There’s something important that should be known about me. Despite being an immortal vampire, I’m deathly afraid of flying. It’s too bad that it’s the best and quickest way to get anywhere worth going. The flight to Las Vegas was traumatic. And turbulent. And long. And I think I nearly injured Thierry’s hand as I nervously clawed at it during half the flight, but we landed before too much damage occurred.
Once he’d managed to escape my death clutch as the plane taxied toward the Vegas airport terminal, he was immediately on his phone again, taking a call from someone—probably this Bernard DuShaw guy—about more details to do with this trip. I sat in my seat and relearned how to breathe before applying some lip gloss to offset the sickly green tinge my skin had taken on for the last four and a half hours.
Being on the ground was a very good thing, and I was thrilled to be in Las Vegas for this unexpected but exciting trip.
We would be staying in a suite at the Bellagio, a stunning hotel and casino right in the middle of the Vegas Strip. The one with the Italian theme and the dancing fountains out front. Our tab was being picked up by the Ring and I was more than happy to let them do the picking. It was a gorgeous hotel—the lobby took my breath away as we stepped through the entrance doors with our luggage. Marble floors, floor-to-ceiling columns, Italian archways, and a beautiful sculpture attached to the ceiling of thousands of colorful crystal flowers, which was the artistic focal point of the lobby.
I must have appeared to be a typical awestruck tourist as we walked across the floor toward the reception desks to check in. We were surrounded by scores of other people and the buzz of activity and conversation. I was having a visual overload at everything around me, and my gaze remained fixed on the flowers above my head. I really should have brought a camera.
“Stand back, Sarah.” Thierry’s hand tightened on my waist.
I tore my attention away from the lobby ceiling as he pulled me to my left toward a column. It was then I noticed that while we were arriving at the hotel…someone else was leaving.
On a stretcher.
A shiver went through me at the sight of a white sheet draped over the occupant’s head, which meant he wasn’t being rushed anywhere but the morgue.
As the paramedics came within a few feet of us, the top of the white sheet snagged under the front wheel of the stretcher and pulled away, revealing the face and shoulders of the man beneath.
Yes, that was a dead person, all right—and definitely not something I saw every day. On the heels of my warm and elated feeling from arriving at the beautiful hotel, this particular sight made my blood run cold in my veins. Especially when I saw something unmistakable on the dead man’s throat.
This man hadn’t died from having a heart attack at the roulette table; that was for sure.
The paramedic hurriedly covered up the body again and they departed through the main doors toward the waiting ambulance with its lights flashing.
“Was that a vampire attack?” I asked under my breath. “Or am I just seeing things?”
“You’re not seeing things.” Thierry’s voice was low enough that no one else around us would overhear.
His calm tone surprised me. “You sound like you almost expected to see something like that. Did you?”
He nodded. “When we landed, Bernard called to fill me in on a new situation the Ring is dealing with here. Very recently, there have been a few incidents just like this. Humans with puncture marks on their throats, drained of blood, left in public places. I didn’t think it would be quite this public, though.”
My stomach lurched. “A few incidents?”
He took my hand in his. “It’s nothing to worry about. It’s part of the reason the Ring exists in the first place, to help police those who step out of line and allow their thirst to rule their behavior. But vampire-related murders like this are rarely so public.”
Nothing to worry about. Sure.
You might expect that a vampire like me would relish the very thought of blood and death. Well, you would be wrong. I couldn’t help but cringe at seeing a human used as an unwilling chew toy like that. Blood, in my humble opinion, should be procured at a local “blood bank”—businesses where the red stuff, courtesy of paid human donors, flowed for a set price. If that made me a fanged wimp who didn’t hang with the cool kids, then so be it.
Vampires like me preferred to get their drink of choice from humane sources, rather than some random victim in an alleyway. That was messy as well as completely evil.
Vampires weren’t evil.
Actually, let me rephrase that. Most vampires weren’t evil.
Just like humans, we had some bad eggs in the basket. If you were evil as a human, then you were still evil as a vampire. No major personality change happened after a vamp acquired his or her fangs—unless there was a spell or a curse involved. At least, that had been my experience so far.
“Is that why Bernard called you? Are you supposed to investigate these murders, too?” I asked uneasily, eyeing the crowd in the lobby. Some of the people seemed disturbed by the passing stretcher a minute ago, but most were going on with their day like they hadn’t even noticed.
