"Sure. Are these people I met at the Westmound Summit?"
"Mostly. Plus we can talk with them in person about the program. It's always nice to brainstorm in person." He cast a glance back to Mary and Unc. "Should we bring Mary along?"
"No, she should catch up with her friends. Come on, let's go."
***
I flopped onto my bed face down and mumbled into the cover.
"Di, I can't hear a thing you're saying."
I sat up. "I said that I'm so exhausted I might sleep like this. How was your afternoon?" I had finally gotten back to our room a few minutes ago to find Mary already there.
"Fun. I tried to cheer up Minx a little. We all went out to an early dinner." The tips of her ears tinged pink.
"Who is 'we all'?"
She turned back to me and folded the clothing that was spread around her suitcase. "Just some people at the bar." She folded a pair of pants, smoothing out the fabric, and set it down.
"Just some people, eh? Did these people include a certain Uncle Mike?" I teased.
She picked up the same pair and refolded them. "Oh, him. Yeah, I guess he was there."
"You guess?"
She turned around and glared. "Why are you giving me such a hard time?"
I laughed. "I'm just teasing you. You tease me all the time about Liam."
She chuckled. "Fine, you win. Yes, Unc ate with us and was a total gentleman, but before you ask, no."
"No what?"
"No, I don't like him and I won't date him, but it's flattering all the same."
I debated telling her about the way Orion watched her talk to Unc but decided against it. It didn't mean anything until it did. "I know what you mean."
"What about your day? I didn't even see you leave."
"You were having fun, and I didn't want to interrupt." I sat up, dug into my pockets and pulled out handfuls of business cards. "I met everyone, talked to everyone, and listened to everyone. I'm exhausted. I'm so glad Liam was there to deflect the questions that I had no answer to. The name Advancement of Female Athletes was too long to repeat, so we're calling it AFA."
"Catchy. Next week is going to suck for you. You have so much work."
"I know." I had so looked forward to having Liam back at the center. I'd imagined long evenings spent together, but now it appeared that every second of my existence would be devoted to this project if I was going to have a prototype ready for Orion the following week. But at least Liam would be back at the center for the foreseeable future. "Did you hang out with Unc all day?"
She shook her head. "After dinner, I came back here and wrote a quick article about the Casino Cup." She went over to the small round table in the corner of the room and pulled her computer around in front of her. "I dug through the papers you stole while I was at it. Some very useful numbers in there."
I had forgotten all about them until now. "Really? Do tell."
She pointed to some piles of paper on the table that I hadn't noticed. "I broke them up into groups. This is stuff that isn't important, just some target assignments and equipment lists or setup. I'm keeping them in case we think of a reason to look at them. But these are what you should look at."
I got up and moved to the table, grabbing the second chair. "This pile?" I picked up a few pieces of paper with lists of dollar amounts.
"That is a list of who donated what so the payout for men can be one hundred thousand for the men. It looks like twenty-five thousand is the standard payout, so this lists where the other seventy-five thousand came from."
I scanned the list and found Westmound listed for ten thousand along with five thousand from Andersson Archery. I ran down the list, finding the companies owned by Westmound and adding up the numbers. "Thirty thousand total. Wow." It was frustrating that they could donate so much money to make a big prize even bigger. It made my job with AFA even more important, and for the first time I realized the scope of what I was doing.
"Toxosports, another big company that owns lots of archery companies, donated twenty-five thousand. The remaining twenty was spread out among a ton of little companies. No idea what that means, but there you have it."
I put the stack down. Next to it was a single sheet of paper.
"That is the divisions and number of entries in each. I compared it to what is listed online. Most of the divisions lost a handful of people, but the pro male compound division lost forty archers between when that list was printed on Wednesday and what's online today."
"Wow. I didn't realize that many guys dropped out. And this last stack?" I picked it up to start flipping through."
"Rules. A full set of rules for this tournament. We're going to read it front to back."
