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My lucky number 7
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“We need the money and you just gave it away like some Robin Hood!” Shiva wanted to punch him, beat him, go wild and be violent. She kept her arms on her sides.
It was their only money left. They might as well be hobos in disguise.
“I said I’m sorry, we’ll get it back.” Drake scratched the back of his head. Girls really were difficult.
The two headed towards the nearest establishment, finding themselves torn between entering a casino or a bar. Without further argument, their synced decision drove them into the casino.
“How do we buy chips if we have no money?” Drake said.
Shiva strode towards the crowd, clothes brushing against the fabric of another customer. She smiled at Drake, flashing him chips between her fingers.
“You’re a genius!”
As they slipped into the main hall, Drake heard a guy whining behind them. A raven-haired man in glasses and a beanie was telling the guards he lost his chips.
“You lost all of our chips?” the woman behind him says. “Seriously, Ash? You had one job. One.”
“And you said five minutes of bathroom time. You were there for twelve!” Ash raised all ten fingers. “Twelve, Leah.”
“Hey, it’s disrespectful to–how dare you!”
Drake chuckled to himself and followed after Shiva into one of the slot machines. A young figure sat on the chair Shiva was headed for, slipping a coin in and pulling the lever.
“Hey kid, we got here first.” Shiva placed both hands on her hips. “And why are you even here, you’re underage.”
The child adjusted their eyepatch, pouting as they looked at Shiva with their only eye. “Says who?”
“Says your face, you little brat.” She lifted the child by their clothes. “Okay big boy, talk back to me again. I dare you.”
A man grabbed Shiva’s wrist, making her drop the child as it ran behind the man for refuge. “If Al wants to play, you let him play.” He shifted his glare at Drake, sending shivers down his spine.
“We’re cool, man.” Drake raised both hands.
“Uncool, you won’t even defend me,” Shiva muttered towards him.
“I know right,” the raven perched by the slot machine says. Shiva stared at it for a long minute before she turned to Al and the man.
Drake grabbed her wrist, nodding slightly at the intimidating muscular man and left the premises. He made sure they distanced themselves enough before he let her go.
“The guy had a sword within the hall. I'm not even gonna dare ask how that made it pass security,” Drake says.
“You saw his boner too?”
The assassin stared at the thief for a long moment before Shiva noticed something at her own comment. The realization tickled her stomach that elicited laughter from her lips. Drake hid his flustered face with his scarf and looked away, keeping up his frown.
Someone bumped into him, mumbling her apologies when she did. “You shouldn’t really stand in the aisle.” The woman winked at him before walking away.
“Let’s go make bets elsewhere,” Shiva calls. “You have the chips, right?”
“Yeah.” Drake reached for his pockets, searching for the chips but there were only crumpled pieces of paper. “What the–?”
“Oh gods, you may be some stealthy assassin, but you’re so dense, you don’t even feel someone groping you?” Shiva said with a grin.
Drake turned around but the blonde who bumped into him was gone within the current crowd. He muttered a curse under his breath, eyes peeled for the blonde thief. “Nobody steals from me.”
“Okay, Robin Hood, you had a taste of your own medicine. Hope that teaches you a lesson to never play that role again.” Shiva patted him in the back. “Let’s get out of here.”
One of the tables was surrounded by a group of gamblers, cheering and howling. Both scurried over to see what was happening, slipping past the crowd to find a lean man with tousled brown hair holding both dice in his trembling hands. His cheeks were flushed red.
A woman stood at the opposite table, looking equally flushed as him. “You can do it, K!”
Incoherent cheers followed after hers, the pressure now on the shoulders of the brunette man. He enclosed his palms around the pair of dice, muttering ‘Seven. For Galatea. Please.’ repeatedly and shook them briefly before casting them onto the table.
As if time had slowed, one of the dice hit the corner of the table, revealing two white dots. The second die flew out of the table, increasing the tension as the results were unknown until they saw what was on it.
The crowd gave way, eyes locked onto the rolling die. It stopped its journey by Drake’s boot, their gaze now on the assassin. He tried to move to escape their intense stares but Shiva held his arm. “Don’t move!” she said, and turned to the audience. “Quick, somebody check!”
“Go man!” one of the bystanders pushed Croesus to pick up the die.
He went and knelt, eyes sparkling when he saw five white dots on top of the cube. “It’s a seven. I got a seven!”
“He got it!” the crowd echoed.
