“What are they doing here?” Mags asked.
“I overheard them talking. They’re here for Dolan,” Slyde said.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“You hurt the guy.”
“Guess I don’t know my own strength. What’s that thing that guy’s holding?”
“It’s a horse collar. You broke Dolan’s neck.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yeah, it’s real bad.”
“Fuck him. Let’s blow this dump.”
Twenty-Five
The best breakfast spot in town was at the Egg & I on West Sahara. Mags got there early and talked the hostess into seating her at a secluded booth behind the mural that took up most of the wall. She ordered the signature banana nut muffin and a pot of coffee.
She was blowing the steam off her third cup when a yellow cab pulled up to the front door and Billy hopped out. She’d been screwed over by plenty of guys, but none as royally as Billy. She’d stuck her neck out and saved Billy from getting arrested during a heist, and Billy had repaid her by taking her to a swanky hotel and fucking her brains out while promising Mags she could join his crew, and the two of them would cheat Vegas’s casinos together.
It hadn’t quite worked out that way. When she’d woken up the next morning, Billy was gone, in his place some money laying on the pillow. She’d never felt more betrayed in her life.
So she’d come back to Vegas holding a grudge. She was going to pay the little fucker back for the whore’s treatment and for breaking his promise to her.
Billy spotted her and came over to the booth. He sported a neat goatee with his hair parted on the opposite side and was dressed like a young executive. Working a scam in one of the casinos and using a false identity, she guessed. He slid into the booth and flashed a smile. Men were stupid that way. They thought time healed all wounds. It didn’t.
“Thanks for coming,” he said.
“Anything for you,” she said.
“You still mad about what happened in Venice?”
“I got over it. I like the goatee. It makes you look older.”
“Can I steal some of your coffee? I’m running on fumes.”
“Help yourself.”
He took a clean mug from the next table and poured a cup. He looked exhausted and more than a little worried, and she guessed there was a good reason that he’d called her. But he wouldn’t get to it right away. First he’d talk bullshit and prime the pump. The smart ones always did.
“I hear you’re running with Jimmy Slyde these days,” he said.
“Good news travels fast,” she said.
“You need to be careful with that guy. He’s a user.”
“Slyde uses me, I use him, and in the end we both get what we want. Isn’t that how most business relationships work?”
“Slyde’s different. He’ll chew you up and spit you out. He’ll hurt you bad.”
Mags almost said, “Worse than you?” but she bit her tongue instead. A long moment passed between them. It was Billy who started the conversation going again.
“How’s your daughter doing? Her name’s Amber, right?”
Mags blew the steam off her mug. “That’s right. She’s doing okay, I guess.”
“She ever graduate from college?”
“Last month, top of her class. Believe it or not, she wants to be a cop, maybe try to get into the FBI academy one day. Wouldn’t that be a hoot.”
“You make it back home for her graduation? You told me you were going to.”
Her mug hit the table hard and she gave Billy a look that would have sent most men to their graves. Mags had flown back to Providence on a red eye, gone to her daughter’s graduation, and left that night. Too many painful memories to stay any longer.
“Why do you care?” she asked.
“Because I know how much she means to you. When we were in Venice you told me the gaming board tracked you down by tapping your daughter’s phone. They knew you were going to call her. That says a lot.”
Mags had done a hard landing from the drugs she used to beat Dolan that morning. So hard that she was having a tough time keeping her eyes open and staying focused. She drank more coffee before replying. “To answer your question, I went back to see her graduate and took her out to lunch. I’ve never been more proud of anything in my entire life.”
“You did right by her.”
“I sure did.”
Billy reached across the table and took her hands as if they were made of glass and would break if he dropped them. “Do you know why I dumped you in Venice? Because I was afraid we’d get caught scamming a casino, and my crew would get busted and go down, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. My crew means as much to me as Amber means to you, and I won’t let anything harm them. Does that make sense?”
“I guess.”
He pulled his hands away. “You had any contact with Grimes since you came back?”
During a period of her life that Mags would have rather forgotten, she’d worked as a snitch for the gaming board and had been under the thumb of Special Agent Frank Grimes, who she’d also had an affair with. Both relationships had ended in less than spectacular fashion.
“Haven’t gotten around to calling him. Why?” she asked.
“Grimes hired a pair of guys named Haney to whack me. They went to a friend of mine’s house last night and murdered someone staying there.”
“Jesus. How do you know Grimes was behind it?”
“Has to be. The Haneys went to my apartment at Turnberry Towers, which isn’t in my name, yet somehow they knew I lived there. They also knew where a member of my crew lived. Grimes is the only person with that information, and he has a motive.”
“Payback time.”
“Exactly. Normally, I’d leave town and let the dust settle. But I’m working a scam and I’m not going to walk away from it.”
“Must be a big score.”
“Biggest of my life.”
“What’s the play?”
“I’ve got a whale playing anchor for me at Carnivale. The whale is built in with the casino, so they won’t get suspicious when he takes them down.”
Using an anchor to rip off a casino was one of the cleverest scams around. The anchor was usually a rich sucker who regularly lost big bucks at a casino and was not considered a threat by casino management. The cheaters would convince the sucker to play a particular game in the casino that happened to be rigged. The sucker would play the rigged game and take down the casino for an enormous score. Because the sucker had a history of losing, the casino wouldn’t make a fuss, believing they would make the money back down the road. The term anchor came from the fact that the play was rock solid and always got the money.
Billy was about to make a gigantic score, and Mags wasn’t going to be there by his side. She felt a tinge of sadness and glanced out the window into the parking lot.
“Stop being angry at me,” he said.
“Who said I was angry at you?”
“It’s written all over your face. I shouldn’t have run out on you without explaining the deal. It was a shitty thing to do, and I’m sorry. Once this job is done, I’ll make it up to you.”
She fixed her gaze on him. “Did you have to leave money on the pillow like I was a whore?”
“I wasn’t going to leave you stranded.” He paused. “It was all the money I had.”
“You gave me all your money?”
“I kept two hundred bucks for myself, and that’s the God’s honest truth. I’ll make it up to you. We’ll go to Acapulco and I’ll show you the best time you’ve ever had.”
His eyes said he was telling the truth. But his eyes had also said he was telling the truth when he’d taken her to Venice, and look how that had turned out. Men made promises that they never intended to keep. It was part of their genetic makeup to screw over the opposite sex.