“No, I’ve been given another assignment. Bernard is here to head the separate investigation personally. He has a source with the Las Vegas CSI team he’s meeting with as we speak.”
“I think I prefer the TV version.” The whole situation had given me an incredibly uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, which had very little to do with the turbulent flight.
I gazed out the glass doors as the ambulance drove away. “Welcome to Las Vegas, huh? That poor guy.”
“Humans are delicate creatures.” Thierry squeezed my hand reassuringly. “Try to put it out of your mind, Sarah. This unpleasantness won’t come anywhere near you, I promise.”
Humans were delicate. I had been delicate. There might be a lot of negative things about being a vampire, but at least I wasn’t quite as breakable as I’d once been.
I decided to do exactly as Thierry suggested and try my best to put the blood-free dead body out of my head as much as possible as we checked in. The woman behind the registration desk eyed my tall, dark, and handsome fiancé appreciatively before glancing at me with some obvious disdain. I made sure to subtly flash her my engagement ring so she knew I had every right to be standing next to him—and that she should, very kindly, back off.
I never said I wasn’t petty.
On the way to the elevator, we walked past a poster on an easel that caught my attention.
“Hey, check it out,” I said. “They have one of those child pageants going on here. Like that reality show with the toddlers who wear tiaras.”
“Does this interest you?” Thierry asked.
“Not really. It just always struck me as strange—putting lipstick, a wig, and a fake tan on a little kid. It’s like they’re a thirty-year-old stuck in a toddler’s body.”
“It’s very much like that, actually.” He nodded at the poster. “This is the case Bernard’s officially handing off to me.”
I looked at him. “Seriously? What kind of case is it?”
“One of the contestants is a vampire.”
I glanced at the colorful poster with shock this time. “That is messed up.”
“It’s also against the Ring’s rules. It’s possible that she’s unaware of this, but she has to be told. It’s my job to learn her history, find out when she was sired, and who exactly was responsible for turning a child. Also, she must be made aware that public spectacles involving children that never age could only draw the attention of vampire hunters.”
I took this all in. “And what happens to the vamp responsible for siring her?”
“Whoever it was—if they’re still alive—will be dealt with.”
I grimaced. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
“It won’t be. But that isn’t up to me. That goes to another department.” His jaw tensed. “Enforcement.”
Just the sound of it chilled me. “What a fun job you’ve acquired, Thierry. Death, mayhem, sequins. Sign me up.”
He reached down to take my hand again. “It’s much better now that you’re with me.”
“Sweet talker.” I grinned, but my smile faded as I glanced at the poster once more. “So what happens to the little vamp herself?”
“She’ll be asked not to take part in these public displays in the future. Like I said, it could attract hunters. Her life, and the lives of her fellow contestants, could be in danger.”
That caused a fresh churning in my gut. “That would be a very bad thing.”
“Yes, it would.” Thierry glanced at his watch. “There’s a little time to settle in. We’re meeting Bernard and his wife, Laura, for dinner at eight o’clock.”
First time I’d heard about this, which wasn’t a surprise to me at all. Thierry wasn’t exactly what I would call the most “forthcoming with details” guy I’d ever met in my life.
“Bernard has a wife? That’s interesting.”
“They’re a lot like us, Bernard and Laura. Bernard’s a master vampire and Laura’s a fledgling. She was sired only a few years ago.”
“Okay, now I’m very interested to meet them,” I said.
A “master” vampire was just another way of saying that, despite the attractive exterior, he’d been around a long, long time.
“I think you might get along. After all, you have a great deal in common.”
I liked the sound of this a lot. It was the chance to meet someone living a life parallel to mine. Thierry and I were still engaged, not married, but I hoped to tie the proverbial knot soon. The trouble was, picking a date that would have all my loved ones—both human and vampire—in one place at the same time was proving to be a challenge now that everyone had scattered to the far corners of the earth.
I glanced down at my engagement ring, which was absolutely gorgeous. Three carats. Princess cut. Flawless in every possible way.
I wondered how big Laura DuShaw’s ring was.
“Six carats?” I held her hand and stared at the monstrous diamond with disbelief. “Wow, it’s incredible.”
