Werewolf in Las Vegas

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “It was quite a finale, all right.” Luke sighed. He’d go through the water bed incident a hundred times if it could be followed by the kind of afternoon he’d spent with Giselle.

  “So you’re going to just let her go?”

  “I suggested coming up to San Francisco for a visit, and she said that wasn’t a good idea.”

  “Hm.” Cynthia tapped her finger against her mouth. “So she’s a bit of a mystery woman. That intrigues me.”

  “Look, I don’t want you to—”

  “Interfere in your life? That’s funny, Luke. Makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Now you know how I felt.”

  He blew out a breath. “I was wrong, okay? I’m sorry. And I’m not just saying it. I really am sorry that I treated you that way, as if you didn’t know what was good for you.”

  “I believe you, but I wish I had a recording of that.”

  “In case I backslide?”

  “Exactly.” She gestured to the curved part of the sectional that faced her. “Have a seat and stop pacing. I need to think about this Giselle problem, and I can’t do it while you’re roaming around like a caged lion.”

  “I’ll come over and sit down, but I don’t want you delving into Giselle’s situation. She’s told me to back off and I’ll honor that.” He walked to the sectional and sank down.

  “How noble of you. Did it occur to you that I have a source who might tell me what’s going on with her?”

  “Uh, you mean Bryce?”

  “He’s her brother, after all. I could mention that she’s throwing up roadblocks and see what he says about that.”

  “No.” The concept made him cringe inside. “It sounds like junior high all over again.”

  “So you’re willing to let her go and never find out why the two of you can’t be together? That would drive me crazy.”

  “I’ll deal with it.” He didn’t know how, but he’d have to. He had no choice.

  “I mean, it’s one thing if someone dumps you and tells you why. You’re upset, sure, but at least you understand the issue. You can get drunk, break a few dishes, and move on.”

  Luke chuckled. “Is that what you do? Throw breakables?”

  “Maybe.” She gave him a dimpled smile. “My point is, you won’t be able to move on. You’ll have that question nagging you forever. What was the problem? Why did she leave without giving me an explanation? I guarantee a mystery breakup is the worst kind.”

  “You’ve had those?”

  “No, but a girlfriend of mine did back at Yale. Some dude walked out on her and refused to tell her why. Two years later she found out he’d had a girlfriend back home with a baby. My friend was so relieved. Mad as hell, but relieved. She could finally forget about the creep once the mystery was solved.”

  Luke couldn’t believe he was listening to relationship advice from his little sister, but what she’d said made sense. He was frustrated about not knowing the big secret that stood between him and Giselle. Although he’d vowed not to dwell on that, he probably would anyway. He was enough like Cynthia that the mystery would drive him crazy, just like it would her.

  “Time is of the essence,” she said. “Bryce and Giselle will fly back to San Francisco tomorrow, and the opportunity to investigate will be lost.”

  “So?”

  “We could text them and ask them to come back up here, but I’d rather head on down to the Moon. We can say we finished our discussion and decided to join them for a drink. I’ll get Bryce alone, which will be easier at the bar than up here, and ambient noise can make conversations harder to overhear. I could challenge him to a game of pool and find out what’s up.”

  “But we didn’t finish our discussion.”

  She looked at him. “Nobody’s here but me, big brother. Tell me the truth. Are you thrilled about owning that bar?”

  He met her gaze. Pretending seemed stupid at this point. “No. To be honest, I’ve considered bulldozing it.”

  “No!” Her eyes widened. “That would kill Benedict!”

  “You sound as if you like the guy.”

  “Of course I do. I always have. He was nice to me, didn’t treat me like a little tagalong. Mr. Thatcher likes him, too.”

  Remembering that moment at the table when he’d looked into Benedict’s tortured gaze, Luke sighed. “I kind of like him, too. But don’t you think the Cartwrights deserved to go down?”

