Trace (Trace 1) Read Online Free

the hell out of there. He wouldn’t be doing that if I’d sleep with him. I think I’m going to go back and tell him to take his job and shove it.”
    Trace said, “This is your last shift. You’re going to go back and keep dealing like nothing happened.”
    “You’re a big help, roomie,” she said in disgust. She turned and stabbed out her cigarette, and when she looked back, Trace had gone.
    Upstairs, Trace took five thousand dollars in cash from the safety-deposit box he kept at the casino cashier’s. He stuffed the money into his pants pocket, then went to the cigarette shop in the hotel lobby, where he bought a pair of teardrop-shaped sunglasses. He put on the glasses, and in the men’s room he wet his hair, combed it straight back, and parted it in the middle. When he arrived at Chico’s table, no one was playing and the young woman stood behind the table, the four decks of cards spread out in front of her, faceup, so that potential players could see they were all there.
    He sat at the seat to her far right, and when she saw him, she said, “What the hell are you made up for? You look like Alfalfa.”
    “Shut up,” he said softly. “You don’t know me. Deal.”
    She shuffled the cards and Trace pulled out his big stack of hundreds and put them in front of him.
    “Chips, mister?” she asked.
    “No,” Trace roared. “Money plays.” He put a hundred-dollar bill on the table in front of him.
    “Money plays, a hundred,” Chico said, just loud enough to be heard by Ernie, the floorman, who walked over and stood by her side as she dealt out the first hand. Trace got a blackjack and she paid him $150 in chips as his winnings.
    “Yahoo,” he said thickly. “Now I got you suckers. Let it all ride.” He glanced at the pudgy floorman. “Got you guys for five thousand already tonight. I’m gonna buy the casino.”
    “How long you been playing?” Ernie asked.
    “All night. I won here and I won at the Trop and Caesar’s and now I’m back and I’m gonna punish you guys good.” He pulled down his teardrop-shaped sun-glasses and winked at Ernie. “Unless something else comes up.”
    Chico dealt Trace a pair of tens, and he split them into two hands, doubling his $250 bet. He drew two more tens, stayed on those cards, and won both hands. Chico counted out five hundred more dollars in chips and put them in front of him.
    “Let’s keep rolling here, tootsie,” Trace said. He pushed his thousand dollars in cash and chips up into the betting circle, and Chico dealt him another blackjack.
    “Yahoo. Sweetie, I’ll give you a dollar if you keep letting me win.”
    “Sorry,” Chico said. “The casino gives me two if I make you lose.”
    “I’ll give you three dollars to go home with me,” Trace said.
    “Did the entire regiment take up a collection to send you to town?” she asked.
    “No, it’s all my own. I’m a zillionaire.”
    Ernie was watching and Trace could tell that he was calculating that this hick in sunglasses had just won $2,500 of casino money. A big winner on Ernie’s shift wouldn’t look good for the new floorman.
    Trace reached under his jacket, behind him, and pressed a button, as Ernie leaned over him.
    “Listen,” Ernie said. “The lady here’s available.”
    Trace raised his eyebrows and slicked down his wet hair. He leaned close to Ernie.
    “You mean to do the dirty thing?”
    “She’ll do any dirty thing you want,” Ernie said. “Won’t you?”
    Chico just stared stonily ahead.
    “You can arrange this for me?” Trace said, slurring his words to sound drunk.
    “Casino policy. It’d be my pleasure for a good bettor like you.” Ernie smiled. His teeth were yellow.
    “Would I take care of you?” Trace asked. “Does the casino allow that?”
    “Well, what they don’t know won’t hurt them,” Ernie said.
    Trace stood up. He jammed his money and his chips into his pocket and said to Ernie, “Come on down here and talk for a minute.”
    He walked down to a