Roulette

by C. D. Bradley

  Before he could finish the words Olivia saw his body stiffen then contort in a wicked seizure and fall to the ground.

  “What the hell?” Olivia yelled.

  Piper stepped forward holding the control end of a police issue Taser gun. “Oh, thank God, Liv,” she said trembling and dropped the machine to the ground. “I was scared to death!” She ran over his limp body and hugged Olivia.

  “I’m so glad to see you. How did you find us?” Olivia sobbed holding her friend. She couldn’t believe this was all over.

  “The police are looking everywhere. We need to let them know you are okay,” Piper babbled.

  “But how did you know to look here?” Olivia asked again.

  “Your poor brain won’t let you remember a thing about that night, will it?” She reached up and tousled Olivia’s messy hair. “This is where they found the body. It’s where they think you went into the water too. Though how in the hell you washed all the way to where they found you alive I will never know.”

  “I wish I could remember exactly what happened.” Olivia put her head in her hands. “Did Dominic try to kill us both?” She struggled to make sense of all the details. He was so beautiful. How could he have killed her sister. Olivia thought of the tattoo on his chest and began to shake uncontrollably. He had walked around all this time with her face on his chest. This man who possessed her in such a deep way had taken her sister’s life. Oh, my sweet Grace. I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. She looked down at his lifeless form. If Piper hadn’t shown up would she be the one lying face down in the dirt.

  Olivia took several deep breaths and tried to concentrate on that night. “I remember being here with Grace. I remember arguing with her. She was so mad and I don’t remember why. She said I messed everything up.” Olivia closed her eyes and tried for the life of her to replay the image. “I don’t remember him being here though,” she said puzzled. “I just remember Grace pacing around looking for something.”

  “The money,” Piper said, her face lighting up?

  “What money?” Olivia was completely confused now. Then she remembered the money clip. “Grace had ten thousand dollars in a money clip I found it in her things. Could that be it?” Olivia asked hopefully.

  Piper laughed. “No, darling, that was probably just a tip from a high roller. Think more . . . much more than that. I’m talking about the money she stole from Luca and the casino,” Piper answered point blank.

  “Why would she want to steal from Luca? He seems to worship her,” Olivia mumbled trying to make the round pegs fit into square holes.

  “I have no idea why, but in the original police report from ten years ago it said your sister took off with over twenty-four million dollars,” Piper said, the sparkle in her eyes caught the moonlight. She looked like a gold rusher who finally found the jackpot.

  “Oh, God. Why? Why would she do that?” Olivia stood horrified. “That’s so much money wouldn’t that be pretty hard to transport and shouldn’t it be pretty easy to find? This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Just try to remember,” Piper encouraged.

  “We need to get the police and an ambulance,” Olivia said nodding at Dominic.

  “The police should already be on their way,” Piper assured her. “I called them when I saw the motorcycle parked at the head of the path and he doesn’t deserve an ambulance. He just tried to kill you.”

  “We can’t just let him suffer,” Olivia insisted. “He has the right to a trial just like anyone else.”

  “Stockholm much?” Piper asked and stared at her like she had broccoli coming out her nose. “Fine we’ll call an ambulance too but, let’s go over this again before the police get here. You came up here with Grace after Dominic was kicked out of the casino. Grace must have used his distraction to walk right out of the front door with twenty-four million in chips.”

  “That’s a lot of fucking chips. She was my size how the hell did she carry all those?” Olivia scoffed. Grace was a lot of things but athletic was not one of them.

  “I think they were high roller chips that she was supposed to be transporting for a high stakes game to a private room. Anyway in the midst of the chaos between you and Dominic she just walked right out the front door.”

  “Okay, even if she had say twenty-five-thousand-dollar chips which is the highest I have ever heard of, we are still talking almost a thousand chips. How heavy are poker chips?” Olivia wondered out loud. She still couldn’t picture Grace manhandling a suitcase and being allowed to just walk out of the casino. “Luca mentioned that Grace belonged to him. Do you think he made up the theft for the insurance money?”

