Vegas Sunrise

by Fern Michaels

  “Under your elbow. See you later.”

  Sage spent another hour clearing off his desk. He returned phone calls, separated his mail into two piles, “must deal with” and “delays.” As he shifted papers, he called Iris. “Listen, honey, I’m going to stay in town tonight. I’ll probably take a room at Babylon or if they’re full up I’ll crash at Billie’s. I’ll see you tomorrow evening. You okay, honey?”

  “I’m fine, Sage.”

  “You sound funny. Not funny ha-ha, funny as in something’s wrong.”

  “What could possibly be wrong?”

  “That’s my question. Since you don’t have an answer, I’m going to head out of here. I’m meeting Neal for coffee, then I’m going to surprise Jeff Lassiter. At some point I have to meet up with Celia since I promised Birch. Billie sent flowers to the hospital. She said Marcus is holding his own. Have a good day, honey.”

  Sage slipped into his jacket and was out of the office in seconds. He did double time going down the street and around the corner to Babylon, entering by the front door. He weaved his way through the narrow aisles filled with a visiting contingent from Boise, Idaho, coming to a stop at the Country Kitchen, where Neal was waiting for him. They shook hands and headed for a table in the back where it was quiet.

  “What is going down around here, Neal?”

  “The pink slips are going out next week. Supposedly they have already hired new people to replace all twelve of us. We can’t confirm it, though. Some kind of secret meetings are going on in the executive dining room all day and all night. Lassiter refers to his office now as the War Room. The ax is getting ready to fall, buddy.”

  Sage smiled grimly. “Not likely, Neal. I’ll have my brother’s and sisters’ powers of attorney by tomorrow morning. We override Mom when it comes to a vote. None of you are out. If Lassiter paid out any sign-on money, he’s going to have to eat it. If possible, we’re going to try to buy out his contract and put you in charge. If he doesn’t go for the buyout, you’re still in charge. He’ll just be a figurehead going through the motions to save face. The job should have been yours to begin with. Mom made a mistake. We engaged the services of the Silver Fox.”

  Neal whistled.

  “I’m going to talk with Jeff after we have our coffee. What else is going on?”

  “Sage, I hate telling you this crap, but that sister-in-law of yours is on the payroll right here in the casino. Bitsy Drake in Payroll called me at home early this morning to tell me. In this business you have to have spies everywhere, you know that.” His tone was defensive-sounding. Sage shrugged.

  “Celia? What does she do?”

  “No job description. Her salary is $800 a week. That’s gross, not net. Hortense, the maid on seven, said she’s using Room 719. She asked the head of Housekeeping if she had a key to clean the room. Delphine went to Lassiter, who assured her Hortense was seeing things and no one is in 719. Hortense is now on the unemployment line and Delphine already got her pink slip. Friday’s her last day. Sage, those women have been here since Babylon opened. Your father loved both of them. Hell, Delphine knitted him a sweater one Christmas. He left each of them $5000 in his will; you know that, so it should tell you something.”

  “We’ll just see about that. Tell them both their jobs are secure for as long as they want them. Make sure you get Hortense back here today, even if you have to go to her house to get her. She stays on seven, too. She could probably tell us both stories about that room that would curl our hair. She never, ever breathed a word to anyone. She was definitely loyal to Dad. I guess my next question as much as I don’t want to ask it is, does Lassiter hang out in that room, too?”

  “The indications are that he does. What the hell is going on, Sage?”

  “I don’t know. That’s the truth. My skin is starting to crawl, though. How about doing a little detective work for me this morning. Check all the stores in the casino and see if Celia has been charging stuff to the family account. If you can, get a copy of the receipts.”

  “Sure, no problem. Listen, Sage, there is one other thing. I’ve been agonizing over this for months now. I’ve wanted to call you or your mother, but I didn’t. It isn’t my business, and yet it is my business. Someone came to me the other day. It isn’t important who that person is. What is important is the story he told me, complete with pictures. Here, take a look,” Neal said withdrawing an envelope from his breast pocket.

  “Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like what I see? Your bald head is glistening with perspiration. That’s making me even more nervous.”