I put the stack down on the table. "Oh, I don't know if that's necessary." I started to rise.
"Sit. I'll take this half and you start with that. Afterwards, we'll switch."
I groaned and took my half over to the bed.
***
When there was a knock on the door later, I leaped up from the bed. "I'll get it." I was saved from reading more about the length of stabilizers allowed in each class.
I threw open the door to see Liam with Moo. "Moo." I grabbed his leash and rubbed his neck. The number of times I had instinctively looked for him only to remember he wasn't around had done my head in. I pulled him into the room and unhooked his leash. He went straight for the bed.
I flipped the lock on the door and stepped into the hallway. "Hi to you too." I looked up at Liam. He might not be my constant companion, but I had caught myself searching the crowds for his tall, lean frame as well.
He wrapped his arms around me. "I wasn't sure if you even spotted me on the other end of Moo's leash."
I laced my arms around his waist and leaned into his warm chest. "Always."
"Did you and Orion get a lot of work done?"
"We talked to everyone. I can do this."
He squeezed my shoulder. "You'll be fine."
Mary dug around in her bag. "Liam, I have this for you." She walked to the door and handed him the DVD. "Indy asked us to give this to you."
Liam stepped away and flipped it over. "Thanks. Whenever you get up, why don't you swing by the Andersson Archery booth and talk to some customers?"
"Great idea. We still on for Valentine's dinner?"
He gave me a wink before leaving. "Looking forward to it."
***
The trade show was loud, and the sound was giving me a headache. I checked the time again to confirm that we didn't need to leave the Andersson booth yet. We had slept in and had a leisurely brunch then come over to the trade show to talk to customers. And by that I meant Mary would talk to customers while I tried to give non-exact answers to the pros that came by to ask about payouts for the rest of the tournament season. I must have said "That information will be available within the next few weeks" approximately one thousand times.
Mary was busy discussing with another archer the way the new risers flexed versus the old ones when I saw Tiger approaching with, surprise surprise, a gang of females.
"Di, let me introduce you to Kristy, Jacklyn, Mandy, Ilene, and Hannah. Did you hear about the betting?"
I smiled at the gals before replying. "What are you talking about?"
"Big Bobby's super pissed. That was supposed to be one of the huge draws of the tournament this year that there was sanctioned betting on the shoot-off, but the casino pulled the whole thing because they said someone is trying to fix the matches."
So Mary, Loggin, and I weren't the only ones that thought something fishy was going on. "Have they brought the police in?"
He shrugged. "Who knows? You need to eat? We're about to grab something for lunch."
He was already turning away as I called, "We're good. Have fun."
Mary finished up with the customer's question and joined me. "What did Tiger say?"
"The casino pulled the bets on the tournament."
She nodded. "Because of all the accidents, righ
t? I'm not surprised; there is obviously something dangerous going on."
I searched the booth for Loggin. "We really need to stay close to Loggin today."
CHAPTER SEVEN
I pulled my jacket tight around me as the Vegas wind whipped it around. The taxi queue was short in front of our casino, but still I shivered while we waited.
Liam took off his jacket and held it out to me. "Do you want my jacket?"
"No, I'll be okay." I scooted in close next to him where he blocked the wind.
The day had raced by. Mary and I kept a close eye on Loggin through our shooting time and his. Unlike yesterday's fire alarm disaster, today had gone according to plan. No errant van trying to run Loggin over, no spiked drinks, nothing. We had given him strict instructions not to eat or drink anything at the Casino Cup gala. Minx would be by his side along with Moo. The remaining archers that were clean would be called up onstage in the arena. Then instead of drinking and mingling at the event, Minx and Loggin were going to grab hamburgers and shakes and go back to the rooms with Moo until Mary, Orion, Liam, and I returned.
Mary and Orion were behind us quietly talking. I'd feared that it would be an awkward evening, but since Orion and Loggin met us at our room, we had separated into groups.
Our taxi pulled up, a minivan, and Liam sat in the far back bench. I scooted in next to him, and he pulled me close with an arm.
