What Lies Beneath (As Above, So Below) Vol. 1

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

And Many More

When I spotted the perfect blackjack table, I smiled to myself. Oh, the dealer just looked so easy. The trick was finding one that would go well with the current façade I was sporting. Today I was a southern girl. I was in short jean shorts and a half-shirt. Plaid of course, and tied into a knot just above my belly button. My long, dark hair was in messy braids, tied with red ribbons. I looked positively naïve. And it took two hours to get to that.

I walked over to the table and evaluated the scene from closer up. There were two men sitting across from the dealer. Both looked almost the same age, and they sat with an empty chair between them. Their eyes were on their cards for the most part, though the man to my right peeked over at the other man every two minutes, almost on the nose. Curious.

They hardly mattered. The dealer was why I was here. That, and the lack of an auto shuffler. I was dressed as if I was looking to get tricked into a tangle in the sheets. So I scanned the whole room for the youngest looking dealer. Women would see this and, odds were, they would dislike me. A man would be distracted by the look and the attitude I was about to drown them in. Almost too easy, really.

I sat down and flashed my pearly white grin. "Hi, darlin'." I laid on the Louisiana accent as thick as I could. There wasn't an accent I couldn't do convincingly. Other than German. Couldn't get that damn one down. "And how are you this fine evenin'?" I batted my big green eyes at him, gauging his interest in me.

The man, maybe twenty-two, smiled back. "I'm great. How are you?" He said it to my chest, so I had to assume he wanted what I was offering.

I folded my hands on the table, pressing my arms together enough to kick up my cleavage. "I'm just fine." I giggled. Then I reached into my pocket for the thousand dollars I was playing with today. "Today is my birthday, and my daddy told me to paint the town red. Can you help me with that?" I tossed the cash to him.

He didn't blink at the money, and why should he? He saw more than that all the time. That was the point. I had much more up in my room, but the less cash you played with, the fewer eyes found you.

He took the money and put it away. "How do you want this broken up?"

"Um..." I clinked my tongue. "...maybe some of the small ones? There are small ones, right?"

He smiled and started giving me chips, explaining the value to them despite the fact that they were marked. I just nodded and smiled back at him. I needed to play it careful and not too heavy. He probably wouldn't pick up if I was laying it on too thick, but best not to chance it.

I didn't get a single chip over fifty, and that would work out just fine. Consistent bets were good. Keep it low and don't give them a reason to care.

I put my chin on hand and my elbow on the table, watching the man put the cards into a shuffler. His name-tag read Mike, but I ignored that.

"So," I said, "since we're gonna be spendin' some time together, I should probably introduce myself. Lila Crane."

The man to my right looked over at me, and the corner of his mouth twitched up. I guess he'd caught what the other two men hadn't.

My real name was Mila Moody. Well, real was a relative term. I didn't actually remember what my last name was when I'd been younger. It had changed so much. And to be fair, even that name was a lie. Mila was real. That was what I could hold on to.

"Mike." He pointed to his nametag.

I nodded and made a noise so he would know I saw it.

He started dealing, and I went on about how today was my twenty-first birthday and my parents had brought me to celebrate. Only mostly a lie. It was my eighteenth birthday, and my parents were dead. But my big brother, Jaxon, had brought me. He'd thought we could use a little fun. It was why I was playing for such small potatoes. One light weekend before we left town. We never stayed in Vegas more than two days. A rule he had.