Capítulo 472: Ch472 - Cashing Out
The tension in the casino was palpable, and everyone seemed to be waiting for violence to erupt. Many looked at Alex as if he was mad. He had waltzed into The Paradise casino and won over a hundred million, and he seemed to think they would allow him to just walk away. That wasn't how things worked.
The director took a cigar out of his inside pocket, put it in his mouth, and lit it. He wasn't sure how best to handle the situation, so he stalled for time. If they had been somewhere more private, he would have had Alex beaten and disposed of. But they were in the middle of the casino. He had to tread carefully.
The man in white also didn't make a move. Nor did he say anything. He was sure that Alex had cheated, but he couldn't understand how he had done it. And he had no way of proving it. The roof of the casino was riddled with cameras, but if they had seen anything, someone would have let him know by now.
The director sucked on his cigar and shifted his gaze from Alex to the man in white. He was waiting for him to do something. The man in white was an expert gambler, and an expert cheater. If anyone could figure out how Alex had managed to win, the director knew that it would be the man in white.
Alex stared at their dumbstruck faces. He was starting to lose his patience. "Can you suddenly not speak?" he asked in a raised voice. "I want my winnings, and I want you to admit that you were cheating. Ten games and not a single win. Then we change things up, and I start winning immediately. How do you explain that?"
The people around Alex started nodding along with his words. He was winning them over, and he was turning them against the casino. Many of them were frequent visitors, and the management had always smiled at them and enticed them with kind words. If it turned out that they had been cheating them the whole time, there would be hell to pay. It was a gross betrayal of their trust.
A discontented murmur rose from the crowd. Many glared suspiciously at the director and the man in white. "He's right," one man said. "If the game isn't fixed, ten losses in a row in roulette almost never happens. If you didn't cheat, bring out the other wheel and prove it."
"Right," a second man chimed in. "Come to think of it, I've never won a single game of blackjack in this place, either. Every other casino I've been to, I've won, and I've lost. But here, I've never won even a single time. Something's up!"
More and more people chimed in, and the director looked nervously around the room. Things were getting out of hand. It wouldn't be long before they turned into a mob. He was already being encircled. He had to make a move.
He tried to make eye contact with the security staff, but he knew that there weren't enough of them to stop a general riot. He decided not to call on them. Instead, he made a run for it. He pushed some people out of the way, dashed across the casino floor, went up the stairs, and ran into his office. In the upper drawer of his desk, he kept a handgun. He picked it up, and then he fired a few rounds into the ceiling.
Panic set in immediately. The crowd that had gathered by the roulette table scattered, and there was a whirlwind of bodies on the casino floor as everyone ran for cover. But there were some who didn't try to hide. The gunshots had triggered other instincts in them, and their instinct was to defend themselves. Fights broke out everywhere on the floor, and the casino erupted in chaos.
Alex saw his opportunity to escape, and he took it. On his way out, he passed the cashing-out station. It had been abandoned in all the commotion, and the door was open. He went inside, grabbed the money they owed him in cash, stuffed it into his pockets, and walked out on deck. He walked to the back of the boat, got into an inflatable dinghy, and raced off back to Atlantic City.
When he got back to shore, he pulled some of the money out of his pockets and looked closely at it. He had taken the highest-value bills that he could find, but it would be unlikely to match the money he had been owed. But it was certainly enough. He felt it was right to pay the portly man for his help with the roulette, since he had tried to warn him that the casino was dangerous, and he would have to return the money the Moon girls had lent him, but there would still be an enormous amount left over.
Alex smiled. There would be enough left over for him to buy Debbie all the new clothes in the world. And a new house on top of that. They would live like rich folks, and it was all because the casino had been stupid enough to try and cheat. He laughed to himself, stuffed the money back into his pockets, and walked away.
**
He took the train back to his apartment near Oak Ridge High School. By the time he got back there, it was late in the evening. The sun had gone down, and the streets were dark, but the lights in the apartment were still on. As he approached the door to the apartment building, he sighed contentedly. He knew that Debbie was inside, and it made him feel as if he was truly coming home.
When he came into the apartment, he closed the door behind him and went to the bathroom to take a shower before bed. It was only once he got out of the shower that he noticed how clean and tidy the whole apartment looked. Everything was in its proper place, and his night clothes were lying neatly folded over the armrest of the living-room sofa. Debbie had truly gone the extra mile.
He was overcome with gratitude and a warm sense of home. He wasn't used to the feeling of being lovingly cared for by a true partner, and it overwhelmed him. At that moment, he could have sworn that he was happier than he had ever been in his life.
This is what life is supposed to be like, he thought. Simple, safe, and warm. As long as there's a place like this get back to at the end of the day, everything else is worth it.
He went into the bedroom and found Debbie. She was lying on her side on the bed, still wearing her regular clothes. Her cheek was pressed against the covers, and she had a blissful smile on her face. She must have fallen asleep waiting for him, and she seemed to be dreaming pleasant dreams.
He walked up to her and watched her sleeping. He didn't want to disturb her rest, but she stirred when his shadow came across her face. She blinked sleepily a few times, looked up at him with love in her sleepy eyes, and stretched herself out.
"Have you eaten?" she asked. Alex smiled at her. To come home to someone who cared so much for him was more than he could ever have dreamed of. He still could hardly believe his luck. In his mind, the loving girl who lay looking up at him took on a kind of extraordinary dreamlike beauty.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder