Chapter Text
It was the perfect night at the casino. The crowd was just small enough to find a table but large enough to blend in, just the way they planned it.
Finn wiped his palms on his pants one last time as he watched people enter the casino from his backseat window.
“Ok let’s not spend too much time in there,” he said to the rest of the car. “Let’s just hit our marks and get out.”
“Pfft. Lighten up will ya. This is what we been waiting for,” the driver said.
“He’ll lighten up once his pockets are heavy,” the passenger followed before clapping his hands together. “Time to get paid fellas!”
‘Nines’ and ‘Zeros’ they called themselves. The two of them were more excited about this job than their boss, so much that they actually gave themselves code names to match the spirt of the job.
Finn shook his head and look back out the window. The job should be simple, they practiced and prepared for weeks. All they had to do was play the game the way they were taught and money would fall in their laps. Still, given the crew he has to work with, Finn didn’t feel so confident.
He turned back to the group and though he was nervous, his voice was firm. Just like always.
“Just remember to look realistic. More wins draws more eyes.”
Zeros waved off his warning. “Yeah yeah. A comfortable ten stacks and I’m out.”
“Ten? The mark is five a piece,” Finn stated.
Zeros shrugged his shoulders. “The way I see it, for as big as a cut that Phasma’s taking, I’m just evening things out.”
“Makes sense to me,” Nines laughed, with too much excitement for Finn’s liking. “Tonight we gonna be rolling in green! As Long as someone doesn’t screw it up,” he nodded to the back seat.
Finn turned to his left where their final member sat.
‘Slip’, Nines decided to call him, had been quiet the whole car ride for good reason. He was smart enough to be apart of the job but not smooth enough. During training with Phasma, Slip would from time to time mess up and lip his counts. It was made clear that he was to tag along tonight and not actually participate.
“All the more reason to stick to the plan,” Finn said.
“For the last time, I’ll be fine!” Slip finally burst out. “Let’s just get paid already.”
“Yes sir!” Nines shouted and sprang out the car followed by the others.
Finn did his best to maintain his composure. He knew it was a bad idea to be apart of this. But money has way of tempting even the most conservative of people.
It was the kind of crowd you normally saw on a late Friday night at the casino. Women were all dolled up in dresses and heels. Most men wore button downs, some more casual than others. Finn’s group were some of the very few who wore suits and ties, they said they wanted to look like high rollers. Finn however, decided they drew too much attention and kept it simple with nice black jeans and his favorite brown leather jacket. He caught some flack from the guys on the way over but he didn’t care, the last thing he wanted was to look fancy in jail.
“Alright.” Finn spoke up once they were inside. “There’s a table with a few people and an open chair. Let’s scout it out.”
“Scuse me,” Zeros and Nines said, bumping past Finn and quickly made their way over to the table with Slip close behind.
Finn took a deep breath of frustration. He took a brief moment to pad the side of his jacket, feeling the hard steel on the inside. It was something he was never planning to use, Phasma just gave one to all of them out of defense. However, him and Phasma had different definitions of defense.
Moving forward, Finn walked past the endless slot machines hearing the mix of levers being pulled, dings from the machines, and the groans from the players. He made his way up to join his group at their destination. The Black Jack table.
It was easy to see why this table was so popular. The combination of a beautiful female dealer and drunk guys clapping and laughing so loud at each others cards was enough to make everyone in the casino think they were winning big, even though they weren’t. Finn couldn’t tell if they were losing more money on their drinks or their cards
“Alright one chair. So who’s up first?” Zeros asked the group.
“Give it a minute,” Finn whispered. “Watch their hands this round.”
After each player placed their chips forward, Finn’s eyes zoned in on the dealer pulling from the deck. In real time, the cards were placed so quickly that most people wouldn’t be able to keep up, but Finn could count so fast that he knew the hands better than the dealer.
After each incorrect decision, the dealer took the losing chips from the players along with their cards. Finn was about to address his group when something caught his ears.
“What the hell I didn’t even get to finish my hand!”
Finn turned to the voice at the table next to them. A girl, who looked to be about his age, just lost to the dealer’s Black Jack. Obviously she didn’t know the rules. The house always wins.
Once her chips were swiped away, the girl looked down in disbelief. She had nothing left. Now speechless, she grabbed her backpack and stormed off. Her backpack kept Finn’s eyes on her. It was an unusual small circle bag with orange and white stripes, similar to the design of her blue and white stripped sneakers at the bottom of her jeans and gray jacket. This girl clearly didn’t hang at casinos.
“Got the count?” Slip whispered.
“Uh yeah,” Finn replied, forced back to the task at hand. “Yeah pretty simple.”
Finn turned back to the table in front of him but only for a moment. Maybe because she was a standout from the crowd or because of the scene she made, but for some reason Finn felt the need to look back at that girl. When he did, he saw she made her way over to the bar, not to take a seat but crouched down at wall near it. She checked her phone for a moment before dropping her head in her hands.
Something Finn found out not too long ago is that there are only two types of gamblers; those who play out of fun and those who play out of desperation. This poor girl seemed to be the ladder, but then again, so was he.
“Alright game ti-”
Zeros was cut off by Finn who pulled him back and took the open seat himself and dropped a twenty on the table.
