“How do you feel?” Billy asked.
“Shitty. Go to the liquor store and buy me a fifth of vodka, will you?”
“Not on your life. Want a flavored bottled water?”
“Some friend you are. Gimme a cigarette.”
A pack of Eve cigarettes lay on Mags’s chair. Billy banged out a cigarette and removed a pack of matches from the plastic. Mags swam over and draped her arms over the edge. She shook her head and drops of water flew everywhere. His heart skipped a beat.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“Who said anything was wrong?” he said.
“Your face turned softer than a football in Foxboro.”
He lit a cigarette and took a puff. Kneeling, he stuck it between her lips.
“When did you start smoking?”
“The moment I got here. Everybody in this joint smokes like a chimney. It’s called switching addictions. You should try it. Death on the installment plan.”
The way she held the cigarette made her look like a movie star. He picked up the manuscript lying next to her chair and thumbed through the pages. “What’s this?”
“It’s a treatment for a TV show that a producer named Rand Waters sent me. I fleeced him at poker at the Riviera, and he told me I should be on TV.”
“You fleeced him, and he offered you a job?”
“Some men like to be dominated.”
“What are you going to do on TV — commercials?”
“Acting in a serious crime drama on network TV. I’d be the lead. Waters is big-time, a real force of nature out in La-La Land. I read that online.”
It wouldn’t be the first time a thief had made it big in Hollywood. Billy opened the manuscript and started reading. The series was called Night and Day, the lead a thirty-five-year-old single mother of two named Becca Nightingale. The show took place in Las Vegas and centered around Becca’s double life. By day, Becca was an investigator for the gaming board and solved crimes committed against the casinos by nefarious thieves and scam artists. At night, Becca put her badge away and ran with a crew of cheats who robbed the casinos blind.
Mags came out of the pool and dried herself with a towel.
“Want another cigarette?” he asked.
“You’re psychic.”
He repeated the ritual and placed the cigarette between her lips. “What’s your motivation for ripping off the casinos?”
“We find out in the second episode that Becca’s old man owned a small casino that got shut down by the corporations that owned the big joints,” Mags explained. “Her old man lost everything and ended up committing suicide.”
“So Becca has a grudge.”
“You bet. The money she steals from the casinos, she donates anonymously to homeless shelters and charities at the end of each show.”
Billy couldn’t help but laugh. There was no such thing as Robin Hood, there was only Robin Hoodlum, who stole from the rich and kept all the money for himself. Mags ripped the treatment from his hands and tossed it onto her chair.
“You think they’re going to make a show about a bunch of crooks?” she said angrily. “Every episode has got to have a happy ending, otherwise the advertisers won’t buy into it.”
“Don’t be pissed. I saved your life, remember?”
“Meaning what? That things are good between us again? You’re going to have to crawl on your belly through cracked glass before I forgive you, babe.”
Her eyes said that she meant it. He wasn’t sure what he’d come here expecting from her. A simple thanks would have been nice, or maybe a hug and a peck on the cheek.
“Why did you send me that text if you feel that way?” he asked.
“Because I knew you’d come to my rescue. Now, answer the question.”
“You didn’t ask me a question.”
“How much is this place setting you back?”
“Fifteen grand for a month stay.”
“That’s pretty steep. Did they make you pay up front?”
“Uh-huh. Cash on the barrel.”
She took his chin with her hand. For a moment, he thought she was going to kiss him.
“I can’t pay you back,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“So what do you want? Besides getting me back in the sack and screwing my brains out.”
Mags would turn him inside out if he wasn’t careful, and he went to the edge of the pool and stared at the deep blue water. “You still want to run with me?”
“What did you just say?”
“Do you still want to run with me and my crew?”
Her lounge chair made a harsh scraping sound. Mags came up beside him, the smug look gone from her face. “You little piece of shit. All I ever wanted was to run with you. And then you dumped me in Venice because you thought I’d get busted and so would your crew.”
“I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”
“Is that it? You’re sorry. How fucking trite.”
“I’m offering you a job. I want you to join me. I’ve got a scam in the works, and I want you to be a part of it.”
“I have a job. I’m going to be an actress.”
This didn’t sound like the woman he knew. “You really think this will work out?”
“Let me tell you what I think. The only reason men are interested in me is because I’m good at being a thief. You, Lou Profaci, Jimmy Slyde, that’s all you boys saw in me. Now Rand Waters tells me that I’ve got real talent as an actress. I’d be crazy not to give it a shot.”
He put his hands on her arms and looked her square in the eye. “Maybe you do have talent. But how long do you think you’ll want to do that? You’re a thief and you always will be. You’ll be bored out of your flipping mind in Hollywood. There’s no action there.”
She blinked. “There isn’t?”
“No. You get up at the crack of dawn, put in a ten-hour day, go home and read the next day’s script, back in bed by nine thirty. Is that the kind of life you want?”
Mags swallowed the lump in her throat. “No.”
“You were born to steal.”
“I won’t argue with you there.”
“Say yes, and I’ll make you the happiest woman on earth.”
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
“Why the sudden change of heart?”
“A guy in my crew is married to a woman he doesn’t love. It made me think that you have only one true love in your life, and if you don’t grab the chance, it won’t come again.”
Her eyes went dreamy. “Am I your true love?”
“Yeah. I want to scam casinos with you.”
“Let me think about it.”
“You already have thought about it. I want an answer.”
“Stop being an asshole.”
He was not going to let her manipulate him and started to walk away.
“Wait!” she said. “You haven’t told me the play.”
Billy made her sit down beneath the shade of an umbrella and parked himself beside her.
“I’m going to Sacramento tomorrow to have a sit-down with the Boswells, better known as the Gypsies. Victor Boswell wants to retire and has decided to go out with a major bang. He has a huge score that will require his family and my crew to pull it off.”
“What kind of score?”
“Victor has a way to beat every casino on the Strip at blackjack. He won’t tell me what the method is, but knowing him, it’s a sweet play. He says we’ll need an experienced card painter to pull it off. If I remember correctly, that’s your specialty.”
“I can’t set foot inside the casinos. You know that.”
“We’ll disguise you, make you look like a retired schoolteacher.”