Chapter 14: Threats and Bets

"It's your turn to state your claim," the dealer said, shifting his focus from Joey to the beautiful woman with curly brown hair and a tight-fitted yellow dress sitting to his left.

"Oh, it's already my turn?"

"Do you want to hold my hand while you try to guess, Kotomi?" Joey said, flashing a dashing smile her way. Seto rolled his eyes so hard, he briefly thought they might fall out of his head. Joey had been flirting with women the whole time they were at the casino but Kotomi seemed to be the first to fall for Joey's version of charm. Joey had begged Seto not to say anything that might be embarrassing about Joey in front of the women at the Dupe the Duelist table, but Joey was testing his limit with this one.

"Is this the round where I guess the card or the type of card?"

"You've successfully guessed that this is a monster card and you successfully guessed that this was an effect monster. In this round, you can either guess the card by name or another characteristic about it."

Kotomi grabbed Joey's hand and turned towards him to say, "Honey, what do you think? Should I go for it? I only remember two monster cards from the whole game."

"Then why don't you pick one of those and get on with it?" Seto sneered.

"Cool it, Kaiba. Let the lady decide for herself," Joey snapped at Seto before turning to Kotomi, "You can do whatever you want. I want what you want."

"I will ask that you make a decision soon, if you don't mind. We have a whole table of players that are waiting to play their turn," said the dealer.

"Joey baby, if you think I can win, then I'll try!" Kotomi turned back to the table, "I think it's Little Kuriboh! That card is my favorite because it's so cute."

Joey and Seto looked at her, confused. Joey held up his finger to the dealer, "Kotomi, do you mean Winged Kuriboh or Sphere Kuriboh?"

"Oh, is there no such thing as a Little Kuriboh?"

"If there is, there's no Duel Monsters card with that title. Your best bet is what Wheeler said," Seto stated. He couldn't fathom why Joey was even wasting his time with a woman who didn't even know what Kuriboh cards existed. Seto leaned back in his chair, feeling annoyed while not surprised. After a couple rounds of playing Dupe the Duelist, it became clear that most gamblers had varying levels of Duel Monsters knowledge. None compared to the knowledge Seto and Joey possessed, however.

"If that's the case, I choose Winged Kuriboh. That sounds like a cute card and I just have a good feeling about it."

The dealer flipped over the card and revealed Man-Eater Bug. Kotomi was revolted by the mere look of the card. She seemed more upset by how gross the card was then to have lost the round. "EW! It's so gross!" Kotomi shoved her head into Joey's chest, "I hope I never have to see a card that gross again!" The dealer collected the card from the table before moving on to the next person.

Seto pulled up his sleeve to look at his watch. Seto and Joey had been playing Dupe the Duelist for a couple hours now and had drawn quite a crowd. Neither Seto nor Joey had won all three rounds again like Seto had the first time he played, but they had gotten close. Seto didn't try another round three in the game—he simply collected his winnings and played a new game when it was available. Seto wasn't sure if the Heart of the Cards had anything to do with his success but he was experiencing a lot of success, as was Joey. It was possibly why the table had become so popular; people seemed more interested in seeing how the rounds would turn out. For Seto and Joey, aside from one or two losses, they were always successful.

"That concludes this game. For players that would like to try their hand at the next game, please step forward or remain seated so I can pass out your cards."

Seto stood up and said, "I think that's about it for me. I've played enough rounds to feel like I've mastered the game."

"I'll head out too… I've got a hot date with a girl named Kotomi after all," Joey responded, his eyes never leaving Kotomi's and their hands intertwined. Seto was about to comment with a snarky remark when he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder. Seto twisted around—the hand belonged to one of the casino's bouncers. The bouncer's other hand was on Joey's shoulder.

"What's the meaning of this? Unhand me!" Seto commanded. The bouncer grabbed both of them by the arm and started pulling them towards the other side of the casino.

"Wait, wait, wait! Kotomi!" Joey called, more upset about leaving the woman and losing her attention than whatever the bouncer had in store for him. Joey's eyes met with Kotomi's briefly before they disappeared into the crowd. Joey shouted to her, "I'll call you!"

"No more talking," the bouncer replied with deep voice that invoked fear in both of the twenty-somethings. Seto and Joey became quiet as he opened a door, took them down a hallway, and then brought them into a windowless room. The room was completely empty, save for a table with two chairs and a dim, low hanging light that barely illuminated the room. When the bouncer had released Seto's arm, Seto twisted around to look at him.

"Why are we here? What's the problem?"

Joey held up a hand and motioned for Seto to keep quiet.

"I'll return momentarily with my colleagues. Be prepared to have answers for them."

And with that, the bouncer disappeared and locked the door behind him.

"We should've left earlier. I think they suspect that we're doing whatever the Dupe the Duelist version of counting cards is," Joey whispered, "We need to be careful with these guys. They take cheating very seriously."

"But neither of us cheated."

"You and I know that, but they don't know that. Just let me do the talking, okay? I'll be able to speak their language better than you."

