[Jake's POV]
For the next forty-five minutes, I systematically dismantled the Grand Azure's Baccarat table.
I wasn't winning every hand—that would trigger the casino's anti-cheat algorithms and bring down a swarm of security. Claire's probability matrix was designed to be subtle. I lost small hands and won massive ones, creating a volatile, aggressive betting pattern that looked like the reckless luck of a bored billionaire.
My initial five million had swelled to just over twelve million. The rectangular plaques were stacked high in front of me, a physical monument to the Vanguard network's processing power.
The atmosphere in the Lotus Lounge had shifted. The loud businessmen at the adjacent table had stopped playing, their attention drawn to the quiet, relentless destruction happening at my table. The floor manager, a severe-looking man with a tight jaw, was hovering nervously a few feet away, speaking quietly into his wrist microphone.