Orion gave the driver directions as I turned to quietly talk to Liam. "How was your day?"
"Good. Meetings. How was shooting? I'm sorry I couldn't make it over."
"I understand. Did the meetings go okay?" He nodded, and I continued. "I shot well. Got off to a bit of a rocky start but pulled it together by the end."
"I'll say. You were up one point from yesterday."
"Snuck a little glance at the scores, did ya?"
"Of course." He squeezed my shoulder, the heat of his hand soaking through my jacket.
I briefly rested my head on his shoulder. I wanted to just enjoy being so close to him, but it fought with my desire to tell him every little detail of my day. My need to communicate won. "I really got into my groove today. I focused on keeping movement throughout the shot and aggressive execution. I had some great shots. Then we went and watched Loggin shoot. Nothing weird happened today, and he's still clean."
"I saw."
His hand was lazily drawing circles on my shoulder as I kept talking. "They cancelled the betting. I mean the casino. I didn't even get a chance to check it out. Was it for all divisions or just pro compound men?"
"Just the men's division. It was a trial. They had the attendees listed with odds of making it into the shoot-off and winning. They also had another bet for number of shooters in the shoot-off. I didn't pay much attention. It would be tough to win, because there are a couple dozen guys who could take the whole thing on any given day."
"Who do you think will win out of the five that are still clean?"
"Loggin could take it. He's shooting as well as he did last year. Lucky has won several times. He could do it again. Who else was clean?"
Mary turned around in her seat. "Unc is."
Orion studied Mary's face as our taxi pulled onto the Vegas Strip, the bright marquees and headlights from the heavy traffic illuminating their faces. He had been very attentive this evening. When Mary said Unc's name, his eyes narrowed slightly.
She looked at him and smiled and he returned it quickly, the wariness disappearing from his face.
The taxi pulled into the driveway of a fancy casino known for its dining options. After the bill was paid and we entered the casino, I continued the conversation. "That's three of them. Who are the other two?" I had heard their names, but since I hadn't met them personally, they had slipped right out of my mind.
Mary was next to me and replied. "Fox and Roo like Kangaroo. One from Canada and the other from Australia. I'll let you guess which is which." She stepped in closer and lowered her voice. "You know, Unc, Lucky, Fox, and Roo might be our strongest suspects. They have the most to gain from eliminating the competition."
I nodded. "Good idea. When we get home tonight, we'll look into it. But for now..." I stepped away from her and raised my voice. "Where are we eating?"
Liam looked around. "It should be--there. This way, ladies."
We strode over to an Italian restaurant with the picture of a vaguely familiar chef hanging on the wall.
When the host escorted us to our booth, Mary and I scooted into the inside of the booth with Orion and Liam on either end. The waiter presented our menus, and my entire focus was absorbed by what to eat, a high priority to me regardless of the circumstances.
After a few minutes, Liam leaned over to look at my menu. "What do you think you'll get?"
I jerked my attention away from the list of pastas I was drooling over. Mary and Orion were looking at the wine menu together.
"I'm trying to decide. Everything looks really good. Chicken penne is my go-to Italian meal, but since we're at a fancy restaurant, maybe I should try something new like the pumpkin ravioli. But then I see the appetizers and could make a whole meal out of the stuffed mushrooms, antipasti, and bruschetta, but that would be so much food. You'd have to roll me out of here."
"If you want, we can order a couple of appetizers and split them instead of doing an entrée. Then grab a dessert to split."
Orion gestured at us with the wine menu. "Do you two want to split a bottle of wine? They have a nice two thousand eleven that I enjoy, but a bottle is a bit much for just Mary and me."
Mary raised an eyebrow at me. "Di and I can only have a little glass. We shoot early again tomorrow."
I looked at Liam and nodded.
"Sure, Orion, that'd be great." He turned back to me. "You can get your own entrée of course, but if you want the appetizers, I'd love to split."
