4338.208 · July 27, 2018 AD
When The House Turns
The casino was supposed to be simple: steal enough to reclaim what's rightfully hers, then disappear. But Blake's back in uniform with a badge and a memory. Graeme won't stop touching. Leigh appears with warnings about Charlie. And when Beatrix's hand connects with Graeme's face, the chaos she unleashes buries any chance of a clean exit. Jarod bleeds. Leigh slips her something impossible. And Charlie Claiborne separates them with terrifying repercussions.
Not as a threat in an alley this time—as security, watching her every move through cameras she can't avoid. The collision near the poker tables isn't chance. His recognition isn't coincidence. And when Leigh materialises, feigning drunkenness whilst tracking Charlie through the crowd, Beatrix realises the casino floor has become a chessboard she doesn't control.
Graeme's harassment. The unwanted touch. The slap that rings out across roulette table three. In that moment of contact—skin on skin, rage on arrogance—Beatrix's fingers move on pure instinct. Chips vanish. Tables blur. The chaos becomes cover.
Until Jarod's fist connects with Graeme's bloodied face, and the worst words imaginable cut through the noise: "You're assaulting a police officer."
Cuffed. Caught. Separated from Jarod whilst Blake grins like he's won something deeper than an arrest. Then Charlie Claiborne—who shouldn't be here, who arrived too fast, who Leigh was following for reasons Beatrix doesn't understand—takes custody with quiet authority.
Leigh stumbles into her, rum soaking her dress, something cold pressed into her bound palms. A whisper: "Remember, you need a flat surface."
Then Charlie's hand on her arm, dragging her toward a restricted door, and everything she thought she knew shatters.