She smiled. “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”
Laura reminded me of myself more than I would have thought possible. She even looked like she could be my sister, with her shoulder-length dark brown hair and hazel eyes that mirrored my own. However, she wore more makeup than I did and her clothes looked a bit more designer and custom-made. I used to have a serious obsession for clothes and shoes, but had toned that down lately. I’d had to run away from a whole lot of vampire hunters and I’d come to the quick realization that this was much easier to do when not wearing four-inch stiletto heels—although I was wearing a pair right now.
I still enjoyed shopping, and being romantically involved with someone with cash to spare, I could do it every day if I wanted to, but it had lost some of its flavor for me. And now that I’d agreed to live exclusively out of a suitcase for the foreseeable future, I wasn’t in much of a hurry to stock up on new threads.
But I could admire those who did. And their threads.
As for Laura’s husband, Bernard…he was a very handsome man. Thierry told me on the plane ride here that he was a little over three hundred years old and, in his youth, had even been associated with Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. Thierry warned me not to bring up Marie Antoinette’s name in conversation since it was a touchy subject for Bernard. As if I would. My knowledge of the French queen went about as far as knowing she said something like “let them eat cake,” and Kirsten Dunst had played her in the movie version.
Thierry was the history expert in our relationship, not me. Of course, he’d learned everything not from books but by living through it all firsthand—from the Black Death and beyond.
Just as Laura looked a lot like me, Bernard looked a lot like Thierry. He had dark hair, pale eyes—although Bernard’s were green, not gray—and expensive suits with clean lines. Tall and lean, with an air of authority and an edge of power about him, this man wasn’t a pushover.
He had a softer side, I was sure. I wondered if it had taken Laura as much digging and sheer pigheaded stubbornness to find Bernard’s as it had taken me to find Thierry’s.
A typical restaurant dinner for vampires included wine and coffee, which were consumed, and plates of food, which were not. I used to wait tables in university. I’d often retrieved full plates of food at the end of the meal that looked only picked at, but it never raised any red flags for me. Everyone seemed to be on a diet at any given time. It didn’t necessarily mean I’d been serving a table full of vampires.
But maybe I had been.
“If you’ll excuse us,” Bernard said, rising from the table after the untouched dessert plates were cleared away. He, unlike Thierry, had a strong French accent. He fixed both Laura and myself with a charming smile. “Thierry and I have some business to discuss. We’ll be outside by the pool to get some fresh air.”
Thierry nodded. “Bernard is kind enough to give me some tips on how best to present myself tomorrow when I meet with Ms. Corday.”
The miniature pageant vamp. That should be an interesting meeting.
“Take lots of notes,” I suggested.
“I’ll do that.” He brushed his hand against mine as he got up from his seat, and then he and Bernard left Laura and me at the table.
“Bernard brought some Cuban cigars to share with Thierry,” Laura told me. “He wants to celebrate.”
“Nothing says congrats on your retirement like illegal tobacco.”
I took a sip from my glass of red wine. As a vampire I couldn’t eat anything solid, but I’d never had much of a problem with alcoholic beverages. Some vampires could still eat normal food; however, I’d noticed this was rare. They were the freaks, not me.
At least, that’s how I liked to think of it.
“Have you been to Vegas before?” Laura asked.
“Never. I always wanted to, but never got around to it until now. You?” I’d butter her up with small talk before we got into the real nitty-gritty details of hers and Bernard’s relationship and how that information could benefit me in the future.
“Yes. But I don’t like it here very much.” Laura leaned back in her seat and ran her perfectly manicured index finger along the edge of her wineglass.
“No? Why not?”
“Oh, I’ve been here too many times to count—many memories…good and bad ones. Plus, with the murders this week, it’s not exactly safe for our kind to spend too much time here at the moment.”
I cringed at the reminder of what I’d seen earlier in the lobby. “How many murders have there been?”
Her expression tensed and her gaze swept the crowded restaurant. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it. Bernard didn’t bring it up during dinner because he didn’t want to upset anyone, but I’m sure that’s one of the things he’s talking to Thierry about in private right now. There have been six humans who’ve turned up dead in the last week here on the Strip—one a day, including the one found in the Bellagio casino today. All were drained of blood and had fang marks on their necks.”
Six! That was definitely more than a few. “Thierry mentioned to me that Bernard has a source with the police?”
