"On the Clock in Vegas" by Brian Bergquist (Short Story)

Genre:  Noir Thriller

Type of Short Story:  Short Story

Summary:  Professional gambler Benny Delgano is in Las Vegas to compete in a high stakes fantasy football tournament for one hundred thousand dollars, only to run into a demented criminal from his past with revenge on his mind. 

Forced into colluding with Tommy the Wolf at the fantasy football draft in order to spare his friend’s life, Benny finds out the stakes were higher than he originally thought.
A short story about fantasy football, crime and friendship, On the Clock in Vegas will grip you from the beginning to its fast paced ending.

Excerpt:

My pick was coming up and when I made it, I was afraid Mikey would soon be dead.

Guys all around me were studying their fantasy football magazines and cheat sheets like they were some kind of mutual fund prospectus, which in a way, they were.

Some stared at laptops, using software to make the draft more organized and their picks easier, sucking down beers to ease their nerves.

I guarantee their next pick wasn’t as hard as the one I was about to make.

Tommy the Wolf sat next to the empty seat on my right, where my partner should have been. With his slicked back gray hair and puncher’s nose, Tommy grinned as he held up his drink to me. “To you, my friend,” he said. “Don’t worry about Mikey. He’ll be just fine.”

I nodded, swallowed hard, and went back to my cheat sheet. Trying to study the players who might still be available with the last pick in the first round, all I could think about was Mikey and if he would be alright.

Tommy picked right before us at the turn and had a plan. As any good fantasy player will tell you, you don’t go into a draft without one, and one part of Tommy’s was to have me pass on the players he liked. Or else.

In fantasy balling, you need some good luck while avoiding too much bad luck. All kinds of shit could go wrong. But the way Tommy saw it, at least he was giving himself a better chance, like the kid who always cheated at checkers.

But there was one big problem. We wanted that hundred grand too. Tommy made his pick at number eleven. He looked over at me and winked. The next two picks were mine.

“Roid Rage is on the clock!” the draft commissioner’s voice echoed in my ears, my heart thumping like a base drum. I had two minutes to make my pick. One hundred twenty seconds to decide the fate of our team. Or possibly the fate of my friend.

My name is Benny Delgano and I was on the clock in Vegas.

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