Pepper didn’t know what the hell Tommy was talking about.
“I guess,” she said.
“The wheel is the only thing that truly matters. When a Chinese person gambles, he isn’t really concerned about winning or losing. He does it for the action and the excitement that comes from stepping on the wheel. If he loses all his money and steps off the wheel, no big deal, because he can always step back on the wheel another time.”
“I get it. The wheel’s a higher power,” Pepper said.
“Exactly. The wheel is a higher power. Back home, I am an accountant for a large manufacturing company, and I handle a great deal of money. Several months ago, I attended a conference with other accountants from my company. One night, a group of us got drunk and came up with a scheme. We would each borrow money from the bank accounts we managed and spend a weekend gambling in Macau. One of the accountants had a system to win at blackjack that he claimed was unbeatable. So we did it.”
There was a name for people who played systems: losers. Pepper knew where this was heading but decided not to ruin Tommy’s story. “What happened?”
“We won big and caught the attention of a gangster named Broken Tooth, who is tied to the Macau casinos. Broken Tooth offered to stake us ten million dollars to beat the Las Vegas casinos with our system. We agreed, and a few weeks later tried our system here. Unfortunately, it did not work the second time, and we lost everything.”
“What happened when you got home?”
“We went to Macau and broke the bad news to Broken Tooth. He did not act upset, but offered to buy us lunch. We went to a restaurant and realized it was empty. Broken Tooth’s men lined us up in front of a wall and aimed pistols at us. That was when my dead parents appeared to me. They were so ashamed of what I’d done.”
Tommy became filled with grief and stopped talking. Pepper gave his leg a squeeze. “And then?”
“Broken Tooth said, ‘Fire!’ and his men obeyed. I shut my eyes and heard the sound of bullets ripping flesh and bodies hitting the ground. And all I could think was, why am I still standing? I opened my eyes and saw the other accountants lying dead around me. I didn’t understand what had happened. Only later did I learn the truth.”
He again fell mute. Pepper handed him her untouched shot.
“Drink this.”
“I am already drunk.”
“Do it anyway.”
He obeyed, and knocked back the drink.
“So why didn’t you die?” she asked.
“Broken Tooth’s men made a mistake and shot the accountants standing to either side of me, but failed to shoot me. Broken Tooth started laughing and asked me if I had an angel sitting on my shoulder. I told him I had two angels, my dead parents.”
“Do people believe in angels in your country?”
“Oh yes. When you go to a cemetery, you’ll see people putting food on a tombstone and burning fake money so the angel has what he or she needs in the afterlife.” He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Broken Tooth said good fortune was smiling down on me, and he ordered me back to Las Vegas. If I won the lost money back, all would be forgiven.”
“Broken Tooth staked you a second time? That’s crazy.”
“You are right. It’s impossible to beat the casinos. I might as well go home now.”
Tommy slumped in his chair, a beaten and broken man. She nearly kicked herself; she was supposed to be boosting Tommy up to believe he couldn’t lose. Instead, she’d forced him to take a bad trip down memory lane. There was an easy way to fix that. She got on the Internet on her cell phone, pulled up the Stratosphere’s website, and made a reservation for a deluxe room with a king bed. There were plenty of different priced rooms to choose from, not that it mattered. They were all the same once you turned the lights out.
She dragged him downstairs and booked the room. Took an elevator to the 17th floor and pulled him into the room, where she stripped off his clothes and made him lie on the bed. He started to pass out and she slapped him across the face. Her clothes came off next.
“You are more beautiful than I imagined,” he said drunkenly.
“You’re pretty hot yourself,” she said.
She switched off the lights and climbed aboard. The splashy TV spots for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau boasted about the great shows, great food, and great golf, but what really made the town great was the amount of fucking that went on. Thousands of women made their living turning on tourists, including street walkers, call girls, bar hookers, strippers who turned tricks, girls who trolled the casino floors, and brothel babes. Prostitution was illegal in Vegas, but the cops looked the other way, and for good reason. Fucking turned cowards into heroes and weaklings into supermen. Without it, the casinos would never have survived.
The sex brought Tommy out of his funk. The color returned to his cheeks and his smile grew ever so wide. He made a spot for her on his pillow, and Pepper snuggled up beside him. Her cell phone was blinking on the night table and she picked it up.
Billy had sent her a text.
We need to talk
Billy had to be steaming by now. He had spent a long time planning this heist and invested a lot of money, and he had a right to know what she was up to. She wanted to tell him to cool his jets, everything was okay, while not coming off as being disrespectful.
“Is something wrong?” Tommy asked.
“My boss is looking for me,” she said.
“Is that bad?”
“He doesn’t like it when I wander.”
“Is he in love with you?”
Pepper shook her head. The sex she’d had with Billy had nothing to do with love. Billy had known that and so had she, and they’d both been comfortable with the arrangement.
Tommy combed his fingers through her thick hair. He didn’t act drunk anymore, just glad to be alive. That was when she realized this was the real thing.
She sent Billy a reply.
Call you later
Thirty-Eight
Billy sat in a chair on the balcony holding an ice pack to his swollen lip. He’d been punched in the face before, and the resulting bruises were memorable for the shapes they’d taken. Some resembled foreign countries, others barnyard animals. The bruise inflicted by Junior Haney looked like a purple pig, and it also hurt like hell.
His cell phone vibrated. Pepper had replied to his text. He shielded his eyes to read her reply.
Call you later.
He showed the message to Misty before putting the cell phone away.
“I’m sorry, Billy,” Misty said.
“You need to talk to Pepper, explain what’s going on.”
“I’ll try. She’s never acted like this, and I’ve known her for a long time. I guess...”
“Go ahead and say it. She’s fallen head over heels for this guy.”
“It sure seems that way.”
“You surprised?”
“You bet I’m surprised. Aren’t you?”
Billy shrugged. Vegas was a tough town for relationships. He’d dated plenty of women, and the majority had told him they didn’t believe in love and thought it was a bullshit emotion. Pepper had said pretty much the same thing to him, yet had run off with the first guy who’d treated her right. “You need to call her and tell her to get back here,” he repeated.
“What if she blows me off?” Misty asked.
“If she gives you crap, tell her that I checked Tommy Wang out. He’s taken.”
Misty’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding me.”