The Don's Trust

Chapter 7

The second Valentina's class ended, Kevin did what his boss ordered him and asked Valentina to point out the young man for him.

Valentina's eyes skimmed over the students sitting in the lecture hall, ''The one on the third seat in the fourth row.''

"Thank you for letting me know, Miss.''

Valentina mentally rolled her eyes. ''It's not like you would have given me a choice.''

A grin formed on Kevin's face at her remark. She was right, she didn't have much say in it.

While Kevin had a heart to heart talk with the young man, Valentina and Luke waited for him in the car. Valentina yawned as she listened to the music the radio played. The music was not the reason why she yawned, it was the lack of sleep.

The previous night, she couldn't get a proper night of sleep. It was one of those nights where she would feel restless and wanted to move instead of lying in her bed. Valentina closed her eyes with the intention she would open them after a few seconds. She didn't open them again and fell asleep.

Her nap didn't last long since Kevin woke her up, telling her they already got home. Valentina got out and rummaged through her bag, looking for the house key. When she got inside, she dragged her feet to the couch and dropped herself on it. Her plan was to peacefully continue her nap in the living room.

Meanwhile, Vito was out in the public playing a game of Hold 'em poker in the luxurious Suit casino. The current owner of the legal business chain was the Vitalli crime family; allies of the Grimaldis.

While the dealer handed two cards, face down, to each person around the table, Vito assessed the other players. All of them had a stoic look on their face. There wasn't anyone he recognized except for the croupier. For the past few days, Vito and Christopher paid quite a few visits to the casino, hoping the police would catch wind about their whereabouts.

He and his brother acted as bait to draw them out and see the face of their enemy. Just like the other days, Vito and Christopher only had one objective. See if there was anyone sent from the new task force.

To their luck, there was one sent by them. The undercover agent was comepletely unaware of the fact that he was playing against his target.

Vito averted his eyes from his table to get a good look at the other people in the room.

Regulars, Vito thought.

He took a quick peek at the corner of his cards. A three of spades and queen of diamonds. Vito had bad luck. With those two cards he couldn't win.

Even though losing money wasn't a problem for Vito. He stood by his gambling rule to not take on something if victory wasn't assured.

"Fold,'' Vito said and discarded his cards.

He was going to sit this round out while the others chose to stay in the game. As he waited, he listened to upbeat jazz music played by the live band. It was one of his favourite music genres, it made him feel calm and he could listen to it all day.

A cocktail waitress walked by the green felt-covered table and offered a drink to the men. Everyone, except for Vito, gladly took one to calm the nerves creeping inside of them.

When the player diagonally of Vito reached his arm out to grab a cocktail, Vito caught a glimpse of a police badge underneath his suit jacket.

On the detective's part, it was a big slip-up. A fatal and careless mistake Vito didn't mind.

Philip Coleman, the detective, was assigned with two tasks. Get evidence against the Grimaldi mafia of their criminal activities and find out who their leader was and what he looked like.

"Raise,'' Philip bluffed and put some more chips in the pot.

The others folded their cards, afraid to lose even more money. Philip won the round and collected the chips from the pot. He neatly stacked them up and waited for the croupier to start dealing again.

Vito stayed for another game to try to get a better idea of the man who had to investigate him. For the second time, the dealer handed two cards to each player.

Vito carefully lifted the corner of his card and was pleased with what he saw. Compared to the last time, he had a good hand. A pair of kings.

Philip also took a good look at his playing cards and couldn't fully contain the smirk that wanted to break out.

Pair of jacks! I can win again, Philip thought.

Vito picked up the faint smirk on Philip's face and instantly came up with a sly plan to rob the detective of his money.

The dealer flipped the first three cards on the middle of the table. The suit and the value of the cards didn't matter to Vito. Either way, he would let the detective win this game.

"Call,'' Vito betted the same amount of money as the player before him.

"Raise,'' Philip grabbed a few chips from his stack and tossed them in the pot.

The dealer flipped the fourth card, face up, and it made the two other players back out. Luck didn't seem to be on their side. Vito and Philip were now the only ones left.

Vito waited a few seconds before saying raise. If he was right, Philip leaned more toward aggressive plays than passive plays.

Philip had been bluffing a lot during the first game and now he raised the bet. Vito, on the other hand, was somewhere in between. He raised the amount of money if he had to and backed away when it was the right call to make.

"Raise,'' Vito gave Philip a challenging look, knowing he wouldn't back down.

''All in,'' Philip said surprising Vito.

Rather than saying 'all in', Vito thought he would simply say 'raise'. Philip's action didn't have an impact on Vito's plan, but it did make things slightly more amusing in the Don's eyes.

It's all or nothing for this fucker, Vito thought as he glanced at the detective.

When the croupier turned the fifth card, Vito tossed his cards onto the pile of discarded cards. Meaning, he folded which meant Philip won the second game as well. Despite the fact, Vito could have won with his pair of kings, which was more worth than Philip's pair of jacks, his plan required him to let the detective win another time.

"Impressive,'' Vito said in a barely audible tone, so Philip was the only one who could hear him.

"Ah, thank you,'' Philip said feeling proud.

Vito words were nothing more but an attempt to butter him up. He had a hunch the detective hadn't played a lot of poker which made him naïve in a way.

He will let his ego get the better of him, Vito thought to himself.

In the third game, Vito and Philip were once again the only ones left playing. One player backed out in the very beginning, before the preflop, and the other backed out later, not feeling confident enough to continue on.

The dealer still had to turn one more card but Vito already had three of a kind. A seven of hearts, spades and clubs. The first two were in his hands and the seven of clubs was faced up by the dealer.

Vito and Philip had to make their last bet.

"All in,'' Vito said.

''All in,'' Philip was confident in the cards he had.

Philip had two pairs of the same value which he thought would be just enough to win. He didn't know, however, that his opponent had three of a kind which overthrew his cards.

The croupier swiftly turned the final card around, revealing a seven of diamonds. Now, Vito had four of a kind which didn't do much to the outcome of the game. Vito still won the last game and learned a few things about the detective's personality in the process.

"Well, you got me there. Congrats.'' Philip stretched his hand for Vito to shake and said, ''I'm Phil and you are?''

"Stefanoand thank you.'' Vito used a fake name like Philip.