They agreed to meet at Big Twins, neutral territory. It had taken some time for Beast to collect the twenty-two million in cash, having to work his way all the way up to the regional manager before the bank would agree to pay out the funds in cash.
The Reapers arrived first, as agreed, and reserved a room in the back. When The Scarred arrived, Shayna in hand, the clubs patted each other down before they were allowed into the room.
“You got the cash?” Grizzly growled as he entered the room, another man entering with him holding Shayna by the arm with a knife in her back.
“You okay? Did they hurt you? Anyone touch you?” Beast asked.
“I’m okay. Nobody touched me.”
Beast picked up a satchel and set it on the table. He opened it and showed the inside to Grizzle before he reached in. He took out a shoe, two decks of cards and container of poker chips before he slid the bag across the table. “It’s all there. Twenty-two million.”
Grizzly slid the bag to one of his men. “Count it.”
They waited while the man counted. “It’s all there,” a man with fancy cowboy boots said.
“If I win, I get the money and you get the girl, agreed?” Grizzly confirmed.
“And if I win, I get the girl and you get killed by the Russians.”
Grizzly wiped his face and sat down. “Let’s get on with it.”
Beast tossed the two packs of cards to Grizzly. “Factory sealed.”
Grizzly opened a pack and removed the jokers. “Seven Card Stud,” he said as he shuffled, then repeated the process with the other deck.
When Grizzly was finished, Beast took the two decks then shuffled them together several times before cutting them and placing them in front of Grizzly. “You want to cut?”
Grizzly cut the cards then Hightower picked them up and placed them in the shoe, along with a red cut card, as Beast counted out two stacks of five hundred in chips, keeping a pile for himself and sliding the other pile to Grizzly.
“You gentlemen ready?” Hightower asked.
“Just deal,” Grizzly sneered. I don’t have time for all this formal bullshit.
***
By the tenth hand, it was apparent to everyone that Grizzly was in way over his head. He’d yet to win a hand with Beast folding often and early, leaving Grizzly with minimal winnings, but on the two hands where he did bet, he bet large and won both times.
Grizzly was becoming frustrated and it showed. Every man in the room knew this was life or death for The Scarred and Shayna. The men had been disarmed save the one who held a knife to Shayna’s side.
“This is bullshit!” Grizzly roared as Beast folded again. “Are you going to play cards or fuck around?”
“What’s the matter, Grizzly? Not liking how it’s going?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Beast. I’ve got nothing to lose here and I’ll have Ringo gut her if I have to.”
“Then nobody will leave this room alive,” Beast warned.
“Doesn’t matter to me. I’m dead anyway if I don’t get that money. Remember that.”
“Perhaps another game, then?” Hightower offered. “One where the odds are a little more even…say Hold ‘em?”
“What do you say, Grizzly. Want to try another game?”
Grizzly thought about it. Seven Card Stud was his game, but he was getting nowhere with Beast. “Fine.”
Grizzly’s luck was little changed, though he won a hand now and again. Beast was slowly wearing him down, reducing his pile of chips to about half of what he started with. When they were down to the last few hands, either way, that was when his men were to make their move.
Rip, Tally, Hightower and Dell where there to back him up. Every man for the Reapers was a volunteer, promising Beast to get Shayna to safety, no matter the cost. Tony wanted to come, having a score to settle with The Scarred, but he was suffering from a concussion and still couldn’t walk a straight line.
Shayna could feel the tension rising in the room with every hand. No matter what happened, she could tell this was going to end in bloodshed. In the motel room she’d loaded a syringe with enough insulin to knock down a real Grizzly, but had been holding it in reserve, waiting for an opportunity to use it. The problem with insulin was it needed time to work. It wasn’t like in the movies where a person could inject someone with something and have them instantly pass out. She’d asked for Rapid-Acting U500 insulin, but they’d brought her Short-Acting U100 instead. At least they’d gotten the needles right, an ultra-fine thirty-one gauge.
