The pyramid towered above; he caught the flow of people pressing in through the front door.Cavernous lobby done in tawny with touches of royal blue, palm trees in pots, the smell of air conditioning.Welcome coolness made him more aware of how the Zed tracks on his arms were itching.He would start to twitch before long, withdrawal torturing his nervous system, begging him to jack out.
Slot machines whizzed and burped.The mood of the place—savage and desperate, with a thin veneer of fun—washed over his raw psyche.He needed a hypo of Zed, but couldn’t afford to use it now.
More necessary to get a zero on a pale head of hair, a slim, small, graceful woman with wide green eyes.What if Henderson had made her dye up for camouflage?It would be the smart move, but Del’s heart hurt to think of that long pale mane altered.Hurt to think of it cut short, although he would still be able to run his fingers through the silky mass and?—
Wrong thing to think.He’d end up distracting himself.He drifted to the buffet, found nothing but hungry tourists and gamblers.The vast open space above—each floor with its own balcony looking down into the well of the pyramid—pressed down, cavernous and cool.Cigarette smoke, sweat, heat, perfume, carpeting, reheated coffee.
He worked his way into the pit, ignoring the décor.It meant nothing except for possible cover and escape routes.He brushed past a heavyset woman with her arm around a teenage daughter.
The daughter, wearing a tight pinkFreezewireT-shirt, rolled her eyes.“It’sVegas, Mom.Live a little, will you?”
Goddammit.He ducked into the bar, ordered a double Scotch to calm his nerves and tipped the bartender almost too well before bolting the alcohol.It would dull him a bit, but that was to the good since his nerves were starting to burn from Zed and crackle with…
What was that?Felt like a lightning storm coming, little bits of electricity dazzling over his skin.Electric honey, a sensation he remembered.
Goddamn.He ordered another Scotch, downed it as fast as he could,, then left the bar, plunging into the crowd and working his way to the pit.They’d chosen a good time.Everyone was looking for a giveaway at the buffet and a few minutes of gambling.She was here; he’d bet his life on it.
Hewasbetting his life on it.Because not only was he almost out of Zed, but he had the sneaking feeling Sigma would close in on this place too, unless she was very, very careful.
CHAPTER13
Rowan stoodnext to Cath’s chair, arms crossed, playing the disapproving best friend.
“You’re going to waste it,” she said, loud enough for the man fiddling in the back to hear.They’d been taken to this plush, soulless private office on the fifth floor to cash out the chips—and probably so Security could get a good eyeful.It wasn’t every day two women walked in off the street and won two hundred thousand dollars at the roulette table after winning in another casino, too.They’d cleaned up just under a hundred thou at the Venetian and made it out safely.
But hey, this was Vegas.The house always won, and if the women weren’t on blacklists or doing anything illegal they would be encouraged to blow their gambling gains on the high-roller nonsense.If not, the casino would make it back within minutes with other poor suckers.Someone had to win occasionally, even if the house always got you in the end.
It was, Rowan reflected, the perfect scam.
The identities Yoshi had crafted were holding up, and due to Rowan’s deft mental pressure they were about to take a duffel bag of cash instead of a cashier’s check up to a “courtesy” suite.If all went well, in half an hour Cath and Rowan could be out of here with enough of a stake to clean up nicely at the races tomorrow, then head home with a cool quad of hundred thousands to keep the Society going until Henderson could get more legitimate funding up and running.
So close.So why did Rowan’s head suddenly hurt, little crystal needles driving into her temples?Was it the strain of keeping a shield of illusion tight and seamless so nobody noticed she was armed?
No, that’s pretty easy.Nobodyexpectsto see a mousy brunette with a sidearm in a casino.Their eyeswantto be fooled, even this man’s.I shouldn’t be feeling like this.
But she was.
“I amnotgoing to waste it.”Cath played the whiny winner so perfectly Rowan was hard put not to laugh.She also did a dead-on nasal Eastern seaboard twang, a whole new unsuspected talent.“I just don’t seewhyI should cash out if I’m on a winning streak.”
“Trust me,” Rowan said dryly.“Haven’t I been right about everything else?”
“Shut up.”Cath shot her a murderous look, blue-violet eyes flashing, and the urge to giggle rose again.
The man appeared, with the bag.“We’ll count it in front of you,” he said, pleasantly enough.
He was one of the casino’s security officers, a heavyset man with a sharp Armani suit and a diamond stud winking in his left ear.
He’d also smoked a full bowl of pot this morning.Rowan couldsmellit on him, though it wasn’t an aroma any deadhead would notice.It was more like a psychic color, the mellowness of the depressant closing him to random brushes against his mind.She actually had to work to press him into doing what she wanted.Which was an unexpected relief, even if it meant more effort.
“Anyway,” Rowan remembered her part with a small mental struggle, “I doubt you’ll do anything smart with it, like put it into investments.Sure, you can count it.Though I’m sure it’s all there.”She restrained the urge to bat her eyelashes, and the man preened.He must have been used to women flirting with him.His job handled a lot of things gold-diggers would be interested in.
He actually blushed, setting the bag on his desk.“Well, it’s policy.There will be a lot of people wanting to shake your hand, Miss Ernhardt.Luck makes you a lot of friends out here in Vegas.Where did you say you were from?”
It was the second time he’d asked.Trying to trip them up?Suspicious?Or just making conversation, forgetting what he’d already said?
Cath rose to the occasion, her eyes twinkling with what anyone else would have called flirtatiousness but Rowan recognized as sheer sarcastic glee.“Rhode Island.But they don’t have anything like this out there.My husband’s going tofreak.”She looked too young to have a husband, but that wasn’t anybody’s business.
Not in Vegas.
