Nine Billion Dollar Heist
*Co-authored with the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Lives in Dreams and TRDancer
Chapter 13: Say Wha…?
"Well, if those two do commit mass murder, I know who I'm seeing for conjugal visits, at any rate." –Emmett
EPOV
"Um, yeah. I'll have a Bloody Mary and can you add like two shots of Tequila to that while you're at it? And then two glasses of Crown, and a tray-full of those pretty colored shots with the whipped crème shit on the top, and—"
"Em, you're not getting all that just for yourself, are you?" I asked, eyeing him as he peered behind the bartender who was looking at him with speculative eyes as he named off his order. We had—so far—hit about three different tables since arriving here, switching up partners as we did so. Currently, I was teamed with Alice, Bella with Emmett, and Jasper was the lone wolf. We were taking a quick break before we got back to working our way around, sitting at the bar ordering drinks with Alice and Bella talking absently to this Italian guy with a short blonde date—Felix, he had introduced himself as, I think—as Emmett, Jasper and I grouped together next to them.
He turned his face towards me, all scrunched up and shit in a frown.
"Maybe. I'm thirsty." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Emmett, you know that'll only make you more thirsty, right? Not to mention fall-off-your-ass drunk."
He shrugged his massive shoulders at me, and then sat silent for a moment before sighing and turning back to the waiting bartender.
"Eh… just make that a normal Bloody Mary, 'kay?" The bartender smirked at him, nodded his head, and went to making Em's drink for him. I snickered at the saddened look on his face.
"Oh, Em, it's not that—" but before I could get out the rest of my sentence, a loud ringing came from the pocket of my jacket.
"Baby let's get drunk tonight, we don't have to fuck, and bring your friends along, maybe we can have some fun. Let's get freaky now, let's get fuckin' freaky now, let's get freaky now, let's get fuckin' freaky now…"
I could feel my ears get hot; my face probably resembled a tomato. To the brutal snickering of Emmett and Jasper and other people within the vicinity, I whipped my phone out as quickly as possible, flipping it open and answering it, not needing to look at the caller ID to know who it was.
"Fucking shit, Rose, what are you calling about?" I said in a hushed voice. I heard Emmett trying to stifle a laugh in the background.
"Did you forget to set it to vibrate?" she asked, ignoring my question.
"Yes," I admitted embarrassedly. I could her snort at my stupidity on the other end. Fuck, how was I supposed to know she was going to call?
"Good job. Who's the free-floater right now?" she inquired unexpectedly.
"Jasper," I replied instantly, wondering what she was up to. "Why?"
"Can you send him out? I'm parked about a block down, to the east. I need him to do something for me." I shrugged, knowing full-well she couldn't see me.
"Sure, I guess," I said, hanging up before barely hearing her 'thanks.' I flipped my phone shut—not before turning the blasted thing to vibrate—and turned to Jazz.
"Hey man, Rose needs you." He looked at me through half-lidded eyes in surprise.
"What the fuck for?"
I groaned. "Like Rose tells me her diabolical shit. Just go." He shrugged and pushed off from the bar. He walked over to Alice and Bella, gave Alice a kiss on the forehead, and walked towards the front of the casino, disappearing through the large throng of people.
I felt someone come up behind me, and rest their head on my shoulder. A familiar strawberry scent engulfed me, and I smiled.
"Hey sexy," I said, turning my face in Bella's direction. We were nose-to-nose, and she was smirking too.
"Hey yourself. What was all that about?" she asked, obviously referring to Rosalie's call.
"Dunno. Rose just said she needed Jazz for something. Probably going to commit a mass murder using the power of technology or some shit," I guessed, shrugging it off. Bella snickered.
"Wouldn't put it past her, you know. She'd be the type of person to do something like that."
Hm, fair point. Fair point indeed.
"Well," Emmett said from beside us. I could feel him stand up himself. "If those two do commit mass murder, I know who I'm seeing for conjugal visits, at any rate." I laughed, and mine was joined with Bella's and Alice's.
"Uh huh, you think I'm kidding, huh? Well, we'll see, we shall see… Come on, let's hit a few more tables, eh?" I rolled my eyes, turning to Emmett's expectant form.
"I thought you wanted to drink?"
"I did, now I'm done. Come on, I want some money, bitches!" he said rambunctiously. Again I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
Turning to Bella I said, "I dunno how you put up with the knowledge that you share DNA with this buffoon. In fact, I can't see how you're related. Aren't orangutans and angels from different sides of the gene pool?"
Bella laughed. "Well, Edward, where ever did you get the notion that I was an angel? Besides," she said. "Emmett's a very handsome orangutan, huh Em?" she asked, peering over my shoulder.
"That's right, Masen, and don't you forget it!" I chuckled.
"Well, that being said, you're still my angel," I said, looking down into her wide brown eyes. She quirked a perfect dark brow at me, smirking in a totally anti-angelic way.
"Is that a fact?" she dared.
"Oh yeah. Most definitely," I said, lowering my head down to hers. Her pink lips were parted, waiting for mine to touch hers…
And then some dumb ass had to pull her away.
"Hey, she's my date for now, buddy!" Emmett exclaimed in his usual five-year-old manner, his arm sloped lazily over her shoulder, the weight from it making her stagger a small bit. "If she's going to kiss anyone, it's going to be me!" And as he said this, he laid a big, sloppy—slightly scary—wet kiss right on Bella's forehead.