  “I was angry with Harrison, but he’s already dead. I’m sorry, but I never thought Vaughn and Benedict were our enemies. I was sad when the feud started. I liked the Cartwright family. And Benedict loved that bar. I’ll bet losing it was the worst thing that’s ever happened to him.”

  “Then he shouldn’t have put it on the line.”

  “I bet I know why he did.” Cynthia stretched out her long legs and propped her bare feet on the coffee table. “He probably was sick of staring at the Silver Crescent, and he had even more reason to hate looking at it, because the Cartwrights used to own it.”

  “I guess that could be true.”

  “I also bet he wanted to prove himself to Vaughn, just like I’ve always wanted to prove myself to you.” She glanced over at him. “I know how that feels.”

  “You don’t have to prove yourself to me.” Emotion tightened his throat. “I’ll love you no matter what.”

  She swallowed. “Backatcha, big brother.” She held his gaze for several seconds, and then she smiled. “Wow, we’re getting mushy, huh?”

  “Guess so.” He cleared his throat. “You really think I should sell it to Benedict?”

  “I do.”

  “I don’t know if he has the money to buy it.”

  “Vaughn would float him a loan. I’d lay odds on that. And you won’t have the humiliation of the bar losing business under your ownership, which I think it might.”

  “It might.” He hadn’t wanted to admit his fear of that happening, but he knew Benedict had been popular with the customers. Building customer loyalty to the new regime would take time he didn’t have.

  “Have I convinced you?”

  He blew out a breath. “Yeah, you have. Don’t take this wrong, but you would have made one hell of a lawyer.”

  “I know.” She looked smug. “But I’ll make an even better dancer. Ready to go down to the Moon?”

  “Might as well. It won’t be ours much longer. Once I sell it back to Benedict, we’ll have to pay for our drinks, and chances are he’ll charge us double.”

  “You, maybe.” Cynthia winked at him. “Me, he likes.”

  • • •

  Giselle had a million questions for her brother and a few for Mr. Thatcher, too, but she waited until they’d left the Silver Crescent through the back door. “Let’s stop a minute,” she said. “We can’t go into the playground right now. It’s too risky.”

  “Precisely,” Mr. Thatcher said. “I simply wanted a chance to talk with both of you alone and let you know that Benedict and I are scheduled to make our first inspection after closing time tonight. We’ve arranged to meet at two in the morning. I wanted to offer you a chance to accompany us.”

  “I’m up for it,” Bryce said.

  “I probably can’t.” Giselle expected to spend her last night in Vegas with Luke. She glanced at Bryce. “So you know about how the blocked-off entrance works now?”

  “Mr. Thatcher and I had a very brief moment alone when Cynthia was in the bathroom. He had just enough time to tell me about it.”

  The butler glanced back at the Silver Crescent. “I suggest we move on and actually have that drink at the Moon, in case Luke and Cynthia come looking for us.”

  “Good idea,” Giselle said. “By the way, brother of mine, were you the one who planted the idea of Luke selling back to Benedict?”

  He smiled. “I might have been.”

  She gave him a hug. “Well done
. Now let’s go have a drink and hope that Cynthia talks Luke into it.”

  “I sincerely hope so.” Mr. Thatcher fell into step on one side of her.

  Bryce took the other side. “And if she fails, Sis, I figure you can take a shot at convincing him. You seem to have the inside track.”

  She had a feeling she was busted, but she didn’t know for sure. “Don’t start with me, Bryce Landry. Not after you gave me a heart attack when I thought you might be getting cozy with a human.”

  “The difference is, I didn’t actually get cozy with a human, while you definitely did.”

  “You have no proof of that.”

  Ahead of them, Mr. Thatcher cleared his throat. “I’m afraid he does.”

  “Oh.”

  Bryce leaned closer. “Was it good? The chocolate, I mean.”

  She elbowed him in the ribs.

  He grunted. “Easy, Sis. I have to be well enough to travel, you know.”

  “Are you traveling with me tomorrow?”

