by AR Winters
“You know,” said Mrs. Weebly, as the three of us walked slowly in the direction of the Strip, “That lady, Karma. She tells me the same thing. She says this alley’s got bad juju. Of course, I don’t believe her, and this is the shortest way from our apartment to the Strip. Karma did say, though, that my tumor would be benign. And it was.”
I frowned. I didn’t like Karma’s “intuition,” nor did I believe in psychics, but it was undeniable that Karma tended to be right about almost everything she got a “special feeling” about.
“Anyway,” Mrs. Weebly went on. “You don’t have to walk with me.”
“My car’s parked this way,” Stone said.
Mrs. Weebly looked at him closely. As usual, Stone was dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans, but this morning his chin was grazed with stubble, and his eyes were ringed with circles.
“You’re a nice young man,” Mrs. Weebly said. “Thank you.”
Stone smiled, rubbed his nose, and looked uncharacteristically embarrassed. “It’s nothing, anyone would’ve done the same.”
“No,” Mrs. Weebly said. “Folks these days, they only care about themselves.” She looked at me pointedly. “Like that Ian. I know he’s keeping a cat in his apartment, and that’ll bring down building values. You think I’m petty to care about that, but my apartment’s the only thing I’ll pass on to my daughter, and I want it to be worth something.”
I grimaced. There was no point denying Snowflake’s existence anymore. “I’m sorry. But that cat was abandoned, and her owner was horrible. We couldn’t find anyone else to adopt her.”
Mrs. Weebly sighed dramatically. “There you go. Young people, these days…”
“Some people want cat-friendly places,” I said. “Snowflake won’t bring down the value of the place. And we won’t let anyone else know.”
Mrs. Weebly nodded. “I’ll let it go. But only because you’re friends with this nice young man.”
I could swear I saw Stone blush.
Chapter Eighteen
The gun range was peaceful and quiet – other than the gunshots, of course. Stone was as silent as ever.
I’d half-expected him to ask me about my trip with Jack – or maybe show some interest in my life. Instead, he focused on hitting his targets, and I followed his lead and focused on mine.
We’d stopped by my house on the way to the range, so that I could pick up my gun, and he hadn’t come upstairs. When he dropped me off, I asked him upstairs again and was a little surprised when, this time, he said yes.
“Tea? Coffee?” I asked, as Stone settled into my couch and leaned back. He shook his head no, but I could tell from the way that he’d enmeshed himself with my furniture that he wanted to talk about something. I sat in a chair opposite him, and almost immediately, I was hit with a wave of sleepiness.
I stifled a yawn and glanced at the clock. It would be good to get a few hours of sleep before my next shift. “What’s up?”
“I was wondering… Are you sure you’re ok to do that job?”
I frowned. “Following that other guy around? Sure, it’s no problem.”
“I won’t have much notice when he comes. You’ll have to call in sick to work, maybe for seven or ten days. Is that ok?”
I shrugged. Casino work paled in comparison to doing a favor for Stone. “I don’t mind. I owe you.”
“No, I’ll pay you for this.” I started to protest, but Stone cut me off. “I insist. This is a serious gig, I’ll be on the other side so that we never lose sight of the guy.”
“Who is he?” Stone seemed awfully concerned, and I thought I’d heard a hint of distaste in his voice. Stone never seemed to be bothered by the people around him, and if this guy worried him, maybe I should be concerned.
“Another cheating husband. I guess. That’s what the wife says.”
“Uh-huh.” I watched Stone carefully, trying not to miss anything because of my sleepiness.
Stone looked as impassive as ever, but beneath his relaxed demeanor, I could tell that he wasn’t missing a beat.
“I owe you,” I repeated. “I’ll do anything you ask.”
“Anything?” The corners of Stone’s lips curled up a tiny bit, and his eyes locked onto mine. They were amused, intense and definitely interested in my answer.
A rush of blood flowed up into my face, and I felt strangely light-headed. “Uh.” I plucked at my lip nervously. “Sure, I trust you.”
I tried to keep the innuendo out of my voice, but the air around us was abruptly charged with electricity. I crossed my legs and shifted in my seat. Was it suddenly hot in here? My lips had twisted on their own into a stupid smile.
“Well,” Stone said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He stood up, and I followed mindlessly, walking with him to the door. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to keep him with me for a moment longer. “Are you – will you – ?”
Stone turned and looked at me. His dark eyes seemed to bore through me and the silence seemed to go on forever.
“I should go,” he said finally.
I put one hand on the doorknob, ready to open the door for him. “Are you sure?”
There was another moment of silence. And then his hand was on mine, his palm warm, and rough, and large. “No,” he said. “I’m not sure.”
I looked up at him. His gaze was penetrating, and he looked into me like he could see my soul. My eyes traveled down his face, down to his lips, which were slightly parted and looked good enough to eat. I forced myself to look back up into his eyes. I held my breath, scared of saying something stupid and breaking the spell.
“I should go,” Stone repeated.
“Don’t.”
Stone leaned down a fraction of an inch. His face seemed close enough to taste and I could almost feel his lips on mine.