"And what language is that exactly? Please Wheeler, I'm a CEO. I think I know how to talk to men in suits," Seto huffed. Joey opened his mouth to respond but the door flew open instead, revealing three bouncers that were bald and wearing the same kind of sunglasses. Seto felt inclined to make a joke about missing the sunglasses convention but sensed that the men wouldn't appreciate the joke.

"Sit down Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler," one of the bouncers said, pointing to the two chairs at the table.

"Does Duke Devlin know we're here? He's a friend of ours. He can vouch for us," Joey replied with his hands up, slowly moving over to the table and sitting down. Seto followed his lead and didn't say a word. Seto wanted to learn more about the reasoning for this treatment before making a case.

"You boys spent quite a lot of time at the Dupe the Duelist table, huh? We noticed that you didn't even try to go to any other tables, and we know you're both top-ranking duelists. Is that going to be your excuse for winning so many games?" The second bouncer said, tossing printed photos that were screenshots from a security camera. The photos showed an aerial view of the Dupe the Duelist table with time stamps at the bottom. Every photo included Seto and Joey.

"So Kaiba and I enjoyed the game—so what? I'm telling you, bring Duke Devlin in here and he can clear our names. He was the one that asked us to stay and keep going after the first time we played. He said we were attracting people to the table; you can ask him yourself."

"I'm sure Mr. Devlin wouldn't appreciate the fact that you were cheating and stealing money from him."

"If this is purely about money, then you can have my winnings back." Seto got up and emptied his pockets onto the table. The table quickly became filled with delightfully colored plastic tokens. Everyone appeared surprised by the sheer volume of tokens, Seto included. He hadn't realized how good he was at Dupe the Duelist, but it didn't matter. He was happy to return the tokens. "If you know my name, then you know I'm the CEO of Kaiba Corp. I don't need money from gambling. Wheeler, on the other hand, might be a different story since he works at a gas station."

"Kaiba, will you quit it with the gas station bit?!"

"I'm going to need you both to shut up while we get to the bottom of this."

Seto turned to reply but raised his hands instead when he saw that the third bouncer was wielding a gun pointed right at him. The tension in the room thickened and Seto sat back down, speechless. Joey held up his hands too, but his mind was racing with possible scenarios of the next couple of minutes. Joey had heard horror stories of bouncers using brutality with possible cheaters.

"Now that I have your attention and your compliance, we're going to need you to tell us how you were cheating and if anyone else was involved."

The three bouncers were met with silence. Seto looked over at Joey, silently hoping this was where Joey's 'language expertise' would come in handy. Joey, meanwhile, was internally freaking out. Joey considered himself many things—a top-ranking duelist, a mechanic, an idiot, and a good friend. He never considered himself a person that would get himself into situations he couldn't get out of, however. Joey was determined this wouldn't be one of them.

"Listen…" Joey responded, "I may have cheated on a girlfriend in the past, but I'm telling you that I have never cheated at a card game and I know Kaiba hasn't either. There's no case to solve here. Kaiba and I will give you our winnings and leave the casino if that's what you need us to do."

"What we need you to do is to reveal to us how you were winning so many games and who else was in on it? Was it the lady in the yellow dress? Is she your girlfriend?"

"Kotomi? I just met her tonight! We're not dating but I am planning to text her tonight to let—" Joey's mouth shut completely when the gun changed its aim from Seto to Joey. The bouncer walked over to where Joey was sitting and pressed the barrel of the gun against Joey's skull. Joey started to slowly inhale and exhale through his nose, trying to focus on his breathing rather than his increasing heart rate. He was fully freaking out now.

"May I speak for a moment?" Seto interjected, his hands raised to show that he didn't want to undermine the armed bouncer, "I can't think of another way to put this but it should be known that Wheeler is far too stupid to run a con like that and the woman definitely didn't have anything to do with it. If anything, she drank too much which was the only reason she even wanted to talk to Wheeler."

"Why do you have to make fun of me even when you're trying to vouch for me?!"

The armed bouncer stepped away from Joey and aimed the gun back at Seto.

"Do both of you think this is a joke? Are you two idiots having fun right now?" The bouncer spoke in a calculated manner as he inched closer to Seto, the gun continuously aimed at Seto. He continued, "Did you think this gun was supposed to scare you? Did you not even consider that we did our research before even walking through the door?"

One of the two bouncers that had remained silent for some time now stepped forward and threw two more photos onto the table. Seto and Joey leaned over to look at the photos at the same time—the photos weren't from the casino. They were photos of Mokuba and Serenity. Seto and Joey's face went dark with worry.

"It's good to see that got you to shut up. I'm sure you can imagine how lucky we felt when a quick internet search revealed that our two targets attend the same university. How convenient is that?"

"Don't you dare hurt them," Seto said, a rage taking over. He stood up with such force that he knocked his chair over. "I don't care how you found these photos. Don't you dare even step on that campus."

"If you don't tell us the real story, we can't make any promises about what will happen to them."

"You're playing a dangerous game by threatening me," Seto said, cracking his knuckles and approaching the bounder wielding the gun, "I don't lose these types of games."

"Don't you realize we could kill you?" The bouncer asked, raising the gun as Seto inched closer. Seto wasn't stopped by the gun being aimed at him this time. His rage was fueling every step he took.

