Nine Billion Dollar Heist

*Co-authored with the cooler than cool Lives in Dreams and TRDancer*

Chapter 15: Unknown Number

"I thought you had retro ringtones that make me want to dance, not puke."--Emmett

EMPOV

We had lost.

Twice.

And all because we hadn't predicted that there would be another counter.

How could we be so stupid?

Edward was staring at us all, fists clenched, fuming, no doubt waiting for someone to give him an answer, but everyone was just staring blankly into space, in shock.

Bella was the first to recover. "Edward, calm yourself. It wasn't our fault, not—"

"Oh, it wasn't, was it?" Edward snapped, interrupting.

Bella's face hardened. Uh oh, she means business now. "It was as much your fault as anyone else's, so just shut up and we will talk this matter through like civil people. Got that?" She looked in my direction as she uttered the final words and I nodded along with Edward, "Alright. So, Rose, what did you get up to tonight?"

Rose looked up from her computer screen and smirked, taking her feet off the stool she'd had them propped on and leaning forward, turning the computer screen around. Everyone crowded around to see.

"Security camera feeds," she explained. "Every single thing that goes into their computer system comes through mine first, meaning I can tamper with whatever I want... not that it really matters now that we've been found out by Felix."

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked.

"Haven't you noticed? Felix is all buddy-buddy with the security guards; he's even Italian just like they are. He must work for the casino," Rosalie said matter-of-factly.

"Not necessarily. There are a lot of Italian people in the world—it could be just a coincidence. And as for being buddy-buddy, he's pretty experienced. It's obvious that he's been going to the casino for awhile, so the security guards would be friendly with him," Alice pointed out.

Rose turned her laptop back around and looked down at the screen, clicking around intently. "Fair point," she mumbled. "But I still think something's off about him."

"We'll address that later. For now, Rose, do you have access to camera feeds from the VIP room?"

"More like the card counter room," I mumbled. I couldn't wrap my head around the reason why the casino would want an entire room filled with rich counters. Sure, they would bet a lot of money, but they would win it back, too. The casino wasn't earning any money from that, they were losing money.

Bella shot me an understanding glance as Rose tapped away at her laptop keyboard. The screen flickered rapidly, changing the colour of Rose's face before she stopped tapping and her face remained an alien blue. "Here." She turned the screen so we could see again. "This is the VIP room. They seem to only have one camera monitoring it, but it spans the entire room, excepting the bar area—and that has its own camera." She hit the arrow key and the screen showed the bar. "So, technically, it has two cameras," Rose corrected herself.

"Which table were we at?" Alice asked.

Edward pointed to a table near the middle of the room, closer to the exit to the normal area of the casino, "That one."

"That's what I thought. So why is there no one sitting at it now?"

I leaned closer to see that there was indeed no one sitting at the table in question, though the room was packed with people. "That's fucked," I mumbled.

"What would be the reaso—" Jasper's question was cut off by loud old-style ringing coming from Edward's cell phone. He grimaced and started to fumble to get it out of his pocket.

"What the hell, Eddie? I thought you had retro ringtones that make me want to dance, not puke." I cracked.

He glared. "It's an unknown number, Emmett." He flipped the phone open. "Hello?"

Edward listened for a moment before snapping, "How did you get my number?" We all sat quietly, watching as Edward's eyebrows furrowed. Finally, he spoke again. "We'll get back to you." He flipped the phone closed and looked at us with concerned eyes.

"Who was it?" I asked eagerly.

"Felix," he answered soberly.

"Felix?" Alice repeated. "What did he want?"

Edward sighed. "Nothing good. He wants to swap silence for silence. He says that he sees us as an asset, and he wants to help us become better counters. Equal partners, he says."

"And if we don't team up with him..." Bella began.

"We're the competition, and he'll let it slip to the management that we're counters," Edward finished.

"Why don't we let it slip to the management that he's a counter?"I suggested.

"Emmett, think, please. That's not a good idea. We know he's in cahoots with the management, so he'll be able to just weasel his way out of that one," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Who uses the word cahoots anymore?" I mumbled, even though I knew she was right. Rose normally was.

Jasper sighed. "It seems that we've got no choice but to accept his terms."

Alice nodded. "Besides, I can see this being a good thing. Felix could end up being helpful."

We all stared at her as if she were insane.

"Hey, the last time you all gave me that look, I was right," she pointed out.

"I don't even remember the last time we gave you this look," Bella mused.

"Neither do I," Alice said.

Edward snorted. "So, do I call him back and accept the offer?"

We all nodded. "You might as well. We've got no other options, just as Jasper said," Bella pointed out.

Edward flipped out his phone with a grim look on his face and hit the call-back button. "Yes, this is Edward Masen." He paused for a moment. "Yes..." Another long pause. "All right, we'll be there." He hung up and shoved his cell back into his pocket.

"What was that about?" Rosalie asked, shutting her laptop and placing it on the coffee table next to her chair.

"Felix wants to meet us downstairs so that he can give us information about the casino that we don't have." He got up and headed toward to door. We all stayed where we were, staring after him in shock.

"You're trusting him, just like that?" Alice asked incredulously.

Edward sighed. "Well, he might have valuable information that we could use," he explained.

"But we've studied that casino endlessly," I objected. "What could there possibly be that we don't know?"

"I'm sure there are lots of things, Emmett. Just get off your asses and get downstairs, all right?" Edward was starting to get pissed—yet again—so we followed his orders, however begrudgingly.

It turned out that Felix had many things to offer. When we arrived downstairs, he was leaning against a marble pillar, spinning a key ring around his index finger and studying a pile of papers. He looked up as we walked out of the elevators and smiled.

"Ah, my friends. Let's make ourselves comfortable, shall we?" He ushered us all over to one of the plush sitting areas just off the lobby. Once we were all sitting he dropped the papers he'd been scanning on the table in the middle and spread them out. "Okay, so, here is everything you've ever needed to know about the Casino de la Volterra."

From there, he described security codes and routines the guards followed. Rose got really into it and started comparing documentation on the security tapes to what Felix was describing, but I just listened, absorbing the information for my knowledge—it was never a good idea to be out of the loop in the Six Crew.

It seemed as though we were really starting to trust Felix, even just from this one conversation. I, for one, was seeing him as different from the stuck-up pig that had taunted us at the casino—he was actually acting civil toward us. He even managed to remember my name and to not hit on Rosalie, which is definitely a feat to be commended for.

But the entire thing had my head in turmoil, thoughts spinning in circles. First he acted this way, and then he acted the complete opposite. I was completely, utterly confused by everything he did and said.

Would the real Mr Felix please stand up?

TRD: It's short, but hey, quick update, isn't it? Going to be rare, those are. You'd understand completely if you saw our Google calendars. We have them synced, we do. :D We're the coolest. Hope you liked, and that you're less confused than Emmett. It's okay if you're just as confused as him, though. ;)

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Dreamer: Our Google calendars rock, they're so full that they'd give you a heart attack. Or at least hurt your brain.

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Lenn: This was brills : D You should bow to TRD's feet and lick the scum from her awesomely sexy shoes. Just sayin.' Next chapter's on, me. Don't expect an update before the 28th. It says it all on the elusive Google calendar, if only you could see it. I swear, you'd shit a brick.

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