  “Poker chips are about ten grams.” Piper started figuring.” That’s only ten thousand grams. Think back to chemistry class. Which I know you hated. But there are around four hundred grams in a pound. So that’s less than twenty-two pounds.”

  “Oh, hell. Her makeup bag weighed more than that. All she would need was a small overnight bag. Shit.” Olivia put her hand over her mouth.

  “What?” Piper asked barely controlling her excitement.

  “Like the kind airline stewardesses use,” Olivia finished. “I think Luca said she was one of those Dolls when he met her. On the flight here I noticed they all had matching luggage. Maybe she could have snuck it out in that.”

  Olivia checked on Dominic. He was breathing okay just looked like he had been given a horse tranquilizer. She listened for sirens but heard nothing except the gentle breeze through the rock formations. Where were the police? “It doesn’t make sense for there to be a case of money or chips up here.”

  “What do you mean?” Piper was getting so into this case. While Olivia was barely hanging on Piper seemed to be on an adrenaline rush.

  “Well, I remember Grace searching for something up here like a tigress for her cub but if Dominic had brought us up here to kill us wouldn’t he have taken the case with him when he left? Unless, somehow, she stashed it on the way here. I don’t know something just doesn’t add up.”

  “Try to retrace your steps that day,” Piper offered.

  “I wish it was that easy.” Olivia began to tap her fingers in the nervous pattern that helped her think. “Until today I didn’t even remember ever coming to Vegas. I can’t control the flashbacks they just happen. It’s all patchy. I remember standing on the casino floor and watching my sister interact with Luca. Sometime after that I think Grace and I argued upstairs. It’s all a big blur. I remember Dominic kissing me in the elevator. He thought I was Grace.” Olivia paused and looked down at him. Would she ever be able to forget the tenderness of his kiss?

  Olivia leaned against a rock and a large insect crawled across her hand making her jump. “Something else that never made sense, what about the bugs, her body was crawling with them.” Olivia shivered.

  “Oh, God I hate those fucking things,” Piper chimed in. “Whoever thought of raising and selling black soldier flies should be shot. Isn’t he some kind of bug specialist?” She kicked at the button and gave the unconscious Dominic another jolt. Olivia stared at the blood soaking through his white shirt where the two metal probes had burnt through his shirt and pierced his skin. Two perfect circles. It had been a Taser all along. Olivia’s mouth went dry.

  “Piper.” Olivia approached with the caution one gives a rattle snake. “How long have you had that Taser? It looks like an antique.”

  “I bought it used in college,” Piper quickly answered, “but it still works great.”

  Keeping an eye on Piper, Olivia walked over to the edge again. She looked out for anyone who might be fishing on the lake. She wished like anything to see police lights coming but she knew better now. “I still can’t believe I ended up going over this cliff?” She shook her head in disbelief. “How could anyone survive that?

  “That’s what I’d like to know.” Grace’s cold voice frosted even the night air. She stepped out of the darkness and walked toward Olivia.

  “Grace!” Olivia screamed. “Oh my God! Grace
!” Olivia couldn’t help but cry. “I thought you were dead. Where have you been all this time.” Olivia ran forward to hug her sister but Grace pushed her away.

  “I’ll tell you where I’ve been. I spent the last decade locked up with Jabba the Hutt in that damn casino. But none of that matters now because you are going to remember what the hell you did with my money or spend the rest of your life in my place.” Grace’s tone was flat and lifeless. She was completely void of the vibrant love that used to define her.

  Olivia turned to Piper who did not seem a bit surprised, then back to Grace. “You . . . you died. I . . . I saw your body,” Olivia stammered as she tried to wrap her mind around what was happening.

  “Oh, Jesus, you and that stupid body again. That’s all you fucking talked about in therapy for a year. For the love of Christ that was Bethany, one of the Dolls. Her big mouth was a loose end I was not about to leave flapping in the wind. She’s the one that got me arrested in the first fucking place. She had to go.” Grace rolled her eyes and went on. “Everything was going just fucking fine until you had to go and make out with bug boy in the elevator. No one in my private life even knew you existed. You see how fucking brilliant that is?”

