I SCANNED the crowd—no sign of a tall muscular woman in a bikini, nor the kind of attention she would garner if she were nearby. Damn!
“Jeremy, I’ve got to go.” I shouted into the phone. “Bring Jimmy G here; I want to talk to him. This whole mess stinks like week-old fish.” I didn’t wait for Jeremy’s reply. I pressed the push-to-talk button. “Jerry, we got a problem.”
“I’m all ears.” From the background noise it sounded like our Head of Security was still inside the Arena.
“Do you see the Round Card Girl in the orange bikini, the older one with all the muscles?”
After a moment he replied, “No, only the younger one.”
I turned and began striding toward Security. If I could get to the monitors, maybe I could draw a bead on Ms. Lovato. “Find her.” I barked. “Now! Don’t let her off the property.”
Repocketing the phone, I continued scanning the crowd as I dodged patrons and headed for the elevators. In front of me, I caught a head of black hair, slicked straight back, bobbing and weaving as someone made their way toward me—in a hurry. Peering side to side, I finally found an opening and got a good look.
Daniel Lovato.
And he looked pissed.
His head down as he charged forward, he hadn’t seen me ... yet. I ducked into a side corridor. Peeking around the corner, I watched as he strode in my direction.
Suddenly, his head snapped up. Fury colored his face. His eyes, dark and menacing, glared from under the shelf of his brows. His mouth pulled into a sinister line.
I turned to see who he was looking at.
Glinda Lovato.
Again I pushed to talk. “Jerry, Ms. Lovato is in the Arena corridor just outside the casino. Get your people on her. I don’t want to lose her.”
“Wilco,” Jerry said.
I left the channel open so I could hear the staccato chatter between the security personnel. Holding my breath, I watched as Daniel closed in on his unsuspecting wife.
Glinda didn’t see him—she was busy scanning the crowd as if she’d lost something ... or somebody. A chill raced down my spine when I realized that somebody could be me. She’d been behind me ... Had she been following me?
At the last minute Glinda saw her husband and tried to turn and run. But, quick as a snake, Daniel grabbed her arm, whipping her around to face him.
I saw his mouth move, but I couldn’t hear what he said.
Glinda whirled on him, reared back, cocked her fist, then let it fly. Throwing her weight behind the punch, she caught her husband off guard. His arm in front of his face was too little, too late.
He staggered back, stunned, then fell to his knees clutching his nose. Blood oozed between his fingers.
Jumping from my hiding place, I propelled myself toward them. I roared, “Glinda! Stop!”
Her eyes narrowed when she saw me. With a kick to her husband’s ribs, she bolted into the casino, disappearing into the crowd.
“Security, she’s headed into the casino.” I shouted into my phone as I rushed toward Daniel.
Still on his knees, blood dripping from his nose, he forced himself to his feet.
I skidded to a stop beside him. “Are you okay?”
The blood enhanced the murderous look on his face. Grabbing my arm, he jerked me toward the casino. Drawing shallow breaths, he tried to force air back into his lungs. “You’re coming with me,” he growled, one arm still clutching his side. He paid no attention to the trickle of blood.
“Daniel ... “ I resisted.
“We’ve got to get that bitch,” he snarled, his voice stronger now, his grip like a vise on my arm. “When we do, you’ll have your answers. Okay?”
He knew just what button to push.
“Okay.” I nodded, ignoring my gut feeling that I had just crossed the line between bravery and terminal stupidity. “Security,” I barked into my phone. “Where’s the woman now?”
“She just cold-cocked one of our personnel and stole his elevator pass.”
“Where’s she going?”
“She jumped into the number five service elevator,” replied an unidentified security guard. “We’re watching, but it hasn’t stopped yet. It looks like she’s headed for the roof.”
“This way.” I steered Daniel through the casino, then through a set of spring-loaded double doors into the service area. The door to the other service elevator was just closing. “Hold that elevator!”
