"This casino belongs to Sebastian Shaw. Remember him?" Emma heard Vinny Lavecchia say.
He was a Mafia boss in Nevada, one she'd helped rise to power, though he bragged about his success as if he'd earned it all on his own.
"I remember. He owns another casino in Las Vegas."
"He does, and he refuses to pay protection money. I'm here to collect," the man said.
But Emma could read his thoughts perfectly. Vinny had more in mind than collecting protection money. He wanted to get his hands into New York. She wasn't sure he could pull it off. New York was on a completely different level from Las Vegas.
"Is he coming today?" Emma asked.
He moved a hand toward her waist. Emma planted an illusion in his mind in which he was touching her somewhere far more intimate. She wasn't going to let him lay a finger on her.
"He'll come today, or tomorrow... but I suspect it'll be today," Vinny said, looking toward another table. "That kid came in with a million dollars in chips. He's already won almost twenty million. Invite him over," he told a young woman.
They were in a private room. Vinny had come to gamble with a few associates who would arrive later, new associates from New York. He was looking for a way to establish himself in the city.
Emma wouldn't have been surprised if he tried to use her to entertain them. He'd done it before. Or rather, he'd tried. Emma had seen plenty of Mafia bosses masturbating in their beds while believing she was giving them the best fuck of their lives.
Some of them even woke up wondering why their assholes hurt.
"After the night we had, it's only natural for your whole body to be sore," Emma would answer politely. She wished they knew what had really happened on those nights, but telling them would put her in danger.
"You want to rob him?" Emma asked.
"Yes. You know what to do, don't you?" She nodded. They'd practiced it many times. She would read their opponent's mind, sometimes moving closer to distract him, and then signal his cards to Vinny. "He seems like a good player. You don't win twenty million just by getting lucky. If it were only luck, he'd have lost it all by now."
Emma wondered what kind of thoughts were going through the young man's head. A strategic mind was always an interesting place to explore.
"EVERYTHING ON RED!" Sebastian shouted, trying to push forward all nineteen of the million-dollar chips the casino had given him. He had another million in smaller chips. He'd already switched games, leaving poker behind after squeezing the arrogant bastard dry and moving on to roulette.
"The maximum bet on a color is one million dollars, Mr. White." The dealer had already memorized his surname.
"Oh, right." Sebastian scratched his head. They'd already told him twice. "ONE MILLION ON RED!" he shouted again.
A crowd had gathered around him, not to gamble but to watch. A girl sat on his lap, probably a gold digger. Sebastian didn't mind. Her ass felt good against him.
The dealer spun the roulette wheel. Sebastian was already on an incredible winning streak.
"Again, Sebastian!" The girl on his lap practically jumped when the ball landed on seven. She kissed his cheek, and the crowd shook their heads in disbelief.
"Mr. White." A woman in a casino uniform approached. The source of this chapter is g.com.
'Have I won too much already?' Sebastian wondered.
"Pick a number," he asked her.
"A number?"
"On the roulette wheel."
"We're not allowed to choose."
"When's your birthday?"
"October fifth."
"What's the maximum bet on a single number?" Sebastian asked the dealer.
"One hundred thousand," the dealer said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Sebastian had taken millions from the casino in just a few hours.
"One hundred thousand on five," Sebastian said.
"I'm betting on five too," a man in the crowd declared. "One hundred thousand."
"Wasn't that money for your son's college tuition?"
"Who cares about my son right now?" the man replied, going ahead with his bet.
"I-I'll bet a hundred thousand too!"
"Me too!"
Ten people from the surrounding crowd took the gamble and bet on number five. The casino employee who had just arrived stared in disbelief at what was happening.
'Heh. Only now are they joining in? Cowards,' Sebastian mocked them in his head.
The roulette wheel began to spin. Everyone fell silent as the little white ball raced around the rim, dancing above the numbers.
The tension mounted as the ball began to slow. It passed eleven, thirty, eight, and twenty-three before seeming to settle on ten. But a tiny breeze nudged it onto number five. The dealer nearly burst into tears. The casino had just lost around thirty-eight and a half million dollars in seconds.
As soon as Sebastian received his chips, he stood up. The girl who'd been sitting on his lap landed nimbly on her feet. He handed her a ten-thousand-dollar chip before gathering up the rest.
'Twenty-four million, four hundred and ninety thousand.' Sebastian paused, looking at the chips with a hint of concern.
He hadn't meant to win this much. But the casino's excitement had swept him up, pushing him to raise his bets higher and higher. Now he regretted getting carried away. The source of this chapter is g.com.
"Mr. Vinny Lavecchia invites you to his private room," the casino employee finally told him.
"Who's Vinny?" Sebastian asked. Was he some rich guy, or did he own the casino?
"He's a businessman who'd like to play against you." That eased Sebastian's concerns.
"Does he own the casino?"
"No, sir. He's just another guest," she explained.
Sebastian considered whether to accept the invitation. The sensible thing would be to take his money and leave before the casino decided to make an issue of it. But part of him wanted to meet the man. He had a feeling there was a big opportunity here.
'Just trust your luck, Sebastian,' he finally told himself.
"I'll go. I just want to cash out my chips first." The woman nodded and accompanied him.
He kept one million dollars in chips to play against Vinny, if the man actually wanted a game. If Vinny intended to rob him, at least Sebastian wouldn't lose all his money.
The cashier had to call her supervisor to arrange the deposit properly. They told him he'd have to pay a certain amount in taxes and blah, blah, blah. Fucking taxes.
"This way, sir." Once the money had been deposited into his bank account, the woman guided him toward the private room.
It was suspicious how attentive the casino had been. Almost as if they didn't care that he'd won so much money. Sebastian had expected them to hover over him, searching for the slightest hint of cheating, but nothing of the sort had happened.
The employee opened the door. Several men inside were laughing and drinking whiskey.
'Mafia guys.' Sebastian wondered whether it would be worth killing them all and walking away with his remaining million, or whether he should leave them alone to avoid drawing too much attention to himself.
The truth was, Sebastian had never killed anyone. Not in this life or his previous one. It would be a first for him, although he knew this world might eventually push him that far.
'I'll defend myself if I have to,' he told himself.
"Go on, Emma. Pour our new friend a drink," a dark-haired, dark-complexioned man with a prominent mustache told her.
'That's not her, is it? Holy fucking shit, that's her,' Sebastian thought, panicking.
Yet somehow, he could sense she was a mutant. Something in his body told him so. It wasn't intuition. It was an ability. But where the fuck had he gotten it?
There are a few more chapters, click the link on bio!