Stacking The Deck Novels & Stories

And, seeing as she already had the restored deck in her hands, she began to deal. "In fact, if you win, I'll throw in a secret no one knows " she offered conversationally, not lifting her eyes from her cards. This 'secret' she had in mind was none less than how she had hunted a magical beast, Griffin, once. "Interesting" he replied and gazed at her skilled hands. He did not look concerned. He seemed quite self-assured. Casually, he dropped two cards face down into the pile. "Two fours." After a pause, she added, "Three fives."

He ripped open the cellophane package, pulled out the Jokers, and tossed them aside. “No wild cards?” I had kind of been hoping they would help me out. He rolled his eyes. “No. No training wheels.” I pretended to pout as he shuffled the cards, but then I got mesmerized by his hands sorting the cards. They were so fast, and so capable… so large and powerful… He slid the deck over to me. “Cut?” “Uh… what?” “Cut the deck? Unless you’re not worried that I’m a card shark.” I took a third of the cards off the top and replaced them on the bottom. “No, I’m not. And it’s technically a card sharp.”

“Now, it’s your turn. But before I forget, if you run out of cards, you pick up five more off the top of the pile and we keep going until they are all gone.” I nodded as I looked at my small hand. “Do you have a seven?” I asked as shook his head and pointed to the deck. I picked up the top card and it was a red one. I paired up the cards and set them among my current pairs. We kept going until all the cards were gone. “Now we count the pairs and whoever has the most wins.” I counted thirteen pairs. “Fifteen pairs, so I win.” He explained as he collected the cards and then shuffled them. “Not bad for your first time.”

He held the stack out, and Lana slid the card in carefully. With a flourish, Gavin shuffled the deck again, his hands moving so smoothly it almost looked like the cards danced for him. He paused for a dramatic moment, then flicked his wrist—causing a single card to shoot up from the deck. The exact card they had chosen. Catherine gasped. "WHAT?" Hanna grabbed the card, flipping it over as if she expected some kind of trick. "How did you do that?!" Gavin just winked. "Magic."

King said, sitting down and having enough of watching the Countess strut his stuff. "Do we keep recruiting people to join the Deck, or should we stop all outsourcing right now for future moles?" Queenie asked the room, snorting when Jack walked in the doors. Seeing glitter fall as he walked. The glitter I am finding out is impossible to out of things. I need to leave some clothes for missions in a different area of the fortress to ensure I don't track anything unwanted into an active crime scene. Getting caught via glitter was different from how I wanted the Deck removed from the map.

Feel the itch of his claws in the tips of her fingers. She breathed through her mouth. In and out. She forced her lungs to calm down. But the more she tried the more anxious she grew. Suddenly everything was too much. She was too close to hyperventilating. Don't do that. Don't give yourself away. Her mom threw a stern glance that said 'get it together.'

I shove at him with one hand, using the other to smack him with his stick of fish. He curses, doing his best to shield himself from my frantic assault as he backs toward the door only to be hit by it when Arken bursts in with wide, wild eyes. He doesn't ask questions, instead he lunges for Laufrey with a feral roar. The pirate's back slams against the wall, his legs folded up so that his knees are pressed into Arken's abdomen in an attempt to shove him back while his hands work vainly to pry the hand from his throat.

Desi was hitting brick wall after brick wall no matter what she did she was never going to be able to breakthrough. She knew that she was just exhausting herself even more trying to explain to anyone who would listen what was going to happen. It was just that simple that she decided that she tossed the papers up in the air and basically said screw them all. She didn't care and then she actually lost her temper on the last person that had come in to basically beg for his power not to be relinquished to anyone.

Lucas turned to the dealer, “can I get fifteen million Kenya shillings chips?” “Same as for me,” Maina added as soon as the dealer nodded in convention. The dealer moved to the counter and gave instructions to the attendant who handed two trays full of chips worth fifteen million each and a PDQ. He placed the chips directly in front of the players on the poker table and handed each of them the PDQ’s in turns for them to swipe their cards. Interestingly, with there shady business, they were both owners of black cards due to the many umbrella companies they owned.

Nate asked. “It’s called Egyptian Rat Screw, and the point is to get all the cards,” I answered while laying my card down. The game is simple. A deck of face cards gets distributed evenly among the players. Nobody looks at their cards. Each player places a card in the middle face up in turn. If a Jack is played, the next player has one chance to play a face card or an Ace otherwise the player who laid down the Jack gets the pile. A Queen gives you two chances to get a face card, King three chances, and an Ace four chances. Also, if you slap doubles, you get the pile. “Poker is a lot more fun,” he grumbled.