A hand shot out, keeping the doors from closing, then forced them open again. I pushed Daniel through the narrow opening, then darted in myself.
Right into the solid chest of Paxton Dane. I was never so glad to see anyone in my whole life. “What are you doing here?” I managed.
He grinned down at me as the doors closed and the elevator began its laborious ascent. “I was monitoring the action on the fight in the Sports Book when I heard all your chatter on the security channel. I saw the woman in the bikini and lit off after her.”
“You know, in Texas, a guy could probably get arrested for that.” I tried to smile, but only managed a grimace. “Apparently she’s going all the way ... to the roof, I mean.”
“She had that loose look about her. Anyway, we’re right behind her, and there’s not too many places she can run up there unless she can fly that helicopter.”
We both looked at Daniel. He shook his head.
“So she can’t get far, which is good news,” Dane said, then his smile evaporated. “However, I do have a bit of bad news.”
“Go ahead, ruin this wonderful evening,” I muttered, as I swiped at a few dots of Daniel’s blood soaking into my silk pants.
“She has a gun.”
“A gun?” My blood ran cold. I had a cell phone, a tube of lipstick in the wrong color, and my keys—so I had jack, and Glinda had a gun. Terrific. “She got past Security packing a piece?” Heads were going to roll ...
“No, she took it off the guard at the same time she took his elevator pass.”
Almost as bad—inept was only one step above incompetent—and tonight, both were probably lethal. Holding my phone to my lips, I interrupted the chatter over the Security channel. “The woman in service elevator five is armed. Repeat, she has a handgun. Three of us are in pursuit.”
“We’re right behind you,” Jerry replied. “But we have to wait for an elevator. You got the last of the two.”
“For the record, your mugged guard’s ass is a grape,” I added as I silenced the phone and stuffed it back into my pocket. “That gun sorta tilts the playing field in her favor, don’t you think?” I asked the two men riding with me. “Stuck in this box and lit up like Macy’s at Christmas, we’ll be like fish in a barrel.”
“Agreed,” Dane said as he pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and extended it toward Daniel. “Here, you look like you could use this.”
Without thanks, Daniel grabbed it and pressed it to his nose. “I’m going after my wife,” he said, his anger barely contained. “You two stay here. If she shoots anybody, it should be me.”
“And that would be so helpful,” I snorted. “But if you’re angling to get shot, no need to worry. I’ll do the deed myself if you had anything to do with any of this mess.”
Dane’s eyes danced as he gave me a quick lopsided grin.
“However, first,” I continued, “if we can find Glinda, maybe you, Daniel, can keep her occupied while Dane and I flank her?”
As I knew he would, Dane opened his mouth to object.
I held up my hand. “Don’t start with me. I’m the highest ranking member of the cowboy club here tonight.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, but he looked like he didn’t like it. “Let’s kill these lights.”
“Better them than one of us,” I said, pretending to be brave.
Dane opened the breaker box and doused the lights, plunging us into darkness. As the doors opened, we flattened ourselves against the sides of the elevator, protecting ourselves behind the small section of wall on either side of the opening. First, Dane darted out. Crouching, he zigzagged, then threw himself behind one of the multitude of equipment enclosures dotting the rooftop. Daniel went next, with me following closely behind.
Following Dane and Daniel’s lead, I crouched on my haunches. Dane turned to me. “Can you ditch that top? The sequins are catching the lights from the Strip. You glow in the dark.”
I skinned the thing over my head and dropped it. The wind raised goose bumps on my exposed flesh.
“Ready?” Dane asked. At our murmurs of assent, he pushed off. Like a giant, amorphous monster, the night swallowed him whole.
Daniel followed.
I waited a few moments, taking in my surroundings. Glinda, hiding under the blanket of darkness, could be anywhere, watching, waiting, her gun at the ready. Why did she pick here for a confrontation? Sure, Security was closing in on her when she darted into the service area, but why not stop before the roof? She could’ve led us on a merry chase—if getting away was her goal, her odds would’ve been better below. What game was she playing? And was her husband part of it? And where would she pick for the final confrontation?
