Impossible Odds: Rescue Team Nine

Chapter 20

Dice

Gunner's humming The Wedding March again.

"Is that really necessary?"

Pulling on a shirt, I glare at him. My dark hair is still wet from the shower. I left Cloey next door to get dressed with a promise from Ambrose to keep an eye on her room. Gunner's going over the finalities with me over what we need to gather to get the information I want on Les Andrews, Dalton, and Benjamin. A computer search can give us a lot of what we want but getting inside facts will work in our favor. The folder we've thumbed through over the last hour is sitting on the desk. It still needs to be completed with the information we'll gather.

"Is it bothering you?" Gunner asks as he throws a folder down.

"Yes."

Throwing some clothes out of my bag, I turn around. Gunner smiles.

"Then, yes, it's necessary."

Standing, he faces me. "Listen, man. It's my fucking job to give you boys a hard time. Who else is more qualified than me? But mark my words. Your gambling days are over."

I face my friend. "Maybe so, but I've still got a few rolls left in me. Don't count me out yet. I still have to convince her to have me."

Shaking his head, Gunner pounds me on the back. "She's already been had man. I think it's you who needs the convincing."

_________________________________________

"Connie, what's all this?"

I know mother's referring to the extra place setting our cook has placed on the dining table. Cloey told me she'd meet me downstairs, and I'm kind of relieved she won't have to witness the customary greetings from my family. There will be only one member excited to see me, to my parents' dismay. My cousin moved in with my family after the death of my mother's sister. In the few visits I've been home, she's gotten attached to me. We share one thing in common ... our large dislike for our genetics. My mother hates the reminder I give her of how weak she'd been to give way to her emotions. My father will never let her forget it despite his own infidelities. Those are allowed and are left unspoken. If that's not bad enough, he made her bare her own scarlet letter by exiling her to a room of her own, never to share his room again except during social gatherings when guests stay over. But her room is close enough for her to overhear her husband's latest conquest. You would think that would make my mother a nicer person, a person who wants to leave and live her own life. Nope, it made her mean and ornery. Her place in society is all she has left she often declares. Taking a deep breath, I step from behind the doorway and make my way into the room. I'm no longer that little boy. I'm a grown man, and my self-assured stature is born from years of practice and a lot of I don't give a shit's.

"Good evening, Mother."

I nod at each of my family members. More than ever, I wish I had a camera to take a picture of their open mouths and stunned expressions. What would the public think?

"Chance!"

Julia jumps from her seat and squeals as I pick her up off the floor and twirl her around. She's grown over the last few years. She's no longer the little six-year-old I left behind the last time I visited. She's taller and more beautiful than ever. Her blonde hair is curled away from her face with decorative clips. A simple blue dress with white lace hugs her body. Her blue eyes remind me of Cloey's. She looks more like my family than I do.

A throat clears behind me. I gently place my niece on the floor and turn to face my father, the father who keeps reminding me how lucky I am that he was willing to adopt me despite the fact that I'm from the seed of his political rival. I've heard through the grapevine that my biological father is even worse than the man standing before me. In other words, I should count my lucky stars. Truthfully, I don't give a rat's ass about either one of them.