Alien Vacation Ch. 11

"Fucking Christ it hurts," complained Aaron. His words came out strangely, what with all the blood pouring from his smashed nose, but that wasn't his only problem. His left arm hung limp at his side. "God, I think she broke my arm. Fucking bitch."

"Oh honey, let me help," said his girlfriend. Sarah crouched down beside him, plainly alarmed. It was obvious to some in the room what really scared her. Nearby, Aaron's bodyguard groaned and struggled to his feet.

"Seems to be the women's word against the men's," said Larry. "What a shock."

"Except it's not," said Kyle. "That was self-defense on her part."

"She's here as one of your bitches," Larry scoffed.

"Excuse me?" spoke up yet another voice. Julie stood at the edge of the bar, all straightened up again after playtime in the hallway. She looked at Larry with utter disgust. "Maybe you ought to think of why they're with him. And why I'm not with you. I'm out of here." She crossed the lounge for the door without a second look at Larry's stunned and sheepish face.

"Sir?" said one of the bartenders. He threw a glance to indicate the men on the floor before giving a nod of confirmation. The other bartender nodded as well.

"Oh god, it's broken, fuck," Aaron repeated.

"Ugh. Boss, we've gotta get you to a doctor," said his bodyguard. He stood with obvious pain.

"I think your man is right, sir," said the host. "Regardless of fault, you need medical attention."

"Of course, he is," Aaron snapped. He accepted help to his feet from his companions. "What about her?"

"What, you want someone to call the cops on her? Maybe they can come up here and take some pictures and a report?" Shannon scoffed. More than a couple of the men in the room laughed.

"Come on, honey, we've gotta go," urged Aaron's girlfriend.

"Bitch, get off me," he growled. "I don't need another woman touching me now. Fuck off."

Sarah shrank back from him. Angela was already behind her to whisper in her ear. "Let them go. Stick with me. He's going to the hospital, and then to jail. Plenty of time to get away from him. You're going to be fine. We'll take care of you."

No one else heard it. No one else saw Sarah look back to her with surprise and hope, least of all Aaron himself. "Fine. Just let me get my money and we're gone," he said, still bleeding freely from his nose.

Tatsuo stood from his seat in the gallery, as did the two suited men with him. "Your money is already in the game," Tatsuo said gravely. "It forms part of the current pot and the final prize. It is too late to withdraw now."

"Bullshit! I'm pulling out, my money goes with me!"

"Nah, he's got a point," said Michael. "That money's already in the game."

"He's right. I agree. If you leave the game early, you forfeit your stake," said Brody.

"But I can't even play now! Look at me!"

"That is your own fault for making such a lewd and clumsy assault," said Tatsuo.

"I'm afraid we don't have formal rules for this sort of thing," said the host.

"Look, you're bleeding all over the floor," said Kyle. "Just go."

Though he clearly wanted to shout something in rage, Aaron's pain got the better of him. He shuffled off through the door with his staggering bodyguard beside him. Of his party, only Sarah remained behind—at his own order. Angela stood beside her with a reassuring hand on her arm.

"As for you, miss," the host said to Asami. "I'm sorry, but after that I'm afraid I have to ask you—"

"What, you want to throw her out, too?" Kyle interjected. "It was clear self-defense. You've got a bunch of witnesses here all in agreement. Is this a private poker game or a grade school?"

"I would hope no one would be punished for defending themselves," said Rose. That time, her apparent employer came close to whisper in her ear. She frowned, indicating he didn't want her to stay involved.

Her goal was accomplished, however. The host held up his hands. "Very well. I don't see anyone here asking you to leave, so..." He looked around the room. "Is everyone settled? Shall we take a deep breath and get back to the game? Very well. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen."

Most of the room moved back to their seats, with players to the table and guests to the gallery. Asami waited at the bar as Kyle made a detour to her, throwing him a sly grin. She tilted her head at Angela, who walked off with a slightly calmer Sarah to the other private restroom hallway. "Mission accomplished," she told him quietly.

"Yeah, it was. I'm impressed."

"Glad to handle this one. It felt good," said Asami. "Angela will get Sarah to Miranda once they won't run into those jerks in the hallway. She'll get all the help she needs." She leaned in closer. "I really like the alien psychic powers."

"Pretty sure it won't always extend that far to the rest of you," said Kyle.

