Loaded Dice by James Swain

Author:James Swain [Swain, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345478368
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Valentine waited ten minutes before rapping on the bedroom door again.

“We’re all friends here,” Nick called out.

He opened the door and stuck his head in. Nick lay beneath satin sheets, staring dreamily at his reflection in the mirrored ceiling. The bathroom door on the other side of the room was closed. Behind it, Valentine could hear water running. Nick lifted his head, then sat bolt upright.

“No offense, Tony, but can’t this wait?”

“No. Can I come in?”

“Sure. Make yourself at home. We’re only screwing.”

Nick slipped naked out of bed. His body was covered with black hair and looked like something that had just washed up on the beach. Putting on a monogrammed bathrobe, he met Valentine in the room’s sitting area. Valentine handed him Albert Moss’s file. Nick read through it.

“So, what’s Curly doing?” he asked.

Valentine explained how Nick was being systematically bled by Fontaine’s gang, then said, “The reason you’re not seeing it on your books is because Albert Moss is hiding it from you. Moss has been cooking the books for three to four weeks, which means you’re out a whole bunch of money.”

“How much?”

Valentine had thought about it while waiting in the hallway. He’d done enough work for Nick to know how much money flowed through the Acropolis each day. He also knew there was a limit on how much cheaters could steal before it became obvious.

“Seven to eight million bucks. That might be on the low side.”

Nick shut his eyes. “What’s the high side?”

“Ten to twelve million.”

Nick whistled through his teeth. “Does that put me in the Guinness Book of World Records?”

“It might.” Valentine hesitated, then asked him the question that had been bothering him since he’d done the math. “Can you cover it?”

Nick opened his eyes, and shook his head.

“No way,” he said.

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