Not right away

Yes, his car stunk. Which was doubly unfortunate because bio-DNA hadn't just enhanced his vision, memory and coordination. It had enhanced all of his senses, including his sense of smell. He considered swapping out with Jan's SUV but he didn't want her to think he was dependent on her. He'd let her dominate him too much when they'd been together and liked the new dynamic with him in charge.

Besides, he wasn't ready for sleep. The big poker tournament wasn't for another couple of days but he didn't want to walk into it cold, with only book learning and whatever skills he carried over from his college strip-poker days to rely on. A couple of small matches would, hopefully, give him a chance to make the buy-in he'd need to play in a major event and the experience he'd need to have a chance.

He asked Siri to find local poker games and she came up with a combination of meet-up private parties, some free deal paying points, and a million on-line opportunities. But on-line was exactly wrong for Rick's talents. He wanted to be able to see his victims, watch them flinch, sense the electricity in their nerves, smell the stink of fear or the adrenaline rush when they got a good hand. And there just weren't good options in Baptist-dominated Dallas.

Not that there weren't plenty of Baptists in Oklahoma but they were smart enough to know that they could set up a casino on the Texas border and fleece a few million Texans every year. It looked like it was time to head to Oklahoma.

While Rick had never been much of a gambler, he'd worked with a lot of the salesguys, almost all of whom were huge gamblers. He hadn't been able to miss their stories of glorious wins and horrible losses... more losses than wins in the case of the salesguys. He'd also picked up on stories of guys who'd been too successful... and had been mugged on their way out of the casino, almost as if the muggers had an inside wire on who was carrying money. Bio-DNA might help with a lot of things but if he got held up at gunpoint, he was going to lose his money, get shot, or both.

He figured to kill three birds with one stone if he took a woman with him. He would look more like a sucker, out to impress the girl rather than a professional gambler; he would have someone to back him up if he did get into trouble and scout out locations if he was carrying money; and he had a chance to get some laid.

He ran through the female options:

1. There was Jan. Jan would almost certainly be willing after what they'd been through lately. She was also studying karate so she might be able to help if things came to violence. But for the same reason he didn't want to borrow her car, he didn't want to depend on her for this. Besides, he wanted action with other women. He'd been monogamous while Jan had slept around. Now it was time for her to wait while he kept his dick wet with other women's pussies.
2. There was Pricilla Goodman, the HR flunky who'd handled his layoff. She was attractive and she was also part of the company. Connecting with her and winning her over could help him when he turned his attention to destroying the jerks who'd been responsible for firing him. But he didn't know if she could handle herself in a fight.
3. There was Kat, the weightlifter. Again, she had the looks and he figured a woman like her could not only fight, she'd be used to watching out for trouble anywhere around.
4. There was Mary Bonnet, the outplacement specialist. She too was attractive and she'd responded well to Rick's advances. With her contacts, she also might be useful in the future when it came time to bring down the corporate executives. As with Pricilla, he wasn't sure she could handle herself in a fight.