“Which means it might already be sold.”
“All we have to do is find the person who bought it and figure out who sold it to them.”
“And work backward to find Javi and the car.” It sounded plausible in theory. “How do we find a loan shark?”
“We don’t,” Vero said, tossing Charlie’s car keys into the dumpster behind us. “We let the loan shark find us.”
CHAPTER 18
It was almost midnight when Vero finally materialized through the crowd. “Where have you been?” I asked. “You were gone so long, I was starting to worry.” She’d left me sitting in front of an empty slot machine in the Villagio casino an hour ago, wearing a sequined jumpsuit and a curly black wig. I looked like a Cher impersonator. Over the course of the last hour, at least three elderly men had stopped to hit on me and another had asked me to hold his portable oxygen tank so he could light a cigarette. I’d almost rather have been stuck in a bathtub with Marco and Louis.
She fluffed her blond, feathered bangs and tugged at the strap on her acrylic heels. While I had escorted my tipsy mother to our hotel after we’d taken a cab home from Chubbies, Vero had gone shopping for wigs and clothes. The only place that had been open at that hour was an adult novelty store, and together we looked like two-thirds of a rerun ofCharlie’s Angels. I was just glad my mother hadn’t insisted on tagging along.
“I had to stop to pick up some money,” Vero said, adjusting her cleavage.
“Were you charging by the hour?”
She threw me a look as she unzipped her purse.
“This plan is completely ridiculous, Vero. I don’t know how to gamble. There’s no way this is going to work.”
“You don’t need to be good at it. I’ll be right beside you the whole time. Let’s get this over with so we can figure out who stole that ledger and find Javi.” My heart stuttered as the massive grip of Charlie’s gun protruded from her open purse. I reached to cover it, glancing frantically around us to make sure nobody else had noticed it.
She shoved my hand away. “Relax, Finn. This is Atlantic City. Half the people in this place are probably packing a weapon.” She scooped a handful of chips from her bag. It was full of them, bulging at the seams. They were bolder and brighter than the ones we’d been playing with last night, and I gasped as I read the dollar value printed on them.
“These chips are worth five hundred dollars!” I lowered my voice as she shushed me. “Where did you get these?” There was far more money in chips in her purse than Steven had in his bank account.
“Louis’s debit card. His PIN is the last four digits of his Social Security number. Cam figured it out.”
“You got all of these off of Louis’s card?”
She pulled a face. “Of course not. I won a few hands of poker for the rest.”
“Vero!”
“We need a lot of money to lose a lot of money.”
“You’re lucky you came back with any money at all!”
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” she said, jamming the last of the chips down the front of my jumpsuit when my pockets wouldn’t hold any more. “Poker isn’t the same as playing the lottery or slots, Finn. It’s not just about chance. It’s about reading people. The game isn’t in the cards, it’s up here,” she said, tapping her temple. “Everyone has a tell. All you have to do is pay attention. You do it every day.”
“I do not,” I said, slapping her hand as she tucked another chip down my bra.
“Case in point,” she said, zipping up her purse and leading us deeper into the casino, “how do you know when Zach’s getting ready to bust out a BM?”
“He grabs the nearest doorframe and his face turns red.”
“How about when Delia’s coming down with a cold?”
“She cries for no reason and goes to bed without an argument.”
“And when Steven’s about to lie?”
“His left eyebrow twitches,” I said without thinking.
“See? Even you could have won all this.”
“I beg to differ,” I said, adjusting the lumps in my bra.
