章 5: Chapter 5: A True Gambler Never Stops Until He Win’s Big
*SIGH*
"Hey, stop holding me hostage and give me what your boss promised!" Ricky angrily yelled but Frank on the side shook his head.
"Not until Lucky wakes up." Frank was firm in this statement as Ricky gawked at him.
"BUT THAT COULD TAKE DAYS-"
"Then you'll just have to wait a couple of days." Frank heartlessly said though didn't even show a sliver of hostility towards Ricky.
Ricky explained what had happened thoroughly, which made Frank grateful but slightly angry.
Grateful that this kid had helped his boss, but angry that he had ended up at death's doorstep.
However, although Frank trusted Ricky's words at face value, he still needed them to be verified by Lucky, since his words were absolute and you don't get far in this business while taking things at face value.
"What if he doesn't wake up?" Ricky calmed down and carefully asked, grabbing his hair as Frank shrugged while picking his teeth.
"Then I guess this is your new home." Frank quickly countered as Ricky slumped in his chair.
"Can I atleast get a slice?" Ricky asked while touching his empty stomach which had remained empty until last night.
"Yeah, why not." Frank shrugged before reaching over to a dial phone.
30 minutes later,
"Whoa there kiddo, slow down this ain't a race." Frank gestured towards Ricky greedily consuming the first meal he had in this life.
"Damn, this is a good pizza." Ricky ignored Frank and complimented as he let out a hearty laugh.
"Best believe that Italiano's has the best pizza in all of brooklyn!" Frank showed a toothy smile while taking a slice.
"So kid, got any parents that would worry about ya?" Frank asked while wanting to make sure they wouldn't have any trouble holding him for a while.
"I'm an orphan." Ricky nonchalantly spoke as Frank frowned and lowered the pizza.
"...."
"Was it the tuberculosis that got em?" Frank asked but Ricky shrugged after stuffing his fourth slice into his mouth.
"I don't know since yesterday I got hit in the head with a plank and it's caused me to lose my memories, I don't even remember my closest friends." Ricky said while reaching for another slice, nonchalantly giving out his tragic backstory which made Frank's frown deepen.
"I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine." Ricky waved him off while he choked on the cheese slices as although Frank was a cruel man, he wasn't a heartless one.
Frank still showed compassion to kids and women, to a certain degree, and could reason with Ricky on a deeper level.
*BURRRRRP*
Ricky let out a roar of a burp while patting his enlarged stomach full of greasy pizza, leaning back in his chair.
"That really hit the spot~" Ricky let out a refreshing sigh as Frank cocked a smile while raising an eyebrow at the now empty pizza box.
"Not much of a sharer are ya?" Frank asked while taking a bite of the lone slice he managed to obtain.
"I'm a greedy man, Frank." Ricky smiled, picking his teeth only for Frank to hit his knee while letting out some muffled laughter while trying to swallow the chewed pizza.
"You're an interesting kid, ya know that?" Frank asked while taking another bite of the pizza which made Ricky shrug.
"Better than being a boring one."
"You said it."
The next day,
Ricky had his head leaned against the wall, his body covered in a blanket as Frank watched over him.
He didn't sleep much, as the anxiety of the worst outcome kept gnawing away at his heart, making sleeping near impossible.
"Hey Meyer, how is he?" Frank stood up as Meyer walked into the room with a refreshed smile.
"The doc worked all night and said Lucky will pull through." Meyer said and once he did, Frank let out a sigh of relief at it.
"Of thank the lord almighty." Frank fell back down with a relieved look as Meyer gazed at the sleeping Ricky.
"The doc also said that although it was a shotty way to close the wound, the kid basically saved Lucky's life." Meyer said, his eyes as well as Frank's turned to Ricky, who instead of sleeping, was doing a little money dance.
"Who's about to get paid? I'm about to get paid." Ricky repeated this question and answered it while moving his hands all around as if praising the lord himself.
*PFFFT*
Frank found the humor in this arrogant little kid dancing weirdly and started cracking up until he rushed over to grab the kid into a hug.
"KUERK!" A pained breath was let out of Ricky as Frank started squeezing the living life out of him due to his gratefulness.
"Ya did good kid, ya did good." Meyer nodded with a small smile though Ricky was panicking while his face turned purple.
"Get this gorilla off of me!" Ricky said in an exasperated breath as Frank flinched before putting him down.
*COUGH*
*COUGH*
"Jesus Christ, you're strong." Ricky let out after regaining his breath as Frank had on a dumb grin.
