Chapter One

Alice is getting impatient. I can't tell if she's being annoying on purpose or simply doesn't realize how infuriating the sound of her acrylic nails tapping on the table is. 

"Eve, baby let's go!" she calls for the umpteenth time. I pull my gaze away from the hallway mirror to tell her I was just fixing my lipstick. 

This isn't quite the truth, I was scanning every pore, hair folicle, and cell on my face to make sure any imperfections were concealed, hidden or blurred and I looked perfect.

"You always look put together even when you're ugly crying you manage to look like a super model. Now stop checking ourself out and let's go!" she says.

"Alright, Alright, Alright. I'm coming!" I say not even trying to hide my annoyance. Even though we've been roomates and best friends for years and she knows all of my quirks inside and out, she still gets pushy with me which often triggers my anxiety but I love her and I am excited to get out of our little apartment and have some fun. 

Alice and I met in college. We were across-the-hall mates in the dorm rooms of our freshman year and quickly became best friends when we both realized our assigned roomates didn't necessarily fit our personality types. I think whoever was in charge of assigning rooms made a mistake because my roommate Sarah and Alice's roomate Amy ended up being kindred spirits and after a semester of constant tension we swapped room. 

Getting tired of the dorm life by our sophomore year and wanting a bit more independance, Alice and I decided to get an apartment together just off campus. A lot of our dormmates from our floor ended up in the same complex. It was nice that we knew most of our neighbors, but we also were hoping to see and meet some fresh faces to fuel our weekend side hustle. 

My brother older brother Charlie has always been good with numbers and when we were younger, he wanted to make some extra money at the casino and had me help him practice counting cards. I've never been great at math but practicing with him and my innate ability to be deceptive...I caught on quickly. 

I know what you're thinking, card counting. We've seen the movies and it never ends well for the counter even though the act isn't techincally illegal it is definitely frowned upon. Thats why Charlie and I never did it often and we kept ourselves in check making sure we didn't make off with so much money that it would gain the attention of the pit bosses. 

Nonetheless, I taught Alice and we would have casino nights and rob our fellow students of whatever they brought to the table. Maybe rob isn't the right word because we didn't take advantage, we too were college kids needing to make ends meet. 

Being that we weren't quite 21 when all of this started we needed fake ID's and thats where he comes in...Jacob. My ex-boyfriend and by all accounts high school sweetheart. 

We started dating when I was 17 and he was 18. Though he had graduated the year before I still knew him from school. We grew up in a small town, just under seven thousands residents and our schools were pretty small, so everyone definitely knew everyone. 

Jacob was a bit of a bad boy, which was my favorite flavor of red flag. I'd always had a thing for him but never once thought he'd ever have any interest in me being that any girl with a pulse was vying for his attention back then. 

One day, I was walking on one of the trails along the river in my hometown and we ran into eachother. Quite literally in fact. I had my headphones in listening to some emo pop-punk band not really paying attention to where I was going when I turned a blind corner on the trail and ran right into him as he was running and coming from the opposite way. 

After exchanging apologies he said he recognized me as Charlie's little sister, not the best introduction but I'll take it. We started chatting and next thing I knew we were sitting on a nearby bench making out. We exchanged numbers and kept in contact and eventually started dating. 

My parents weren't too thrilled about my one year older boyfriend coming around the house all the time, but his home life wasn't great and next thing we knew, months had gone by and Jacob had earned himself a spot at the table for family dinner nearly every night. 

Alice could tell I was deep in thought and nudged me to snap out of it because our Uber was just pulling up to the bar. She jiggled her had with five coins clutched inside her slender fingers and smirked at me. 

"You ready to take advantage of some drunk people?" she said flashing her million dollar smile. Before anyone gets too upset, we don't take advantage of people in the way you may think. It's just a coin trick. It's relatively simple, but we've found that rich college boys living off their parent's plastic were more than happy to bet $20 on the trick or a game of poker. 

I think one night, between the two of us we came home with over $3,000 from the card games and coin trick and we both enjoyed a little extra spending money and no one was really hurt in the process. 

