Freezeout: A Jake Morgan Mystery (2) - Softcover

Gadziola, Rick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1550226894 ISBN 13: 9781550226898

Publisher: ECW Press, 2005

Synopsis

The Deal: Jake Morgan, ex-cop, gambler, and casino dealer, reluctantly agrees to keep an eye on his boss’s great-niece during her visit to Vegas.

When someone keeps trying to accost them and the bruises escalate with each encounter, Jake realizes that it isn’t a simple case of mistaken identity. To make things worse, his precocious Britney look-a-like charge has a crush on him, leaving Jake in a quandary as he tries to unravel a mystery that began fifty years earlier …

Back in the ’50s, Chicago mobster Carmine Bonello embezzled funds from his mob’s Vegas operations to plan for his family’s future. When he suddenly vanished and his wife Olivia found her every move monitored, she realized that Chi-Town not only wanted answers, but also their money back.

Fifty years later, Olivia is still worried — and wondering. Did she misjudge Carmine? Did he leave his family for a mistress and the stash as rumour suggested, or did he die a lonely death? When she falls ill, Olivia calls her only granddaughter to her side. Those watching think a family secret will soon be passed on to the last of the Bonellos …

Bullets fly, bodies fall, and Jake soon discovers the final piece of the puzzle: a cache worth millions. But is it worth his life?

About this title

About the Author

Rick Gadziola is a semi-professional gambler and a full-time writer. He frequents Las Vegas, and is regularly “comped” at the best casinos. A World Series of Poker regular, he attended the 2004 event as a gambling author, and finished in a respectable position. He lives in Toronto, Ontario

Reviews

In his second outing, mystery-solving Vegas dealer Jake Morgan has graduated from blackjack to live poker at the tony casino he fled to after his gambling habit cost his Boston PD partner her life. But when the owner asks Jake to escort his beautiful spitfire of a niece around town, the troubled ex-cop finds himself dealt into a 50-year-old case involving millions in missing Mob bucks that a Chicago crime family is still eager to kill for. It sounds like a heavy tale--and it does feature several tough scrapes and even a few murders--but Jake always manages to keep the tone light. When he's not dodging bullets, the thirtysomething hero is fending off passes from the too-young Angelica or ducking into the nearest casino to drop several bills on lucky tourists who learned to play Texas Hold 'Em by watching TV. Meanwhile, Gadziola, himself a semipro gambler, captures an authentically seedy Vegas vibe that only the locals seem to notice. And while his plot isn't quite a royal flush, he still manages to run the table with a full house of entertaining characters. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Freezeout

By Rick Gadziola, Michael Holmes

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2005 Rick Gadziola
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-55022-689-8

CHAPTER 1

"Where the hell did you learn to deal? In jail?"

A wave of laughter came from the rest of the players as the loser fired his cards along the table in my direction. The cards skipped once, like a flat stone on water, and caught me on the chest. The winner gently tossed three red, five-dollar chips my way.

I was dealing a lively $10-$20 Texas Hold 'Em game to a bunch of big equipment conventioneers from the Midwest. It was just after 11, Tuesday night, and all 10 players were well lubricated and loud after touring the Vegas strip. The entire table wore Caterpillar or John Deere baseball caps in varying degrees of disarray. Some couldn't see their cards clearly, others belched and nodded off now and again, but they all tipped heavily. My shirt pocket was overflowing with red and green $25 chips.

I was probably more tired than they were, but the money was keeping me awake. I'd started my shift at four, after playing in an all-night-and-into-the-afternoon game myself. I'd had just enough time for a shower and shave before leaving for work. It was also the reason I stayed: the gratuities would help make up for the two weeks of paychecks I'd just lost. I had turned off my usual hostile responses to cards being thrown at my head and settled on a big smile.

They had slipped the manager a few greenies, too, and convinced him to let me stay on as their dealer for the night. Life was good. I was making $250 an hour, and they gave me a five-minute pee break every now and again. At this rate, and if they could stay awake until dawn, I'd have enough to get the exhaust fixed on my dying Chevy and get my ass out of debt. Well, at least one cheek.

"What can I say? I make one friend and nine enemies every hand," I apologized amiably, riffling the deck quickly. Time is money. Even more so in Vegas. "Now stop your whining, or I'm going to go deal for the Komatsu guys!"

This was met with a round of boos, and then I got pelted with peanuts, straws, gum wrappers, and a bunch of white one-dollar chips, which I happily changed into reds and dropped into my bulging shirt pocket.

"Okay, gents. Here we go." I fired two cards to each of the 10 players with the precision of a Lockheed Martin guided missile. "You can't win if you don't play."

During the hand, I felt a finger tap me twice on the left shoulder. It was McClusky.

"Come on, Morgan, finish the hand. I got a replacement comin' in."

McClusky was the gaming floor manager of the Oasis Hotel and Casino, a bit of a throwback to the "good old" days of Las Vegas. Back when the pit bosses were thick, ugly bastards, with leathery faces, broken noses, pinkie rings, and suit jackets that wouldn't do up. McClusky didn't wear a ring.

"Not tonight. Jimmy's letting me deal to our out-of-town friends here." I waved my arm from one side to the other. There was a noticeable air of discontent from the players at the table. "We have an arrangement," I tried to explain, puffing my chest out for him to see the small fortune accumulating in my shirt pocket.

"Piss on your arrangement. Mr. Contini wants to see you, up in his office. Pronto."

Contini was the "owner" of the Oasis. At least it was his name on all the official paperwork. He, too, was a bit of a throwback, but in an owner-like way.

"Hey, buddy," somebody slurred. "Leave our boy, Jake, alone. We want him dealin' for us, and we ain't gonna take no for an answer!"

A loyal round of "yeahs" and "screw yous" rang out in support.

"Stop it, you guys," I told them. "You're gonna make me all misty-ey

Edition details

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1550226894
• ISBN 13: 9781550226898
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 274