Tiffany's Deal Ch. 04

You could cut the tension with a knife. Scoot Spetman studied his hole cards and then his hands moved to the stacks of chips in front him and hovered there. He was thinking of going all-in. If he did then Kurt would have no choice but to also go all-in also which would put Scoot out of the tournament. That wasn't the plan.

Scoot looked at Kurt intently, watching the sweat bead on his forehead. Kurt knew that Scoot was bluffing and Scoot knew that Kurt knew. Scoot was fucking with him; having some fun.

Tiffany tried to look unperturbed but she was seething. This wasn't how this round was supposed to go down. Scoot was supposed to keep playing a while longer, building the tension, not to have his ass handed to him by Kurt Bentley.

"I fold," Scoot backed his hands away from the stacks.

Kurt exhaled and dragged in the pot without showing his hand.

When it was time to make the sting Tiffany gave Kurt the sign.

Tiffany had dealt Scoot a pair of nines. Kurt have been dealt two kings.

Tiffany burned a card and dropped a nine, a king, and a seven in the flop.

The betting got heavy and the Tiffany dropped a seven on the turn.

Kurt went all in and Scoot followed suit.

When Tiffany turned a nine on the river everyone gasped. Kurt Bentley was reaching for the pot when he realised that he hadn't won. He looked at Tiffany with astonishment. Stephen Bateman looked equally amazed. Lyle and Tina Brinkman worked hard at keeping po-faced.

Stephen was trying to understand what was happening. Why was Scoot Spetman raking in the chips instead of Kurt?

Suddenly the doors burst open and four black-suited individuals holding badges in one hand and pistols in the other rushed into the room, fanning out to cover everyone in the room.

"FBI! Nobody move. You three stay put and put your hands on the table," the lead agent pointed her weapon at the gamblers and the dealer.

"And you people; get against the wall, put your palms flat against it," the second female agent growled.

There were two female and two male agents, and as a sign of the times, the female agents were obviously in charge. They looked to be hiding killer bodies inside their MIB suits. One was a trim redhead and the other taller and blonde. The men were muscled and sported buzzcuts.

"What the hell is going on here?" Stephen Bateman demanded.

"What's going on is that five people in this room are under arrest for conspiracy to commit fraud, deception with intent to commit a felony, and a whole bunch of other charges that I'm sure will follow," the redhead said.

"Tiffany Robinson, Kurt Bentley, Stephen Bateman, you're coming with us to be interviewed and charged. You too mister and misses Brinkman," Lyle and Tina hung their heads.

"Cuff them and take them downstairs," the blonde said to the buzzcuts.

Tiffany, Stephen, Lyle, Tina and Kurt were handcuffed.

The spectators, their backs against the wall, look on in stunned amazement.

"What about the money? There's ten million in cash in that safe," Stephen was furious.

"We are taking everything in this room into evidence as soon as our forensic team get here and do their thing. The paperwork will be lodged with the Federal prosecutor and you will receive copies. At this stage we don't know who has legal ownership of the cash but that's not our concern, that's for the court to decide," The redhead explained.

"Okay get them out of here," she ordered the two buzzcuts who had holstered their weapons but were still not to be messed with.

Tiffany, Stephen, Lyle, Tina and Kurt were led outside, one agent in front and the other in the rear. The casino manager was standing outside the room wringing his hands looking alarmed and frightened.

They were led to the back of the casino and into a service elevator which stopped at the basement. An unmarked black van with the rear doors open was parked next to the elevator. Another buzzcut, probably the driver, helped his compatriots load them into the van and get them seated.

The van took off with a screech of tyres and all five bounced up and down until the van settled onto the blacktop.

"What the fuck just happened?" Kurt Bentley looked around at the others, the accusation evident in his tone of voice.

"Someone ratted us out," Tiffany was equally angry.

"Is this part of your deal with the FBI? Did you trade us to get out from under the Raffe Ignesman thing?" Stephen Bateman growled.

Tina and Lyle shook their heads violently.

"We already had our deal with the FBI. What about Tiff? Did she need to do a deal?" the attention turned to Tiffany.

"She was supposed to deal me the winning hand but somehow Scoot won the pot. What the fuck was that about?" Kurt glared at Tiffany.

Tiffany looked at Stephen who shook his head.

"Were you two in cahoots!" Kurt looked at Tiffany and then Stephen.

Tiffany began to cry.

"The people I borrowed money from won't care who doublecrossed who. They'll just want their money back and the vig and when I haven't got it..." her voice trailed off; she could no longer talk because she was sobbing so hard.

"I can help you out Tiff," Stephen tried to take her cuffed hands in his but she shook him off.

The accusations went backwards and forwards for the next thirty minutes until the van finally came to a halt. They had no idea where they were, there were no windows and the rear of the van was walled off from the cab. They heard the driver and passenger doors open and the crunch of receding footsteps and then nothing.

And then still nothing.

And then still nothing.

"Fuck!" Stephen Bateman shook his head.

"We were so busy blaming each other that we didn't realise that we've been scammed!"

He got up from his seat and sat down on the floor of the van and began to kick the back door. Lyle and Kurt joined him and after fifteen minutes the door finally sprang open.

The van was parked exactly where they had been loaded into it. They were back at the Grand Lake Hotel and Casino.

It was almost comical watching the six figures, two of them dressed in evening gowns, scramble out of the van with their wrists handcuffed in front of them. They took the elevator to the gaming room floor and then ran to the poker room. There was a small crowd of bewildered hotel staff milling around inside the room. They stopped what they were doing and stared at the six well-dressed handcuffed people.

"Don't just stand there you imbeciles! Call the police! We've been robbed!" Stephen Bateman screamed at them.

The safe was empty.