To my left, perching on the far wing of the hotel, I could just make out the hulking outline of the helicopter, its blades drooping like saplings under a heavy, wet snow. To my right, the darkness deepened toward the edge of the building. Large square shapes, patches of black against a starry sky, formed a maze of air-conditioning condensers, electrical junction boxes, and communications repeaters. A restricted area, guests were not allowed on this part of the roof. It was for service personnel, window washers, and the like. So far, I had precious little to rejoice about, so I reveled in the fact that if Glinda started shooting, she wouldn’t accidentally perforate an innocent bystander.
I didn’t follow the men, choosing instead to angle behind their path. A few steps into the darkness I banged my shin on a protruding pipe. Stifling an expletive, I stepped over, then worked my way more carefully.
In front of me and to my right, Dane and Daniel were just moving shadows in the deepening darkness. A moment of panic seized me. I could hear my mother’s voice: “Stay together. There’s safety in numbers.” Someday I was going to have to start listening to her.
Abandoning my solo mission, I moved to rejoin the men.
A sharp prod in my side and an arm around my neck brought me up short. I stiffened.
I’ve been waiting for you,” Glinda hissed in my ear. She poked me with the barrel of the gun. “I’ll use this if I have to.”
She tightened her hold around my neck, pressing, cutting off my air.
I bent backward, away from the pressure as the gun jabbed into my flesh. “You’re just making this worse,” I managed to whisper.
“Shut up,” Glinda ordered. “You’ve really fucked up my day. All I need is one more little excuse to shoot you. I’d really like to shoot you.”
I couldn’t breathe. My focus telescoped down into pinpricks of twilight.
“You think you’re so important—always sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong,” Glinda growled in my ear, her voice breathless.
She loosened her hold around my neck slightly, and I sucked in deep lungsful of air. “Fucked up your day?” I spat, when my head stopped swimming. To hell with the gun—going out in a blaze of glory, fueled by fury, was more my style.
“You had to go looking for my father. You must’ve found him. My guy doesn’t answer his phone.” Glinda jabbed me angrily. “So you’re my father’s replacement. Seems sorta fitting, doesn’t it?”
“What part am I supposed to play?” I asked, trying to keep her talking. Eventually, I hoped, the two guys would figure out I wasn’t behind them and come looking.
“Just shut up.” Glinda jerked me backward. Step by step, my body held tightly to hers, her arm around my neck and the gun in my side, we eased back into the darkness. She pulled me up the last step.
I angled my head and looked down and behind me.
Oh, God! My heart leapt into my throat. We were balanced on the raised ledge that formed the edge of the building!
“Daniel,” Glinda called into the darkness, her voice tinged with panic. “We’re over here.”
Both men, now just shapes that mingled with the others, whirled at her voice. They bolted toward us.
When Glinda had them where she wanted them, she shouted, “That’s close enough.”
Both men stopped, thank heavens. Dane had a damn-the-torpedoes, full-speed-ahead look on his face. If he did that, we’d all go over the edge.
With Glinda focused on the two men, I squirmed, testing her grasp.
“Don’t.” Glinda prodded me closer to the edge with the gun.
“Your beef isn’t with Lucky. Let her go,” Daniel said. “You hurt her, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Damn straight, I thought.
“Tell them, Daniel, tell them what you did.” Glinda’s imperious voice rang in my ear. “Tell them!” she shouted.
She jerked me. My foot slipped. I fell to one knee. The other leg dangled over the edge. Bile rushed into my throat. The world swam. I could see people walking below—they looked so small. An insane notion gripped me: If I let myself go, I could fly.
A cold wind slapped me in the face.
Dane bolted forward.
