Free Unlucky by Jana DeLeon

then he'd tossed out a full house and ended up with only three of a kind. Sure, he'd still won the overall, but there was no logical reason for a player to throw a full house, and Jake McMillan had not seemed the least bit stupid. Well, if the dealer didn't have the table under control, at least she did. Besides, it was very possible the cards had been placed in the shoe in a different order than discarded.
    She returned the card and started across the casino to the kitchen. At the moment, her biggest worry was finding out what Reginald had gotten himself into.
    As soon as she stepped inside the restaurant, Mallory scanned the room for Scooter, wondering if he'd had any luck tracking Reginald. She hadn't caught sight of her uncle the rest of the morning. What could the scoundrel find more important than overseeing his own tournament? At this point she was willing to try anything to get information. Even Sherlock Scooter.
    She heard her name and turned toward a small table in the corner of the room where Scooter was standing on a chair waving his arms at her like he was trying to direct a plane. Amy sat quietly next to him The expression on her face was an interesting combination of amusement and horror.
    Mallory lifted one hand to Scooter, hopefully giving him the signal to get off the chair and stop drawing attention to the table. Scooter shot her a huge grin and hopped off his chair, banging his knee against the table, which, in turn, caused a glass of water to tip over. Amy jumped up from the table before the worst of the flood could reach her and glared at Scooter as she mopped at her skirt with a table napkin.
    Mallory tried not to smile. She wasn't the only one that could make a mess of things.
    By the time she reached the table, the glass of water was righted and Amy's skirt would probably survive the experience, although based on the look on Amy's face, Scooter's fate was questionable. Mallory was also happy to note that the tables surrounding them were unoccupied, which made not being overheard a heck of a lot easier.
    "Hi, guys," she said, and slid into her seat. "How's the tournament going so far?" she asked Amy.
    Amy nodded and her expression cleared from scowling to enthusiastic. "It's going great! I think I'll be able to take out one of my players after lunch. That makes one down on the first day."
    Mallory stared at Amy, a bit surprised. She'd known her friend was brilliant, but running a player out in less than a day, especially the players at this tournament, was nothing short of a miracle. "That's incredible, Amy. Not that I doubted your skill, but a day? Wow!"
    Amy gave her a huge grin. "The idiot made it easy. He hates women and refuses to believe I can play cards. So no matter what indicators there are that I'm holding a ringer, he won't fold. Even the politician called him stupid."
    Mallory smiled. "You've reached an all-time low when a Louisiana politician starts demeaning your intelligence. I guess you didn't bother to mention to the politician that he'd be working for you someday?"
    Amy shook her head, the grin still in place. "It hasn't come up, but I might give him a heads-up when he's leaving."
    Mallory was about to reply when she saw Amy's grin fade as quickly as it had come. Amy's eyes centered on something directly behind her and based on the look of disgust she now wore, Mallory knew it couldn't be anything good. Turning around in her seat, she looked straight into the fake smile and huge, annoying cowboy hat of Walter Royal.
    "Mallory," he said, with his booming voice, "I see you're trying to establish a new career before the bottom drops out of Harry's business. Smart idea." He gave her an apologetic look. "I know you're a good foreman, but my wife has an unemployed nephew from New Orleans that we really need to do something with. Hell, he don't know the correct width of a two-by-four, but then what do you really need to know to tear shit up?"
    Mallory's entire body tensed and she started to