The police came and released them from their handcuffs and took them downtown to be interviewed. The other witnesses were innocent and couldn't tell the police anything and Tiffany, Stephen, Kurt, Lyle and Tina could only tell the police that their game had been raided and the money stolen. They had to keep schtum about their scam to steal the pot or risk going to jail.

Scoot Spetman was raising hell claiming he had won all the money fair and square but the police didn't seem to care who had won the final pot. As far as they were concerned a casino had been robbed and that was bad for business, they just wanted to catch whoever had done it. The casino could decide who rightfully had claim to the money if it was ever recovered.

The police released the five conspirators one at a time and their phones lit up with texts back and forth. They agreed to meet in Stephen's penthouse and try to unravel what had happened. Tiffany didn't come to the meet. She disappeared that very evening and they argued amongst themselves as to whether she was hiding from the men who had lent her the million dollars or if she was somehow involved the scam involving the phoney FBI agents.

For three months Stephen Bateman tried to find her. Tiffany's condo had been sold fully-furnished and she had cleaned out of all of her personal possessions. Likewise her Dodge Viper had been sold off. All of her bank accounts had been closed and the money transferred offshore. Try as he might, Stephen couldn't trace the money.

It was as if Tiffany Robinson had disappeared off the face of the earth.

Stephen Bateman sat in a well appointed conference room on the first floor of Executive Solutions, a company that specialised in covert surveillance, finding missing persons, and in civil investigations. Having exhausted all efforts to find Tiffany, Stephen Bateman had decided to go to the experts.

He was met by a man dressed in a business suit who looked like he could kill you with his thumb. Which he could.

They ordered coffee and then Stephen Bateman explained why he was here.

"So how much is it going to cost me for your company to find Tiffany Robinson?" Stephen asked.

"I'm sorry mister Bateman I don't think we can take your case," the man said.

"It's a conflict of interest for us you see."

Stephen Bateman looked bemused and was about to speak.

"Before you say anything sir. Let me introduce our two CEOs, Natalie Styles and Cassandra Rivers," the man waved his hand at the double-doors which opened right on cue.

Two stunning women entered the room, a miasma of perfume announcing their arrival.

The first, a trim redheaded woman in a tight-fitting navy-blue business suit, a cream silk blouse and silky sheer pantyhose, her ginger hair was styled with layered bangs and rested on her shoulders, her makeup emphasised her peaches-and-cream complexion although she favoured heavy black mascara and bright-red lipstick.

The second was dressed almost identically, she too was stunning and was a little taller with blonde hair.

"The FBI agents," Stephen smiled and shook his head.

"Natalie Styles, ex FBI agent and co-founder of Executive Solutions," the redhead approached and offered her hand.

"Cassandra Rivers, ex biker-bitch and also co-founder of Executive Solutions," the blonde shook his hand and then they all sat.

The trained killer in the business suit left them to their business.

"Look..." Stephen tried to begin but Natalie held up a finger.

"I'm going to let Cassie explain. She's closer to the source of this incident than I am," she said calmly.

"Believe it or not, a few years ago, I was recruited by the FBI to work undercover as a biker; a full-patch member of the Beasts of Burden MC. Natalie here was my FBI handler," Cassie began.

"At one point the Beasts of Burden patched over the Sisters of Satan, an all-girl biker club who happened to own the Medusa casino in Las Vegas which was fronted by a woman named Jill Saint John. Jill became a very close personal friend of mine," Cassie looked at Natalie almost apologetically.

"No further details will be provided other than at one time Miss Tiffany Robinson worked for Jill Saint John as a dealer in the Medusa casino. Being a trans-woman myself, Tiffany and I became very good friends," Cassie could see the lights switching on in Stephen's brain.

"So when Tiff realised that she couldn't trust Lyle and Tina Brinkman, Kurt Bentley and even you mister Bateman, she came to us," Cassie turned to a small wet bar set up at the end of the conference room.

"So let me get this straight. Tiffany, the woman I am hopelessly in love with, didn't trust me," Stephen took the double scotch that Cassie had poured for him.

Nat and Cassie had bourbon the rocks.

"She didn't trust anyone. But she trusts me so I used my company to protect her interests," Cassie raised her glass.

"She and your company robbed us of ten million dollars!" Stephen slammed his glass down on the conference table.

He put his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes and then ran his fingers through his mane.

"God. I always knew that Tiff was the smartest person in the room wherever she was and regardless of the company," Stephen raised his glass and to the sky and drained his glass.

He was resigned. There was nothing he could do. He'd been doublecrossed or triple-crossed or something. There was no taking on Executive Solutions, they could make him disappear in a instant and no one would ever find him.

He pushed back his chair, ready to leave.

"Wouldn't you like to see her before you go?" Natalie asked just as he got to the door.

Stephen froze.

"She's here?" he turned around.

"We'll give you some privacy shall we," Cassie and Natalie put down their drinks and left the room.

Tiffany entered.

Tiffany had changed a lot. She'd put on some weight and died her hair red and let it grow out. She wore it piled on top of her head. Also her breasts were a lot bigger. She was still stunning, she was curvy and had those curves in all the right places. Think Christina Hendricks in Mad Men.

She was wearing a tight-fitting black business suit with a skirt that was indecently short and showed off a lot of nylon-sheathed leg. The buttons on her blouse and jacket strained to contain her large breasts. She was gliding on black stiletto high heels.

Stephen stood there stunned and speechless.

"Did you mean what you said about me being the smartest person in the room?" those succulent red lips curved into a smile.

Stephen just nodded.

Tiffany walked right up to him and put her lips on his. Instinctively Stephen put his arms around her.

They kissed... for a long time.

"But how?" he began.

"Not now; later," Tiffany took his hand and led him towards the doors.

The End

Author's Note: Your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated thank you