She nodded. “He knows it’s an out-of-control vampire who’s willing to expose the rest of us to get his next meal. Frankly, I think he’s trying to make a statement by being so public about it.”
Most vampires didn’t drink blood directly from humans, so they didn’t run the risk of leaving a dead body lying about. This was a huge no-no—and one enforced by the Ring. Killing humans = BAD.
Vampires were to keep low profiles and not risk exposing themselves to humans at large. It was bad enough having scores of hunters looking to put a stake through our hearts, let alone having the entire world alerted to our existence.
“Why would he do it on purpose?” I asked. “That makes zero sense.”
Her red, glossy lips thinned and she counted off on her manicured fingers. “Troublemaker. Attention hound. Sociopath. You name it. He definitely came to the right town if he wants some attention. However, if Bernard finds out who it is, he has the authority to stake him on sight.”
I shuddered. This would be Thierry’s job as soon as Bernard officially handed it off to him—staking dangerous vampires if they needed staking. “Let’s hope that happens soon.”
She raised her glass. “To a job well-done.”
“I’ll definitely drink to that.” We clinked glasses and I took a sip. Actually, it was more like a glug as I drained my glass completely in a couple swallows.
“Now, Sarah,” Laura began. “Let’s talk about something more pleasant than nasty Ring business and murders. I’d love to know how you and Thierry met.”
A subject that also involved violence and blood loss, so it really wasn’t quite as much of a shift in conversation as she might think.
The truth was that I’d been sired against my will by a vampiric blind date, and when I tried to run away from the hunters who’d killed him shortly after—so they wouldn’t do the same to me—I found Thierry standing on the edge of a bridge. Weary of his centuries of living, he’d been about to stake himself and let his remains fall into the river below. Instead, we decided to save each other.
Such a fairy tale.
I chose not to share it without excessive editing. “I was out for a jog late one night and our paths happened to cross.” I shrugged. “The rest is history. How about you?”
She took a sip from her cappuccino, which the waiter had just delivered. “My original sire abandoned me and I had to find my way on my own, which was very difficult as I’m sure you know. One night, Bernard and I passed each other in Central Park and our eyes met. It sounds cliché, but it was love at first sight. Now we get to spend the rest of our lives together.”
So she wasn’t with her original sire, either. We had more in common than I thought. “Have you had any problems with the age difference between you two?”
Enough chitchat, already, I thought. Let the valuable grilling commence.
She was quiet for a moment, but a wistful smile played at her lips. “I’d be lying if I said no. Bernard has so much history behind him; he’s seen and experienced so much. Sometimes I worry that I’m not enough for him, that my human ways might start to wear on his patience too much. That he won’t find them as charming as he did in the beginning.”
That sounded painfully familiar.
She continued. “I’ve said this to him, but he tells me that it’s not true. That he loves me just as I am. We’ve been together for five years and every year is better than the last.” She glanced at me. “Do you feel that way toward Thierry?”
“Well, in the beginning I felt very uncertain”—my grip tightened on my empty wineglass—“to say the least. He tried to avoid me and make me think that he didn’t care about me. He was very convincing, actually.”
“But you were stubborn and you let him know that you loved him.”
“I was rather adamant about it. If ‘adamant’ is another word for questionably intelligent.”
“And you convinced him.”
“Eventually I can wear down just about anyone.” I gave her a grin. “I’m tenacious like that.”
“And now you’ve agreed to leave your home behind and join him in his travels.” At my nod, she touched my hand. “It might seem like a difficult transition, but I think you’ll do just fine.”
That remained to be seen. “What’s it like being the wife of someone who works for the Ring?”
“Honestly? It’s incredibly boring. But I find ways to occupy myself.”
“How? Do you help Bernard with his job?”
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t want to get in his way. But I like to go shopping. Have my hair done.” She slid her fingers through her beautiful blowout. “I get a manicure twice a week. Weekly massages. Pedicures. I go to the theater frequently. I attend auctions and charity events. And I have many friends in most major cities. It helps to fill my time when Bernard is too busy.”
Something about her rundown didn’t sit all that well with me. I’d been hoping for a life with a little more purpose to it than personal maintenance and random entertainment. “So you’re saying that being the wife of someone in Bernard’s position gives you the liberty to enjoy an eternal life of leisure.”