  Sage rifled through the pictures. “She looks like Billie.”

  “It is Billie, Sage. She’s wearing different-colored wigs.”

  “Where the hell did you get these?”

  “I told you, a friend. She’s gambling. Big time. On the other side of the street.”

  “Billie! I don’t believe that.”

  “Then why do you look like you believe it? Every day and half the night. We’re talking some very big bucks, Sage. She’s hooked. That was your old man’s biggest fear.”

  “What was?”

  “That one of you kids would get hooked. He made me swear on his life, and I’m not joking, that if I ever got wind of one of you hitting the tables, I would let him know. I’m letting you know, and I’m off the hook.”

  “I feel sick,” Sage said.

  “How do you think I felt? The only thing that could make me feel worse would be if it were Sunny. If it were Sunny, I would have dragged her out and demanded an explanation. Your sister Billie and I never had the rapport Sunny and I had. It’s always the one you least expect who throws you the curve. If I can do anything, let me know. Good luck with Lassiter.”

  Sage shoved his coffee cup to the middle of the table. Neal hadn’t touched his coffee at all. Billie gambling? Sweet, gentle, workaholic Billie. How had this happened? Why hadn’t he seen the signs? He was with her every day, how could he not know something like this was going on? He wondered exactly what big bucks meant where Billie was concerned. It certainly explained the four- and five-hour lunches and the dark circles under his sister’s eyes in the morning. It probably explained the locked drawer in her desk, too. “Son of a bitch!” he muttered.

  Sage stopped at the first phone he came to. He placed five calls, issuing orders in a soft voice before he stomped his way out to the casino floor and then down the corridor that led to Jeff Lassiter’s office.

  “Sorry, sir, no one goes beyond this point except Mr. Lassiter.”

  “Get out of my way, you pipsqueak,” Sage said as he shouldered the nattily dressed guard aside.

  Sage didn’t bother knocking. He opened the door, closing it behind him. “It’s time to talk, Jeff.”

  Jeff swiveled his chair around until he was facing Sage. “How did you get in here?”

  Sage looked down at his feet. “I walked.” He waved the copies of his siblings’ powers of attorney under Jeff’s nose. “What this means to you is this, you can’t fire anyone unless we all agree. We don’t agree. If you hired anyone without our approval to replace any old employees and paid sign-on bonuses, you eat those. Neal and the others stay. So does Delphine. Hortense is on her way as we speak. Don’t ever do anything like this again. My sisters, my brother, and I are prepared to buy out your contract. Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, cash on the line.”

  Lassiter laughed, a fiendish sound to Sage’s ears. “The contract is airtight. Five million, and I might think about it.” It was Sage’s turn to laugh.

  “I rather thought that would be your answer. Know this, though, you’re going to have a thousand pairs of eyes on you. Every person in this casino is loyal to our family. I want you to remember that. The books are open to every member of this family. A team of forensic accountants will be here starting tomorrow. I don’t know what your game is, but whatever it is, it’s not going to be at the expense of my sisters and brother. It’s obvious to me you have a gripe where the Thornton fami
ly is concerned. That gripe might even be justified. I can’t undo something my father did, nor can my sisters or brother. My mother made a mistake when she hired you. Legally, we can undo that mistake. However, a deal is a deal. If you plan to earn your livelihood in the gaming business, it is not our intention to thwart those endeavors. My father provided for you and your mother very handsomely. I’m sorry if it wasn’t to your liking. As I said, we can’t undo his arrangements. All we can do is try to honor, to the best of our ability, the plans he set in motion. So, you collect your pay, you keep your sign-on bonus, and the rest of the casino will be run by Neal. It’s a take it or leave it offer.”

  Jeff’s voice was shaky when he said, “My contract calls for total control of this casino. Your mother signed it.”

  “My mother is only in control when a tiebreaking decision occurs. We outvoted her. Birch, Sunny, Billie, and I are in control. We could force you out of here if we wanted to. My offer stands to buy out your contract. Room 719 goes on the occupancy list at noon today. Hortense is on the way. She’ll see to it. If there is anything in that room that doesn’t belong there, it’s going in the trash.”