But then he blinked and stood up straight. The light in his eyes changed, and he seemed suddenly alert, aware of his surroundings again. Stone shifted my hand off the doorknob and said, “I have to go. There’s a meeting I can’t be late for.”
I knew it was a lie, but I couldn’t think fast enough to stop him from leaving.
Chapter Nineteen
I snapped out of my reverie when I realized Stone was gone. The front door was closed, and I sensed that he must already be miles away.
I wasn’t going to let him get off easily. It was mid-morning, and I tossed and turned in bed for a while, imagining what might have been, if only Stone had stayed a little longer. Once in a while I remembered Jack, but I pushed thoughts of him away, not wanting to deal with Jack right then.
Stone had disappeared into the morning, but this wasn’t over. There was definitely something between us, something mysterious that I hadn’t felt for a long time.
When I woke up it was past lunch time. The memories flooded back, and after I’d drunk a big mug of coffee and felt fully in charge of my facilities, I gave Stone a call.
He answered up immediately.
“Can we talk?” I said.
“What about?”
“If I’m going to work for you more often, I should know a bit more about your job.”
In my head, that line had made sense. But after I said it out loud, I worried that I sounded whiny and clingy. There was a pause, and Stone said reluctantly, “Ok.”
“So I can come over to your office?”
“You won’t tell anyone else where I live?”
Right. Stone had mentioned he lived next door to his office. “Of course. What’s the address?”
“The Riverbelle.”
I wasn’t sure I’d heard right. I’d had some disturbing experiences at the Riverbelle Casino in the past. “Are you… How did—” Once again, I was at a loss for words.
“Just come over, I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
“How w—”
He’d hung up.
I spent a bit longer than usual on my hair and makeup. I wanted to look nice, but not like I’d tried. And then I spent a panicky few moments wond
ering if I’d taken too long to get dressed. I didn’t want to have to speed-walk over to the Strip, and I didn’t want to look all out of breath by the time I got to the Riverbelle.
When I got to the casino, Stone wasn’t waiting for me in the lobby like I’d been expecting. I was about to give him a buzz when the doors of the elevator across the lobby opened and Stone stepped out.
If I was later than he expected, he didn’t mention it. I stepped into the elevator with him, and we rode up silently to the 35th floor. We stood about ten feet away from each other, and we didn’t make eye contact.
I couldn’t help remembering my first ever case and encounters with the unpleasant people who used to work in this building – including those who worked two floors above Stone’s, in the Riverbelle corporate offices. I followed Stone down a long corridor, through a door marked “Staff Only,” and up a flight of stairs that led to a green door. Stone punched some numbers into the keypad next to the door and opened it. It was heavy and closed softly behind us.
I found myself standing in a short hallway carpeted with plush grey fabric. There was another door at the end of this hallway and another keypad, as well as a fingerprint scanner. I waited patiently as Stone swiped his finger across the scanner. There were two security cameras on each corner of the ceiling, and I was sure there were at least two more behind us. Stone didn’t skimp on security – but then again, he did run a security agency.
Once this second door was unlocked, I followed Stone through it, into an open-plan work area. There were four desks arranged in a rectangle and a row of monitors lined one wall. Zac, and a beefy, tattooed man, whom I hadn’t met before, were watching the monitors, which seemed to display various hallways and empty rooms. The men glanced at Stone and then at me.
“Nothing new?” Stone asked.
“Nothing,” Zac said, and the two men focused their attention on the monitors once again.
Stone and I crossed the space into a smaller room, which had floor-to-ceiling windows offering a view across the north end of the Strip. There was barely enough room to fit in a large desk and two black leather chairs for visitors. A PC sat on the desk, and another row of monitors lined the wall opposite. A muted TV streamed CNBC news. The room was bare of any photos, plants or memorabilia.
“I expected your place to be bigger,” I said, as I settled into one of the black chairs. Stone sat down on the other side of the desk, switched on his computer, and flicked through some documents wordlessly.
I shifted uncomfortably and glanced through the glass door into the open-plan area. Zac and the tattooed man were still watching the monitors. “Don’t you have any other employees?”
“I do, but they’re out.”
Stone glanced over my shoulder at the monitors behind me, and I turned around, curious to see what he was looking at. “Is that the Riverbelle?”
“Yes.” Stone typed something out on his keyboard and the displays changed. I wondered if he felt as awkward about the near-kiss as I did. “I can rotate through all the casinos.”
“That’s how you know all the security crews!”
“Most of them. We offer a secondary level of security.”
I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. “Where were you when Mr. Beard and Beady Eyes were threatening me for investigating the Riverbelle?”
Stone looked at me, amused. “I knew you’d ask that.”
“Well?”
“I was out of favor with management. Ethan hired me, and once he died, management thought they didn’t need my services – or to keep giving me this rent-free office space.”
I was impressed. “This is free? And you live next door?” Stone nodded. “How did that happen?”
Stone crossed his arms on the desk and leaned forward. His face was impassive. “I know you’ve got lots of questions, but I can’t answer everything.”
Like why he hadn’t kissed me this morning. I said, “Maybe you could try answering some.”
“Like what?”
