‘No, Daddy didn’t believe in it,” Stacie answered.
Grant, who was driving, pulled into a small casino. Even though it was a Friday night, it was quiet. Tourist season hadn’t started yet, and it was just a few locals and visitors in the small place.
Seth walked up to one of the dollar machines and put a hundred-dollar bill in it. “Come on, honey, let’s see how lucky you are.”
Stacie walked up to the machine, but she wasn’t sure what to do. Seth showed her what needed to be done and she pulled the handle. The reels spun and…nothing. Stacie pulled again and still nothing. Stepping away, she looked at the floor.
“Come on, babe, try again. Sometimes it takes a few spins to warm these things up,” Jake told her, grabbing her around the waist and walking her back up to the machine. Placing his hand over hers, they spun the reels again and this time hit a small jackpot. Stacie got excited and started jumping up and down, while hollering, “Woohoo!”
“That was just a little one, honey. Try some more,” Seth encouraged her.
They played that same machine a few more minutes and cashed out a little more than the hundred dollars Seth had put in. The men walked her to several other machines and some she won, some she lost, before they walked her over to show her the table games.
The casino had just sta
rted a new poker table and Stacie could tell all her men were eager to play. Seth handed her some more money and told her, “ You go play a while, honey. We’ll all be here. Is that okay?”
Stacie nodded and wandered off to see what she could find. She still had a bucket of coins that she had cashed out with her men, so she put the money Seth gave her in her jeans pocket and started walking around the casino. She looked at the various types of machines, stopping here and there to put a few coins in. Roaming around, she didn’t realize that she had wandered into a different casino. There were several joined together and it was easy to drift from one to another.
Continuing to play and roam, Stacie drifted between casinos and finally realized she was thirsty and hungry. Just thinking she would grab a drink and find something to munch on, she walked up to the bar.
Taking an empty stool, she put a few coins in the machine embedded in the bar. It was a poker machine and Stacie wasn’t sure what to do. As she sat staring at the machine, wondering what to do next, the man next to her asked if she needed some help.
Smiling and nodding, she thanked the man. The bartender asked what she wanted to drink and the man ordered her a strawberry daiquiri.
“What’s that?” Stacie asked him. She hadn’t really drank before, but she liked strawberries and it sounded good.
“It’s like a strawberry smoothie,” the man told her. “My name is Greg. What’s yours, sugar?”
“Hi, Greg, I’m Stacie,” she answered, holding out her hand for him to shake.
Greg wrapped her small hand in both of his huge ones and held it just a minute longer than necessary. The bartender brought their drinks and Stacie took a sip of hers. “Yummy,” she announced and turned back to her game.
Greg scooted his chair closer to hers and started explaining the game to her. Soon he had one hand resting on the back of her chair. Stacie was too engrossed in learning the game to realize what was going on. She sipped her drink frequently, and when the glass got low, Greg ordered her another one.
Stacie’s mind was on the game. If she could learn this, maybe she could sit and play with her men and they wouldn’t have sent her off. She didn’t realize that she had wandered away from them, or what Greg was doing. All her mind was focused on was learning the game.
Greg explained what each hand meant and how they increased in value. He showed her how to access the screen that explained everything and showed the value of the hands. He also showed her how to play, and which cards to save and which to throw away.
Soon he had moved his hand from the back of her chair and had it resting on her thigh. Stacie didn’t want to be rude—he had been so nice—so she moved her chair a little to the side. She couldn’t go too far and still play the game, and she moved his hand back to his own leg, a move which backfired on her, because he trapped her hand with his on his thigh.
“Just relax, darling. We aren’t hurting anything,” he told her, pulling her stool back toward his and slipping one hand back around her stool, caging her close to him.
Stacie tried to turn her knees away and slip off the stool, but she was too close to the bar to move. “I…I need to find my men, I have to go.” She was starting to panic and felt a little woozy all of a sudden. What was in those drinks? She was slurring her words. How many had she had? She needed to pay for them.
Trying again to stand up, she waved the bartender over. “How…how much do I owe for the drinks?” she slurred.
“Drinks are free when you’re gambling, miss. Is there anyone here with you?” He could tell she was feeling no pain, and knew Greg’s reputation. He didn’t think this was a good situation.
“I came with the Handsome, I mean Randsome, no, the Ransom brothers,” she finally got out, sitting back on the stool.
“Where are they, honey?” he asked, having not seen any of the brothers in the small casino.
“They were going to play…a game…a game with cards…like this?” She was getting sleepy.
“Poker, were they playing poker, honey?” The bartender was starting to get concerned. He didn’t know Greg well, but wondered if he was a scumbag and had slipped something in one of her drinks. The girl hadn’t seemed into him, just busy with the game. Maybe she had just had too much to drink. She had had several daiquiris.
Greg looked at the bartender and said, “I got her, Johnny. No worries,” as he slipped one arm around Stacie’s waist.