"As long as you share it for the sex and the mental cuddling. Anyway, go back to the game. We've still got more to do."

"What? Besides Sarah?" he asked.

"Yeah. Or did you not see Angela swipe David and Brody's phones in the middle of all that?" Asami planted a quick kiss on his neck. "Psychic powers can make you a hell of a pickpocket. You can take the phone from a guy's coat and the password right out of his brain, y'know?"

Off to one side, Shannon looked on in silence. She was out of earshot, but she knew a well-executed plan when she saw one. She wasn't the only woman in the room with such a talent, either.

* * *

Dumped by his date and demoralized, Larry flamed out early in the second stretch of the game. Before long, he played like a man who knew he had already lost and wanted it over with. His last chance expended, Larry left all of his chips behind and wandered out with only mumbled goodbyes to salvage his dignity.

"How bad is that damage?" Kyle wondered silently as he watched Larry go.

"Bad," Xin answered. "He's normally an excellent player and he had a real chance at winning, but it was also dumb of him to spend the money needed to get in. He has people to pay off. Plus he was hoping to stick it out and improve his connections with this crowd, but he feels like he embarrassed himself with Sarah and his playing. Right now he's thinking about how to chop up his chop shop and go back to selling used cars legally."

Kyle looked back to the game. He let this hand go for the sake of appearances rather than blatantly winning at every single turn. It was only a small dent in his stack in exchange for an easier time managing his opponents' suspicions. Tatsuo came away the winner with a look of cold satisfaction. Kyle looked to his progress toward the end goal, symbolized by the empty chairs. "Two down," he thought.

"Soon to be more," Xin told him.

"Oh?"

With the hand finished, another round began. "Let me take over the game for a bit," said Xin. He felt her stroke his mind like some invisible masseuse working his scalp and his neck. "Our companions are having their own fun."

* * *

Angela slouched a little in chair, legs forward and shoulders sunk. She knew it wasn't her sexiest look, but didn't care. The people she wanted most in this crowd already wanted her back madly and she knew it. Knew it and loved it. Others would join them before tonight was over. She needed no fucks to give at this moment and had better things to do, anyway.

Everything lay open on the cell phone in her hands. Angela scrolled through email accounts with the passwords remembered by default and files unlocked with the phone's primary security screen digits.

Beside her, Asami sat with much the same task and somewhat better posture. She took it a bit more seriously, but that fit her mindset. She was a cop with a mobster's phone. Angela's phone belonged to an ordinary slimy talent agent whose real business lay in blackmailing athletes rather than arranging good deals for them.

Hell, at this point, the "agent" part was more about appearances than actual work. Scrolling through his contacts and emails, she didn't see much in the way of what looked like "work" traffic. He landed a commercial here and there, but none of it seemed big. His bank account was significant, though. It sat open for her through an app on his phone—and not, she noticed, in his name. He had another account for that, but the big money seemed to be set up with some degree of separation.

She scrolled and read fast. Angela found the player for the Dodgers with the drinking problem, the pair of basketball players with ineffectively covered-up affairs from their time on the road, and one linebacker for the Rams who'd been caught on video beating up his girlfriend in a dark nightclub parking lot. Angela felt no particular sympathy for that guy's miseries.

Then she hit the story that really did make her feel bad. The guy hadn't done anything wrong. He merely wanted to stay in the closet, for all his own reasons, and David blackmailed him for millions over revealing the truth.

After making a few more adjustments to matters on David's phone, Angela picked up her own. She had all the direct contact info she needed now. She started with the most innocent of David's victims. Her text began: "Hi Dionte. I know about your agent and I can get your money back. Please text back when you have a minute and some privacy."

Unexpectedly, she received a response almost immediately: "Who is this?"

"I'm the woman who swiped David Baker's phone and got into all his accounts." Tapping in the letters gave Angela one of the biggest grins of her life. "I've locked him out of his email and I'm transferring all the money you gave him to a separate account. Hold on and I'll give you the numbers so you can log in. He set this up to be untraceable. Turns out he won't be able to find where it went, either."

She typed in codes from the account, though she didn't need to check back with the other phone. They stuck in her head with one more little telepathic boost. A reply came before she finished: "He will still come after me for more tho?"

