Chapter VIII

All Bets Are Off

He had known it was bad...but now it sat before him...right there in black and white. His marriage was over. Irreconcilable differences...was that what he and Tina had? Warrick stared at the gold band on the third finger of his left hand. It was such a simple thing...though the whole marriage had been simple, hadn't it? A drive-through wedding.

Looking back now, he saw it for what it was. It had been a knee-jerk reaction to Nick's brush with death. He'd been scared...and needed to confirm that he was still living...that life went on. Did he love Tina? Yes, there was no doubt about it...but did he love her enough? That was the question, wasn't it? He had saw her with that VIP Host and he had immediately jumped to a conclusion...the wrong one. He hadn't trusted her. Marriage couldn't just be about love, it was about trust and companionship. He hadn't trusted her enough...and as for companionship...their schedules had kept them apart more often then not...love just hadn't been enough, it seemed.

He stood in the lobby of the Lucky Dragon Casino, where everything had come to a head. All around him people were gambling their lives away, one pull of the handle, one roll of the dice, one intervention of fate at a time. His hands began to sweat, and the old pull of his compulsions, of his addictions assaulted him. His eyes found the Blackjack tables and he licked his lips.

His marriage was over, he had a helluva case and insomnia to top it all off...If he was going to fall off the wagon, he might as well do it now...he didn't have all that much further 'till rock bottom anyway. He swaggered over to the nearest table and changed a crisp hundred dollar bill into chips and sat down. He'd tried to be a good husband, a good friend, a good CSI...he'd been a good boy, now...now all bets were off.