Laura’s smile widened. “It beats slaving away at a desk job. I did that for too many years to count.”
“Yeah, me too.” But at least working for a paycheck gave me a reason to get up in the morning.
“Things are better now. Much better.” She squeezed my hand. “You’ll get used to it. And if you really don’t like traveling so much, you can always take an apartment somewhere. Then you can fly out and meet Thierry for a week or two at a time.”
I pondered that. “It doesn’t sound like much of a marriage.”
“Which is the reason I choose to be by Bernard’s side whenever he needs me. I try to support him as much as I possibly can, and the least I can do is make sure I always look as good as possible. I think he appreciates that.”
I nodded, but still felt a bit queasy from the direction of this conversation. “I guess there are lots of options.”
Although…I wasn’t sure I was really totally on board with the idea of going shopping every day for the rest of forever as my main raison d’être. This was not something I would have said a year ago—nonstop shopping and beauty salons would have been right up my alley then. Funny how some things change.
We chatted for a while longer, but I wasn’t getting any meaty answers to my questions like I’d wanted, which was disappointing. It was difficult to dig down through Laura’s layers. That is, if she even had any beyond what was visible on the surface. I learned nothing that helped give me true insight on what my future with Thierry held, now that our relationship had taken a new, Ring-inspired direction.
But Bernard and Laura…well, they were us. Both in looks and position. Maybe I needed to accept that and be happy about it instead of always seeing the glass half-empty.
Frankly, I could use a manicure. My cuticles were currently a disaster.
After silence fell between us and I’d personally finished the bottle of wine right down to the very last drop, we decided to look for the men. I followed Laura out of the swanky restaurant and down marble-swathed hallways until we reached the exit to lead us to the pool and courtyard area, but objects in my peripheral vision blurred as I thought through everything she’d told me.
A life of leisure. No reason to have a job. It all replayed in my mind again and again like an iPod set on replay.
All my adult life, I’d had jobs that didn’t pay much—personal assistant, waitress, bartender. I’d still been figuring out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life when that life had changed forever with one unexpected bitten neck.
Searching for meaning in my life had me constantly wandering into dead ends. Every time I thought I’d found the right thing for me, something happened to mess it up. Maybe I’d never find my perfect vocation. Maybe this was my destiny—to be exactly like Laura. I supposed there were worse things to aspire to. She seemed happy enough.
I never would have predicted my destiny would be to become Thierry’s well-dressed, wisecracking sidekick as we traveled the world making sure vampires at large behaved themselves. If I could be useful, then that was one thing, but if he did his thing and I went off and had fake nails applied every other day like Laura—well, that was way different.
I didn’t want to be just a hanger-on who didn’t contribute anything to our relationship other than letting him know what designer shoes I’d bought on sale that day. I had doubts that…
Well, let’s just say I had doubts. Big, ugly, slimy ones. I’d hoped that speaking with Laura would help alleviate them, but it had just made them that much bigger, uglier, and slimier.
It was warm outside and there was a light breeze. The stars were bright and the moon hung heavy in the clear sky. A few people lounged leisurely on the deck, soaking up the beautiful evening. The courtyard’s landscaping was painstakingly manicured to a leafy and floral perfection. It felt like I was walking through the huge backyard of a well-populated Mediterranean villa. I think I could live very happily here if given the option. Plus, the poolside bar was a definite bonus—even though it was currently closed for the day.
“There they are,” Laura said, after we’d walked a slow circle around the pool.
The men stood next to a stone railing near the pool on the opposite side, where I assumed they were enjoying the stinky cigars. As we drew closer, however, I realized with surprise that they weren’t having a calm conversation about the toddler pageant or Thierry’s assignment here.
No. There was nothing calm about the furious expression on Thierry’s face.
I gasped out loud when he grabbed hold of the front of Bernard’s crisp white shirt and shook him violently.
“I swear I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch,” Thierry snarled, loud enough to get the attention of a dozen people in the area.
I’d very rarely heard such rage in his voice before, and cold fear sliced through me. He looked like he wanted to rip Bernard’s throat out. I raced up to them and grabbed his arm. “Thierry! What are you doing?”