"Of course, that's why they call me Frank 'Gorilla' Vespucci." Frank informed him as Ricky nodded in agreement.
"Can I have my money now?" Ricky held out his hand as they both burst out laughing.
"C'mon kid, we can't give you three nickels without knowing if our boss really agreed with it or not but you can leave now." Meyer calmly informed Ricky whose face immediately turned sour.
"Then I ain't leaving." Ricky informed the two as he hopped back onto the chair which made the two guys raise an eyebrow.
"Listen-"
"I ain't leaving." Ricky squinted at Meyer who looked at Frank for help but the big guy was simply scratching his head.
*Sigh*
"Kid, your already in the Luciano families good graces-"
Before Meyer could say anything more, Ricky seemingly pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket before setting them down on the table.
"You guys are part of the mafia, right?" Ricky guessed since they fit the stereotype and asked as Meyer raised an eyebrow while walking up to the kid.
"We're business men, nothing more nothing less." Meyer crossed his arms though Ricky shook his head with a small chuckle.
"Whatever, you guys give loans, right?" Ricky asked while playing with the deck of cards.
Ricky wasn't a particularly patient guy and upon realizing that Lucky might be in a coma for a while, Ricky thought of another idea.
Before he received this system, Ricky was a poor gambler who almost always lost his winnings time and time again when playing.
This was why he even turned to loan sharks, as he honestly believed that you could never quit too early in gambling, indicating he had a gambling problem.
However this weird system gave him the opportunity to scam these two in the most curious way.
"Our interest is serious kid-"
"Aye Meyer, let's loan the kid 100 dollars with no interest." Frank took the bait as he pulled up a chair and sat at the table.
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!' Ricky laughed inwardly while maintaining a neutral expression.
He had just taken a card and put it in his inventory, replacing it with another one from a duplicate deck.
"Fine but don't put the kid into too much debt."
'Debt, all your money is about to be mine'
2 days later,
"Urgh~" Lucky let out a small groan as his whole body ached, followed by a flurry of numbness.
His unbandaged eye opened, and a blurry visage appeared before him as he gazed up at the ceiling.
"LUCKY!" Meyer rushed to Lucky's side while throwing away his newspaper while revealing his excited smile at his boss recovering.
"Is this hell?" Lucky whispered which immediately made Meyer chuckle, patting his boss/ childhood friend's shoulder.
"You're at Italiano's." Meyer informed the weak Lucky who let out a small sign of relief but before he could close his eyes, they shot open.
"Wait, you didn't do anything to that kid right?" Lucky suddenly asked since although he was ruthless, he always repaid his debts.
"Don't worry Lucky, that kid is fine." Meyer had a ugly expression on his face as he weakly nodded.
"Kids a character, right?" Lucky smiled before flinching in pain while Meyer let out an ironic smile.
"Oh, so you talked with him?" Meyer asked while pulling out a seat next to him while the latter shook his finger.
"No but when we met, instead of helping, the little bugger started rifling through my pockets." Lucky spoke though not with a frown but a smile as Meyer started slapping his knee.
"That little scamp!" Meyer bursted out in immense laughter as Lucky joined in.
"So did you send the kid off yet or-"
"No, that greedy goblin is in the basement of italiano's." Meyer ruffled his own hair while confessing as Lucky let out a small sigh while misinterpreting the reasoning.
"Let the kid go and free him-"
"Oh no Lucky, he has been free to leave since two days ago but-...." Meyer shook his hands, and a surprised Lucky looked at him, noticing the downhearted expression on Meyer's face.
*Sigh*
"What happened?" Lucky let out a sigh, leaning back into his pillow as Meyer cleared his throat.
*Ahem*
"Well first off, the kid is a crazy good gambler."
Meanwhile in the basement,
"READ EM AND WEEP BOYS!" Ricky roared as he threw down triple twos as loud dejected groans were let out.
"Dammit."
"My money~"
"Gosh darn it!."
A chunk of the Luciano gang had gathered in their home base of Italiano's yet it wasn't for their usual meeting but instead, all of them were gathered around a table.
There, three adults sat across from a small child who had stacks of goods towered next to him as he greedily grabbed more items in the middle.
"Don't worry boys, I'll take good care of your valuables." Ricky greedily pulled the pile, slightly salivating while the materialistic goods were gently taken into his embrace as a toothy smile highlighted his being.
*BAM*
"HE'S CHEATING! HE HAS TO BE CHEATING!" A man with slicked back hair who just lost all his money roared while hitting the table.