Croesus turned around, facing the young woman smiling at him. Drake reached up his chest. His heart was beating loud and fast. He walked away, hoping it would calm his nerves. But as he found himself near the cards table, he spotted the same blonde thief from earlier.
The assassin smirked. He strode beside her, leaning on the table to play it cool.
“There you are, filthy thief,” he whispers.
The blonde smiled back at him, showing him the three chips she stole that now multiplied to nine. She tossed him back his three chips. “Paid in full.”
“There’s interest. You gotta hand over everything.” Drake kept his palms open for her to give the rest.
“If I recall correctly…” She leaned into his ear, he swallowed. “...you stole it first.” The woman pulled away, her amused grin still plastered across her lips. “The owner of those chips will be asking for interest too.”
Before she could disappear into the crowd again, he grabbed her hand. He didn’t know why he did it. His eyes traced the black threads that wrapped around her wrist that covered a tattoo of lines and numbers.
They stared as if there was a thread that kept their eyes locked on each other. Time was fast. Slow. Still. There was no telling.
“Are you two gonna play or what?” the woman beside the blonde said.
“Sienna, don’t pressure them. They’re talking about something serious.”
“I made bets, Alex. The bets needs a return of investment,” Sienna told her friend, tapping her bionic hand on the edge of the table.
Alex adjusts the maroon beanie she wore. “I don’t think you should be expecting that in a casino,” she muttered.
The blonde grinned. “Yeah, we’ll play.” She held Drake by the hand, pulling him by her side. “What are you betting, partner?”
“Uh, eleven.”
“Seven,” the blonde corrects.
“That’s not what I s–” The blonde elbowed him and he almost bit his tongue. “Yes, seven.” Deep in his gut, he was inches close to losing his patience and slit the woman’s throat in public.
Sienna handed the dice towards the blonde. The blonde thief winked at Drake before tossing it towards the table, with three and four on top.
“Dang it, Rob. These kids are lucky,” an elderly exclaims among the gamblers near the table, putting more chips in.
“Take it easy, Ed.” He wanted to take the chips back but it was already piled at the center of the table.
Drake watched as the dice was given back to the blonde. “Seven,” he said instinctively. He didn’t know why, but he went with it.
Toss after toss, they kept on winning, almost as if they had tricked the game of chance into favoring them. Until they had enough chips to cash out and repay Shiva for what he gave away. They left the craps table and headed for the cashier’s cage to verify their chips and exchange it with money.
“Hey. Tonight was fun. Thank you,” Drake said. “Almost as if you were my lucky number seven. Before tonight, I didn’t even believe in luck.”
“Don’t.” She closed the distance between them, taking his hand and guiding his fingers to close around two small items. “There’s no such thing.”
The assassin looked her in the eyes, confused, before scrutinizing the pair of dice in his palm.
“But there’s such a thing as cheating,” she told him with a grin. The dice was loaded. He caught the unspoken words from her grin.
She parted from him but he couldn’t stop staring as she walked away, until his gaze was forced to stare on the tiles, the back of his head throbbing. He straightened and frowned at the thief with the iron hand. “Ouch.”
“Where were you? You left me!”
“I was… getting our money back.” He showed the bag of chips as a peace offering. Shiva’s eyes gleamed.
“How many did you pickpocket?”
“No, I gambled.”
Shiva burst laughing. “You? Gambling? That’s the same as saying you danced in Johann’s loafers.”
The thought of wearing Johann’s royal clothing made Drake unsettled. It always looked restricting if not tight. Almost as if he had a corset, similar to what Lady Artemis had joked to him about to shape Shiva’s body like hers.
“No, I met someone. She… cheated the entire time and the old lady threw a slipper at us.”
“Who’s this someone?”
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“Keera, where have you been?” Leah asked, her face strained with frustration.
“Gambling. Where have you guys been?”
“Ash lost all of our chips, apparently.”
“Twelve minutes, Leah.”
“Would you let it go!”
Keera grinned. “I mean, if that’s how long it takes for Leah to get o–”
“Oh gods, no! That is not what I did!” Leah’s face was red.
Keera flashed them a wad of cash in both hands, “So, are we gonna spend this or is Leah gonna admit who she did a quickie with?”
Ash almost choked. “In the name of the gods, Leah. We’re going to gamble and you had time to–”
Leah’s face was consistently red as she crossed her arms. “One of my viewers asked me for a dare and they’d donate me two hundred dollars. So…”
Keera tossed her one of the bundles she had. “Yours truly.”
“Oh gods, I hate-love you right now!”
“With unholy love.” She winked.
