Because the Night (The Night Songs Collection)

by Strassel, Kristen

  That worry disappeared when I spotted him sitting on the ledge outside the hotel. My heart leapt in my chest. He wore a black button down shirt, untucked, a pair of jeans, and black Converse All Star high top sneakers. His blond curls swayed with the breeze a bit. He seemed to be casually people watching, drumming out a beat on his thighs.

  His face lit up when he saw me approach. He came to his feet and gave me an awkward hug. I inhaled his scent, minty soap and shampoo.

  “Hey, you made it. And you’re early. Are you sure you’re a girl?” he asked, stepping back.

  “Last time I checked.”

  He gave me a once over. “Yeah, you’re definitely a girl.” He grinned. “You look great by the way.”

  “Thanks. So do you.” Better than I remembered.

  “Thanks.” He paused for a second. I hoped this wasn’t going to turn out to be awkward. “So, have you ever been to Venice?”

  I stared at him, laughing when I realized he was talking about the hotel we stood in front of. “No, I’ve been to a lot of places surrounded by water. Martha’s Vineyard and Jamaica, yes, but Venice, no.”

  “Jamaica? Fancy.”

  “Not really. My dad’s from there. Family visits only.”

  “That’s cool. Do they have gondolas in Martha’s Vineyard or Jamaica?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Would you like to take a gondola ride? We do go in the middle of a mall, so it’s not totally authentic, but it’s the best I can do on short notice.”

  “Yeah, that sounds fun.”

  Blade had already made a reservation, but we still had to wait for our gondola which gave us more time to chat.

  “So what do you do here?” We’d texted back and forth a bit, but I still didn’t know too much about him.

  “I’m a mechanic.”

  “So you’re good with your hands?” I giggled, shocking myself by being so forward.

  Blade’s smile widened. “So I hear.”

  “What else should I know about you?” I needed to let the blush fade from my cheeks.

  “Besides that I’m good with my hands?” He raised his eyebrows and my blush intensified. “I live with my brother, we’ve been here for about two years.”

  We boarded our boat and began our ride through the canals in the mall. A man in a black and white striped shirt and straw hat serenaded us as he paddled us through the building. It was hokey and fun, but a little intense for a first date.

  “Three o’clock. Guy wearing socks with flip flops.” Blade whispered in my ear, breaking the awkwardness.

  I burst out laughing. “And that girl has no idea what the saying on her shirt means! Or else she’d never wear it.”

  The ride ended too soon. I hoped that wasn’t all he had in store for the evening.

  “That was so much fun.”

  “Yeah. I’ve always wanted to ride one of those things, I thought it would be cool.” He looked at me hopefully. “Want to walk for a bit?”

  “Sure.” He wove his fingers through mine as we headed away from The Venetian. An electric jolt flowed through my body every time we touched.

  My head swiveled back and forth as we wandered down the Strip and I knew I wasn’t being a great companion. But the attractions, pirate ships, exploding volcanoes, all awed me. I’d never seen anything like this place.

  “Where are your friends tonight?” he asked a few minutes into the walk.

  I smiled apologetically as he jolted me out of my daze. “I’m only here with Keisha and she went out with some people she met at the pool today.”

  “So you’re just here on vacation?” His face fell, disappointed.

  “Five more days.” I never wanted to go home. Nothing like this ever happened there. On the off chance it did, my mother would be there to squash it like a bug.

  “How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “I’m eighteen.” I stopped walking and looked at him. “Is that bad?”

  “No, I’m not surprised. How are you getting in everywhere?”

  “I have a fake ID.”

  He smiled. “Nice.”

  Blade played tour guide by telling my all the goofy and outrageous things he knew about each place he considered a landmark. On every corner of the Strip, clusters of men and women handed out business cards. Blade walked right up to one of the men giving them out and took some. I took one from the lady next to him to be polite. I dropped the card on the ground, already littered with them, as soon as I realized what it was.