  “I am, and by the way, my camera phone is loaded with pictures of chocolate.”

  “Bryce, if you tell anyone about this—and I mean anyone—I have an entire list of your previous crimes that will go public immediately.”

  “I won’t tell, at least not right away. I value the blackmail potential, so I’m saving it for something really big.”

  “You’d better be kidding.”

  He chuckled. “You’ll have to find that out, won’t you? Incidentally, there’s one surefire way to neutralize the threat.”

  “I’m sure it involves paying you large sums of money.”

  “I wasn’t thinking about that, but I’ll file it away for future consideration. If you want to end my blackmail prospects forever, though, you could mate with the dude.”

  “What?” She came to a halt on the sidewalk outside the Moon.

  “All the best families are doing it. Even I can see he’s crazy about you and would treat you right. He didn’t endear himself to me at first, but the guy’s grown on me. I think you’d be happy together.”

  “You’re talking crazy.”

  “I’m perfectly sincere. I’ve come to admire the guy. He took my jokes in stride. And I’m not an easy sell when it comes to my little sister’s future mate. Yes, he does have a tiny flaw, but—”

  “It’s not tiny!”

  “That’s your opinion. Others would differ. Looks to me as if the only obstacle is your prejudice against the concept.”

  “That is not the only obstacle. I’m thinking of him! It would drastically change his life. He’d have to sell his company and uproot himself from a city he loves. Worse than that, he’d have to keep the secret from his sister, and despite what we’ve been through with those two, they’re devoted to each other.”

  Mr. Thatcher turned around and joined them. “I hope you don’t mind if I put an oar in.”

  “Go right ahead.” Giselle looked at her brother. “This fine Were, Mr. Thatcher, has been a second father to Luke and Cynthia. I doubt he’ll be enthusiastic about your wild plan to upend their lives.”

  “On the contrary. I snatched this time for the three of us partly so that I could invite you both to the playground, but also because I was hoping we could discuss this very topic. I’ve never seen Luke so besotted with anyone as he is with you. I always urge caution in these matters, but . . . I believe he would be happier with you, despite the obvious difficulties, than without you.”

  Giselle stared at him. “With all due respect, no, he would not. He loves Vegas and he loves his sister. He could never tell her the truth about his life, and that would be cruel to both of them. I wouldn’t dream of saddling him with that burden.”

  “Too bad you won’t give him a chance to weigh in on the subject,” Bryce said.

  Mr. Thatcher’s attention was distracted by something directly behind them. “Our conversation is at an end,” he said in a low voice. Then he stepped back and waved. “It appears you’ve finished your discussion!”

  “We did!” Luke called out. “What’s up with you slowpokes? We figured you’d be on your second round by now.”

  Bryce and Giselle both turned. She hoped her brother had a reasonable explanation, because she was drawing a blank.

  Bryce, her quick-witted riddle maker, came through. “We had some family business to work through, too, and we decided to settle it before we started drinking.” He put his arm around Giselle’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “I gotta say, this is one stubborn female.”

  Luke laughed. “Don’t I know it.”

  “Stubbornness is in the eye of the beholder,” Giselle said.

  Cynthia gave her a thumbs-up. “Way to tell ’em, girlfriend!”

  Giselle managed a big smile as she watched Luke and Cynthia approach. Tall, fair, and beautiful, they were so obviously brother and sister. She couldn’t imagine how their mother could bear to live an ocean away from them.

  But that was her choice, and it left them more dependent on each other. No one should come between those two, especially not a female werewolf who’d foolishly allowed herself to fall in love with a human.

  Chapter 23

  If Luke had doubted his decision to sell Howlin’ at the Moon, those doubts evaporated when he stepped inside the door. The place was almost deserted.

