Burning Rose by Shirley Kennett

Author:Shirley Kennett [Kennett, Shirley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-8687-6
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2012-10-03T22:51:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

GAMBLING HAD BEEN A part of Carlos Angeles’ life as far back as he could remember, and probably before that. He liked to have the odds in his favor, but he preferred it when the teeming masses did not realize that the odds were in his favor.

In other words, he liked to cheat.

There had been ample opportunity to exercise his tendency to cheat during his rise to become head of GlobeCom, Inc. But that was simply business. It was in his personal life that gambling had grown to encompass more and more of his daily activities. His long-suffering wife played along tolerantly when he cajoled her into making bets on ordinary things such as what color socks he would pull from a drawer with his eyes closed or what the high temperature would be in Zurich or Manila. She did not realize that by playing along she was reinforcing his compulsion. She would have been surprised to discover that her husband cheated even in these small circumstances, that the odds were slanted in his favor enough to almost, but not quite, guarantee a win. That was part of the delicious excitement; that slim possibility of losing. Carlos did not delve into the deeply buried reasons for the betting and the cheating: the need to come out on top, the need to be in control. He only knew that it made him feel good to win, so win he did, as often as possible.

Today he was going to place the biggest bet of his life.

A week ago, he had gone to lunch with a business colleague, a woman who owned a small company that supplied GlobeCom with a patented fiber optic cable terminator. GlobeCom’s headquarters were in Berlin, and the woman was in town attending a convention. She was in a holiday mood, more cheerful and intimate than she had ever been during their prior business negotiations. At first, Carlos thought that she was trying to seduce him. Then he realized that she was simply unwinding, and he had never seen her in an unwound state. The conversation had been bouncing rapidly from topic to topic and then it got around to sports.

He was surprised to discover that she was a kick-boxing fan like himself. Not many women were. During the main course, she said that the upcoming championship match was rigged to be an upset. The current champion, a seasoned athlete with an extremely impressive record, was going to lose to an upstart challenger.

Keeping his voice and facial expressions under what he hoped were iron control, Carlos had questioned her in a seemingly casual manner concerning the source of this information. Her niece was married to a man in the family business, as she called it. As she chatted, it dawned on Carlos that the woman had ties to organized crime.

Throughout the rest of the lunch, Carlos’ head buzzed with more than just the wine.

This could be it. His chance to make a killing, to hit it big. A sure thing.

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