I do not own Twilight or any of its characters. It all belongs to Stephanie Meyer.

Chapter 10

We arrived at the back door to a run-down building. I knocked twice fast, twice slow. The door opened and a face poked out. He looked at me questioningly, and after a moment he said. "It's five dollars." To get in is what he meant to finish.

I handed him the money and we were in. Alice's eyes sparkled for only a moment before she composed herself. I handed her some money and we walked over to the card tables. "Let's start with '21'."

Alice sat down at the table. She looked very confident and I felt so proud to be here with her. The dealer dealt the cards to the four players; Alice, an old lady with silvery white curly hair, a middle aged woman with a tie dyed shirt and beads, and a cocky looking man in his mid-twenties.

The bets were placed. Alice didn't even look at her cards before placing her bet. She put the whole ten dollars I had just handed her down. It must be a good bet. I looked down to find a six of clubs face up.

"Hit", "Hit", and "Hit" everyone was hitting. When it was Alice's turn, she only "Hit" once; a nine. They turned over their cards. The cocky man got 19. The hippie woman got a 18. The little old lady turned over her card to reveal 19. Alice turned her card over and showed her 20. The dealer had 19. Alice won the game.

It continued that way for a while. Alice was smart enough to loose a couple in between to keep the suspicion off her. The old woman got up shortly after we arrived. The hippie hung around for a while but, she too, cut her losses. It got down to the cocky man and Alice playing the game. Alice was up, he was down.

He didn't seem to realize he should have cut his losses ten hands ago. He kept hanging around as if playing into the hole was going to help him gain his money back. I had been standing back a bit but I decided it was time to be closer to Alice. That was when I felt the real reason he had been staying. I felt the lust wafting from his direction. He kept looking at Alice all night, but I figured it was because of the game. Now I knew better.

I stood there staring at him, daring him to glance up at me; to notice I was there. Alice was mine not his and he needed to know that. Finally, he glanced up at me. I know I looked angry. I could feel it on my face as well as in my body. He just looked at me as if he didn't think I could hurt him. Stupid human; he was so wrong about that. I hadn't hunted yet and was still very thirsty. He would take care of that.

Alice finished her hand and cashed in. She stood up, faced me and looked at me until I looked at her. I saw her face then. She knew what I had been deciding to do. Her expressions were clear. She didn't want me to take care of the human! How could I not take care of him? I was thirsty, he was pissing me off; end of story, right?

WRONG! The look on Alice's face was calm but demanding. She would not have this. She took my hand and I knew I wouldn't drain that cocky bastard. Instead I walked over to him, Alice in tow. By this time he stood up, primed to fight.

"I know what you want. I know what you think you will get, but you won't. She is with me and you will stay away from her." I felt the rage of the man. He was weak and his rage unstable. He wanted to hit me; I could feel it. I didn't mind, let him try. It would just break his hand and that would make me very happy. But it would make Alice unhappy. I would not make Alice unhappy. I turned to walk away.

With all my senses like a live wire, I had to be extra careful to not breathe. If I smelled any human blood right now, there would be no stopping the monster inside me, and I didn't want to disappoint her. I walked away with Alice following me. I might have walked a little too fast but I should be gone right now.

"Ok, you can stop this right now Jasper." She said and dug her heels into the ground. I turned around and looked down at her. As soon as I saw her, everything inside of me came slamming to a halt. I no longer felt angry. I could manage to be here with her in this moment and I was ok. I stared into her dark eyes for the longest time. I felt her grab my other hand and just hold them. It wasn't a huge display of affection but it was good for us. I knew that.

"I'm sorry about that; I know I probably embarrassed you."

"Jasper Whitlock, how could you say that? You can know exactly how I feel you just need to reach for it," and I did. I let my senses reach out to her and zone in on her alone. Pride, she was proud of me. But what was she proud about?

"You walked away. You were strong enough to ignore everything and walk away. Of course I'm proud of you. Believe me; it could have been MUCH worse. But it wasn't because you choose to walk away."

I flinched. She was right, I would have snapped and killed him right there. That wouldn't have been good for the "keep the secret" rule the Volturi insisted on. I would have probably killed everyone in the whole building to keep Alice safe from their wrath.

"So, what do you say about showing me your skills in action? I would love to see how well it goes outside of my head," she said. She was right. I had an excellent poker face and a built in lie detector. I was very good at poker.

