It was close to eight o’clock the next night when I pulled up at the address Angelo had given me. He’d told me to take a few hundred dollars out of my bank account and meet him there for poker night. Angelo and his crew ran a weekly underground poker game and he thought it would be a good way to introduce me to everybody. We were going to have fun, but I was also supposed to help them make sure that none of the players were cheating or getting out of line. The game used to be run by Uncle Luca, but he left Angelo in charge of it a year ago.
I was excited. I’d never played poker before, but the concept of gambling had always been interesting to me. It seemed like it would be a lot of fun to try and psych people out and get them to fork over their cash. I’d probably be a natural at it. Yeah, I could feel that this was going to be a good night.
Angelo was waiting outside the building with two other guys. One of them was really tall & lean. He looked like he could play for the NBA. The other guy was of average height and muscular. He was rocking a mullet and mustache. It was weird to me that mullets were suddenly back in fashion, but I had to admit that most people looked cool with them.
Angelo waved me over when he saw me get out of the car. “Nico! Come meet the crew.”
He pointed to the tall one first. “This giant is Joey. He’s one of the most chill guys I know.”
Joseph "Joey" Pagani
Mafia Soldier, Moretti Family
Joey smiled warmly and shook my hand. “Angelo talks about you all the time. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”
“That’s embarrassing,” I chuckled.
Angelo motioned to the guy with the mullet. “And that’s Carmello. Everyone just calls him Mello. We go way back.”
Carmello "Mello" Pavone
Mafia Soldier, Moretti Family
Mello just nodded at me and didn’t say anything.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“Yeah,” Mello said. He turned to Angelo. “We gonna stand around all night or are we gonna do this thing?”
The first floor of the building was completely bare. It looked like they were in the middle of renovating it. The guys led me up a narrow staircase to the second floor. There was a big metal door at the top of the staircase with a huge lock on it. Angelo whipped out a ring of keys and unlocked the door.
When I entered the room, the first thing I noticed was how spacious it was. It looked like they’d broken down the wall between two rooms so that they could be combined into one huge room. There were four poker tables that looked like they’d seen better days and a small bar in the corner of the room.
“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked.
“Downstairs. Make sure to spray some Febreeze if you do a number two,” Angelo said.
“I don’t need to use it right now, I was just curious about where it was,” I said. “It seems kind of inconvenient for people to have to walk all the way downstairs every time they have to go.”
”We’re working on it,” Angelo said.
Someone knocked on the door. Joey looked through the peephole and unlocked it to let in a woman who looked to be in her early thirties. She was wearing a button-down white shirt with a black vest and a black skirt.
“This is our bartender, Sammy. This place would be nothing without her.”
“Thanks, boss!” She grinned. “If you feel that way, then how about giving me that raise we talked about?”
“I’ll think about it. Have you heard from Matt or Frankie?” He changed the subject. “They should be here by now.”
“Matt said that there’s a lot of traffic but he’s five minutes away. I haven’t talked to Frankie,” Sammy said.
“If Frankie’s late again, I’m gonna lose it. He’s always got some bullshit excuse,” Mello grumbled. I was beginning to think that he wasn’t a very mellow person.
“Maybe, but he’s one of the best dealers I’ve ever seen. It would be hard to find someone to replace him,” Joey said.
Angelo frowned. “I already told him that I’d dock his pay if he was late again. And there’s nothing he loves more than making money. He’ll be here on time. Probably.”
“Speaking of money, can I talk to you for a second?” I interrupted.
Angelo nodded and we moved over to the other side of the room. “What’s up?” He said.
“How much am I gonna be paid? Doing those collections with you yesterday was cool and all I get why I didn’t get any money since it was basically a job interview. But how much am I going to be making here? And what is my job here anyway?”
“Relax, you’ll be making decent money. You’ll be doing security and watching the door. Only open it for people who give you the correct password. After a couple of hours, you’ll switch with Joey or Mello and you can walk around the room to make sure everything is running smoothly or join one of the games. If anyone acts up, toss ‘em out.”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you still haven’t told me how much I’m getting paid.”
Angelo rolled his eyes. “You’ll be getting twenty dollars an hour. We shut things down at around 3 AM. And you get to keep half of the money that you win in a game. The other half goes to the house.”
I raised my eyebrows. If I got good at playing, I could make a killing here. “Okay, that sounds pretty good. What’s the password by the way?”
“If they say that they’re here for the financial conference, let them in,” Angelo said.
I stifled a laugh. “Financial conference? Seriously?”
“It gets the job done,” Angelo said defensively. “And usually we already know the people who are playing, so they don’t even need to give the password. That’s mostly just to screen new people who are coming in. Once you’ve been working here for a while and recognize the regulars, you can just let them in.”
“Alright, got it. Let’s do this!” I said.
