We’d both valet parked at the Empress, so I picked up our Nissan and Lake got his Hyundai. Back at the hotel I waited outside his room while he changed clothes. I wasn’t taking any chances on losing him again.
Then we headed out to the Bunny Hole.
The setting sun sent neon streaks across the horizon. Lake drove behind us down the highway. I spotted Aaron’s pickup as I rolled into the parking lot—only three other vehicles sat there. I parked at the end of a row of cars, but Lake pulled up right behind the pickup, blocking it.
He jumped out of the Hyundai with the bag in his hand. He grabbed the driver’s door of the pickup, then stopped and looked at us, shaking his head.
Rachel and I got out. Even in the twilight, the heat felt like an electric blanket on our shoulders. We walked to Aaron’s truck.
The pickup was empty. I looked at the door to the Bunny Hole. The Closed sign still hung inside the screen. “Why would he come here, anyway?”
“I don’t know.” Lake clutched the bag. “I guess we better go inside.”
He knocked on the door, waited one second, then knocked again harder. I put a hand on his shoulder. “Be calm. We don’t know—”
Crystal Hartwell yanked the door open. “We’re closed—Oh. You.” Then she frowned at me. “You again? What’s going on?”
“Is Sara here?” Lake held up the bag. “I’ve got the money.”
Her eyes widened for a moment. “Okay. In here.”
She backed away from the door. We went in.
Rachel lifted her eyebrows, looking around. “So this is what it looks like inside a—” She stopped. “Oh.”
Aaron sat on one of the leather couches in a T-shirt and dusty jeans in front of a glass table with a six-pack of beer at one corner. He had a shotgun across his knees.
A woman with short sandy hair cut close to her scalp sat next to him, hands on her knees, her face blank. Her eyes stared forward into nowhere until Lake stepped forward. “Sara? Are you all right?”
Sara blinked. “Gary.” She glanced at Aaron, then dropped her face.
Aaron patted the butt of the shotgun. “She’s fine. Got the money?”
I scanned my eyes around the room fast. Tonya stood behind the bar, her arms crossed and her eyes fierce. A blond woman in a sleeveless yellow sun dress sat in one chair, a leg over her knee, watching Aaron with a bored look in her eyes. I’d seen her before—the woman who’d wanted to go home because “Double-A was having a crisis.” Double-A. Was she Aaron’s girlfriend?
Crystal stayed near the door, as if hoping to make a quick getaway if bullets started flying.
Lake tossed the bag into Aaron’s lap. “Here. Let her go.”
He smiled. “That’s not all, is it?”
With a sigh, Lake dug a hand into his back pocket. He took one long last look, then set the ace of spades on a table next to a mostly empty beer bottle. “Here.”
Aaron smiled and leaned forward. The card was well worn, faded. He held it in front of his face, tilting his head.
“Looks right.” He smiled.
Lake held out a hand to Sara. “Then let’s—”
“Hang on.” Aaron stood up. “Olivia, get a deck of cards.”
The blonde in yellow rolled her eyes. “Where do I get them?”
“Here.” Tonya bent over behind the bar, then dropped a pack of cards next to an empty glass. “Knock your socks off.”
Olivia stood up and got the cards, then knelt in front of the glass topped table. Rachel jammed her elbow into my ribs. “Stop checking out her cleavage.”
“Who, me?” I tried to concentrate on Olivia shuffling the cards.
Aaron hunched forward. For a moment I thought Lake might try a grab for the shotgun, but he just stared at his sister, as if trying to communicate telepathically.
Olivia dealt a blackjack hand. Aaron had a king and an eight. Olivia had a nine showing. Aaron frowned and stared at her hidden card. “Give me a second. I remember this . . .” He slapped the edge of the table. “Three!”
Olivia flipped her card to show a three of clubs.
Aaron grinned. He pulled the deck from Olivia and stared at the top card. “Jack.” He turned it over to reveal a jack of diamonds. He laughed. The next three cards were a 10, a queen, and an ace. He called them all correctly. “Yes!” He scattered the rest of the cards, shooting them across the table and onto the carpet, then grabbed an open beer. He drained it, then stood up. smiling. “Thanks, Gary. Asshole. Let’s go, Olivia.”
“Okay.” Lake held out his hand. “Come on, Sara. Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Crystal glanced at Tonya, then pointed a finger. “Sara stays. You get out of here, Aaron. Olivia, you’re fired. Bitch.”
Olivia laughed. “Whatever, skank. Let’s just go, Aaron.”
“Yeah, we got places to be.” He reached for the card on the table
“Just a minute.” That came from Tonya, behind the bar. She held a thick handgun in her fist.
I moved in front of Rachel, my heart suddenly pounding. One gun makes me nervous enough. Two guns tend to nudge me toward full-on panic. “Let’s everyone stay calm here, all right?”
Aaron’s shotgun was on the sofa. He looked back at it, but apparently decided not to risk a grab. Good. He shrugged. “Okay. I’ll leave.” He leaned over to scoop up the card.
Then Tonya fired her handgun.
The bullet went over Aaron’s head and into the ceiling—a little too close to my head for comfort. Rachel yelped. Bits of glass from the chandelier dribbled over my scalp.
Aaron jerked up, his face red. “What the hell?”
“Leave the card.” Crystal’s eyes were icy. “Right where it is.”
Sara sat on the sofa, eyes forward, as if trying to ignore all of us. I didn’t blame her. I wanted to do the same thing.