"Emmett!"
Like I said: orangutan.
He just gaffed at Bella's protest and wheeled her around. That's when I noticed something.
"Hey, where'd that Felix dude go?" I called after them, throwing my own arm over Alice's short frame and following behind. I noticed that the place where he had been sitting next to Alice and Bella was now empty. I saw Bella shrug and crane her neck back, attempting to peer over Emmett's massive arm.
"I dunno. Got a call and just disappeared into the crowd with his date, I think."
***
"And, once again, the handsome, the witty, the perpetually stunning and orgasmic Emmett wins! Yes, yes, read it and weep, my fellow players, read it and weep," Emmett said gloatingly from across the table. I nearly choked on my—what the fuck was I drinking this time…? Who cares.—when he said 'orgasmic.' If there was one thing Emmett wasn't, it was 'orgasmic.' Besides, it was only his third win. Then again, we had agreed to allow Emmett to be the flamboyant and heavy player here—along with Bella—and let Alice and I hang back and pick up any slack given by him.
So far, Emmett was having a good time covering his own slack beautifully, in fact. There wasn't much Alice and I really had to do, to be honest. Bet a few hundred dollars below Emmett, keep the count, and give each other the signals subtlety.
It was like a walk through the park.
So as of now, Emmett and Bella teamed together were the highest bidders at the table, followed by Alice and I as a team, then a guy with a huge hooked nose and a greasy, stringy black hair, and a woman with bushy brown hair. All was clear as of now, and nothing looked suspicious. If Rosalie did whatever she was doing successfully, then we were in the green at the moment, and in no trouble for getting caught.
Several of the lower bidders at the table groaned, got up, shot Emmett death glares, and stalked away from the table. This left only Bella, Emmett, Alice and I seated, as well as the other two high bidders at the table.
As a new game was about to start, a familiar person with olive skin and short black hair approached the table.
"Is there any room for another player, eh?" I looked up and saw Felix's familiar face.
"Sure thing mate, if you're willing to lose," Emmett said from across the table with a huge, fat grin slathered across his gloating face. I repressed the urge to roll my eyes at him. Again.
Felix shot him a smile. "If you say so, er, Emmett, is it?" he asked.
"The orgasmic one, yes." Felix laughed, and pulled a hefty wad of cash from inside his jacket.
"How much to join the game, sir?" he asked the dealer.
"One-fifty, and then a minimum of two hundred for your first bet, sir," the dealer said with an odd smirk on his face. Oddly enough, Felix pulled out just that exact amount of money before he had even been told.
"Ah yes, I think I have that," he said while laying his money out in front of him. The dealer nodded his way, a tiny smirk on his lips, and dealt out the cards once more.
Now, as with every single hack-job that we had ever done in our lives, there had always been something that we learned from it, as cheesy and cliché as it was. Whether it was to never let Emmett get a hold of a flame-thrower, or to never, ever ever mix vodka with straight up coffee—unless you wanted to deal with a very drunk, very hyper Alice—there was always something we took back from a hack. What we were going to learn this go around, was that there were other counters out there, counters who seriously knew their shit.
Counters like Felix, for instance.
Honestly, looking at him, you wouldn't think he was capable of much. Not very tough-looking, not very intelligent looking, either, if one was truthful with oneself. He almost looked naive.
But fuck, we probably looked the same damned way too.
Because just by looking at Felix, you wouldn't think that he was keeping just as close a count on the cards as we were. Just looking at him, you wouldn't be able to tell that he was concentrating like a bomb-technician about to cut the blue wire. Just looking at him, you wouldn't be able to see he was running his own one-man scam right under the nose of the dealer.
Just by looking at him.
But a hacker knows how to spot another like him, and Felix was definitely one, and boy was he playing his game well.
We fucking lost. The first time where we lost and hadn't done it purposefully, was to another counter.
Fuck.
Major fuck.
Major super fuck.
This was bad.
From across the table, Emmett wore a very unhappy frown on his face. I could only imagine the thoughts running through his head at the moment. They probably mimicked mine. How the hell did he do that? How the hell did we not do what the fuck he did do?
"Ah, lovely! This should look nice in my safe, this beautiful crisp green, eh?" Felix asked of the table. We all simply nodded, looking abso-fucking-lutely perplexed and down-right depressed.
"So, how's about another game, yeah? See if we can't ah, count this loss as a lesson in losing?" he said playfully. However, we all stiffened up at his use of words. I shot a look at Emmett, whose eyebrows were furrowed and mouth set into a very angry scowl. I then looked at Felix, who was wearing a completely innocent look on his face as he laid down more money in front of him.
He fucking knew. How, I had no idea. But he knew, that much was certain.
Before any of us could decline—because we seriously needed to talk this whole thing over, and fast, another familiar—yet welcome—voice said, approaching the table.
"Hey guys. I've got—oh… you've met Felix, huh?"
Wait…
How the fuck did Rosalie know Felix?
Lennixx: Haha! The plot thickens, eh? Totally. Bet no one saw that one coming. *Laughs Maniacally* Though, one doesn't usually see things coming, save for special circumstances.
Review, lovelies, and Lenn shall give you all a million pixels of love!
PS: Who noticed the Harry Potter characters in there? Teehee. Couldn't resist mates.
TRD: What special circumstances are those? *stares dumbly*
Ahem, Harry Potter is sexy and I want to see reviews. That is all. :D
Dreamer: I can't think of word. So just review :D