I filtered out all the casino noises and focused on Jaz playing on the table, there were five other players other than her at the table. She normally played on crowded tables. I guessed that gave her more options and ways to cheat without being seen.
I quietly stood with diagonal access to her at the table. I could see her clearly.
I was firmly in denial, that’s what I realized. The evidence was already there. She didn’t waste time. The first game she played with no cheating. I didn’t see her do anything that looked like cheating, anyway. In the second game, however, she nudged a chip onto a winning bet after the winning bet had been called. The dealer was too busy taking money from a lady on her left side. This left the table wide open for Jaz to cheat. The dealer only had six on the table. She should have been able to pick up the fact that Jaz’s chip wasn’t there before.
I wasted no time. I moved in on Jaz. I could pick her up directly now and lead her outside. My strides swiftly took off towards her.
I saw the fear as she licked her dry lips. Her nervous little trickster hands gathered up her chips and hurried to put them in her bucket. She sidestepped me.
I grabbed her arm. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast. Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to cash in my chips. Get your hands off me,” she thundered as those warm ocean-blue eyes I noticed before turned to blue ice.
“Jaz. You placed a bet after the winning hand. I saw you. I have the footage of you doing it. I found it. I know what you did in Biloxi too. You will run out of luck one day and it’ll be too late, you’re in real danger. I don’t know if you even realize how deep in the hole you are. This is the end of the road for you.”
The color drained from her face. “What did you say about Biloxi?” she asked quietly, still holding her cup and looking the most vulnerable I’d ever seen her.
“You had an alias there. You wore a blonde wig right? 100K ring a bell? Now you’re casino hopping and Red Stone is the next place to steal from? You didn’t realize you stole from a bunch of ruthless MC thugs in Biloxi! They will skin you alive,” I hissed hard at her.
“Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why did you do that?” She became more and more defensive.
My patience was wearing incredibly thin. If only she didn’t look so damn good and I didn’t care so much about her. “Jaz, you are breaking the law and stealing from casinos, how many others are there? You’re a straight scammer! Turn those chips in now. Do it,” I commanded.
“I’m not doing shit you say. I’m going to cash in these chips, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” She skulked off to the cashier and cashed the chips right in front of me.
I’d told her she’d been caught. I’d told her I had several different sources of evidence and yet, she just cashed in the dirty chips. I knew I was lost deep in her because I didn’t do anything to stop her. I stood right there and let her do it.
She flew past me and ran out of the double doors.
I looked out the door after her and wondered if Jaz would flee Holbeck. I wondered if the connection I thought was so real between us had all been just in my imagination. I flicked a frustrated hand through my hair and went back to my shift.
Two steps forward and one step back.