“Don’t,” barked Glinda. “I’ll let her go.” She loosened her grip, and I slipped further over the edge.
I clutched at the ledge, but my fingers couldn’t find any purchase. Slowly, they slipped. I couldn’t hold on.
With one arm under my shoulder, Glinda pulled, helping me scramble back onto the roof.
For once I was glad she was even stronger than she looked.
She jerked me to my feet, the gun pressed to my side.
“What do you want him to tell us?” I asked, shaking now. Cold, scared, and really, really pissed, I tried to keep my voice calm, conversational—a Herculean feat. The bitch was getting really tiresome.
“He’s responsible for it all—for Numbers,” Glinda’s voice cracked, and she swallowed hard. “For the money, the bets ... everything.”
“Then why’d you kidnap Jimmy G?” I kept prying, prodding, trying to distract her and keep her talking, as I waited for the right moment.
“As leverage.”
“Leverage?” I tried to ease away from the edge, but Glinda yanked me back.
“To get Daniel to talk. Those two, they’re thick as thieves.” A high-pitched giggle escaped her. “Oh, yeah, Daniel would do anything for my dear old dad.”
“Even lie to get him back?” I asked, poking a hole in her thin logic.
She jerked at the slap of reality.
“I heard Numbers was doing you and doing your husband on the sly,” I said, using the only weapon I had. Despite the cold wind, sweat trickled down my body. My breaths came in quick, shallow gasps.
Glinda’s veneer cracked. She laughed, then—a laugh tinged with madness. “The bitch played me all right. And she thought she was playing Daniel.” She stiffened as her focus shifted to her husband. “But she was fucking the Devil himself.”
“And she was a great lay,” Daniel said, his voice flat, emotionless.
Apparently Glinda didn’t expect that. For the briefest instant, she dropped her guard.
I balled my fist and hit her in the face with the back of my hand as hard as I could.
She staggered, absorbing the blow. But she loosened her grasp.
I ducked out of her arms. I threw myself sideways toward Dane.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Glinda raise the gun.
In that instant, Daniel launched himself at his wife.
A report shattered the stillness of the night.
Dane caught me and we both fell to the rooftop. Scrambling, we whirled around.
Thrown backward, Daniel lay on his back. He moaned and struggled to move.
Glinda, her mouth forming a silent scream, teetered on the edge of the building. Still clutching the gun, her arms whirled as she tried to regain her balance.
As one, Dane and I pushed ourselves to our feet and leapt for her, but we were too late.
With a panicked look at us, she fell backward and disappeared into the night.
Time froze, burning that instant into my memory.
Then the world refocused, and I rushed to Daniel. Dropping to my knees beside him, I gently pressed him back on the ground.
Dane leaned over the edge of the building and peered down. I saw him reach for his phone, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying as I turned my attention fully to Daniel.
He groaned, and then his eyes found mine as they struggled to focus. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice a hoarse rasp.
“I’m fine. Be quiet. Let me have a look at you.” Gently, I ran my hands over him, feeling for the warm dampness of blood. I found it on his right shoulder. Hooking my finger through the tear in his shirt, I ripped the fabric, pulling it away.
Daniel grunted.
A dark slash cut the outer muscle of his shoulder. Oozing blood, it looked grisly in the dim light, and probably hurt like hell. I probed the area, feeling for worse damage.
His breath hissed through his teeth as he sucked it in. He tensed against the pain, but said nothing.
He’d gotten lucky—the neat little gouge was the extent of his injury.
Dane dropped to his knees beside me. “How bad is it?” he asked.
“She just winged him.” Raising my eyebrows, I looked at Dane.
He shook his head. Glinda hadn’t been as lucky as her husband.
“I called the cops,” Dane said. “Actually, I called Romeo and told him what had happened, and he said he’d bring the cavalry.”
“And the paramedics?” I asked, as I tore a piece of Daniel’s shirt and pressed it to his wound. I had no idea whether that was the right thing to do, but it couldn’t hurt.