Thierry’s livid expression froze and his gaze flicked to me. He let go of Bernard as if the other vampire had suddenly burst into flames. Bernard brushed off the front of his suit.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Thierry.” He seemed calm, but his pale green eyes flashed with anger and his French accent seemed even thicker than before. “I wish we could have come to a better understanding. This, however, isn’t over yet. You know that.”
Laura rushed to her husband’s side, her gaze now guarded and fearful as she glanced at Thierry. She slid her arm around Bernard’s and began directing him off the patio.
“Good night, Sarah,” she said tightly, with a quick flick of a look toward me.
After they left, Thierry’s hands curled over the railing. His shoulders looked extremely tense.
“So…I’d heard that there were celebration cigars being passed around out here.” I tried to ignore the curious stares we received from others out by the pool. “Were they the exploding kind? I know you’re not a big fan of practical jokes.”
His face was rigid, but he didn’t look at me. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“What was that all about? I thought you two were friends.”
He snorted softly. Whatever boiling anger had been in his expression a minute ago had settled down to a simmer. “We have some unpleasant history between us that raised its ugly head tonight, I’m afraid.”
“Anything you want to share?”
His brow furrowed. “You needn’t worry yourself about this.”
“About my fiancé uttering random death threats? Who, me worry?”
“I lost control of myself for a moment there.”
“Which doesn’t ease my mind at all. Thierry, you are the poster boy for control—unless there’s a serious problem. What is it? Tell me.”
He reached down and took my hand in his. “There’s no problem. Bernard and I won’t have to see each other again after tomorrow, so any future conflict will be avoided.”
“I agree. How did your talk go with Laura after we left?”
I eyed him. “Changing the subject, are we?”
His lips twitched a little as if he wanted to smile. “Is it that obvious?”
“Uh-huh.” He seemed to have calmed down. I had no idea what had set him off, but I probably wouldn’t find out. Not from him, anyway. Thierry’s secretive nature was annoying sometimes, but for now I’d let it go. “Laura gave me the details about how I will be of help to you in your new job. It involves a great deal of salon time and having perfect hair and fingernails at all times.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Does that interest you?”
“Not particularly. I mean, I like to keep up a fairly shiny appearance, but I’d rather it not be my full-time job if I can help it. I’d rather…uh, help you. I mean, if that’s even allowed.”
He didn’t seem surprised or disturbed to hear of Laura’s intense salon commitment. “Allowed?”
I thought things through for a moment as we stood there in silence. “Can I come with you when you talk to the little pageant vamp?”
“Do you really want to?”
“We could play good cop and bad cop.” I actually smiled at the picture that presented. “I’ll be the bad cop.”
That made him grin as well. “Sounds interesting.”
I faltered a little, uncertain about the job and how it could possibly involve someone who had no experience with this sort of thing. Also, Laura specifically said she didn’t get in Bernard’s way. “Unless…I mean, unless you’d prefer I’m not involved. If it’s not okay with you—”
“It’s very okay with me. In fact, I think it’s an excellent idea.” He studied my face for a moment. “You would be a great help to me in dealing with a situation like this. You have a way about you that helps put people at ease. Alone, I might scare her.”
“You, scary? Nah. Well…good. So we’ll talk to her together—and nobody has to get scared.” I felt elated that he wanted me by his side for this without it being the least bit awkward between us. Then I sobered. “You know what’s scary? The vampire serial killer. Laura and I talked about it a bit. Six victims so far! Do you think it’s going to be a huge problem for the Ring to handle?”
He shook his head. “Between Bernard and the local police, it’ll be taken care of swiftly. The worst it will do is draw more interested hunters to the area. Just be vigilant, Sarah.”
“I put the v into vigilant.” Despite the nasty aura of danger around the city and seeing Thierry snap at Bernard, I felt pretty good about everything. “So, unless you have any other death threats to utter tonight…or celebration cigars to smoke…”
“I think I’ve met my quota for the day. For both.”
“Then let’s rest up so we can chat with Little Miss Sunshine tomorrow.”
He smiled. “See? You’re already an asset to this job. You’re keeping me on schedule.”
“I was a personal assistant in my previous life, you know.”
Thierry hadn’t told me what Bernard had said to upset him so much, but I didn’t suppose it really mattered. When you’d lived as long as Thierry had, you ended up racking up enemies much like poker chips. When face-to-face with those enemies, you had to know when to play another hand and when to cash out.
Viva Las Vegas.