Ronnie Masters | the MENTALIST (COMPLETE)

RED HANDED : pt II

The entire team sat around a sturdy wooden table in a rustic restaurant, all of them wearing diamonds to play poker and eat cheeseburgers. It wasn't the over-the-top reserved dinner that Patrick had had in mind, but he seemed pleased enough to be with all of them. Additionally, the fact that the atmosphere allowed for Rigsby to give occasional shouts of victory or defeat without anyone giving him the stink eye definitely made for a better evening than forcing the poor jock-boy to sit for two hours without touching his tie. 

"So you really won all of this by memorizing cards? You didn't have cards up your sleeves or something?" Van Pelt demanded, wide-eyed and wondering. 

The rest of the table stifled sighs of irritation at the invitation for the smug consultant to bestow upon the world some more brilliance.

That consultant was either oblivious or wisely choosing to ignore his disgruntled teammates. "No, that would be cheating." He said with a smile. "Just memory." His blue eyes flicked briefly around the table, touching on each face for only a second before focusing back on Grace Van Pelt. 

Still in disbelief, Van Pelt pushed on. "How? That's impossible." 

Sometimes Ronnie wondered if Van Pelt showed so much doe-eyed interest in the mysteries of Patrick Jane's convoluted mind because she hoped in some strange way that it might make Rigsby jealous. The blonde shot a look to the man, eyebrows quirking slightly as he watched the redheaded women through a hooded gaze. 

Ronnie's self-confidence shot upwards fractionally. She wasn't much of a detective, but every once in a while she could land a hit right on the money. 

The closet millionaire (or whatever his mysterious net worth may be) was only thrilled to explain his methods of genius to an eager, curious, child-like audience. Jane spent the rest of the poker game telling the young red-head how to utilize memorization to keep control of the game, which resulted in Cho's prophesied victory and everybody else's miserable defeat. 

Ronnie lost on purpose. They were playing for pork rinds and those abhorrent things made her sick. 

While Cho attempted to get the others to play again, happy about his victory, everybody else pulled away from the center of the table as quickly as possible. Nobody wanted to play with a card shark and Rigsby wasn't thrilled about losing to Cho so quickly in the evening. 

Lisbon got up and took off her gleaming red necklace, dropping it and her earrings on the tabletop. "Alright, guys. It's been fun playing dress-up, but playtime's over." 

Cho looked up, still laughing over his win. "Sorry, boss, what do you mean?" 

"This," She gestured to the jewelry. "It's kind of a waste, don't you think?" 

Jane looked almost hurt. "Well, I would have bought world peace if I could. They didn't have it at the casino gift store. Very limited range of items for sale."

Lisbon sent him a chastening look. "You know what I mean." 

Ronnie knew what she meant.

Jane had switched to staring adoringly at Lisbon. "I know those emeralds look lovely with your eyes."

Lisbon hid another blush behind a scolding glare. "Thank you. It's beautiful, but I can't keep it." 

Maturely, Jane nodded quietly. "I understand." 

Cho and Ronnie shared a look, the former still unbelieving that there was anything going on there, and the latter further convinced that there was something going on between the boss and the consultant. Cho rolled his eyes at her silent earnest.