  “I don’t understand. You killed Bethany and faked your death?” Olivia held onto the rocks. Nausea swept over her like a tidal wave. “Why? What on God’s green earth would possess you to do that?”

  “Olivia, sweet naïve little Olivia, I pulled off one of the greatest casino heists in history. Do you not understand.” Grace scoffed and waved her hands like a magician. “Let me paint a very simple picture for you. Life was swell when I was in control of The Dolls. I was building an empire from the ground up. Piper and I were recruiting girls from my sorority and we worked with a guy I met who was based in Virginia to set up the flights. Then freaking Luca had to go all caveman and try to make me his little possession. It took me almost a year to plan but it was perfect.”

  “All of this for a robbery?” Olivia gritted her teeth. She wanted to punch her twin in the face. “You destroyed so many lives.”

  “You make it sound like I shot granny knocking off the 7-Eleven. This was a detailed heist that raked in over twenty-four million dollars.” Grace put her hands on her hips and bragged.

  “No offense, but it didn’t work very well,” Olivia shot back.

  “It would have worked just fine if you could have stuck to the plan. All I asked you to do was work the roulette wheel for me until seven thirty. Then you were to take your carry-on bag from the coat closet outside the high roller lounge and meet me at the airport.” Grace looked at her as if she was a complete imbecile. “Pretty fucking simple. I was going to go home with you and Piper back to Yale.”

  “Grace, I don’t remember any of that,” Olivia protested.

  “Of course you couldn’t do it. Instead you end up making out with a total stranger on the elevator. Unfortunately that stranger was Dominic Kain. Everything was a cluster fuck from that point on. Dominic was so flustered by your little escapade that instead of causing the distraction that I had planned and getting kicked out, he kept trying to fight and got himself fucking arrested. Arrested!” she yelled at Olivia. “Do you know how bad that was? With him spending the night in jail, I had no one help tie up the loose ends. Then to make matters worse you walk right through the lobby adding to the scene yelling for them to let him go. My plan would only work if you and I were never on the same camera at the same time. Yet there you stood right in my fucking way.”

  Grace pulled a nine millimeter pistol out of her Louis Vuitton handbag. She waved it around like a church fan as she talked. Olivia watched her with wide eyes. Grace could easily kill them all. “I had a travel bag containing twenty-four million dollars, I just needed to get across the lobby and out the fucking door. After waiting what felt like an obscene amount of time for you to go back to the casino I decided to chance it. I moved quickly through the crowded lobby and almost made it to the exit when your clumsy ass collided with another patron and knocked them into me. I dropped my bag, my purse, everything. At this point nothing was going to stop me I grabbed my things and walked right out the front door. I jumped in a waiting taxi and was home free.” She paused and smiled appreciating her own accomplishment. Then her face darkened. Grace narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to Olivia. She pointed the gun at her head.

  “Grace . . . What are you—” Olivia started but Grace silenced her by pulling back the slide of the gun.

  “Imagine my surprise when I opened my bag and found your fucking shoes. When we collided the bags must have gotten switched.” The next words out of Grace’s mouth were so low church mice would have struggled to hear it. “In the course of one hour you had completely fucked up a plan that took a year to put together.”

  Olivia looked around for something, anything she could use as a weapon. She had to

  help Dominic. He was an FBI agent, he had to be armed. If she could get to his weapon they might stand a chance. She looked at his lifeless form slumped in the dirt. He had been unconscious far too long. Olivia was desperate. She looked at Grace. How had this amazing beautiful girl who was the sunshine for so many people have turned into the hateful creature before her. Her sister held the gun only inches from her face.

  “Are you getting bored, Liv?” Grace spat at her sister. “Don’t want to hear the rest of the story? Well too fucking bad. And you better damn well pay attention because it’s the last one you’re ever going to get.”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Dominic starting to move. She had to keep Grace and Piper busy. “I understand why you killed Bethany but why kill Gwen and Rebecca? Didn’t they work for you?”

