d had enough for the moment and settled back behind my desk. Conrad took up his usual spot on the sofa, and we sat in silence, letting them stew.

“You can’t keep us here,” Joel said.

He was probably right. Legally, they shouldn’t be tied up in my basement, but who was going to bother with a couple of criminals?

“Yeah, you have to let us go,” Freddie said.

I didn’t have to do jack shit. I was the devil and could do what the fuck I wanted. Who was going to stop me?

I didn’t have one ounce of compassion for them and could just as easily snap their necks as look at them.

But where was the fun in that? And I’d not had any fun in a long time.

“People will come looking for us.” Joel was definitely the chatty one.

Austin said nothing and stared ahead, but it was his anxiety I sensed the most. But where the other two feared for their own lives, Austin’s distress was different, more concern than anything. What had he said about a grandpa?

That had to be it.

I could answer them, but why should I? I’d do a little more digging into them, try to track down who thought it was a fucking good idea to steal from me, and mete out a little justice of my own.

Some might argue that, as a casino owner, I have to expect to lose money. I’d agree with that sentiment. That was the thrill for many people.

Beat the banker. Win the money. Break the bank.

Except it didn’t work like that. You might think you were winning, but ultimately, it was the casino that won every time.

I won every time.

So Conrad and I sat in silence, now and then watching the trio squirming uncomfortably on the hard wooden chairs before us.

They’d look at each other, mouthing words I didn’t care about. They could plot and plan all they liked. No one was getting out of here without my say-so.

No, scratch that.

No one was getting out of here.