  Jeff leaned back in his father’s old chair. He made a steeple of his fingers just the way Ash Thornton had always done when a problem surfaced. It was uncanny how much he looked like their father, Sage thought, much more so than he or Birch. Sage wasn’t sure, but he thought Jeff had the same single-minded determination his father had.

  “This is about Celia Thornton, isn’t it?”

  “No. It’s about our employees. We don’t like it when strangers mess with other people’s lives and destroy their livelihood. If you hadn’t done that, we would have taken a backseat and watched your operation. We wouldn’t have interfered. Now that you brought up my sister-in-law’s name, perhaps we should discuss Celia’s role here and what she does to warrant an $800 a week job. That’s some very heavy money. No one seems to know where she is or what she does. Would you care to offer an explanation?”

  “She came to me and said she needed a job. She said your brother left her with what she called a pittance. She called him a miserly scrooge. I thought your family would want me to help. I did. The two part-time jobs she has, according to her, aren’t enough to cover her rent and car rental. Perhaps I was too generous. I find it strange that you object to employee wage problems but aren’t the least sympathetic to a family problem.”

  “Birch and Celia’s affairs are no concern of yours or mine for that matter. You stepped over the line where Celia is concerned, which leads me to believe you have an ulterior motive. What exactly does she do to earn such a princely salary of $800 a week?”

  “I hired her as a goodwill house ambassador. As a home economics teacher she wasn’t qualified for much else. As I said, I thought I was helping your family.”

  “A goodwill house ambassador? You need to define that title, Lassiter.”

  “She dresses up. She walks around, smiles, makes nice, that sort of thing.”

  “We have at least two hundred goodwill ambassadors who do the same thing for minimum wage, plus tips, plus a bonus at the end of the week. My family has always called them waitresses. It’s a damn hard job, that’s why we give the girls bonuses at the end of the week. That way we don’t have a turnover. It was one of my father’s rules. You took away those bonuses, didn’t you, you son of a bitch? That’s how you were going to pay Celia. It looks to me like you’re going to have one hell of a busy day calling all those people back to work and firing their replacements.”

  “No.”

  “No? Oh, yes.”

  “I think we need to call your mother.”

  “That’s entirely up to you, Lassiter. You look kind of boxed in right now. What’s your game anyway?”

  The steeple wavered slightly. “No game. I’m trying to do my best. There is a lot of unnecessary money being spent here. Cutbacks occur all the time. My intentions were and are still honorable. My plan was to save this casino a million dollars a year on wages and bonuses and another two million on overhead.”

  “Of which you get a percentage according to your contract.”

  “I have people working on a game within a game for the slots. That game can triple your revenues the first year. It won’t happen overnight, though.”

  “Using our money, our time, and when it’s ready to fly you shop it around to the highest bidder, right?”

  Lassiter blinked.

  I scored with that one, and I just pulled it out of my head, Sage thought. “Is that why they call these offices the War Room? I understand the executive dining room is off-limits. Where the hell do you get off doing something like that? It’s being cleared out as we speak. You are, of course, free to develop anything you want on your own time with your own private payroll. If it happens, Babylon will bid on your game like every other casino. Did I forget anything?”

  Lassiter smiled. “Off the top of my head, I’d say no. I’m staying.”

  “That’s your right, according to your contract. As an employee of this casino I’d like it now if you’d accompany me to the seventh floor.”

  “I’ll pass,” Lassiter said.

  Sage walked around Lassiter’s desk. He bent down and yanked the telephone wire out of the wall. “My father used to do that on a regular basis. Actually, my mother did it a few times, too. Sometimes my father was so wise it boggles the mind. Other times he was downright stupid. Will you take care of Celia’s pink slip or should I handle it?”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Then I guess our business is finished. For now.”

  “For now. You know the way out.”

  “War Room, my ass,” Sage muttered as he closed the door behind him.

  A grim look on his face, Sage rang for the elevator and punched the number seven. Delphine, the cherub-faced head of Housekeeping, Hortense, and a two-man maintenance crew, along with a locksmith, were waiting. Sage hugged the women, shaking hands with the men before he fit his key into the lock. “I want the room cleaned and aired. It goes on the occupancy list at noon. I want a regulation lock installed. Buck, service the AC. It probably needs Freon. Everything in that room goes in the trash. I’ll be downstairs in Neal’s office if you need me.”