"Not with the leverage I'm gonna send you before I'm done with his phone. I can't talk long. I have to put it back before he knows it's gone. That way he won't know how this happened."

"Why would you do this?"

"Because you don't deserve this shit. Because he's an asshole. And because I can," she replied. "It's the right thing to do. Your secret is safe with me."

She went back to David's phone, tapping away to wreak more havoc. She had a few more of his victims to contact before she was done.

* * *

"Three of a kind," said Kyle. He laid down his cards.

"That's all? Shit," Brody fumed. "Motherfucker." Tatsuo looked on with a stony face. The hand earned Kyle another death glare from Michael, too. At least a couple of players at the table had already folded with better hands.

"Gentlemen, that concludes our second stretch," said the dealer. "It's time for another twenty-minute break. Thank you."

Kyle looked to his pile of winnings, wanting to throw another chip or two after the first one he'd used to tip the crew. He thought better of it as several of his opponents sat watching. His victories in the second stretch weren't so big, nor as frequent, but he remained comfortably ahead. He could see the psychological advantage it gave him even without Xin elaborating on it. None of the other players had been knocked out through straight gambling yet. After the first stretch, most of them played more conservatively in hopes of lasting through to the end.

Players and guests stood from their seats. Asami threw a wink at Kyle before turning to the bar with many of the others. Angela came forward to the game table. She moved around the other players, confident no one would notice as she slipped cell phones back into the pockets of two of the players before they got far. Once on the other side of the table, Angela slipped her arms around Kyle's waist.

"So," she said.

"So?"

"It feels like you're not really 'in my head' anymore, which I assume is power conservation or whatever, right? So I wanted to tell you, while we've got this one minute sort of alone, that I've loved every single little thing you have done since we flew up here and I want more." She leaned in a little more, yet never quite into a kiss, her eyes locked with his and her grin showing she knew just how much he wanted her. Angela's voice dropped to a whisper. "Especially sharing the girlfriends. And the blowjobs."

He held back enough laughter to avoid drawing attention to himself. "You like that, huh?"

"Mmmaybe a little less 'like' and a little more 'instantly addicted.' Just saying, whenever you're in that position again, you should definitely reach out with your telepathy stuff to see if I want some because the default answer is gonna be yes. Asami, too. Not sure about Miranda."

"She was a little preoccupied with her own fun at the time," said Kyle. As if glancing across the room, Kyle felt the briefest mental check on their absent girlfriend. Miranda was still downstairs, only instead of enjoying the rewards of wrapping the monitor room guys around her finger, she was fully dressed again. Sarah sat beside her watching the video screens as Aaron was hauled away by cops in the parking lot. "We did a good thing tonight," he told Angela quietly.

"Lots of good things," Angela replied.

"Oh shit. Oh shit!" hissed a voice from across the room. Eyes turned toward Brody and his wife and bodyguard standing together. Brody looked at his phone in horror.

"Looks like I lost the bet," said Angela. "Her guy found his problems before mine did." As they and others looked on, Brody and company fell into quiet but urgent conversation.

"Asami? What'd she do?" asked Kyle.

Angela toyed with his shirt. She let out a plainly sarcastic sigh, showing she didn't feel bad about losing her bet at all. "Oh, not much. I put together this whole elaborate scheme with David's phone, but Asami? She just forwarded a bunch of incriminating mob stuff from Brody's email straight to a bunch of different news outlets. He's probably getting asked to comment on it now."

"No, I don't have a comment! Fuck off!" Brody barked into his phone. The husky man shoved his cell phone into his pocket and looked around the room. He knew full well he'd drawn attention from every corner. "Uh. Hey." He cleared his throat. "Somebody's fuckin' with me. Bad. I, uh... I gotta go. Now."

"Okay," said Michael. He shrugged. "Bye."

"No, I mean I can't play the rest," said Brody. "Look, this isn't my fault. This is outside shit. Business shit. I'm not leaving because I fucked up and grabbed somebody's ass."

"Classy," said Asami from her spot at the bar.

"Fuck you," Brody snapped. He returned his attention to the other players. "I'm not talking about what's already been won. I mean the rest of it."

"We know. All of the money is already in play. You said so yourself when our first player left," said Tatsuo.

"Heard it right from your mouth," Michael agreed.

"Look, you guys know me. I'm not some asshole. Don't play me like this."