  “To finish what we started” Piper chimed in. “After you came here to meet Grace and saw Bethany’s body you completely freaked out and ended up falling over the cliff.” She waved her hands in a grand motion toward the edge. “You somehow fucking lived but were left with selective amnesia. After you got out of the hospital you changed your name but the record was sealed and we lost track of you.”

  Olivia racked her brain, “I… l changed my name to start over, the therapist thought a fresh start would be for the best.”

  “And you became a fucking lawyer. Figures smarty pants. You always did walk the straight and fucking narrow that’s why we couldn’t let you in on our plan front he beginning you would have turned us all in,” Grace said as disgusted as if she had just drunk sour milk.

  Piper took a step toward Olivia. “We just want the fucking money, Liv. Gwen saw Grace in Vegas and mistakenly called her Olivia. That’s how we found you. The rest we set in place to try to kickstart your memory. God knows therapy never worked. Then fucking Rebecca recognized me in that restaurant and I had to get rid of her too but that turned out to be our chance to bring you to Vegas.”

  “So where is it Liv? I’m tired of all the fucking games. It’s time to end this,” Grace spat.

  “You somehow fucking lived but were left with selective amnesia. We just want the fucking money, Liv. Gwen saw Grace in Vegas and mistakenly called her Olivia. That’s how we found you. The rest we set in place to try to kick-start your memory. God knows therapy never worked.”

  Olivia started to answer but Grace turned away suddenly as she caught sight of Dominic reaching for her ankle. She saw Grace turn the gun on Dominic. It was now or never. Olivia charged Grace and threw her body into her twin knocking her to the ground as the gun went off. She heard Piper scream when the bullet tore through her abdomen and knocked her backwards. Dominic tried to catch her but it was too late she fell over the cliff and landed on the rocks where she had left Bethany so many years before. Grace and Olivia were still fighting for the gun. “I will never give up, Grace,” Olivia yelled at her through tears. “I love you but I will never give up.” The gun waved wildly back and forth as the two women grappled for control. Another shot went off and bounced off the rock.

  “Fuck!” Dominic yelled as it struck him in the thigh. He came do
wn hard on the rock and pulled out his sig sauer pistol. He aimed carefully over Olivia’s shoulder at Grace’s head. He tried to gauge their erratic movements to get a good shot. Just then a third shot went off and both girls lay still.

  “Olivia!” he yelled and crawled frantically across the rock. A large pool of blood was already forming on the ground beneath them. He kicked the gun away and scooped Olivia up. She was limp as a rag doll in his arms. He held her to him and looked at Grace. She was lying on the ground with a hole through her shoulder smiling.

  “PLEASE, GOD. DON’T let me lose her now.” Dominic cried out to the star filled sky. He collapsed to the ground with Olivia in his arms. He had spent a lifetime dreaming of holding her just one more time. Now that he had found her, he couldn’t bear to let her go. He leaned close so that his lips brushed her cheek. “Forgive me, darling, for every night I wasn’t there to kiss you good night. For every morning I didn’t welcome the sunrise curled up with the warmth of your magnificent body. I love you beyond all words. I will die every day I am not with you. I have loved you for a lifetime and will love you into the next.”

  Dominic held Olivia close to him while he called for police and paramedics. Her breathing was shallow but her heart continued to beat. He held pressure to the wound but blood seeped around his fingers. “Don’t give up, Olivia. Hang in there. Please. You have come so far and fought so hard. Don’t give up now.”

  He heard Grace cough and looked over. Blood was coming from her mouth but she made no other sounds. Her slender hand fell from her chest to the ground and landed so close to Olivia’s that their fingers almost touched. As her hand uncurled a single chip rolled out onto the rock between them. Dominic picked it up. They came into this world together and now as they circled the abyss they seemed to hang by a single thread.

  The blur of police and ambulances blended into colors and sirens that filled the dark sky. The quiet scene was now a chaos of emergency responders and police attending to the three gunshot victims and to locate the fourth. Dominic watched them load Olivia, the crew worked furiously to bring her back. As they drove away he knew that no matter what happened he would be forever grateful for the chance to love her.