“Where are the clothes I gave you?” My eye twitched at the potato sack she called a T-shirt and the paint-splattered jeans hanging from her hips. It was a fight with this girl every day to wear something decent.
Her eyes rolled toward the ceiling as she patted the nylon eyesore hanging from her shoulder. “I have some in my backpack.”
I ushered her along toward the bathroom. “Then you should put them on. This is a nice hotel.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “What’s on the agenda for tonight, anyway?”
“I can’t stay long,” I told her. “I’m meeting Gypsy for dinner.”
She nodded in understanding. If there was one person I dropped everything for, it was my sister. Through thick and thin, we were always there for each other. She’d practically raised me. I looked up at her. I admired her. And the only reason I knew I was capable of loving anyone in this world was because I loved her fiercely.
“I’ll be out in just a minute.” Trouble glanced over her shoulder before she disappeared into the restroom.
I stood by the entryway and scanned the casino floor. To my disappointment, it was a dead afternoon, and there weren’t a lot of patrons to choose from. A few businessmen caught my eye, but I wasn’t feeling it. Then I thought of Gypsy and the past she didn’t know had come crawling out of the messy grave we left behind.
For years, she’d sacrificed herself to protect me. Now it was my turn. Come hell or high water, I had to have a wire transfer on its way to California by the end of the day. Not feeling it wasn’t an option. There couldn’t be an off day or even a bad day. I needed to score a lot of cash, and I needed to do it fast.
I scanned over the options again. Too old. Too drunk. Too scary looking. The choices were few and far between. Twisting the band on my right hand, I examined the huge blue sapphire ring I’d scored last week. It was flashy and extravagant, and I hoped it wouldn’t be an issue to offload it. But I doubted the man I took it from had even reported it stolen. That was the name of the game. What happened in Vegas usually stayed in Vegas.
Trouble reappeared in one of my old blouses and a pair of white shorts, making a production of her transformation by jutting her hip out like a model. “Better?”
“Much,” I agreed. “Are you hungry? You want to grab a bite while I go do my business?”
She bit her cherry red lip and pouted. At twenty-two, Trouble was a few years older than me, but she didn’t act like it. The youthful innocence surrounding her felt foreign to me because it had been ripped away from me before I even sprouted breasts.
“Can’t I come with you?” she begged.
My temples throbbed as I prepared to have this argument for the ten millionth time. Trouble didn’t know all the particulars of my cons or my reasons for pulling them in the first place. I didn’t want her involved, and the last thing I needed was to worry about her safety too.
“I’m not going to change my mind. I don’t want you doing this shit.”
“Yet it’s good enough for you,” she shot back.
“I have experience. And it doesn’t matter what I do. You should want better for yourself.” God, I sounded like my sister.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms. “Whatever. Are you taking the Palazzo side?”
I nodded, checking to make sure my phone was turned on before I forked over some cash. “Go get some gelato and play a few machines. Text me if anything comes up.”
“I will.” She muttered her assurance while making a beeline straight for one of the table games.
I turned on my heel and began plotting. I only had an hour before I was supposed to meet Gypsy at Sinatra. That wasn’t a lot of time, but I’d make it work. I had no choice. Following the signs for the Palazzo side of the building, I scoped out any potential targets along the way. A few contenders were noticed within minutes, but again, I wasn’t feeling it.
I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but something just felt off. This game had depleted me, and I needed to find a way off this treadmill. Every time I raised the cash, my extortionist stretched the mythical finish line. I couldn’t win. Not really. I had to tamp down the crushing feeling that everything was about to implode if I didn’t get a handle on it soon.
Just when I was starting to sink into another tar pit of despair, a gentleman caught my attention. Or rather, I caught his. He was sitting at an empty table, mindlessly thumbing through his phone before his gaze locked onto mine. After a quick perusal, I had a feeling I’d seen him somewhere before. But the lack of recognition reflected at me determined he was just another body in a suit. It wasn’t even a particularly nice one. Definitely not tailored. This was an off the rack kind of guy all the way. There wasn’t a remarkable thing about him from what I could tell, and he probably didn’t have millions sitting in an offshore bank account. But I was short on time, so for tonight, he would do.