“You could give me a new experience.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t talking about sex, Letty. Much as I like you—”
“I’m not either.”
“So what are you talking about?”
“What kind of car did you drive out to Vegas?”
“Excuse me?”
“What kind of car did you drive here?”
“A Suburban. Why?”
She felt her heart swell with hope, said, “You really want a taste of something new? Something so far out of your realm of experience, it’s gonna blow your mind?”
“Yes, Letty.”
“Even if it’s dangerous?”
“Especially.”
“Fast as you can, bring your Suburban over to the Wynn. I’m going to give you the phone number of a man named Isaiah. He’ll tell you exactly what to do.”
“What is this, Letty?”
Sure about this?
All in.
“We’re robbing the casino in less than one hour. Our driver is MIA. This is your chance to step in, take his place, and earn over a million dollars for a night’s work.”
The silence on the other end of the line went on and on.
She could just hear the sound of the television bleeding through. Some violent TV show or film. A man screaming through a gag.
She said, “Christian? You there?”
“Is this for real?”
“I swear to you. Look, I hate to pressure you, but our backs are against the wall. You ever see the movie Heat?”
“Sure. It’s in my top ten.”
“Remember when De Niro goes to the diner and hires the black guy from the Allstate commercials to be his driver?”
“Yeah.”
“Remember how it’s a right then and there, in or out, yes or no proposition?”
“I do.”
“Well this is exactly like that. I need a yes or no right now. And before you answer, I have to be straight with you. This is beyond dangerous. If it all comes off the rails, you could be killed. If we’re caught, you could go to prison for a long time.”
More silence.
She said, “Did I just totally call your bluff, or what?”
“You called it. Damn. You called it. But you know what?”
“What?”
“It wasn’t a bluff.”
# # #
“No way.”
“Isaiah—”
“No way. He’s a civilian.”
“So what? He knows how to drive, doesn’t he? We aren’t asking him to do hostage control.”
“And you’ve known him how long?”
“I met him when I lived in Charleston. Six months.”
“You gotta be kidding me. What’s he doing in Vegas?”
“He lost his family recently. He’s suicidal. Nothing to live for.”
“These are selling points?”
“You want this money or not, Isaiah? How many shots come along in your lifetime to make a score like this?” Finally, a pause. She could almost hear the gears turning. Said, “It’s 1:44, Isaiah. Someone’s coming through that door any minute now, and you know it.”
“Bringing somebody in I never worked with, never heard of, this late in the game, this big of a job. No scanners, no radio. We’ll be blind.”
“What other options do we have? It’s this or walk away right now.”
“You right. You right.”
“So you want to walk away? Pack up all your toys and go home?”
Silence.
She said, “Am I sitting tight or coming back down?”
# # #
At 1:57 a.m., she heard the electronic chiming of the door’s locking mechanism.
Her legs had gone numb ten minutes ago, a pins-and-needles sensation sparkling from her hips down to her toes.
The discomfort vanished.
The lights flicked on.
Letty cracked the cabinet door open just a sliver.
A suited man with a shaved head and neatly-trimmed goatee had entered. He was built like a vending machine. Carried a MAC-10 with a long magazine and suppressor, the machine pistol dangling from a shoulder strap.
He glanced into the powder room, the massage room.
Walked past the dining table, then turned, moving toward Letty’s cabinet.
She let her door close fully.
Listening as his wing-tips sunk in the plush carpet, his wool pants swishing.
She caught a whiff of overbearing cologne.
Finally dared to breathe again when his footsteps trailed off toward the bedroom. She lifted her phone, banged out a text to Isaiah as the man’s footfalls echoed off the marble in the bathroom.
1 man just entered
doing walk through
Isaiah responded in her headset. “Copy that. Just be cool.”
The man emerged from the bedroom and walked into the living room. He lifted the shoulder strap over his head and set the machine pistol on the glass-topped coffee table. Tugged a small radio from an inner pocket in his jacket, said, “Clear.”
Thirty seconds later, that electronic chiming repeated.
There was enough noise as the men entered for Letty to whisper into her microphone.
“Ize, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.”
She whispered, “Three, make that four men have just entered.”
“In addition to the first guy?”
“Yeah. Five total. All armed. Shotguns. Machineguns. Pistols. And still more are coming. A whole line of them.”
“All muscle?”
“No, they’re pushing carts.”
“What’s on the carts?”
“Cages. Covered in wire mesh.”
“Our money?”
She liked the sound of that.
Said, “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“I’ve just never seen so much. That makes six. Six carts they rolled in here.”
“Is it our money?”
“Oh yeah. And there’s a shit-ton of it. Two more guards have entered.”
“Seven total?”
“You guys can handle seven, right?”
The cart-pushers departed, leaving the half-dozen carts grouped near the dining area.
The front door closed.
A man armed with a subcompact Glock took a post by the entrance.
The other six retired to sofas in the living room.
One of them spoke into a radio, “We’re in, locked down, all secure.”
Letty whispered, “They’re getting settled. One man is standing by the door, the other six are in the living area. Wait.”
One of the men stood. He moved over to the carts, and on top of one of them, placed a small device mounted to a tripod. It began to revolve slowly.
“What’s happening?” Isaiah asked.
“Not sure yet. Stand by.”
The man pressed a button on the device, said into his radio, “Visual installed. Confirm.”
As he returned to the sofa, Letty said, “They set up a camera. It turns, takes in the entire room.”
“It’s okay. We planned for this contingency.”
“So what happens now?”
“Sit tight.”
The radio silence unnerved her. The pain in her legs was back with a vengeance. Through the crack between the door and the cabinet, she watched the guards.
Everyone black-suited. None younger than thirty, none older than forty-five.
Each exuding his own special brand of ex-military, fucked-by-life hardness.
Two of the men chatted about an upcoming fight at Caesar’s.
One just stared.
Another took laps around the room.
She startled when Isaiah came through her earpiece.
He said, “Report.”
“One guard is still by the door. Five seated in the living area. One on his feet near the TV.”
“Have they been making regular trips into the bedroom or bathroom?”
“Just once.”
“Are the curtains still drawn?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect. How you feeling?”
“Scared.”
“It’s show time.”
“Even with the camera rolling?”
“Yes. When I say ‘go’, I want you to climb out of the cabinet. Let them see you. Distract them. Engage them. Just don’t get yourself shot.”
“How much time do you need?”