Sammy went behind the bar and started getting things ready. Angelo, Joey, and Mello shot the shit while I sat near the door and waited for people to show up. Matt, the card dealer, arrived a couple of minutes later wearing a similar uniform to Sammy’s. The other dealer, Frankie, got there a minute before his shift was supposed to start. The guys gave him some shit about cutting it close, but they were relieved to see him. Frankie’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect because some of the players started arriving right after that. Most of them were middle-aged guys, so I assumed that they were old regulars who’d been coming to the game since back when my uncle was still in charge of it.
They kept Sammy busy right off the bat by ordering drink after drink. She was constantly running back and forth from the bar to the poker tables. I thought it was interesting that they were drinking so much while playing a game where you needed to have a sharper mind than your opponent. You’d think that they’d want to keep a clear head while they had money on the line. Maybe they cared more about having a good time. A couple of the guys tried to flirt with Sammy badly and I could see that it bothered her but she always managed to keep a smile pasted on her face. I wasn’t sure whether I should be impressed by her professionalism or annoyed that she had to put up with that. It didn’t seem right, but I was sure if it was my place to bring it up with Angelo or not. I decided that I should probably talk to her first and see if she wanted him to do something about it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked through the peephole and saw a white guy and a Latina girl who looked to be around my age. The guy was wearing a plain white tee shirt, baggy pants, and a big gold chain. The girl was wearing a simple but nice-looking black dress.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“We’re here for the meeting,” the guy said.
“What meeting?”
“You know… the meeting. Or was it a convention? Damn, I can’t remember what I was supposed to say. My boy Vinny told me about this place. Just let me in,” he said.
He’d gotten close to the password, but I couldn’t risk letting him in. “Sorry, I can’t help you. You have the wrong place,” I said.
“This is definitely the place. Come on, man. I’m here for the meeting. You know, the meeting… where people can bet on things and get money.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. This guy seemed like a moron. Did he think that he was being subtle? Then again, our password was pretty on the nose too so I didn’t have the right to judge him.
He started banging on the door hard. “This is some bullshit! Let me in already. You don’t know who you’re fucking with!”
The girl nudged him in the side. “Why don’t you just call Vinny and ask him for the password again.”
“Good thinking,” He said. “You’re so smart, baby.” He kissed her before whipping out his phone and calling his friend.
“Vinny! Whaddup, playa?” He yelled into his phone. “I’m good. Listen, I’m at that place you told me about and the guy at the door won’t let me in. Yeah, he’s just being a hater. What’s the password again?”
His face lit up. “A’ight, bet. I knew it was something like that. Thanks, bro! Catch you later,”
He pocketed the phone. “Okay, I got it now. I’m here for the financial conference.”
I unlocked the door for them. “Sorry, but I couldn’t just let anybody in. You understand. Have a good time tonight.”
The guy scoffed and pushed past me. “Yeah, whatever.”
His date smiled at me awkwardly. “Sorry about Connor. He can be kind of intense.”
“Yeah… that’s one word for it,” I said. “Try to keep him from getting “intense” during the games or we’ll have to kick him out.”
“Sure, I’ll do my best,” she said.
“Babe, what’re you doing talking to that creep? Get over here,” Connor said.
The girl looked at me apologetically and walked towards him. Connor gave me one last glare before guiding her to the bar. She seemed nice enough, so I wasn’t sure what she was doing with an asshole like that. Throughout the night, I found my eyes drifting back to that girl. She was gorgeous. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if someone told me that she was a model. Our eyes met a couple of times and she smiled at me. I pretended to be looking at something else. God, I had no game whatsoever. I never knew how to act around girls I was attracted to. It was a miracle that I’d ever gotten a girlfriend before.
When Joey finally switched places with me to watch the door, I circled the room to keep an eye on things but found myself gravitating to the table. I cursed myself inwardly for being almost as creepy as the guys who were making passes at Sammy earlier. Having some random guy staring at you had to be uncomfortable. It would probably be better for me to just walk away. She was here with somebody else after all. I was just about to go to another table when Connor suddenly started yelling.
“Were you just looking at that guy?” He said, grabbing his date’s arm. “Answer me! Were you looking at him?!”
“Of course not. What’re you talking about?” She said. She tried to pull her arm away but he was grabbing on to her tight.
“Don’t lie to me! You’ve been eye fucking him all night!” He said.
“You’re being crazy right now!” The girl said.
Angelo had been called away to do something for his dad and Mello was downstairs using the bathroom. I saw Joey get up from his seat by the door when he heard the commotion, but I was already right next to them so I knew that I had to be the one to handle this. I needed to earn my keep.
“Let go of her or you’re out of here. You’re disturbing the other guests.” I said.
Connor’s face turned red. “Fuck you, I paid to be here!”
I got up close to him. “Last warning. Chill out or leave.”
