Gambling
Amity and Gus were siting next to each other in the shack, putting the finishing touches on the last few documents needed to make it look like they were humans born in the country.
“Just a few more touches, and…”
SLAM!
“I FOUND A MONEY MAKING OPERTUNTY!”
Amity jerked back from the table, smearing all the ink on the document she was just finishing, ruining hours of hard work.
She then turned towards Hunter with a look of murder in her eyes.
“What a coincidence, I was just found a soon to be dead body.”
Gus put a hand on her shoulder.
“Hold on Amity, lets hear what the opportunity is first. Also, Willow would be mad if we kill him without asking her first.”
At that, Willow walked though the door behind Hunter. “Yes, I would, and no you do not.” She then pulled Hunter into a side hug. “The only person allowed to kill Hunter is me.”
Hunter gave a little blush at that before extracting himself from the hug. “Anyway, I found a way for you to help with the finances Gus. There is a gambling ring out of a unsold store slot in the local shopping center. It’s pretty small, just a few card games, a roulette wheel, and some sports betting.”
Willow then took that moment to speak up. “My Gardner supervisor is actually the brother of guy running it, and asked if I would be willing to be a dealer for a bit since one of his regulars dropped out. He said that the pay is a flat rate plus a percentage of the money we get from people each month in cash.”
Gus’s eyes widened when the implications hit him. “You want me to use my illusions to cheat people out of their money?”
Hunter just smiled at that. “Almost, but there is one big factor that really sells this plan.”
Willow smiled with him. “Camila gambles there as well.”
Gus and Amity just looked at them before falling to the ground and rolling around laughing. They just stayed down there for a minute before noticing that Gus and Willow weren’t laughing also.
Luz decided to come back from the bathroom at that moment and took stock of her friends on the floor.
“Are you two ok?”
Gjus turned to look at Luz. “Luz, quick question. Dose your mom do any gambling?”
“Oh yeah. She has a friendly card game with the vet staff weekly . Why did you ask.”
Hunter filled in Luz on the situation, and her eyes lit up with understanding.
“You want to have Gus rig the games where she is playing so she wins.”
“Not too much though. If she keeps winning massive amounts of money people will think she is cheating and decide to either kick her out, rough her up, or just not play with her anymore.”
Gus stood up and sighed. “Ok, I will SLIGHTLY mess with the card games she is playing so she doesn’t lose any money at the tables. I can mess with the card games and the roulette wheel, but the sports betting is far beyond my abilities.”
Hunter just nodded. “That is all we are asking for Gus.”
Saturday Night
Gus had decided to take the form of a human Adrian Vernworth wearing some glasses, but went by Adrian Verner. Was he being a little petty be tarnishing the appearance of a foe he only met once?
Absolutely yes, but he was a kid and the guy tried to take away his ability to do magic and melt his brain.
He was working a poker table while also keeping a sound damping spell up around the gambling den.
He figured that anything that would prevent people from noticing that something was going on in a supposedly empty store was a good thing and would keep this going on for longer.
It was a hour into his shift when he noticed Camilla entering the building through the front door with a few other people he recognized from pictures on the wall of the animal clinic. The wandered over to his table which had just finished the last game and sat down.
A man with a green shirt looked at him suspiciously. “Who are you? Never seen you here before.”
Gus flashed the best smile he could, calling on all his ability to make the ugly mug as appealing as possible. “I am Adrian, a yes I am new here. I have been dealing here only a few days, but have extensive experience behind this.”
Camilla wacked the man on the shoulder. “Come on Jack. Don’t give the new guy the 3rd degree. Let’s get to playing some cards. Deal us in Adrian.”
Gus nodded and shuffled his deck before dealing out the cards, saving illusionary copies onto the inside of his glasses so he could keep track of who had which cards. The current hands had Camilla with 2 of a kind and another with a flush, but a little illusion from Gus before they lifted up their cards gave Camilla a 3 of a kind and ruined the flush.
He kept doing that all night, and eventually it ended with Camilla winning big.
“¡Sí! ¡Ven a mamá! She yelled, racking in her chips. “Guess who is buying everyone puppy shaped donuts tomorrow morning!”
At that the rest of her table cheered.
Gus just shot her a smile.
It’s times like this that she shows that she really is Luz’s mom.