Heartless Ending Book 3 of the Heartless Series

Chapter 20 - Brother's in Arms

Romeo's POV

I didn't wait until everyone was in position, I knew that killing Edward would take a bit longer than the other two on the hit list. Me and Jake parted ways as we got out of the car, him to the croupier changing room to get a disguise and me to the high rollers suite on the top floor of the hotel. Instead of taking the traditional route up the private golden elevator, I opted for the less seen route and scaled the building using spiked shoes and metal pegs. My backpack held our escape if we were to succeed tonight. I stopped at the top floor and peeked into the bedroom of the suite, this was normally the least used room when private high roller games were played so would be a good entry point. I slipped in unnoticed and changed into a navy blue suit. I entered the room as the buffet cart just arrived, positioning myself as if I followed it in and no one seemed to question my arrival.

I ordered a glass of scotch neat and sat at the empty chair to the right of Edward at the table, there were only us and one other player in the game. The waitress placed my drink down and I looked her over not wanting to give myself away. This is something I would have done if Carmela wasn't back into my life, I would have probably fucked her in the bathroom later too.

"Sir, it's a 50 thousand dollar buy in." I didn't answer him just threw a neatly bundled wad of cash onto the table and took a sip of my drink. A man in black came over to the table and took the cash and ran it through a counting machine, once it stopped he nodded towards the dealer and he handed me my chips. "Your bet." I placed 5 grand down blindly and the cards were dealt. Edward didn't even acknowledge me as we played our first hand, which he won. He continued to win the next 3 hands, but I didn't mind I was watching him play, learning his ticks. I had successfully learnt a few of them, including the one he did when he had a good hand and what he did when it got better with the flop.

He would move his right foot more forward with every turn of the cards that went in his favour. I knew he hadn't seen me watching him but that didn't mean he wasn't watching me. He had a guard sat at the bar, one outside the room and probably one in the other room, I even thought I saw the waiter scoping out the room and players. "You play well Romeo. Shame you won't win." Edwards heavy tone called out to me from my left, I don't think he meant the game but I'd play along. "Don't be so sure."

The pit boss coming back through the doors broke our staring match, as Edward looked over his shoulder to get a look at the new dealer, I knew it would be Jake so went to order a drink. Jake nervously introduced himself to the table and made a show that his hands were empty and he unpacked a new set of playing cards for the game to be restarted. "Will you hurry up." Edward shouted at Jake, patience was never any mafia man's good trait.

We knocked the other player out quickly and he left the room, peeved at his loss. 2 men left with him so I guess he had his own security with him, that dwindled the number of people in the room that could be Edwards security. The game progressed and I was getting bored after about an hour more. I knew he didn't have anything in his hand so I thought I'd push him. "All in." This wasn't just a push to Edward but a signal to Jake, it was about to go down. Edward looked furiously at me and pushed all his chips to the middle of the table. "Call."

As soon as the word was out I pulled my gun shooting him in the head. He slumped over the table, dead. The guard at the bar lunged at me, punching me in the jaw and pushing me from my chair to the floor with him landing on top of me. Jake hit the deck behind the dealers table as if he weren't involved waiting to see if anyone else entered the room. The 2 men I predicted came into the room guns drawn and fired shots at me. I used their colleagues body to block the bullets, Jake had recovered and shot both men in the head before I even got to my feet. "2-1, boss." He laughed as I scooped my winnings into a cashiers bag. "Shall we cash out." I threw the bag at him and we left the room. Making some last minute adjustments to the room to make it look like a heist gone wrong. We took the fastest and most unseen route out the building and free fell from the window we removed and replaced before we disappeared into the night.