She needed at least thirty minutes for the insulin to take effect, plus it wasn’t like she could just stick Grizzly with the needle and have him not notice, no matter how fine the gauge. She caught Conor’s eyes and stared, trying to signal that she had a plan, but as he held her eyes he smiled at her reassuringly.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said softly.
She wanted to roll her eyes in frustration but was afraid to give anything away. She began to softly caress the inside of Grizzly’s thigh, drawing her fingers over the bulge of his crotch before returning her fingers to his thigh. The needle was so fine that it wouldn’t take much to desensitize the area enough for him to not feel the prick as she slid the needle into his leg.
Grizzly grinned as Shayna stroked his leg. He was used to having women drawn to him. Maybe she didn’t care for Beast any more than he cared for her, and was using him as much as he was using her. It would serve Beast right to pay twenty million for some bitch who would drop him as soon as she was tired of him.
Beast watched as a slow smile spread over Grizzly’s face. He didn’t know what he had to smile about. He’d just taken him for another ten bucks, reducing his pile of chips even more.
“I want one of my men to deal!” Grizzly demanded after losing yet again. He didn’t know how, but it was obvious that Hightower was stacking the deck.
Beast glanced at Hightower. “Be my guest,” he said. It was clear that Grizzly thought Hightower was cheating rather than he sucked at cards, but it was also clear that you can’t bottom deal a shoe so it didn’t matter who was dealing.
Grizzly, waved a finger at the shoe. “Boots, you deal.”
The man with the elaborate footwear sauntered up to the shoe and began to slide the cards out. He wasn’t nearly as proficient at dealing as Hightower, but he got the job done.
***
“Full House, Fives over Deuces,” Beast said, flipping his Hole Cards.
“Fuck!” Grizzly barked, flipping his cards to display a Flush. Beast was slowly grinding him down. He’d win a hand and claw a little back, only to lose it and a little more the next time. He was down to his last hundred and if his luck didn’t change soon, he was going to have to go to plan B, stealing the money.
Beast saw Shayna was staring at him intently, and had been for most of the game. She kept looking at Grizzly’s hole cards, and was obviously trying frantically to communicate something to him, but he had no idea what.
Grizzly smiled, noticing the confused expression on Beast’s face. “That’s right, Beast. She’s stroking my cock under the table. I may end up fucking her after all, because she wants it. Tell him.”
“I am,” she said slowly, but gave her head the tiniest of shakes.
Beast stared at her, not sure he’d seen her shake her head, trying to work out what the hell was going on.
“What are you going to do when she decides to stay with me? I think we both know who the real man is in this room. Are you going to let the Russians kill her, too? Maybe you really don’t care if she lives or dies, especially after I stretch her out with my cock.”
Beast let the comments roll off him, refusing to let Grizzly get inside his head. He was more sure than ever Shayna was up to something and he just had to let it play out.
“I guess we’ll find out by the end of the game which of us has the bigger dick, huh?” He glanced at Boots. “Deal.”
Shayna slipped the syringe from her purse, carefully removing the protective cap using only her left hand, her right still caressing Grizzly’s leg. She gave him a firm squeeze on the cock, then quickly switched the needle to her right hand before moving it back to his leg. Being careful to not stick him before she was ready, she caressed him again, then reached with her left hand, pulling his face to hers, sliding the needle in as she kissed him fully on the mouth. She depressed the plunger, dumping the insulin into the fatty tissue of his leg, then grabbed his cock again to cover any sting he may have felt.
“You fucking whore,” Beast snarled, as she pulled back from the kiss, hoping to give her an opening to tell him something, anything, about what she was doing.
She knew what Conor was doing, but she couldn’t figure out how tell him that she’d injected Grizzly with enough insulin to induce severe hypoglycemia, and that when his blood sugar dropped low enough he was going to pass out and go into seizures. She spent several long moment thinking, but gave up. It was too complicated to explain without giving it away.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
Beast didn’t know what was going down, but whatever it was, it was about to happen. He gave a single cough, the single to his men to get ready for his move.
Grizzly chuckled nastily. “I think my luck is about to change.”
Shayna gave his cock another squeeze. “I think so, too,” she purred, selling it with everything she had.
