Page 34 of Crow

“No?”

“You’re beautiful. You wear whatever you feel comfortable and confident in and even if I have to take on the whole city and fight off an army of drunk, horny fuckers, I’ll do it.”

He doesn’t smile like he’s joking.

I don’t think heisjoking.

My eyes prickle at the unexpected sweetness. This is more than just a burst of freedom. It’s moreeverything. An inevitable lead up, but towhat?

“Are you starved?” he asks casually, but I can tell there’s a point behind it.

For you. Shit.I really hope that for once, my face isn’t giving everything away. “I can wait if you have something else in mind.”

He pulls a pair of aviator sunglasses out of his pocket. “Poker first, then a walk. I promise it won’t take more than an hour to win back what those clothes cost, and probably your tuition for your entire first year of hair school too.”

Oomph. That’s the sound of my jaw dislocating from my face and going for a walk around the freaking block.

“I- what? That’s like fifteen thousand dollars!”

He nods like it’s no biggie. We could be discussing if we want to eat at the Italian restaurant we saw in the lobby here or venture further.

“Um, okay. But how? An hour? Are you going straight to the high roller section?”

“I plan on making money, not losing it. The five dollar, ten dollar table will do just fine.”

“How do you plan to turn five dollars into fifteen grand?”

He flashes me a cocky grin that is so unlike him. It seems to say,oh ye of little faith.

If only he knew just how much faith I have in him, and it might be messed up, but I don’t even feel like it’s misplaced.

“Are you ready to watch and learn?”

I nod tightly, real anxiety settling in as we head downstairs, taking the elevator. The casino is part of the hotel. A massive part. The whole main floor just opens up into it. I can’t even fathom the magnitude of these places.

“There are shops all the way down the halls in here if you get bored,” Crow says low under his breath as we walk through the noisy, flashy casino, side by side.

“Am I not allowed to watch?”

“Certainly. I just don’t want you to feel bored. Do you know how to play?”

“No!”

“I don’t know if they’ll let you stand right behind me or sit beside me. If you’re sitting, you might have to play.”

He pulls out his phone, cues up a video, and passes it to me. “Minute to learn, lifetime to master kind of a deal.”

I don’t think that this is what that saying is supposed to apply to, but as I watch the brief tutorial, I have to admit, he might be right. Within five minutes, I get the gist of it. It’s not like I’ve never played cards before.

“Just remember that four of a kind is great, matching suits is phenomenal, suits in a row is even better. You’re set if you can do it with high cards. It’s not that part of poker that’s hard. It’s reading people. Knowing how to bet and when, knowing how to read your opponent to see if they’re bluffing. Part of it is luck, but even more than that, it’s a game of strategy.”

I lean in and whisper under my breath. “You mean like card counting?”

Crow’s face immediately blanks. “Not if you don’t want to get turfed out on your ass. But having a good memory helps. You can calculate the odds with basic math.”

He takes out his wallet and peels off five one hundred dollar bills, stuffing them into my hand like it’s nothing. “You can buy chips with that right at the table. Don’t feel pressure. You can always fold every hand. Most of the time, until you have to do the big or small blind, which is just your turn to pay intothe pot for that round, you can just fold and lose nothing. Many people who come to Vegas are just looking to have a good time. They’re not professionals.”

I finally understand at least part of how Crow plans to make money.

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