"I don't care if you kill me. Just leave my brother out of this."

"Can I vote for you to kill Kaiba and leave me, his brother, and my sister out of it?" Joey asked, closing his eyes for fear of what would happen next.

SLAM!

The door behind the bouncers flew open and Duke Devlin walked in. The bouncers stepped away and crossed their hands behind their back in unison.

"There you guys are! I was looking all over for you."

"Took you long enough to find us," Joey said, relieved. Duke grabbed Seto and Joey out of their seats and took them out of the room. Duke led his two former classmates through the mysterious hallway they had just walked through back into the casino and towards the exit. When they were outside of the building, Duke released Seto and Joey from his grasp. "Sorry about that. My men are trained to take every possible cheating incident seriously."

"You couldn't have told your goons who we were before they pulled a gun on us? I nearly peed my pants back there!" Joey exclaimed.

"Whatever. I'm still going to sue you for naming this dump Battle City, even if I did enjoy the dumb game you invented," Seto added.

"I need to head back to the casino, but it's been great catching up with you guys. I hope you come back soon!" And with that Duke, left.

Joey turned to Seto, "Aside from not being sure if we were going to walk out of that casino alive, I suppose Serenity wasn't wrong about us hanging out."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, that wasn't the worst experience in the world."

Seto glared at Joey, "When I had agreed to us hanging out, I didn't know that meant I was going to be threatened with a gun."

"I was referring to the fact that I actually got numbers from women and I don't think they're fake!" Joey smirked, whipping out his phone and seeing that there were a couple text messages waiting for his response. Joey hadn't saved all of the numbers by the person's name but that's where Joey would rely on his charming personality and mastery of dumb luck. It worked in the past… most of the time.

"Whatever. I'm going to go now."

Joey jumped in front of Seto to block his path, "Hear me out, Kaiba. I think you're right that you and I could never really become friends because, let's face it, we hate each other. But all we really need to do is find a girl we can stand spending time with and then we won't feel so terrible about going nowhere with our lives."

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, Kaiba. Dating is a great distraction from crippling loneliness. And don't you think Mokuba would like to have a sister-in-law someday?"

"I'm not sure that's Mokuba's greatest hope for me and I don't understand what you're suggesting."

"Let's be each other's wingman. We can try and pick up women together until we find one that sticks around. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Haven't we already established that you and I have a different idea of fun?" Seto pushed past Joey to head back to his car, "I'm leaving." Joey had to think of a way to convince Seto to be his wingman. Although Seto was incredibly intolerable, he was also a huge chick magnet. Joey attributed his recent lady success to the fact that people thought he was friends with thee Seto Kaiba. Joey didn't want to admit it, but he needed Seto… at least until he got a girlfriend. Joey had to think of a reason for Seto to be his wingman.

"What if I admit that you're better than me at Duel Monsters? Would that get you to be my wingman?" Joey asked.

Seto stopped to laugh.

"I already know I'm better than you in Duel Monsters," Seto faced Joey and chuckled, "You're a funny dog, Wheeler."

"How about we make it into a game? You like games, don't you?" Joey asked, "We'll be each other's wingman until one of us can get a girlfriend. The first one to get a girlfriend will win."

Seto's instinct was to outright reject Joey's proposal but he took a moment to think about it. Joey was a buffoon and completely out of Seto's league in every possible way; this wouldn't even present a challenge. In the last two years, Seto had hired an assistant purely to go through his fan mail that people, mostly women, sent to his office. Surely Seto would succeed over Joey and, even though this game didn't involve Duel Monsters in the slightest, Seto loved being handed an easy win. An easy win was especially more gratifying if it was against someone he wanted to humiliate.

"Alright, Wheeler. I'll play your game. How do we get started?"

"I'd be happy to show you. Can we stop by your place first?" Joey asked.

"Fine, but only if you drive," Seto replied.

"Actually, my car is still in the shop. Can we take your car instead?"

"Don't misunderstand me, Wheeler. I wouldn't be caught dead in your piece of crap car. I meant you drive me in my car because you know I'm far too rich to drive myself," Seto said with a smirk. If he was going to have to spend time with Joey in order to win this competition, Seto was determined to at least have fun doing so. An activity that Seto always considered fun was making Joey feel like garbage.

Joey, on the other hand, shrugged and complied. He knew Seto was only doing this to humiliate him, but Joey didn't mind. With Seto was his wingman, he would have a far greater chance of getting a girlfriend. The moment he got a girlfriend, Joey assured himself, the faster he would never have to see Seto again.

-YGO-

A/N: Happy Sunday! I can't believe October is right around the corner nor can I believe how excited I am to be posting this chapter. I'm enjoying the direction this story is going and I hope you are too. It's been great to get back into writing! I've also been enjoying your reviews and I appreciate you all for reading my story. I'd say I'm sorry about ripping on Joey so much in this story, but you all have probably gathered that I'm not the biggest Joey fan. I'm curious to see if my tune may be different when I finally finish this story. I'll keep you posted on that, haha. In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope you have a great rest of your day!