***
Shayna watched Grizzly intently. Twenty minutes after her injection, he was sweating profusely and his hands were starting to shake. His betting had become erratic and he’d sit for long moments, staring at his cards. He was going into diabetic shock, and it wouldn’t be long now. She caught Conor’s eyes and held them before giving her head a tiny nod.
Beast watched as Grizzly sat and stared at the table, obviously in some kind of trouble. He didn’t know what Shayna had done, but she’d seriously fucked him up. Sweat was pouring off him, he was going pale, and his speech was becoming slow and slurred. Although he hadn’t consumed anything, Beast would say Grizzly was drunk.
“Grizzly, you don’t look so good, man. You okay?” Boots asked.
“I…I don’t feel right,” Grizzly said slowly.
“What do you want to do, Boss?” Ringo asked.
“I…” Grizzly began but trailed away before he began to spasm and jerk, knocking his chair over and falling to the floor.
The Scarred rushed to the aid of their downed comrade, and that was the opening the Reapers were waiting for. Beast lunged across the table, grabbing Ringo by the head and slamming into the table as hard as he could.
Shayna scampered into a corner as the men fought, but with Grizzly convulsing on the floor and Ringo knocked unconscious in the first instant of the fight, The Scarred were outnumbered five to three and their resistance lasted only seconds.
As the last of The Scarred were subdued, Shayna rushed to Grizzly’s side and dropped to the floor. Beast was there only a moment behind, trying to pick her up.
“We have to get you out of here!” he said firmly, pulling at her arm.
“No! Stop!” she cried, yanking her arm free. “I have to help him!”
“Leave him!” Beast ordered, taking her arm again and dragging her to her feet.
“No!” she screamed, jerking her arm away as the door to the room burst open and several people rushed in to see what the commotion was.
She dropped back to the floor beside Grizzly, opened her clutch, and removed the glucagon kit. She opened the kit and stabbed the needle into the vial and injected the liquid before shaking the vial several times then drawing the contents into the syringe.
“Roll him onto his side,” she ordered. “Do it!” she barked when nobody moved to comply. Beast rolled Grizzly to his side with a grunt and she drove the needle into ass and pushed the plunger down. Within minutes his seizures stopped, and a few minutes after that he began to come around.
“Somebody get me a Coke, fruit juice, something sweet,” she ordered, as Grizzly vomited onto the floor. She took the pop from the waitress and knelt in front of him. “Help him sit up,” she commanded, and Beast levered the man upright.
“Drink this,” she instructed, holding the straw to Grizzly’s lips. “You’re going to be okay, but you need to see a doctor right away.” She looked at the three Scarred. “Get him to the hospital. Tell them he was severely hypogl—never mind. Tell them he had an insulin overdose. Can you remember that? Insulin overdose.”
One of the men nodded. “Insulin overdose.”
“That’s right. He’s going to be weak, disoriented and have a splitting headache, but he’ll be okay.”
“You did that to him,” another of the Scarred accused.
“That’s right, I did,” Shayna said as she stood. “Never fuck with a doctor unless you want to end up like him.” She looked around the room. “Conor, get me the hell out of here,” she said as she marched out of the room.
The four members of the Reapers began to laugh. “You better do what she says before you end up like Grizzly,” Talley said.
“Go,” Hightower added. “We’ll deal with these arseholes.”
Beast grabbed the satchel of cash and followed Shayna out, catching her just as she burst through the doors to the outside. He took her arm and spun her around, dropping the cash and pulling her in tight.
She began to cry, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed. “I was so scared!”
“Shhh…” he murmured, stroking her hair as he held her. “It’s over now. You’re safe.”
She continued to cry for a moment longer, then stopped, holding him tight. “You came for me,” she finally said with a sniff.
He smiled but didn’t relax his embrace. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“I didn’t know. I was afraid you wouldn’t. You hardly know me.”
“I know enough to know that I want to know more.”
***
“Conor, this is Trevor Craggo. Remember me?”
“I do. What can I do for you?”
“I understand that there has been some excitement in Vegas since the tournament.”