  Business cards for prostitutes.

  “Callie, you’ve got to take the cards! Come on!” Blade teased.

  “It’s gross.”

  “It’s funny. Take some next time, you’ll see.”

  By the time we arrived at the Bellagio, we each had a thick stack of cards. We sat on the stone fence near the pool in front of the hotel. Blade laid out his cards between us as if he intended to read my fortune with them.

  “See, we have two Danielles here. She’s only forty nine dollars for the night. And here’s Ashley. She’s ninety nine dollars. Clearly, Danielle is the better deal. What do you have? Did you get these girls?” Blade motioned to my pile, which was nowhere near as organized as his. I picked it up and thumbed through it.

  Danielle. Check. Ashley. Check. I looked over at the cards he had displayed. I caught on to his game. “Do you have a Jennifer?”

  Blade surveyed his pile. “Hmm. What is she charging?”

  “Thirty nine dollars.”

  “That cheap whore!” He laughed. “Nope, I don’t have Jennifer. But I do have Anna and Alyssa, who are on special, two for one twenty nine. Clearly a quality team. I will trade you these fine ladies for your cheap nasty Jennifer.” We swapped cards.

  I shuffled them back in order, just as a spray of water shot from the middle of the fountain. Music filled the air, and the water began to move and dance in time with a Frank Sinatra song. Its simplicity was magical.

  The show ended and a fine mist of water fell over us, coating my skin. Through the mist, Blade looked soft focused, and his smile made my stomach clench.

  I quickly focused my gaze back on our little game. Now I was getting into it, thumbing through my cards looking for a good one to trade. I didn’t know if it was possible to win this game, but I still wanted to prove myself a worthy opponent.

  I came across Black Dahlia, asking one forty nine a bite. “Really, a vampire hooker? Are they everywhere?”

  “In this city, if there’s money to be made off of it, yes.”

  “I’m tired of this vampire thing already.” Was I the only one who didn’t believe it?

  Blade laughed. “Yeah, me too. That didn’t take you long. So you didn’t come here to see Immortal Dilemma?”

  My breath caught in my throat. I didn’t think this was the time to tell him about my connection to Tristan. “Well, we checked it out last night, actually.”

  Blade shook his head in disgust. “Don’t waste your time on that crap.”

  “Are you in a band?” Immortal Dilemma was obviously a sore subject.

  “No, I used to be. But unless you’re Immortal Dilemma, or Fire Dancer, there is very little money to be made. And those hours don’t mix well with actually having a job, so I hang out and see bands sometimes, but that’s it.” His smile faded into a thin, tight line.

  “What do you play?”

  “Drums,” Blade looked off in the distance. “What about you? All I really know about you is you have a fake ID.”

  “That’s not good, that I start with deception.” I grinned. “The real me: I just finished high school. I work at my mom’s restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard. And I’m still trying to figure out the rest out.”

  “What are you thinking?’

  I shrugged and glanced around at the milling crowds, the bright lights, and the energy around us. “I don’t know. I kind of like it here, to tell you the truth.”

  “Really? You just seem so un-Vegas. And believe me, I am no
t complaining when I say that.” He smiled warmly, his eyes meeting mine. “I wouldn’t mind seeing more of you.”

  “Well, let’s see what happens.” Could I really stay here? My family would freak.

  My cell phone demanded my attention from my bag. Keisha checking in on me.

  “Your friends looking for you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why don’t I drive you back to the hotel so you can join up with them? I don’t want them to think I took off with you.”

  “Sure.” I couldn’t help being a little disappointed, but I told Keisha I’d meet up with her by midnight and it was eleven thirty.

  We cleaned up our cards and headed back to the Venetian.

  “Do you like living here?” I asked him as we walked hand in hand.

  He thought about it for a minute before he answered. “It grows on you. It’s never like home, wherever home is, but I made it my own. It’s my home now.”

  Somehow, his answer made me feel sad for him. I didn’t know what to say.

