“Yep,” he answered.
“Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars?” I repeated.
Ty didn’t respond that time.
“I can’t believe you won that kind of money,” I stated because I couldn’t.
“Don’t get excited,” he replied, taking out his cufflinks and acting like he wasn’t excited but then again, he rarely acted like he was anything.
But still.
Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars was exciting and should be, even for Ty.
Therefore I stared at him and I did this for awhile.
Then I asked incredulously, “How can I not be excited? That’s a lot of money. And you won that money. In Vegas. In a poker game that came right out of a movie. And that… is… fucking… cool!”
His eyes came to mine. “It wasn’t cool. It was easy. They were amateurs. The only one who knew what he was doin’ is Navarro and Navarro was more interested in your legs than the game.”
This surprised me, it surprised me but it didn’t take the wind out of my sails though it did make me curious.
“They were amateurs?” I asked.
“Think they’re big shots, they aren’t. Navarro was the only professional sittin’ that table.”
“Which one was Navarro?” I asked but I thought I knew.
“Slim. Black hair. Eyes sliding to the couch about a hundred f**kin’ times.”
I was right, I knew.
“So amateurs play for those kind of stakes?”
He nodded as he dropped his cufflinks on the desk and said, “The rest of those men got money to burn. Hobby. That’s why they let me play them. They don’t let just anyone sit a table. My boy that got me in the game told them about me. They knew my history; they thought I was an easy mark. Had money, not much, but enough and they were willin’ to take it. I spent an hour losin’ and they lost interest in me since they thought they took me, forgot to pay attention. Amateur mistake. Navarro knew what I was doin’ the minute I started doin’ it and that includes walkin’ in the room with you.”
This didn’t make sense. “If he’s a professional, why did he lose his concentration?”
His eyes came to me. “I won big but I’m seein’ with that question you were payin’ attention to me not the game. He won bigger and that’s how good he is. Half his mind on the game, half on your legs and he still took them for almost nine hundred large.”
“Oh,” I whispered, thinking nearly a million dollars was cool too but I wasn’t in a room with a man who won nearly a million dollars. I was in a room with Ty and what he won was more than enough. Then I asked, “What did Stetson guy mean when he told you that you wouldn’t be invited to sit another table? Was he just pissed you won?
“The Texan figured out I played him and wasn’t happy about it because he thinks I’m dirt. I’m an ex-con but even if I wasn’t, I’m half black and have been all my life so I can smell it when a man don’t like color. That man don’t like color so he thinks I’m beneath him, ex-con or not and ex-con only makes it worse and also makes him think he’s right, all the reasons he’s convinced himself it’s okay he don’t like color. He’s in his sixties and still tappin’ twenty-somethin’ ass because his money and status can buy him that kinda tail. Still, I played him. He doesn’t like that. But he didn’t like me the minute I walked in with you. Man like me shouldn’t have class like you. Mouthed off to save face and remind me of my place.”
I felt angry heat hit my chest as I whispered, “That isn’t cool.”
He shrugged. “Happens all the time. A mechanic who’s got color or he doesn’t hits a high stakes game, they don’t know my reputation or they do and think they can best me, I take their money, they get pissed.”
“So, is he going to block you from sitting another game?”
“I’m not gonna be sittin’ another game.”
I stared at him, thrown.
Then I asked, “What? Why not? You just won nearly half a million dollars.”
His eyes held mine and he explained, “Lexie, that shit sucks you in. You don’t control it, it controls you. I just spent five years essentially in chains. I don’t need to be chained to somethin’ else.”
I felt my breath start sticking in my throat because he meant this. He had no intention of getting sucked in in order to live large doing something that wasn’t exactly illegal (though I wasn’t sure about that) but still was slightly dubious and definitely unpredictable, testing Lady Luck who was unforgiving and living a life that wasn’t under his control.