Emile laughed. "Did any one of us seriously step into a winner-take-all tournament without being prepared to lose?" His words received a nod of agreement from Tatsuo, but it only made Michael twitch.

Kyle and Angela said nothing, much like the rest of the attendees. She threw him a question with a single raised eyebrow. "Better if they forget all about me right now," Kyle murmured. "I should use the chance to recharge."

"Mmhmm." Angela grinned. "You know I'm happy to help you out there. Only I kinda want to see what happens when my 'target' finds out he's got some problems on his plate. Guess he went straight off to the bathroom. His dates, though..." Angela inclined her head to turn Kyle's attention to the door to the sliding balcony.

Two women exited the lounge, one with blonde curls and the other a straighter-cut brunette, both shapely and enticing in minidresses designed for showing off in the club. Katie and Brooke seemed perfectly happy to take in the air and the view on their own until they both looked back to Kyle on their way out. Katie threw a subtle wink. Brooke flashed only a brief smile, but one that carried an obvious invitation. The sway of her hips punctuated it for the only two people looking their way.

"You sure it's that simple?" Kyle murmured, grinning to Angela.

"We both know damn well it is," she grinned back. "Besides, you get a faster charge off a new fling, right? Have at it." Angela planted a quick kiss on his neck. "And as long as you can help us keep a straight face, feel free to share."

They parted. Angela sauntered off to the bar amid more angry and ineffective arguments from Brody while his wife and bodyguard urged him to head out. Kyle reached the balcony in only a few steps. Thankfully, curtains and a wall beyond it blocked line of sight from the bar and the lounge to the right half of the balcony. He'd have at least some privacy out here, especially with Xin to keep unwanted company from walking outside.

As he reached the door, Kyle felt a rapid arousal even above and beyond the impact of Angela's flirtation. He also knew Xin had read his mind, since she was already responding to it: "You know you what I meant before about this being a done deal, right? You can walk right up and fuck both of them. Skip right past the foreplay, even. They're super into it."

"Yeah," he answered. "I really want to do more of that. I like it a lot."

"I know! It's one of your favorite things, and that makes it one of mine, too! You're killing me with this whole 'talk to them first' thing."

"What can I say? Humans are complicated. Always one reason or another we can't skip straight to sex. I don't wanna seem like I'm taking anything for granted," Kyle smirked mentally.

Two smiles greeted him on the balcony. They had to be in their mid-twenties, both of them hot enough to turn heads on the street. Kyle slid the door shut behind him, stepping past the curtain and wall that blocked the view from inside. The night air was still comfortably warm even all the way up here overlooking the city. "Hi. It's Katie and Brooke, right?" he asked.

"Yeah. We were hoping you'd join us, but we didn't want to be rude and block your girls," said Brooke.

"And you even caught our names. Know which is which?" Katie grinned.

"Yes. You're Katie, and yes, I do," Kyle grinned back.

"You seem like you're having a good night," said Katie.

"I am. Sorry if your date isn't. At least, I'm sorry if that impacts your night in a bad way."

Brooke didn't quite roll her eyes. "We'll manage. Think we'd be managing even if he won the game." Then she smirked. "And here I am already talking in past tense."

"I like my chances," said Kyle.

"You look like you'd have a good time even if you lost," said Katie. "You and your girls."

"Could be an even better time with more company," Kyle suggested.

"Oh?" Katie asked. "What's the deal with you and them? You're hot enough for two, but... are they paid?"

"Nah. We're profit-sharing on this trip, but the rest is all organic. They're not here on business."

"I like how you took that question. Lots of people would get offended."

"Nothing wrong with getting paid." He shrugged. "I don't see a problem with it."

"Good," said Brooke, happy to hear the response. Then she added, under her breath, "Hopefully we still get paid for tonight."

"Is that likely to be a problem?" asked Kyle. "He's not gambling with your fee, is he?"

"We don't think so. He paid some up front, but we're starting to wonder," said Brooke. "We can play through tonight, but I kinda wouldn't mind if we just called it good right here and now. Except things have been a little dry for the last couple of weeks for both of us."

"Everyone's gotta set some professional standards, right?" said Katie. "They don't all have to be Prince Charming. They just need to not cross any lines." She pinched his shirt sleeve, running her fingers down the fabric. "What we choose to do after the job is another matter."