  Blade picked up on this. He continued. “That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s actually a lot of fun to live here. But do I want to be here forever? I don’t know.”

  We reached the parking garage and Blade pulled his keys out of the pocket of his jeans. He walked up to a beautifully restored, fire engine red vintage Mustang, unlocked the passenger’s side door, and held it open.

  I stood there with my mouth gaping open.

  “Aren’t you going to get in?” He cocked his head, looking confused. “Is it that shocking I opened your door for you?”

  “I just think someone’s going to be really pissed when he comes out and finds out we stole his car.”

  “Callie, it’s my car.”

  “Wow, this is quite a ride.” I slid across the leather seat and Blade closed the door once I was settled.

  He got in the driver’s side and turned over the ignition. It growled just as I expected it to.

  “Did you fix this up yourself?” I asked.

  “I did. This is Molly, by the way. She’s a ’68. She was in okay shape when I found her, but I got her pageant ready.”

  “You certainly did.” Everything in the car was perfect. The chrome sparkled. Even at middle age, Molly practically had that new car smell. “She’s beautiful.”

  “Thanks.”

  When we reached the hotel, he pulled into the semi circle in front of the lobby then jumped out to open my door.

  “Does the door not work from the inside?”

  “I’m trying to be a gentleman. Is this a women’s lib thing?” He said it with such sincerity I couldn’t help but laugh. He held out his hand to help me out.

  “No, it’s fine.” My mother’s blood would boil if she heard me say that. Women’s lib was her thing. He held my hand a bit longer than was necessary before I pulled away with a smile. “I had a great time tonight. Thanks for the gondola ride, and teaching me how to play the hooker card game.”

  He wagged his eyebrows at me. “You still have a lot to learn about the hooker card game. Maybe I can teach you more next time?”

  “I’d love that.” I’d love a whole lot more next times.

  “Can I see you again tomorrow?”

  “Yes.” Sure, I’d come here hoping to reconnect with Tristan. But Blade was real, fun, and oh yeah, actually interested in me.

  He lightly put his hands on my face and smiled. My heart pounded. I slipped my hands around his waist and looked up at him smiling down at me. He tipped my chin up and kissed me softly, almost unsure if I’d accept as his lips grazed mine.

  Thank God I had the car behind me and Blade in front of me. My whole world swam as he deepened the kiss. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in close to his body. I gasped when he let me go.

  “Good night, Callie.”

  I stood outside the hotel, slightly shell-shocked from kissing Blade, and watched him drive away. It was the nicest time I’d had so far in Las Vegas.

  Chapter Five

  Molly purred to a stop in front my hotel shortly before ten the next morning. “So what do you have planned?” I asked, slipping into the passenger seat after giving Blade a quick peck as he held the door open for me

  “Are you up for a little adventure?” Blade wore Ray Ban sunglasses and an army green T shirt. This was the first time I’d seen him in daylight, I realized. His skin seemed a little tanner and his hair a little blonder.

  “Sure. As long as I’m back by about sixish. Keisha and I made plans with Janelle and Amanda.”

  “Off vampire hunting?” He teased.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” We hadn’t bought tickets to any of the shows in advance, not realizing how hard it would be to get in.

  “Ugh. All those girls are trying to screw Tristan Trevosier. And if they’re cute enough, they’ll succeed.”

  My breath caught in my chest hear Blade say Tristan’s name, especially to hear him talk like that.

  “Don’t go,” he said. “Stay with me. I promise you’ll have a better time.”

  Blade was just what I needed to distract me from thinking about Tristan, but even he couldn’t totally derail me from my mission. “Believe me, you make a tempting offer, but if I know Keisha, she’ll start to complain she’s forgotten what I look like.”

  More than anything, I wanted to talk to Janelle to see what she knew about the band. All I ever saw was reports of Tristan at these wild parties, trashing hotel rooms, and getting into trouble. I needed to know what was true and what was made up for their TV show. Then maybe one of these days I could stop worrying about him.