My cheeks warmed. Sharing food at a restaurant felt intimate. I shouldn't blush over something so simple. I was a thirty-year-old woman. Technically thirty-one years old, but no need to be nitpicky. "I'd love that. You sure you don't mind?"
"Not at all."
I had been dreaming about this date since Mary had pressured Orion and Liam into agreeing weeks earlier. I lifted a hand to feel my necklace, moving the clasp around back. Liam had given it to me on my birthday, and I had only taken it off to shower. I had dreamed about this night, and now the butterflies in my stomach were overwhelming me. It was like I stood on the edge of a high dive and was about to jump off.
After the waiter took our order and was pouring our wine, I started to rethink the decision to split food with Liam. "I thought you hated splitting food. Didn't you tell me that whenever someone takes food off your plate, you consider stabbing them in the hand with a fork?"
He chuckled. "I would never stab you in the hand." He raised his glass. "Orion, do you want to propose the toast?"
We grabbed our glasses and raised them.
Orion's eyes lingered on Mary, though she didn't notice as she smiled at me. "To new adventures both known and those that come upon us as a surprise."
***
I slid out of the seat and accepted Liam's hand to rise. After I stood, he laced his fingers through mine and led me out of the restaurant. I was beyond full and felt light and breezy from the excellent red wine. Orion and Mary walked ahead of us, her arm tucked into the crook of his elbow.
"Where are we going now? Back to the casino?" I asked Liam as we entered the bustling casino. Couples were everywhere, causing us to weave in and out as the crowd surged in various directions. We lost sight of Orion and Mary, but Liam didn't seem concerned.
"You'll see. Did you enjoy the meal?"
"I did. Thank you." I blushed as his thumb rubbed across my hand. It wasn't the first time he had grabbed my hand this weekend, but it was our first official date. Holding hands on a date seemed different. All of this felt different. Wonderful and new but different.
I must have dragged behind, because Liam turned around. "Are you okay?"
I rushed to assure him. "Yes, I'm wonderful. I'm just... taking in the moment."
He smiled and pulled me forward. "We have to hurry. You can take in the moment when we get there."
We stepped outside, and the breeze that hit me was chilly with the bite of moisture. The air was thick with the smell of wet asphalt mixed with smog. After living in Wyoming for the winter, the smell was foreign. I had no idea how I had been able to breathe with so much pollution.
Liam squeezed my hand as we raced down the sidewalk to an enormous man-made lake. Just as we reached the edge, the music boomed through the hidden speakers.
We continued down the sidewalk until we found a small area with no other people. Small droplets of water danced down from the sky, barely enough to qualify as rain.
I went to the railing to see the show and Liam came up behind me, his body barely grazing mine, but the heat of his body warmed me.
I leaned back to talk over my shoulder, my back pressing into his chest. "What a great idea."
He ran his hands around my waist and pulled me in close.
I enjoyed the loud bass thrumming through my whole body but had no desire to focus on the show when I was this close to Liam. We'd had a near kiss a few weeks earlier, and I wasn't about to let another opportunity slip by.
I turned and lifted my chin so we faced each other. "Thank you for dinner, Liam. I'm having a nice time."
He slid a hand up my back up to my hairline, where his thumb played over the side of my neck. Slowly he leaned down, and I stood on my toes to meet him halfway as my hands pushed to his chest.
The second our lips touched, it was like a dam broke. My heart soared, and the tension I hadn't realized I was carrying was gone. My knees buckled, and my hands snaked around his neck to steady myself. He responded by pulling me closer, his lips tasting lightly of the fruity wine.
He pulled back to look into my eyes as his fingers spread through the hair at the nape of my neck. "I've wanted to do that since we met." He had his other arm wrapped around my waist, while his thumb on my neck sent tingles down my spine as it played over my skin.
We were inches apart, my calves burning from standing up on my toes, but I couldn't bear to move any farther away. "Since you saw me standing by a dead body?"
Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 Page 8
