No. Rick got kicked out

Squeezing Kat's butt had rewards beyond simply helping her win. And there was a lot of bluffing going on so Rick got a lot of squeezing in. It wasn't long, however, before Scrawny lodged a protest of an unauthorized observer interfering with his concentration.

Kat tried the newlywed card and failed and Rick was not-so-politely asked to leave by the same security guard who'd destroyed his chances of winning.

Still, Rick figured he had helped Kat with a couple of important deals. Maybe she had a chance.

A couple of hours later, she emerged from the poker room, her eyes downcast. "Bastards," she said.

"What?"

"I think a couple of them were signaling what cards they had but I couldn't catch the signals."

Rick had read enough to know that even knowing a little about what cards opponents had could drastically alter the odds on what cards would be coming on the drop. Which in turn meant that their bidding could be more accurate than they could manage without cheating. "The Scrawny one involved?"

"Probably the ringleader."

That made sense. Rick's entry into what they had considered their private concern must have worried them. Scrawny and the others moved up a little in Rick's revenge list but not much. Cheating at poker was bad but at least it was understandable. The jerks in bio-DNA executive management were just playing games with people's careers even when it would end up hurting the company, just because they could.

"Sorry," Rick said. "I should have realized it wouldn't be so easy even with my enhanced senses."

"Makes me want to find those assholes and tear them a new one."

Rick shook his head. Yeah, he felt the same way but they were still inside the casino. The one thing he didn't want was to have either Kat or himself recorded making threats. Because bad things happened to people like Scrawny and when they do, the cops don't bother looking hard if there's an obvious suspect handy.

"I've got a free entry for the tournament that starts tomorrow night. Why don't I take you home, then come back for that?"

"And sleep in your car?"

"At least I have a car."

"Well, there is this."