We walked over to the poker table and I was dealt in. "Five card stud" was the game; a very basic game but one I could win at regardless. I sat with only three other people but already I could feel the tension rising. My presence tends to do that. Alice stood behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. I turned my head to kiss her knuckles.

I waited to pick up my cards for just a moment. I wanted to sample the other emotions around me so I was prepared when I picked up mine. The dealer was bored, big surprise. Two of the people next to me felt disappointment. The third person felt mild excitement. I picked up my cards. Ah, this was a good hand. I could replace two cards and still be well within a winning status.

Cards were discarded and new ones were dealt. Again, I waited before picking them up. Mild excitement man became very excited. I glanced over to him to see his face, not that I needed to just that I wanted to see who he was. UGH! It was Cocky. I thought I got away from him. Well, that could make the game more fun. Beating him and taking what little money he had left could be almost as rewarding as killing him for lusting after Alice. I picked up my cards. Nice, I wouldn't even have to bluff this one.

I met the bet and concentrated on the surrounding emotions. Boredom, disappointment and excitement were radiating, this was going to be too easy. I raised the pool. Everyone met the raise. When I looked around I saw one of the disappointed ones looking very calm. No twitching or sweating, no shifty eyes no grimaces coming from him; very good bluff. Cocky was calm on the very outer face but just under that façade, you could tell he had excitement on his face. Normal people might not even need a power like mine to figure him out. The other disappointed one threw in his hand.

The round was called, followed by the turning over of the cards one player at a time. The cocky one threw out his three Jacks. The bluffer flipped over two twos. I turned over my full house and grinned at the nearly inaudible gasps from the other two players. Alice squeezed my shoulder and I looked up at her to see a satisfied look on her face, then I gathered my winnings from that round and prepared for the next hand.

The rest of the evening was pretty much the same. Cocky left after one more hand against me. I guess he realized it wouldn't be smart to hang around after all. I of course threw a couple of hands here and there; when ever I felt the tension rising too high.

"Would you like to go play a couple of the slots?" I asked Alice. I wonder how she could use her visions for this; or could she? She beamed at me and dragged me toward the slots. She stood there for just a moment with the blank expression I was growing fond of. "Come on," she said with a cute smirk.

She walked knowingly toward a slot machine in the farthest corner and sat down. She threw in a quarter and pulled the leaver. The wheels spun and the fruit slowly landed; cherry, cherry and cherry. The coins started flowing. Alice looked up and giggled at me for only a moment before the blank face returned. This time it only lasted a fraction of a moment before she regained her composure.

"Well, darn! I guess that was the end of the night after all," she said.

"Why what's wrong?"

Then a man walked up behind me and said "Excuse me, I hope you two have enjoyed your stay tonight."

Alice chimed in, "Why, yes we have thank you."

He looked at me with a serious face. "Good, I'm glad but I'm afraid my boss would like me to convey his requests for your night to be concluded here."

"And who is your boss? Perhaps I have heard of him." I said to the messenger.

"Binks, Mr. B. Binks," he replied.

"I would like to speak to Mr. Binks. Would you mind relaying the message?"

I wasn't quite sure I knew what I was going to say to him just that I thought I should smooth things over before we left. I mean, we did just win a lot of what would have been his money.

"Of course, while I am speaking to Mr. Binks, you can cash out right over there," he said to make sure it was known we were still finished playing here tonight.

Alice was looking inquisitively at me. I put my hand in the small of her back to guide her in the direction the messenger boy directed us. We cashed out rather quickly. The cashier counted out our money to us. We won over $1000 just in the past four hours since we arrived. No wonder Binks was asking us to leave.

Messenger boy returned, "Right this way please."

We walked behind him to the back of the building, past all the tables and gamblers. We walked through a small, nearly inconspicuous door, partly hidden behind a fake in door plant, down a long bland hallway, and arrived at a single unoffending door. Messenger boy knocked then held his hands together in front of him with his feet slightly apart.

"Come in" a voice yelled.

He opened the door and we walked into an office lit by only one small lamp. Behind a large desk was an enormous chair that was cocked slightly back facing diagonally away from us. The chair swung around revealing a 30 something man wearing a suit and smoking a cigar. He stood up with his hand out reached.

"Good evening, I'm Bailey Binks. May I help you?"