  Celia Thornton’s shrieks and curses followed him to the elevator. How in the hell was he going to explain this to Birch?

  “Sunny, would you and Harry like to go out to dinner to an honest-to-God restaurant? I don’t think I can eat another burger or bag of french fries. I’m sick of soda. There are a couple of good seafood restaurants on the boardwalk. Your chairs won’t be a problem.”

  “I’m kind of tired. What about Uncle Daniel and Uncle Brad?”

  “They turned me down, too.”

  “Uncle Brad said they’re staying on for a half hour or so. They ate lunch late, too. Uncle Daniel said they’d grab something on the way back to the apartment. Why don’t you invite Libby? I bet she’d love to go. It’s just dinner, Birch. There is nothing wrong with going to dinner. You like her. She’s good company, and she knows you’re married. You know you’re married, too, so what’s the big deal?”

  “Do you think she’d go? I don’t know, Sunny, it might not be a good idea. People start to talk.”

  “What people? Dinner is dinner. You have a drink, you eat, you go home. Big night in Atlantic City. You could of course take in one of the casinos. Make a night of it. You’ve been working sixteen hours a day. You deserve a break. Go on, call her You can always call Celia and tell her your plans if that’s what’s bothering you.”

  “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  “Do it now before she makes other plans.”

  Sunny winked at Harry, who grinned as Birch walked over to the construction phone. “It’s just dinner, Harry,” Sunny sniffed.

  “She said yes.”

  “Everybody has to eat. The food at the center is good, but it’s nice to go out to a restaurant once in a while. Libby’s partial to good white wine. I bet you don
’t have a thing to wear.” There was a giggle in Sunny’s voice that did not go unnoticed by Birch.

  “Can you get back to the center okay?”

  “Of course. Uncle Brad is driving us. It’s amazing how fast this whole thing has taken hold. One day this was just a wide-open space, and now we’re up and running. Four full crews make all the difference in the world. Harry and I won’t be here till noon tomorrow. Have a nice dinner, Birch.”

  Birch leaned over to kiss his sister’s cheek. “Have a good night, Sunny. I’m going to call Mom and the medical center before I leave. If I hear anything you should know, I’ll give you a call.”

  “Birch, I’ve called every day. Marcus is the same. There hasn’t been any change.”

  Birch nodded. “I’m going to call anyway.”

  It was seven o’clock when Birch escorted Libby through the creaky doors of the Crab Shanty. “It has a seafaring smell to it, doesn’t it?” Birch grinned.

  “Do you suppose being on the ocean has anything to do with it? Maybe it’s all these fishnets and anchors. Or maybe it’s the pirate getups the help wears.”

  “Probably all of the above. I heard this is the best place on the boardwalk. I’ve always been partial to red-checkered tablecloths and peanut shells on the floor.” Birch held a chair for Libby at a table that was nestled in a far corner next to a blazing fireplace.

  “This is pleasant. I love a fire. A friend of mine told me that makes me a nester. I like to curl up with a book or just sit and stare into the fire. I’ve always been a homebody. How about you, Birch?”

  “I like a fire myself. Believe it or not, Sage and I were Boy Scouts. Mom used to send us out for firewood that Chue cut. We’d haggle over the logs, betting which one would burn the longest. We do come from a gambling family after all. My mother had these wonderful big, old red chairs. Two people could sit on one. They were in her studio. We’d all huddle and drink hot chocolate. It’s a very pleasant memory. How about you?”

  “Growing up those things were in a wish book. I grew up in an orphanage. I was out and on my own at seventeen. I worked my way through college with student loans I’m still paying off. Another year and I’m free and clear. By then my car will finally surrender to some junkyard and I’ll be in debt again.” Libby’s voice was wistful when she said, “What’s it like to live in a real family? Sunny told me what it was like from her perspective. I’d like to hear what it was like for you.” She looked up at the waitress. “I’ll have a bottle of Budweiser.”