  “I get it. Got to keep the family happy.” Blade sighed playfully as he pulled on the highway and headed south.

  Outside of the city was so desolate. The houses and strip malls thinned and gave way to craggy red rock striped with ancient water lines, scrub brush, and miles and miles of sand.

  “So where does this adventure lead to? I feel like we’re headed into Arizona.”

  “Kinda,” he teased.

  “Kinda?” I wasn’t expecting to cross state lines.

  “Don’t worry; I’m not taking you out into the middle of the desert never to be seen again. I thought you might want to see a landmark that wasn’t attached to a slot machine.”

  “There is such a thing?”

  “Believe it or not, there is. I figured we’d head down to Boulder City and see the Hoover Dam.”

  Blade told me that Boulder City was one of the only cities in the state to prohibit gambling. Ironically, that seemed downright scandalous in such close proximity to Sin City. We wove through downtown, then down a steep hill towards a large blue lake with some sailboats bobbling along the shore.

  “Bet you didn’t think you’d see waterfront property today,” Blade joked.

  “That’s for sure. I can’t believe it’s big enough they actually have boats.”

  “Oh yeah, Lake Mead is huge. Sandy beaches and everything. Just like home, right?”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  When Blade said we were headed to a dam, I can’t say was thrilled. Once we got there, I understood why a water obstruction could be an actual tourist attraction. It looked like a space ship had been lodged in between the rock and the water, with an endless stream of cars from what seemed like all fifty states and some of the Canadian provinces snaking through.

  The Dam straddles Nevada and Arizona, in different time zones and Blade made me giggle by dragging us back and forth. “It’s eleven! It’s Noon! We’ve gone back in time! Now we’re in the future. Or is it the present?”

  I didn’t know anymore either. We took pictures of ourselves on our phones in both states.

  When we finished at the Dam, we drove back into Boulder City. The main street was like a step back in time, with old storefronts and touristy shops. Blade and I wandered along, stopping into old record stores and gift shops full of trinkets. In one called “Memories” or “Memoirs,” I admired a gold scarf with a floral pattern and l
ong fringe, but it was as much as a day’s tips at my mom’s restaurant. I tucked it back onto the rack with a sigh.

  “I’ll catch up with you down the street,” Blade said a few minutes later.

  I nodded and went into another shop filled with postcards and gaudy magnets, but I didn’t see anything I liked. Back outside, the hot air hit me like a slap in the face and I fanned myself as I strolled toward the next store.

  “There you are.” Blade bumped me with his hip to get my attention, and then pulled a paper bag from behind his back and handed it to me.

  I opened it and gasped. The gold scarf. “You didn’t have to do this. I love it!” I hugged him then wound the scarf around my neck.

  “It’s totally you, and it will look pretty with your hair,” he said as if he needed to justify his purchase.

  We stopped for lunch at the A & W outside of town. I ordered a hot dog and root beer float. Blade insisted on buying. We headed back to Vegas once we were finished eating and arrived back at the hotel just after five.

  “Thanks for everything today. I had a wonderful time.” I didn’t want to see our date end. Blade was just so sweet.

  “I hope I can see you again before you go back home.” He opened my car again.

  “I keep trying to think of ways I can stay.”

  “It might be easier than you think.” He kissed me on the forehead before he got back in the car, smiling at me as he drove away.

  Could I really make it happen? The only exciting thing that had ever happened to me on the Vineyard was meeting Tristan, and he was here now.

  And if I kept seeing Blade, there was a good chance I would fall for him. Hard.

  Chapter Six

  “You’re never going to believe this!” Keisha hardly let me get back in the room before she ambushed me with her news. “Someone left an envelope for us at the front desk. There are two passes for Immortal Dilemma tonight!”

  My mouth dropped. “Who do you think left them?”

  “Tristan, of course. They’re all access passes, Callie. Who else could do it?”