All Chapters of Deuces Wild: The Billionaire's Dangerous Obsession: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

122 Chapters

The Long Game

POV: BRIGAILNine days.Jerry and Michele were gone by morning. No warning. No note. Russell had them moved to an undisclosed location before she woke up, which told her exactly how closely he had been watching her since she arrived.She played her hand the only way she could with nothing in it.Every morning Russell summoned Corbett to the conference room and put him through a parade of small, pointless instructions. Check the slot machines at the east wing. Prepare the suites for the Threadgills and the Talleys. Brief the pit bosses before William's shift change.Corbett nodded at each one.Brigail sat in the second chair against the wall and watched.Russell's message was not subtle. He had been delivering the same one for nine days without using a single word.If I could do it to him, I could do it to you.She wore her poker face and watched Russell in return. She was beginning to understand why Felipe had called him a patient man. He didn't rush. He didn't threaten. He simply con

Liquid B

POV: BRIGAILShe was expecting the knock.After she had left Russell's office, Barry had met her in the casino with a brown paper bag containing two vials of what he called liquid B. Russell's pharmacologists had been developing it for years on the Nevada farm. It was a designer cocktail of barbiturates that in low doses produced euphoria and physical numbness and in high doses stopped a heart within minutes. Clean. Fast. Virtually undetectable in a standard tox screen.The perfect silent killer.She opened the door before he could knock twice.Barry's eyes moved over her. The heavy-lidded look. The glass of vodka tonic in her hand. The lineup of empty minibar bottles on the TV rack."How many drinks have you had?" he asked, stepping inside.She swayed back to the bed and dropped onto it with theatrical weight. "More than enough," she said.He checked his watch. "It's almost midnight. Are you going to be able to do this?"She bent down and picked up a stiletto from the floor and put i

Barry's Office

POV: BRIGAILLatoya Reynolds had given her the advice three years ago on a Tuesday night at the bar when Brigail was still wiping tables."The only person more dangerous than a man with a roofie," Lala said, pointing at Maudette who was leaning against Jerry's shoulder, cocktail in hand, "is a girl pretending to be wasted. Nobody watches what a drunk girl does. They just blame it on the booze."The blue drink he had slid across the bar to Brigail was completely virgin.She had remembered that advice every single day for the past week.In Barry's bathroom, she straightened up from her knees and rinsed her mouth at the sink. The lobster bisque she had used to fill the two slim shampoo containers had made a convincing mess on the marble tiles. She rinsed the containers clean and dropped them in the bin.She stepped into the tub and turned on the water.She had been sober since she arrived at the Mandalay.The nine empty minibar bottles had been poured down the sink one by one as she rest

Cold Palm

POV: ELITwo weeks. One month, tops.He was already counting from the lobby.The elevator had taken her down. He had watched her go. He had stood there until the number above the door stopped changing and then he had walked back inside the Obsidian Ace and told himself he was fine.He was not fine.He had replicated the rule of threes in his head on the walk back through the casino floor, the way Godric used to recite it when he wanted to make a point about necessity.Three minutes without air. Three days without water. Three weeks without food.Brigail was none of those things. She was considerably worse."Come to think of it," she had said, leaning into him in the elevator with her shoulder against his arm, "you'll be able to see me and I won't be able to see you. That's not really fair, is it."He had looked at their reflection in the polished elevator doors. Her hair loose, the yellow sundress, her hand in his."None of this is fair," he had said.She had lifted their hands and pr

Steganography

POV: ELIThe square paper coasters arrived twice a day.Malcolm, the room service attendant assigned to Brigail's floor, was one of Eli's dormant assets. He had been in place for two years, blending in, waiting. Now he was the postal service.The messages were concise. The eyeshadow powder Brigail brushed across the coaster surface revealed text that only showed under the specific wavelength of the UV pen light Eli kept on his desk.It was steganography. He had learned it at fourteen to cheat his way through Algebra. It turned out to have considerably more impressive applications.CJ and M were relocated, she sent him after Corbett left for Macau.He sent back: Found J and M. Travel documents ready.Green at 12. Alert T. Will get sample of B. That was this morning's message.He called Pam and Jimmy into his office."Tonight," he said.Thalia Romero was a pit boss who had been feeding Eli information for three years. She needed to die tonight and need to do it convincingly. Jake and hi

