His Last Gamble Read Online Free PDF Page B

book. She thought she’d heard her say, on the plane over, that she was studying archaeology at college. The final girl, with a pixie face and a bell-bob of orange coloured hair stared, bored, into the sea. Coral, she thought her name was.
    â€˜Relax, you’ll be fine,’ Jo-Jo said, coming up alongside her and making her jump. ‘We already know from the try outs we did back in London that the camera loves you.’
    It was one thing to be beautiful, Jo-Jo knew, another thing altogether to be photogenic. But the freelancer he’d hired had assured him that Charmaine had the ‘it’ factor to be a model, if only she’d lose the bashfulness. Which was, Jo-Jo had assured him with a wink, just what he was trying to get her to do!
    But now she looked as tense as a violin string. She was watching one of the gophers set up poles in the sand, tying gaily striped bed sheets along them to make a private changing enclosure for the girls, and looking as if she wished herself a thousand miles away.
    â€˜Just remember what you’ve learned, and you’ll be fine, he said brightly. ‘Don’t worry. Rebecca’s on hand so you don’t need to do your own make-up, and Rex, as he never ceases to remind us, once won Hairdresser-of-the-Year, so no worries. You’ll knock us all out.’
    Tacked onto a lamp post, near the road-edge of the beach, Charmaine’s nervous eye caught the word ‘Palace’, and curious, moved a step or two closer, then grimaced as she read it.
    The sign was advertising the up and coming Weekend Extravaganza celebration of Payne Lacey’s decade of ownership. Already several people were reading it, discussing the promise of a truly luxurious, no-holds-barred evening of the finest wines, gourmet titbits, celebrities and of course, gambling opportunities.
    â€˜That guy’s got it made,’ she heard one of the young men, a beach attendant from a hotel further up the beach, grumble jealously. ‘All the island papers are running a spread about it. As if the place doesn’t rake in dollars like there’s no tomorrow anyway. And to think, the guy got the place for nothing.’
    Jo-Jo rose one laconic eyebrow. ‘Oh, not for nothing, surely,’ he protested. ‘You mean it was going cheap at the time. Property prices in a rut, or was the gambler’s license in doubt?’
    The beach attendant, a native Bajan, chuckled, delighted to have come across someone who didn’t know the island’s worst-kept secret.
    â€˜No, mon, I mean it literally. Didn’t you know? Mr. Lacey won the place. In a game of poker.’
    Charmaine gasped.
‘He what?’
    â€˜True, I swear.’ He held up a hand. ‘Yves St. Germaine, the owner at the time, wanted to get his hands on a small hotel Mr Lacey owned in the States. It wasn’t that he wanted the hotel, you see, but because he was part of a big conglomerate that had been buying up real estate on that bit of coast in order to construct a marina.’
    Charmaine smiled dryly. No doubt Payne had got wind of what was going on and bought the hotel, just so that he could force up the price when he turned out to be the only one not selling.
    â€˜Go on,’ Jo-Jo said, fascinated.
    â€˜Well, the poker game got out of hand. There was some sort of Middle-Eastern billionaire sitting in who kept raising the stakes, and there was far too much booze flowing, or so they say. Anyway, Mr St. Germaine got reckless and bet his Casino against Mr. Lacey’s hotel, plus every red cent Mr Lacey owned.’
    Charmaine paled. ‘And he took the bet?’ she whispered, appalled. How could a man do such a thing? To bet a hotel against a property that had much more value, that was one thing. But to bet every penny?
    The Bajan grinned, no doubt with pride and respect for a man with so much courage.
    â€˜He sure did. And won too. Mr St. Germaine was sick as a dog over it later, when