"How about instead of whining towards me, you go cry about it to your mommy?" Ricky asked with a thoughtful look as an ugly expression immediately formed on his face.
"Tony we've been through this, we've searched the kid multiple times and even cut off his long sleeves into short sleeves, he can't be cheating." Frank sighed while patting Tony's shoulder as he crossed his arm.
"But he's-"
"Better than you?" Ricky finished Tony's sentence while putting on a golden watch and a golden chain he had just received from the man whining in front of him.
"No you're-"
"Incredibly good looking?" Ricky continued to interrupt Tony while pushing the valuables into his already existing pile.
*BAM*
"YOU'RE A LITTLE SHIT!" Tony roared as he tried to lunge at him yet Frank grabbed his collar before throwing him to the side.
*Crash*
"What the hell Frank!" Tony yelled as he rubbed his forehead, a small cut forming that started to drip a small stream of blood along his face.
"The kid isn't to be touched until the boss wakes up." Frank informed Tony as he tried to say something until he saw Frank bringing out his brass knuckles.
"You sure you want to do this, Tony?" Frank questioned only for Tony's face to immediately pale before he shook his head earnestly.
"N-No Frank, I'm good." Tony ducked his head as Frank raised an eyebrow before pocketing the knuckles.
Ricky simply smiled at this while putting on the numerous gold rings onto each of his fingers as he sought to dress himself in gold.
These past two days, Ricky has been thoroughly scamming all these mafia members out of their precious money and valuables.
At first, Ricky had gotten worried about poor sports but Frank, the very same who had been scammed out of the pocket money on him, always protected Ricky no matter how much wealth he scammed from his fellow members since the gang was in his debt.
"Thanks Frank, here my gratitude." Ricky flicked a gold ring towards Frank as he could no longer fit any more bling onto his fingers and it seemed wasteful not to spend his wealth.
Frank raised an eyebrow but when he opened his hand and saw the dazzling gold ring, his toothy grin was revealed as he chuckled but slipped the ring onto his finger.
"This kid!" Frank's chuckle turned into a mad laugh as the other members joined in while Ricky tended to his pile of money.
"It seems that you kept yourself busy in my family's establishment." A familiar dry and husky voice sounded as the laughter was flicked off like a lightswitch and all eyes slowly turned to the back.
"BOSS!" Frank exclaimed while rushing to Lucky who was walking with bandages strung all across his upper body and part of his face while using a luxurious cane to walk.
"Hey buddy." Lucky let out a small as Frank rushed to pull his boss and sworn brother into his arms only to be stopped by Meyer.
"You big oof, this is why you need to think before doing!" Meyer reprimanded as Frank became confused before realizing he would have hurt Lucky.
"I-I'm sorry-"
"It's fine but if you and the rest of you wouldn't mind, I'd like to talk to that little squirt over there." Lucky pointed and all eyes followed its direction before the accumulated gaze gathered all around Ricky.
"Did you come here to give me my twenty grand?" Ricky, without a hint of fear, asked after putting a wad of money into a golden clip before continuing to do the same thing with a silver one.
The piles were easily worth around 10,000-20,000 though the money equaled around 8,000 however that didn't mean that Ricky wasn't to stay organized.
"Kids these days" Lucky shook his head while limping towards the chair across from Ricky before sitting down in front of him.
Frank made a gesture to the other members as they quickly vacated the basement before only four people remained
Ricky, Lucky, Meyer, and Frank as the two could immediately understand his intentions while taking a seat at the table with Ricky.
"I hear your quite the gambler-"
"Ricky, that's my name not 'kid'." Ricky interrupted Lucky as Meyer scrunched his eyebrows though Lucky held up his hand.
"I apologize if I offended you, Ricky." Lucky remained respectful and dignified, making Ricky nod his head.
"You didn't, it's just annoying how literally everyone here has been calling me kid while I've been literally yelling 'YEAH RICKY' after winning all their money." Ricky shrugged, passively bragging only for Lucky to smirk before his eyes trailed towards the small piles of valuables.
"Your skills are impressive." Lucky said while reaching to grab the deck of cards while starting to unravel each of them.
"Do you know why they call me Lucky?" Lucky asked while slowly undoing the deck of cards as Ricky remained calm while doing so.
'Does he think I'm some amateur who wouldn't replace all the cards after every set?' Ricky scoffed internally since he had covered all his bases while watching him shuffle it continuously as if looking for something.
However to his surprise, Lucky didn't put the cards up right but started placing the entire deck face down while showing a calm smile while gazing directly into Ricky's eyes.
