Chapter 42: Born to be a Gambling Man

The agreed upon time was in the middle of the night, on Sunday, inside a private room.  Just two people, Rhys, and the man that would be representing Patrizio.  The robot dealer would record everything, so no lies could be made about the result.  One game.  Winner takes all.

 
  Patrizio's choice, Mike Braun, head of his Gambling Empire.  Mike had never lost a bet, and he wasn't planning on losing this one.  The stakes were high for him, if he lost, he would lose his life.  He studied his cards intently, and considered his options.

 
  Rhys didn't feel nervous in any way.  He was confident in his card shark abilities, even if he was playing against a Great White.  He flipped through his cards, and studied each one, giving the impression that the hand he had been dealt was a bad one.  It wasn't good, Rhys admitted to himself, but he had been dealt worse.

 
  The game dragged on, long into the night.  Tokens were placed, and cards revealed, as hand after hand their tokens piled up beside them.  Mike had a respectable pile of tokens next to him, but Rhys was keeping the pressure on.

  

  "You look a little nervous there, Mike."  Rhys casually said, a slight smirk on his lips.

  "Shut up you little Bloodsucker."  Mike growled back.

 

  Mike counted out his tokens, and placed them.  Rhys flicked a few more onto the pile.  "Are you sweating yet?"  Rhys asked him.  "I would be.  I bet Monty isn't going to be too pleased once he hears that you lost."

  "You're a cocky little Bloodsucker."  Mike glared at Rhys.  "When this game is finished, I'll pummel your body, just as I'll pummel you in this game!"

  Rhys scoffed.  "Anytime, Fatman."

  "One more word..."

  "How about three?"

  Mike pushed his chair back and stood up, Rhys sat there, grinning at him.  "Go ahead, Fatman.  Try it."

  Mike sat back down as Rhys laughed.  "After this game, your ass is mine."

  "Big words for such a little Fatman."  Rhys chuckled some more as he stared down at his recently revealed cards.

  
  Mike stared at them as well.  He could feel the sweat beading and sliding off his face.

 
  He wiped his brow, and looked at the cards the Robot had just dealt him, and then back to the cards in front of Rhys.  He carefully placed his cards down on the table.  "You cheated!" he snarled.

  Rhys couldn't hold back his grin.  "Cheated?  Me?  With the Robot recording my every move?  Impossible.  Face it Fatman, you're just not as good as I am."

  
  Mike looked upwards and began to pray, while Rhys gathered up all of his tokens.

 
    Once his tokens were gathered up, Rhys pushed a button on the Robot, and inserted a USB thumb drive.  He hit the record, and pulled the thumb drive once all the information was recorded.  He kissed it and then he stuck it in his pocket.  He heard the door slam and glanced up.  Mike had disappeared.

  Rhys shrugged.  Mike was not his problem.  He had proof now, that he had won.  This time around, no one was going to keep him from his kid.  He cautiously made his way back outside, and headed for his car.  Reilly was standing next to it.

  "Well?"

  "What are you doing here?  I said I'd handle it, and I did."  Rhys couldn't stop the smile.  "I smoked him." he boasted.

  Reilly looked at Rhys and shrugged.  "I wanted to know right away if you lost your life to Monty or not.  How did you do it?"

  Rhys jumped into his car, and Reilly slid into the passenger's seat.  "Monty overlooked something by sending his best man."

  "What's that?"

  "I can read minds.  Fatman there, was broadcasting his cards and game plan, it really wasn't all that hard to beat him."

  "Hmm, I don't like the sound of that Rhys.  You couldn't read Monty at all, but he sends someone in that is easily read?  It doesn't make sense."

  "I don't care if it doesn't make sense.  A deal is a deal, and I won.  All I want is to be able to see my kid, whenever I want.  And I won that today."

  Rhys pulled up in front of the house.  "Be careful Rhys."  Reilly told him, as he got out of the vehicle.  "Something doesn't smell right."

  Rhys grinned at him.  "I'm the epitome of being careful."

  Reilly snorted, and would have said something more, but once they got close to the house, they found Elly standing outside the front door in a puddle.

 
 "Reilly!" she gasped.  "I don't think I'm going to make it to the hospital.  The baby is coming!"  With that said, she gave birth to another boy, Drake.

 
    "Oh Reilly!" she whispered.  "He is beautiful!"  She kissed the top of his head.  "I do not even mind so much that he is a boy, though I did really want a girl.  We will just have to keep trying until we get a girl."

  "Why are you so fixated on a girl?"  Rhys wanted to know.  Boys would be more fun, he reasoned.  Girls were just a problem waiting to happen, just look at all the problems girls had caused for him.

  "Apparently, there are not that many female fairies."  Reilly answered for her.

  "That's right, silly Rhys!"  Elly admonished him.  "Boys cannot have babies!  Sadly, we fairies are more likely to have boys than girls."

  Rhys rolled his eyes.  "Right Elly, how silly of me to forget that boys don't have babies."  He gave Reilly a look, and Reilly simply smiled at him. 

   Drake's birth overshadowed the fact that it was also Puck's birthday.  He grew up with a minimum of fuss, and a smile.

  

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  Challenge Notes:  I actually wasn't sure which way I was going to play Rhys' card game.  I decided to leave it to Chance and the game, since I had some story ideas either way.  Lucky for Rhys, he won, lol.

  It's a short chapter---I wanted it to be mainly about Rhys and his card game, but I am not a gambler, lol, and couldn't think of any way to make it much longer without it being boring.  So I opted for short! :P  Now he'll have access to his kid, so Rhys is riding high at the moment.

  Lots more kids on the way for next chapter.  Five is the goal, I have 2 down.  The P.I. career isn't too exciting---I don't think I've missed much by not playing it all these years, lol.  I still have the Expansionist goal to do, but I have an idea on that, finally! :)

  (I was also goofing around with my blog settings again.  I'm not entirely happy with it yet, but it's getting there.  I'm trying to make things easier to read---some of my title colors weren't dark enough, the page seemed too bright to me--I had a headache, lol---and then I decided to just change the background while I was at it.)

  A pic of Rhys' daughter Corrine.  She's a vampire/werewolf mix like her Dad, and she has Rhys' haircolor.  But the skin/eyes, are from her mother.

 
  Some more MV spam--this time in Winter. :)