“Them, too. And I alerted Security that we had things under control up here.”
“Under control? That’s rare,” I said, but was unable to conjure a smile. My teeth chattered. Suddenly, I was cold ... so cold.
“And I released the elevators. Apparently, after we arrived, Glinda turned them off from up here so they couldn’t go back down,” Dane added.
“I was wondering why the cavalry hadn’t showed up.” I could feel the wet warmth as Daniel’s blood soaked the thin, cotton wad I pressed over his wound.
Dane put his arm around me, and pulled me tight against his chest. Then he kissed my temple. “Pretty stupid thing you did there. You could’ve been killed. I would not have been able to handle that.”
His arms felt nice, strong and safe. I relaxed as the adrenaline eased its hold on me, and I started shaking. “I figured that could happen either way, so I picked my poison.”
“Are you okay?” he whispered against my hair as he pulled me tighter.
I nodded, but couldn’t stop trembling. Glinda had died. And she’d almost taken Daniel and me with her.
“Tell me one thing, was she right?” Daniel asked, his eyes clear and focused now. “Do you have Jimmy G?”
“Jeremy Whitlock found him,” I replied. “He’s okay.”
Daniel lay back and shut his eyes, surrendering.
I thought I saw the glint of a tear leak out of his eye, and I wondered if Daniel fully appreciated the fact that the man who had saved his father-in-law was the man Daniel himself had worked so hard to put in jail.
At that moment, the elevator doors burst open, shedding a cone of blinding light into our near-darkness.
“Lucky?” Teddie shouted, his voice tight. “Where are you?”
I pulled away and gave Dane a weak smile. “Over here,” I called.
Dane let his arm fall from my shoulder as the sound of running footsteps came closer.
Teddie dropped to his knees beside me. “Are you alright? Security told me what was going on. I damn near died waiting for the friggin’ elevator.”
“I’m okay.” I took Dane’s hand and pressed it over the scrap of shirt covering Daniel’s wound.
Looking into Teddie’s face, all my emotions bubbled up. I shook my head. “No, I’m not okay.” I buried my face in his shoulder.
Stroking my hair, he held me until the shaking stopped.
The next thirty minutes passed in a flurry of activity. The police arrived with the paramedics. Teddie found my shirt, and I covered myself. He didn’t ask why I had taken it off; I guess it really didn’t matter.
Waiting on the edge of the chaos, I was ready to give my statement to Romeo when I heard the call go out over the security channel.
There was an emergency. The paramedics were needed immediately.
Tortilla Padilla had collapsed.
My heart in my throat, I turned and ran. Teddie and Dane jumped through the open doors of the waiting elevator after me. We rode in silence, the seconds stretching to interminable minutes.
We bolted through the service area and into the casino, now packed with the fight crowd, juking and dodging our way against the tide of people streaming out of the Arena.
My heart pounded. Oh, please, let him be okay. The children’s faces swam in front of me.
The fight was over, the Arena half-empty when I hit the entrance and threw myself down the stairs, Teddie and Dane on my heels. Torti wasn’t in the ring. He had to be in the locker room. Security motioned us through.
The room was hushed and reeked of ammonia. A tight cluster of people circled the training table in the center of the room.
Elbowing my way, I pushed to the front.
The doctor from the Nevada Athletic Commission bent over the red, white, and blue clad body lying on the table. Holding the fighter’s eyes open with his fingers, he shined a penlight into first one then the other.
Torti’s hands, still bound into his gloves, hung toward the floor. They didn’t move.
No one spoke. I couldn’t breathe.
The Big Boss glanced up at me from the other side of the table, his eyes concerned, his mouth a grim line. Jordan gripped Rudy’s elbow, their faces blank as they stared at the prone body.
Crash stood at the edge of the group. Tears streaked his face.
I didn’t see Carmen.
Closing my eyes, I willed the fighter to move.