As soon as we stepped into the bar we began scanning the room for a group of guys who we thought would be more than willing to play. We spot a table open up near the back where the pool tables are and make our assault in claiming the table. 

After setting our things down, Alice makes her way to the bar to order our drinks. A Washington Apple for me and a gin and tonic for her. Although Alice stands at 5'5 with two inch heels on, she is beauiful. She's slender with curves in all the right places and her shoulder length blonde hair and striking blue eyes immediately grab the attention of the single men standing at the bar waiting for their drinks. 

I can imagine her tossing out her quick witty comments that most take as flirting even though I know better and she's actually insulting them, but the guys just eat it up and next thing you know, she's walking back to our table, drinks and her cash in hand with three guys drooling after her. 

"This is Eve, my roommate, best friend and all around bad ass bitch." she says as everyone takes their respective seats around the table. I scaresly make an effort to remember their names seeing and I'm positive we will never see them again after we challenge them to a game and take their money, but they seem pleasant enough. 

We start our bets small with and only require a $10 buy in. Our method includes winning some and losing. We flirt and ask if they're ready to up the stakes and they almost always oblige and that's when we take them and the real fun and counting begins. Often times the word gets out we're playing and people come and go. Sometimes people suspect us of cheating, which technically we are but no one can ever prove it and the guys trickle off and that's when we bring out the coin trick. You definitely can't cheat that and usually by then everyone has had enough to drink that their ability to recall patterns has diminished and it's easy to take home an additonal $50 depending on who wants to play. 

Alice and I are ahead about $300 each when we decide it's time to call it a night. Both of us over indulged a little and we're definitely feelings the effects of the alcohol. I told Alice I'd grab our jackets and close out the tab when I glanced at the bar and noticed two men sitting there that hadn't been earlier. 

They were definitely staring at us and even from the distance I got the feeling they had been watching us and knew what we were doing. I didn't recognize them as any of our previous challengers. We had run into people before who had a bone to pick with us after making off with their money or expensive watched but there was something different about these guys. Were they cops? Unlikely, plus we weren't doing anything illegal. 

I asked Alice if she recognized them and she shook her head and offered the explaination they they probably just thought we were hot and were hoping we'd be going home with them tonight. Her lack of conern put my own at ease and I walked up to the bar signaling the bar tender that I was ready to cash out while trying to avoid the gaze of one of the men who'd eyes tracked me the whole time, though he was trying to not make it obvious he was watching. 

As I waited on the bar tender, my curiosity got the best of me and a stole a glance at the guy sitting closest to where I was standing. Our eyes met and he immediately looked down at his drink and started talking to his friend, but he was definitely watching me out of the corner of his eye. 

Just then a drunken frat boy bumped into me knocking me off balance and I would have completely fallen down if the man hadn't grabbed my arm to steady me. I regained my balance and noticed his hand on my arm, his grip was firm but not too tight and I could see the lines of a tattoo peaking out the bottom of his long sleeved shirt extending just passed his wrist and onto his hand. "Whoa there! Are you okay?" he asked. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said a little more harshly than I intended, moreso just annoyed at the bro who nearly knocked me on my face. It was then that I looked at his face and was struck by how handsome he was. It was hard to tell in the low light but I suspected his eyes were a honey brown and his jaw was well defined and he had minimally styled dark blonde hair. All around, he was gorgeous. I also noticed more lines of tattoo peaking out the collar of his shirt near his neck. 

He offered to buy me a drink but I respectfully declined telling him that my friend and I were just leaving. 

"Bummer," he said. I could sense disappointment in his voice but shook it off when I noticed Alice making her way up to where I was standing. 

"Hey there handsome," she said. "I'm Alice. This is Eve. You two gonna buy us a drink or what?"

"I'm Ryan and this is Bentley. Eve here seems to think you two are leaving," he said. 

I was just about to tell them we were about to leave when Alice turned to me and whispered. "Don't say a goddamn thing. These guys are fucking hot, girl! We deserve to have some fun."