Connor got so close to me that I almost choked on the smell of his horrible Axe Body Spray. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere. What are you gonna do about it?”
My heart was pounding as I looked at him and glanced over at his date. She was terrified and I knew there was no way I could back down. I quickly weighed my options. Connor was a buff dude who looked to be about three inches taller than me. Plus the guy had a screw loose. It didn’t look like things would turn out well if I went up against him in a straight-up fight. I really wished that I’d chosen the Brawler skill the day before. But thinking about that gave me an idea. It was a stupid idea, but it seemed better than getting my face bashed in.
“How about this? Let’s play a game of poker. If you beat me, you can stay. But if I win then you get the hell out.”
“You’re on, bitch,” He said, finally letting go of her arm.
When it came to poker, I knew pretty much nothing. I knew that it was a good thing to get something called a Royal Flush. And I’d heard people talk about something called “the river”, but that was as far as my poker knowledge went. But I wasn’t going to let my complete lack of knowledge about the rules of the game hold me back. After all, this game was supposed to be about bluffing and hoping that people don’t catch onto you, right? Fake it ‘til you make it, baby!
I sat down at looked at Matt the dealer. “Deal me in.”
He handed me my cards. I lifted them to get a subtle look at them. Yup, those were definitely a hand of cards. I didn’t know if it was a bad hand or not, but I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible. I had two face cards and I hoped that was good. The game continued, more cards were dealt, and people started folding. I was determined to stay in until the very end. We started with eight people at the table and eventually me, Connor, and a man wearing glasses were the only ones left.
I pushed all my chips towards the middle of the table. “I’m all in.”
Connor snickered. “Looks like the kid has some balls after all. Just don’t go crying home to mommy when I take all your money.”
Time to ruin this prick’s day. God, I hope this works. I thought.
MEAN MUG ACTIVATED
A surge of power washed over me. I suddenly felt like there was nothing that I couldn’t handle. Like I could climb a mountain without a harness or wrestle a bear into submission. I felt myself sitting up straighter and my anxieties faded away. My face twisted into a glare so sharp that it could cut glass.
Connor seemed to shrink away when our eyes met. His hands were shaking and sweat started pouring off his face. I saw him take some deep breaths and try to wipe the sweat away, but it just kept coming. It looked like it was taking everything inside him to stay at the table instead of running away. I don’t think he would’ve been more nervous if he was trapped in a cage with a wild animal.
I turned to the man wearing glasses. “I think you should fold.”
He nodded his head violently. “A..alright. I’m out.”
I looked back at Connor with a small smirk. It looked like Mean Mug gave you an overwhelming presence that other people couldn’t stand up against. “If you’re so cocky, then why don’t you go all in too?”
He looked down at his cards and then quickly up at me.
“N..No problem,” He said. He pushed his chips forward and looked at the dealer nervously.
“Time for the moment of truth. Show your cards,” I said.
He flipped them over to reveal four aces and the seven of hearts. The murmurs I heard from everybody led me to believe that this was a good hand. Normally, I would start to freak out and wonder if I’d made a horrible mistake, but thanks to the influence of Mean Mug I still felt like I was in control.
I smiled and laid my cards on the table. Everybody leaned in to look at my hand. I had an ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of hearts. From the way that the color drained from Connor’s face, I could tell that I’d beaten him. I might not have known what the hell I was doing, but that didn’t matter when I had Mean Mug on my side. I didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if it hadn’t activated.
“It looks like I won,” I said with a wide smile. “...I did win, right?”
“Yeah, that’s a royal flush. Congrats,” Matt the dealer laughed.
SECRET QUEST “BOW DOWN” COMPLETE
50 XP AWARDED
Secret quest? You mean the system won’t always tell me about the quests beforehand? I wondered.
The sense of calm and confidence I’d felt suddenly disappeared. It was like a switch flicked inside of me and I was back to normal. The time limit for the Mean Mug skill had run out. I noticed that Connor stopped cowering at the same time. He shook his head as if coming out of a daze. Surprise and anger danced across his face before he finally settled on embarrassment.
“Let’s get out of here. This place sucks,” he mumbled to the girl.
He hurried to the exit and kept his eyes firmly planted on the ground. The girl remained standing right where she was.
Connor finally noticed that she wasn’t following him and looked back. “What are you doing? Let’s go.”
She rubbed her bruised arm and glared at him. “I think I’d rather stay.”
Connor was fuming but all it took was another look from me before he stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. There was silence for a moment. Then someone started clapping and pretty soon there was applause all around. I felt a bit embarrassed by it, but the games quickly resumed after that. Joey flashed me a thumbs-up and even Mello nodded at me. The girl walked over to me from the other side of the poker table.
“Thanks for stepping in. It’s about time someone put him in his place. I’m Mia,” She said.
“It’s no big deal. I’m Nico,” I smiled. This was a good night.