“Good.” Lake started forward. “I’ll just—”
“That’s mine!” Aaron glanced nervously at Tonya. “Don’t let him—
“Leave it.” Crystal’s voice was steady and determined.
“It’s mine,” Lake said. “You can’t just—”
“You stole it from me, you son of a bitch!” Aaron roared.
I looked at Rachel. “We could just get out of here while they’re arguing about it,” I murmured.
“Sounds good.” She edged toward the door.
But Crystal saw us. “You guys stay here until this is over,” she snapped. We froze.
Aaron took advantage of the momentary distraction to duck, whirl, and reach for his shotgun. Tonya fired again, shattering a TV in the corner, and Rachel and I hit the floor, flattening our bodies on the carpet. I tried to shield her, and she tried to protect me, and we were both tangling with each other when Lake dived forward to snatch at the card.
Crystal darted forward and kicked him in the leg. Lake collapsed with a grunt, knocking the table over, spilling the beer and the cards Olivia had dealt—and sending the black ace spinning through the air.
It landed on the carpet, next to Rachel’s face. Without thinking, I grabbed it and rolled over.
Sitting up, breathing hard, I grasped the card with both hands and held it over my head. “Put the guns down!” I shouted, my voice hoarse. “Now! Or else I’m going to—”
“Tom!” Rachel shrieked.
Aaron had the shotgun in his hands. Its barrel looked deep and dark. For a moment all I could hear was my own breathing, rasping in my dry throat, and my vision narrowed until all I could see was the shotgun’s snout, glaring in my face. I bit my lip and hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much when—
Another gunshot roared. Olivia screamed. Aaron swore, dropped the shotgun, and clutched at his shoulder, blood seeping through his shirt. “Goddamn it!” He fell to his knees. “Bitch!”
Tonya lowered her handgun, her eyes dazed.
Sara suddenly leaped from the sofa and pounced on Lake. Not attacking him—that’s what I thought first—but trying to cover him with her body. “Gary,” she murmured in a soft voice. “Gary, Gary . . .”
Rachel crawled away from me, swearing under her breath, and yanked the shotgun out of Aaron’s reach. “Idiot.” I wasn’t sure if she meant him or me. Probably me.
I stood up on shaking legs. “Call an ambulance,” I said to no one in particular.
“Yeah!” Aaron rolled on the floor, staining the carpet with his blood. “Fast, goddamn it!”
Tonya reached under the bar and lifted a phone. Crystal staggered to a chair and collapsed, looking suddenly a lot older than she had on TV this afternoon.
Lake helped his sister to her feet. “Are you okay? Sara?”
She nodded, staring at the floor. “Okay. Okay.” She patted his arm awkwardly.
Tonya put down the phone. “Paramedics on the way. Cops too.” She rubbed her hands together, as if wiping away the feel of the pistol.
“All right.” I took a breath, wishing for one of the beers rolling on the floor. Then I glanced at Rachel. “You okay?”
She glared at me. “Come to Vegas for a weekend, you said! It’ll be fun, you said! Hardly any work at all, you said! Jerk.”
I laughed. Then I held up the card. “Everybody watch.”
Aaron looked up, gritting his teeth against the pain. Lake blinked, holding Sara’s hand.
With trembling fingers, I ripped the card in half.
Aaron groaned and closed his eyes. Lake opened his mouth, then looked at his sister and changed his mind. He nodded.
I handed the two halves of the card to Rachel. She took them in one hand, pressed them against her palm, then held them back. “Gone.”
I looked at Lake. “Sorry.”
He sighed. “Yeah. It’s probably better this way.”
Crystal lurched up. “What the hell are we going to tell the cops? About that card, I mean? They’ll think we’re crazy.”
I shrugged. “What I always do—tell them everything and let them sort it out. They should be used to crazy stories in Vegas. Wasn’t there a vampire here in the 70s?”
Olivia ran to the back. I figured she was trying to flee, but she came back with some towels to press over Aaron’s wounded arm.
I stood next to Rachel. “So—where do you want to get dinner?” My heart was still returning to normal.
“Room service.” She shuddered. “Hey, do we have to go back tomorrow? Now that you’ve got it all wrapped up?”
I glanced at Lake. “The reservations are for Sunday. I can only charge the client for today, but—”
“You owe me a vacation.” She punched my arm.
I smiled. “You got it.”
We told the cops everything. I’m not sure how much they believed, but they had Aaron and his shotgun and a lot of witnesses to the fact that he’d kidnapped Sara and threatened the rest of us. Olivia immediately turned on him, insisting Aaron had forced her to go along with things—including helping him set the fire.
Back at the hotel I reported to my client, who sounded as happy as I could reasonably expect. “At least it’s not an affair,” she sighed. “Just send me your bill when you get back.”
The next day I ran into Lake at the pool while I was fetching a margarita for Rachel. “Yeah, I’ll be taking Sara home with me.” He shook his head. “Marcia doesn’t like it, but what can I do? Crystal kicked her out. I guess I should have handled this different all along.”
“How is she doing?”
He glanced over at a deck chair, where Sara sat watching him. “Real clingy. But okay. It’ll all be okay. Somehow.”
I took Rachel’s margarita and a beer for me back to our chairs. Rachel was reading the Ruth Bader Ginsburg bio, and I had my Stephen King, which was actually pretty good. Her zebra-striped bikini only distracted me a little.
“Feel like some blackjack later? Roulette? Slots?”
“Hell, no.” She glared at me over her sunglasses. We hadn’t gone near the casino.
“Good.” I sipped my beer and opened my book. I hoped it wouldn’t be too scary.
# # #
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