“You might say that.”
“Is it true Shayna was kidnapped by the Scabs, that Neil Orson has been killed, and the entire Scabs gang has been wiped out?”
“It’s The Scarred, but other than that, yeah, true enough.”
“Is it also true you rescued Shayna?”
He smiled at Shayna across the table. “She didn’t need a lot of rescuing, but yeah, that’s true enough, too.”
“We’re still in post-production on the tournament, but if I send a camera crew out, will you and Shayna sit for another interview? I would like to cut that interview into the show.”
“Trevor, I would like to help you out, but to be honest, I’m really not interested.”
“I know you don’t need the money, but I’m prepared to offer fifty thousand for three hours of your and Shayna’s time. Please, Conor, it will make a great ending to the show. If nothing else, it will give you a chance to hype DR Security. That has to be worth something, right?”
“Hang on, Trevor,” Beast said then pulled the phone from his ear and covered the mic with his thumb. “This is Trevor Craggo. He’s heard about our little…escapade. He wants to interview us. He’s offering fifty thousand for three hours of our time.”
Shayna pushed her food around on her plate. It had been four weeks since The Scarred grabbed her outside Tops, and a day hadn’t past that she hadn’t thought about those eighteen hours. She was better, but anytime a strange man approached her, she still got nervous.
“I’m not sure I want to talk about it,” she finally said softly.
Beast brought the phone back to his ear. “I’m sorry, the answer’s no. Shayna’s been through enough.”
“Wait!” Trevor cried, sensing his opportunity slipping away. “Can you put me on speaker so she can hear me?”
Beast pressed the button. “She can hear you now.”
“I can understand you not wanting to relive that again, Shayna, but I’m doing the piece on what happened as the final show of the season with or without you. Having your interviews cut into the final show will make it that much more meaningful, what you two went through. I really want to get your story out there. I don’t go for that whole ambush journalism thing. I’m not going to do anything to make either of you uncomfortable. I just want you to sit in front of a camera and tell me your story. That’s all.”
“Why is this so important?” Shayna asked. “Your show is about cards. Nobody cares about what happened to us.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Shayna. The show isn’t about cards; it’s about real people risking it all. Nobody risked as much as you and Conor did. I think that’s what will make this such a powerful episode. People will think, ‘a hundred million dollar pot! They’ll never be able to top that!’ But we will. We’ll show them what high-stakes really mean, and suddenly that hundred million dollar pot won’t look so important anymore.”
Shayna thought about it a moment. “Conor and I, together, and we don’t have to talk about anything we don’t want to?”
“However you want to do it,” Trevor agreed.
“We get final say over how our interviews are used? If you cut it up in a way we don’t like, you’ll either change it or not use it?”
“Agreed. Shayna, I don’t want to make you and Conor look bad, okay? When this season comes out, people are going to fall in love with you and Conor both. I would have to be a complete idiot to do something that would make either of you look bad. In fact, I would like to get some more footage of you and Conor at the vet clinic. We had a hell of a time editing that piece because the editor kept having to stop because she was crying.”
She grinned at the thought of that. “Let us talk about it and get back to you.”
“Thank you, Shayna, Conor. If I can have your answer in the next two or three weeks, that will still give us plenty of time.”
“We’ll let you know,” Beast said then ended the call. “What do you think? He doesn’t know even half the shit that went down. You feel like being a superhero?”
She smiled, rather liking the sound of that.
It was the first smile she’d given him related to her kidnapping in the entire four weeks since it happened. It was no laughing matter for sure, but her refusal to talk to anyone about it, other than a little to him, worried him. She’d stopped crying and not wanting to be away from him after a few days, but he could tell she was still suffering from her experience, even though she tried to hide it from him.
He knew what it was like to keep something bottled up inside. Talking to her about his father and his death as he tried to draw her out had unburdened him in a way that talking to Hightower hadn’t. Maybe getting this out in the open and talking about it would help her heal, would allow him to help her heal.
He took her hand and held it, offering her silent support, willing to do whatever it took to help her put this behind her.