  Chuck Stevens came forward with a cheerful smile, because that was Chuck’s way, to smile in the face of disappointment. But Chuck had to be wondering whether Luke had a strategy to keep the bar business from going into free fall. “Don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “Business was great yesterday, but today, not so much.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Luke turned to the group he’d brought in, none of whom would be paying customers. “I guess you know everybody except Giselle’s brother. Bryce Landry, meet Chuck Stevens. Chuck’s the CFO for Dalton Industries.”

  Bryce reached out and shook Chuck’s hand. “My sister’s the CFO for the Landry operation up in ’Frisco. Did she tell you that?”

  “I don’t think she did. She had other things on her mind when we met.”

  “Like me,” Cynthia said. “But all’s well that ends well, Chuck. My darling brother’s hired me to dance with the Moonbeams, so you’ll be signing my paycheck soon.”

  Luke didn’t care if she boasted about that, or that Chuck’s eyebrows lifted at the news. His CFO quickly recovered and congratulated Cynthia on her new job. Chuck had been with Dalton for seven years, long enough to figure out that complicated maneuvers took place in a family-owned business.

  “So I guess you’re all here to celebrate!” Chuck gestured toward the interior of the bar, where only a handful of people occupied a grouping of twenty tables. “Take your pick. I’ll get a server right over.”

  “Thanks, Chuck. If you want to head home, I can handle it for the rest of the night.”

  “Nah, you have guests. I’m happy to supervise for now. I’m sure business will pick up and we can look into hiring someone.”

  Cynthia glanced at Luke. “Aren’t you going to tell him?”

  “Uh, sure.” He wasn’t in the habit of blurting out his business decisions in such a casual way, but saying something might relieve Chuck’s concern that the bar would be a financial drain on the company. “I’ve decided to sell the bar back to Benedict Cartwright.” From the corner of his eye, he caught a triumphant look pass between Giselle and Bryce.

  What the hell? Why would either of them care what he did with the bar? Sure, Bryce seemed to have influenced Cynthia to plead for returning the bar to the Cartwrights, but the glance between Bryce and Giselle held more significance than it should, given the circumstances.

  Chuck appeared stunned by the announcement. “Sell it back to Benedict? I thought the whole idea was to get it away from that family. Wasn’t the poker game a grudge match? Or am I missing something?”


  “You’re not missing anything,” Luke said. “The game was a grudge match, and as you and I were taught in our business classes, revenge is a lousy motivation for a corporate decision. Owning this bar makes no sense for Dalton Industries, but since I got it for free, we can’t avoid making a profit when I sell it.”

  Chuck grinned. “So revenge is a good motivation?”

  “Only if you know when to stop seeking it. Have our lawyers draw up the papers tomorrow, and set up a meeting with Benedict whenever he’s available.”

  “I’ll do that and let you know. Now, find yourself a table and enjoy yourselves. There’s no band tonight, but the jukebox works great. And the pool table’s open.”

  Cynthia seemed to be in rare form. “I want that middle table next to the dance floor.”

  Bryce laughed. “Gonna put on a show for us?”

  “I might, but first I challenge you to a game of pool.”

  Luke should have known she’d remember and follow through on her plan. He’d always been in awe of his sister’s brainpower, but he’d never thought she’d employ it for his benefit. Maybe she’d find out nothing, but earlier when they’d come upon Bryce, Giselle, and Mr. Thatcher in a huddle, his instincts had gone on alert.

  Bryce had made it sound as if they’d been discussing Landry family issues, but Luke didn’t buy it. The moment Mr. Thatcher had caught sight of him, he’d looked startled. Then he’d muttered something to the others. Luke was willing to bet they’d been talking about him.

  How Mr. Thatcher figured into all this remained a mystery, too. But he’d latched on to Giselle immediately, and that was unusual for the reserved butler. When Luke had seen the three of them together, he’d had the oddest feeling, as if they were linked somehow.

  That wasn’t logical. Bryce and Giselle were brother and sister, of course, but Mr. Thatcher had no connection to them. His family was in England, and the Landrys were based in San Francisco. So why did all three radiate a feeling of togetherness, as if they shared a bond of great significance?