“Like – why did Ethan Becker hire you? Why do you get this space for free?”
Stone glanced over my shoulder, at one of the monitors, and then back at me. “Ten years ago, I’d been working security at one of the places over on Fremont Street. I wanted to move up, so I was going to apply here. But I decided to take some initiative – stake out Ethan first. Turned out some thugs had the brilliant idea of kidnapping him when I was watching him. I followed them, busted him out of the hideout and brought him back here. He hired me as his bodyguard and I dealt with the idiot thugs – and for some reason, Ethan felt indebted to me. So he talked me up to all his casino buddies, got me this space, and I set up a security firm doing mostly second-level stuff for the casinos.”
“And you live here,” I repeated.
“It’s not glamorous, but it’s safe.”
“And what about – before you worked here?”
Stone looked at me carefully. “I told you when we first met. I worked for the CIA.”
Everyone knew that about Stone. And everyone who disliked him made a point of mentioning that there was no proof of his time there. “What did you do?”
“I can’t tell you that. But I learned…a lot.”
“Such as?”
“Not to care too much.”
“Oh.” Was he talking about us? I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to sound needy. Stone was watching me, waiting for me to say something. After a moment’s silence, he said, “We’re still on for next week?”
“Huh?”
“Tailing that guy?”
I looked down. For a moment, I’d thought we were setting up a date. “Uh… Sure…”
There was another moment’s silence. Stone walked over to the muted TV and switched it off before turning back to look at me. “I don’t want things to get strange between us. I trust you, and I need your help on this.” Stone’s eyes were impassive, suppressing any emotion.
“You know I owe you,” I said. “We won’t have any trouble working together.”
The impassive mask dropped from Stone’s face, and his eyes softened. “Thank you.”
I nodded. “I should go.”
“You know where to find me.”
Chapter Twenty
I ran into Nanna as I was entering my building. “How’s Wes doing? Still going back to Iowa?”
“I can’t convince him to stay. We went to a show last night, and then we had a two-for-one buffet, but he says he likes the quiet life.”
“I can’t imagine leaving here.”
“Neither could I,” Nanna said slowly. I gave her a piercing look, and she shrugged. “I did my thing. I stayed with your parents for a while, I learned to play good poker. Maybe it’s time to move on.”
I picked my jaw up off the floor. “Move on? With Wes?!”
“Last night, he asked me to marry him.”
My jaw hit the floor again. “Are you serious?”
“What, old folks can’t get married?”
I shook my head. “But we’re here!”
“We’ll come visit.” Nanna smiled. “I haven’t decided anything. But Wes is a good man. And pleasant on the eyes. I think I’d like to settle down.”
“Does Mom know?”
Nanna shook her head. “You know how she is. I’m not going to say anything to her till I decide what to do.”
“Well…” On the one hand, I wanted Nanna to be happy and in love. On the other hand, I wanted her to live nearby. “Like you said. You don’t need to decide so soon.”
“No, no, I never said that. I think you should move fast when you’ve got a good thing going. Don’t mess it up.”
She gave me a pointed look, and I knew she meant Jack. Before I could reply, she looked down at her phone. “That’s my friend, Martha. She wants to know if I’m going to be late. You’ll be over for lunch tomorrow?”
“Maybe,” I said, giving her a hug goodbye.
I didn’t want to see Nanna move away with Wes, but she did have
a point. You needed to trust your gut, and then you needed to make a move.
There were still a few hours left before my shift, so I found my old case notes from Sophia’s case and looked up the notes I’d made when I’d first met Stone.
Stone was always enshrouded in a blanket of secrecy, and it was almost surprising that he’d told me about Ethan and showed me his office. I wanted to know more about his time in the CIA; I didn’t believe the nay-sayers who claimed he was making that bit up. Stone wasn’t the kind of person to make something up, and his security firm was already so in-demand that he had no reason to embellish the past.
I found what I was looking for: a note with the words “Jameson” and a phone number. This was apparently Stone’s former CIA handler. Stone had given me the number as a reference, but I’d never followed up. Till now.
I dialed the number, and unsurprisingly, I got a robotic answering machine.
“My name’s Tiffany,” I said nervously. “I got your number from Stone, I was hoping I could ask you a few questions about him?” I paused for a moment and then said, “It’s – I just wanted to make sure I’m not doing something stupid.” I left my number, not expecting to hear back. For all I knew, Jameson wasn’t a real person, and even if he was, his phone number might’ve changed.
And then there was Jack. He was the person I should call next. It was clear to me now that Stone would never say anything, let alone do anything, as long as I was with another man. While it was infuriating, I had to respect his integrity.
Even if nothing ever happened between Stone and me, it was clear to me that things between Jack and I would not be getting any better. I wasn’t getting any younger, and I didn’t want to stay in a dead-end relationship anymore.
I called Jack and got another answering machine. I wasn’t about to break up with a guy over the phone, so I tried to sound upbeat and left a message asking when he’d be in Vegas again.
I was about to head over to Ian’s to visit Snowflake, and tell him the good news about Mrs. Weebly not kicking up a fuss, when my phone rang.