Teddie gripped one hand, Dane the other.
The big clock above the door ticked off the seconds.
I heard a faint cough. Then another. One of Torti’s hands moved, I was sure of it.
The ice around my heart began to melt.
Then a weak torrent of Spanish, and I grinned.
“What’d he say?” Teddie asked, his voice a whisper in my ear.
“Nothing I’d repeat in polite company.” If the guy could cuss, he had to be okay.
“Out of my face,” Torti ordered, this time in English, his voice stronger.
The doctor backed off. One of the paramedics helped pull the fighter to a seated position as he swung his legs over the side. Steadying himself, he lifted his head.
For the first time, I got a good look at his face. One eye was swollen completely shut, the other a mere slit. The right side of his upper lip was swollen and an angry bruise covered his right cheekbone.
A smile lifted the good side of his mouth as he looked at me through the slit of his one good eye. “I won,” he said, simply.
After a moment, the small crowd erupted—everyone backslapping and high-fiving anyone within reach.
I hugged Torti and whispered in his ear. “This is your last fight. I’m not going through this again.”
“You sound just like my wife.” He shot me that grin again even though it looked like it hurt.
“The voice of reason.” I backed away as the crowd parted and I saw Carmen hurrying toward her husband.
She launched herself into his arms.
I tapped the doctor on the shoulder. “He’s going to be okay, right?”
The guy folded his stethoscope as he eyed me. “He’s healthy as a horse. Just dehydrated and probably a bit overexcited.”
Overexcited? I could identify. At least my pulse was returning to normal—whatever that was—and my heart no longer threatened to burst through my chest.
“Do me a favor,” the doctor continued as he stuffed his equipment back in his emergency kit. “Force-feed him Gatorade and water before he starts on the champagne.”
Walking through the casino, hand in hand with Teddie, I was trying to make sense of the evening—and failing miserably. Like the rope in a game of tug-of-war, my emotions pulled me one way, then the other. Glinda had died. Somehow, I couldn’t work up too much sympathy. Daniel had been shot. I’m probably just one of a good-sized crowd who thought he had it coming.
I’d hung over the edge and looked into the abyss—which would probably give me a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Did workers’ comp cover that? And if it did, would it pay for a suite at the Ritz while I recovered?
Love had reduced Jordan to irrationality, and he seemed totally unconcerned. Teddie was morphing into a rock star, Dane was campaigning to take his place in my life, Mother was acting stranger than usual, and the Big Boss was one unhappy camper.
The lone bright spot was that Torti had survived a pummeling.
And I wasn’t sure any of it mattered. My give-a-damn had finally bit the big one.
God, help me. I needed a vacation. But who had the time?
“Damn.” I braked to a stop in the middle of the party that was Saturday night in the casino. “What time is it?” I flipped my phone open and looked at the digital readout—accurate to one millionth of a second, or so they said. Eleven o’clock! “Teddie! You’ve got to go!”
The party had started without him.
“It’s okay,” he assured me, patting my hand and giving me a worried look. “This is more important.”
“You act like I’m some kind of pansy-ass.” I hated being patronized and worried over—he knew that. “I am not going back to the roof to fling myself off, if that’s what you think.” I pulled my hand from his and gave him an encouraging push toward the elevators.
“Go. I’ve gotten by just fine for thirty some-odd years without you; I’ll get by fine when you leave.” Ouch. I cringed, but the words had already escaped. Bad timing. Clearly I had lost my grip.
Teddie whirled on me. “Is that what you think? That I’m just going to walk right out of your life?”
“Of course not.” I lied. My tenuous control on life had completely unraveled. I didn’t understand anything anymore. Not even myself. “I promised Romeo I’d give him my statement. I’ll be there for your set, okay?”
He brushed the hair out of my eyes, then gave me a very sweet kiss.
No doubt about it, he was one of the good guys.
But where would he be the next time I needed him?