“Well,” Zeros laughed. “Look who’s coming alive.”
Finn paid him no mind. After seeing that girl, he made a decision. If he was going to go through with this plan then he was going to at least do one good deed out of it. He was going to win that girl her money back.
Finn scooped up his winning chips and stood up.
“I’m out,” he said to the dealer before leaving the table.
“Already?” Zeros asked.
“Yeah you guys hold it down. I’ll be back.”
Finn was making his way over to the bar only to see girl check her phone again before she got up and walked away. He tried to keep up with her but she seemed to be in a hurry.
After he realized they were at the back end of the casino, Finn began to feel a little weird about chasing this person he didn’t know but, he didn’t go through the trouble of winning the chips for nothing.
He turned the last corner to see the girl had disappeared. All that was in sight was an isolated door that led outside.
Finn wondered who would go through all that trouble just to leave the casino when she could have just left out the proper exit. It was sign he was ready to take to head back.
But something about that girl, the door, the vibe of the atmosphere, it was tempting.
Against his better judgement, Finn walked up to the door. He opened it slightly but stopped when he heard her voice again.
“I told you I’ll get the money!”
“You said that last time. Boss is running out of patience,” a deeper masculine voice responded.
Finn pushed the door open a little more to see the girl. In front of her were two large men.
“Well tell him to wait some more and stop bothering me with goons! I’ll call him when I have the money,” the girl snapped back.
She was halfway turned when one of the men grabbed her arm and pulled her violently.
“Who do you think your talking to?”
That was enough for Finn to burst open the door and run out. But as quick as he did, the girl already flipped the man over her shoulder and on to the ground. The other man ran forward just meet her foot in his face and found himself on the ground.
“Damn.”
The girl looked over to see Finn. Out of instinct she took a battle stance.
“Whoa whoa I’m on your side.” he waved his hands in defense.
Surprised, the girl dropped her fists and Finn began to relax until something caught his eye.
“Get out the way!” Finn yelled.
The girl jumped back in time to dodge one of the men’s strike. When he got to both his feet he revealed a switchblade.
“Drop it!”
All attention shifted to Finn who had his gun pointed at the man with the blade.
The man complied and dropped his blade with his hands up. His partner did the same when he made it back to his feet.
“Take it easy buddy. We weren’t gonna hurt nobody.”
Finn’s heart was pounding and his mind was racing but his hand was steady and his voice was firm.
“Then get lost. Now!”
On his demand, the two men ran to their car in haste. When they drove off, Finn relaxed and put his gun away, thankful things didn’t get any worse.
“Why did you do that?”
Finn turned back to the girl. He let a few moments pass before answering, letting the vibe die down a bit. The thing was, he didn’t really have a complicated answer.
“I don’t know. You just looked like you needed help,” he said, honestly. “Oh uh, sorry about the gun. I hope I didn’t scare you. I promise I wasn’t going to shoot. I just wanted to protect you from his knife.”
He did his best to ensure her and it looked to work somewhat. Still the girl wore a look that was a mix of comfort and confusion.
“Right. Thanks,” she said.
“Are you in any trouble? Maybe you should call the police.”
“No! I mean, um, no. No but thanks. It’s really not as bad as it looks. I just owe money to a loan shark. Once he has his money I’ll be done with him and his goons.”
“Right...”
Silence fell between them, not out of awkwardness but more out of comfort, letting the last of the adrenaline rush disappear.
“Oh,” Finn spoke up, “Here.”
He pulled out his winning chips and handed them over to her. She stared down at them in shock.
“That’s actually why I’m here,” Finn began, “After you made that scene, I won a couple hands and figured I’d help you out. But by the time I caught up with you, you were already talking to those punks.”
She looked up from the chips in her hand to ask a simple question. “Why?”
Finn pondered for a moment, but once again didn’t have much of an answer.
“Just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Believe me, I didn’t see any of this coming,” he laughed, trying to ease the tension.
She gave a soft smile. “This is more than what I lost.”
“Yeah well, I wasn’t sure how much you actually lost so I figured that was a safe amount” he gave another short laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Plus, maybe it will help with your situation.”
The girl nodded. “It does,” she said with a slight chuckle. Finn didn’t know if it was because of his awkwardness or out of relief but he was glad to see her finally relax.
“So... you’re Robin Hood?” she teased.
“Obviously,” he said, sticking out his chest. Though he didn’t know if it came out as smooth as he thought it would. After another chuckle he decided to just be honest.
“Hey look, everyone needs to catch a break right? I’m just glad I could help. Um, just be careful out there alright.”
He walked back to the door and reached for the handle, ready to get back to his night and put this event behind him.
“Wait!”
He looked back at the girl. She walked up to him hesitantly.
“Um, how about a drink on me? I mean you gave me more money than what I need so it’s the least I can do.”
This was crazy. Guns and knives were just drawn a moment ago. All signs of this girl pointed to danger. It was too much to risk, yet he still said...
“Sure. I’d like that.”
The girl returned his smile. “I don’t know your name.”
“Finn. What’s yours?”
“I’m Rey.”
With a new vibe in the air, Finn opened the door and gestured inside.
“Well then, right this way Rey.”
Temptation. It’s powerful.