"Ricky, let's make a bet." Lucky said once the cards were all flipped downwards as Ricky squinted.
"What? Are you angry that I shook down all of your underlings?" Ricky said without a single ounce of fear.
The reason for this was that it wasn't his first time dealing with the mob; he had actually come into contact with them in the past.
However, it was a weird event that could be summed up as him helping the son of a mafia head avoid getting scammed into a timeshare.
Ricky never knew what happened to the salesmen, but he did get a face-to-face meeting with the leader.
Basically, Ricky learned that although the mafia was ruthless, there wasn't anything in this world that they held higher than their word.
So, when Ricky understood that Lucky owed him for saving his life, he made himself comfortable in his own house, masking his more rude gestures under the curtain of child-like innocence.
"I will, of course, give you the promised twenty thousand as I am a man of my word." Lucky leaned back with a calm expression only for Ricky to start to gaze at him warily.
"But?" Ricky asked as he saw Lucky scanning the cover of the cards as if looking for something.
"But if you can find the king of diamonds on your first try then I'll double it and you'll walk out of here with forty grand." Lucky whispered temptations of greed as Ricky's eyes lit up in a golden hue of want.
"And if you're wondering if we'll come back and steal it, then you have the word of the Luciano gang that no one will take your winnings." Lucky spoke as Frank and Meyer raised an eyebrow in confusion since they didn't know what he was doing, yet Lucky remained firm.
"Then I'll take your bet." Ricky smiled as he started scanning the cards while faking his interest over several before landing one smack dab in the center.
Picking it up, Lucky's eyes were glued on it though Ricky used sleight of hands to briefly escape the view of all three of them for a millisecond before replacing it with a king of diamonds.
"Maybe they should call me Lucky." Ricky bragged before revealing the card to all three of them before throwing the card in front of Lucky who showed an amused expression.
"Would you like your money in cash or in a bank?" Lucky asked and once he did, Ricky showed a delighted expression before thinking intently about it.
"What bank?"
"Bank of America." Lucky informed him as Ricky nodded his head before shrugging.
"Better than hiding it in my mattress." Ricky joked and Lucky let out a small chuckle.
"You live in an orphanage right?" Lucky asked though understood when Ricky nodded.
"Roosevelt Orphanage to be exact." Ricky clarified while reaching for his deck of cards yet Lucky didn't stop him.
"I'll send someone to notify you once it's done." Lucky informed Ricky as he saw the little kid put the deck of cards and the money into a burlap sack that someone had graciously donated to him.
"Then it was a pleasure doing business with you." Ricky smiled as Lucky nodded before going to his feet and holding out his hand.
"The pleasure was all mine, Ricky." Lucky smiled and Ricky shook his hand shortly before he walked towards the stairs.
Ricky walked out of Italiano's with a bright smile as he was untouched with a sack full of money which made him chuckle madly down the street.
"Alright, I'll be the first to say it but what the hell just happened?" Frank asked after seeing Lucky sit back onto the table while lightly tapping on it.
"Frank's right, why did you promise to give away forty grand?" Meyer questioned from the side though Lucky chuckled.
"Do you know what the most ironic thing about being named Lucky is?" Lucky spoke while reaching into his coat.
"It's that I don't believe in luck." Lucky answered his own question as both Frank and Meyer widened their eyes upon seeing a card being pulled out of his sleeve.
"But he-"
"You boys all got played." Lucky laughed while setting down the king of diamonds as Meyer and Frank became baffled.
*PFFFFFFFT*
"That little rascal!" Frank joined in on Lucky's laughter as Meyer stared incredulously at the king of diamonds.
"At first, I thought the cards were trick cards that had signifiers on them but after scanning them I was wrong." Lucky started explaining while grinning madly at the king of diamonds he had pocketed while shuffling.
"But when that kid seemingly pulled another king of diamonds out of thin air, I almost burst out laughing right then and there." Lucky spoke before picking up the playing card again.
"So do you want me to renege on the deal-"
"No, the kid won it, I never said this king of diamonds but 'a' king of diamonds so he won the bet." Lucky was a man of his word and wouldn't go back on what he promised.
"Then why not say anything?" Meyer asked as Lucky tapped the card on the table.
"Isn't it obvious." Lucky smiled as a couple of golden teeth revealed themselves while pocketing the king of diamonds.
"I want an excuse to meet that kid again."
Meanwhile at the orphanage,
"RICKY!" Steve ran forward with clear worry scribbled across his skinny face as Bucky also dropped what he was doing to rush towards him as well.
"Hey Steve-what are you doing?"
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