The First Kill

POV: RUSSELLNo one lived fifty years in the City of Sin without committing one.Russell Edgington had committed his first at seven years old.His grandfather Appius had woken him before dawn with the butt of a double barrel against his shin. "Get your jacket. We're going hunting."They drove to Prentiss County in a red flat-fender jeep, four of them, in the kind of silence that didn't invite questions. The sun was just coming over the tree line when they reached Appius's favorite ground. Thick forest. Filtered light. The smell of wet earth and old winter.Russell crouched behind a bush with his grandfather's voice in his ear and his muscles burning from holding still.That was when he saw the red sash.He recognized Fintan Brigant immediately. The recluse from Nashville who had been cutting into the Edgington poultry business in Mississippi. Appius hated the man with the specific intensity he reserved for anyone who operated in territory he considered his.Fintan had better positioni

The Board Shifts

POV: RUSSELL / ELIFor someone who owned two casinos, Russell Edgington was not a gambler.Gambling meant surrendering control to chance. He operated on calculated risks, on variables he could see, move, and when necessary, remove. He had done it for fifty years and he had done it well.Today, for the first time in a long time, he felt the board shifting without his hand on it.Barry Carrolton and Sandy Sechrest took their seats across from him with the careful steps of people who understood the temperature of the room and were not eager to raise it."Mr. Edgington." Barry started with a cautious nod. "I only have bad news. Javier still can't locate the source of the system override. Whoever built the firewall around our software knew exactly what they were doing. He says it would help to know where the bug was installed."Russell already knew where it was installed. Javier had told him yesterday and he had ordered the man to keep it between them. He said nothing now and turned to San

Moses Is On The Move

POV: BRIGAIL / JERRY / ELIIt wasn't the Rosetta Stone.Brigail didn't need a law degree to understand what Russell had slid across the desk. A change of ownership. His name out, hers in. The Edgington Industries, all of it, signed over to his granddaughter.She flipped the folder shut."My signature's precious," she said. "Unless you explain exactly what this is, I'm not signing anything."Russell leaned back in his chair and clasped his fingers together. "It's a gift.""There's always a catch.""I'm broke," he said, without missing a beat.She almost laughed. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand and let a little of it out anyway. "So what you're giving me is a house of cards. Ready to collapse at the first push."The muscles in his jaw leaped. He was not finding this funny.She let her amusement die. "I'm not signing it. Find another patsy.""What gives you the impression you have a choice?" His tone was lazy but the threat underneath it was not. "This is a formality. My

The Last Act

POV: ELI / BRIGAILThere was no magic trick. Only a perfectly choreographed illusion.Eli pushed his black statement glasses up his nose and scanned the sixth row from the ring. Pam and Roman sat on either side of his double, who had the good sense to keep one hand against the side of his face. From four rows up and slightly left, Mr. Tuxedo was convincing enough. He had cost Pam a considerable sum and was worth every dollar.He would have been more satisfied if Brigail hadn't given the man a second look when she walked in with Russell.Turn around. I'm right here.He forced his attention back to the ring. The Mexican fighter was the clear underdog, swaying on his feet, and even a casual observer could see where the fight was heading. Eli was not a casual observer. He was not an observer at all. He was bored before the first bell and had been watching the clock since the second round.9:05pm.If everything held, Clove was halfway to the eighth floor.He settled back in his seat and al

The Last Hand

POV: ELI"Spread the word, the king of the North has arrived!"Stan Davis raised his champagne flute from across the room and Eli tipped his head in return, scanning the suite as he entered.The room was exactly as arranged. Stan and Isabel at one of the cocktail tables. Pam working the bar with Robert Lee and Charlie Ho. Andre Leclerq by the window with an unlit cigar, who looked away the moment he and Eli made eye contact.And Russell Edgington at the oval table, wearing the expression of a man who had been waiting to say something unpleasant and was rationing it.Peter Threadgill beside him. Identical scowl.Eli ran a hand through his hair and took the seat to the dealer's right.The dealer, Claudette, was Pam's last-minute replacement after Palomino passed word that Russell had paid off the original croupier. She had a high ponytail and a smile wide enough to fill the room and she had been thoroughly briefed. She clapped her hands twice and showed her sleeves to the table, then cr

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