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“So, Rory: were you the one who left a Maenads brochure in my room?”
“Guilty as charged,” he said, and I was dumbstruck. I had not expected such candor.
“You were in my room? How dare—”
“Whoa! It wasn’t like that. How in holy hell could I even get in your room? I liked your show, and I heard you weren’t wild about Tony’s idea of coming to Grand Cayman. So, I tipped a bellman—excuse me, bellwoman, pretty young thing—to bring the brochure to your room. You should do it, Crissy—go to Grand Cayman.”
“That brochure lacked a phone number or website or email. The resort doesn’t even exist online.”
“The Maenads is pretty exclusive. More of a club,” he said. Then he took off his shades, stared at Nigel, and added, “Hey, you brought the prince!”
“So, you’re the guy who plays Charles,” Frankie observed. “Yup, I can see it.”
“Yes, that’s me,” said Nigel, and he and Frankie shook hands like boxers before a prize fight. “It’s a pleasure.”
“For me, too,” Frankie agreed. Then he focused on me and continued, “Now, we didn’t just drive here because it’s hotter than hell. Rory tells me there’s an Italian restaurant much better than this one about five miles from here. We can all take my car. There’s plenty of room for five. Make sense?”
“I hate to be rude, Frankie, but I was hoping that Betsy and I could have lunch alone.”
“And yet you brought Nigel.”
I was going to ignore him. I was about to call over to Betsy to ask if she minded if Nigel joined us and it was just us three, when the utter absurdity of yelling in the parking lot hit me. And so I started to walk over to her, and Frankie put out an arm like a railroad crossing gate and prevented me.
“Don’t touch me,” I said reflexively. I was shocked.
“Meant nothing by it, Crissy, nothing at all.”
“Betsy, how about you and I eat alone?” I suggested. “Girls only?”
She looked at Rory as if she were six and he were her father. But she didn’t say anything and neither did he. He folded his arms across his chest and turned toward the front of the Tesla.
“Frankie,” said Nigel, trying to prevent the tension from growing worse, “why don’t you all pick an evening to come back to the BP, and we’ll talk after the show in an air-conditioned casino bar in the desert in the middle of the night. Let’s face it: that’s how civilized people do business in Las Vegas, going back to the days of Bugsy Siegel and Kirk Kerkorian.”
“You know Kerkorian flew Siegel back to L.A. just before Bugsy was executed?” Rory asked. “You never know what tomorrow’s gonna bring in the Wild West.”
“You don’t,” I agreed. I had heard the threat.
“Crissy, I think you and your sister and I can have lunch another time,” Nigel was saying to me in his best Clyde Barrow to Bonnie Parker the-woods-are-filled-with-lawmen voice. “Or we all can. But not today.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to be a killjoy,” said Frankie. “I just don’t want to eat here. If we’re going for pasta, I want a decent lobster risotto.”
“No, this is good,” Nigel told him, and then he put his hand on my biceps and steered me back to the convertible.
When we were inside my car, my sister and Frankie and Rory were still standing there in the parking lot, watching us.
“What just happened?” I asked. “What in the world are we doing? Why are we not having lunch? Is it because of what Rory said about Bugsy Siegel? I really want to hear more about this Grand Cayman invitation. It’s creepy and—”
“We’re leaving,” he told me, his tone clipped. “Drive.”
So, I did, but as we were exiting the parking lot, I pressed him again. And this time he answered. “That Rory chap had a gun beneath his shirt. In the back, tucked into his belt.”
“How do you know?”
“He turned to show me. Wanted to be sure I saw it. Your sister’s boyfriend did, too. Also tucked into his belt and beneath his shirt.”
I sped through a yellow light just as it darkened red, frightened and confused. “What did you think they were going to do, kidnap us? That’s insane.”
“They had guns, Crissy. I was not getting in that car, and I was not letting you get in that car. I was not going to let either of us end up like Richie and Artie Morley.”
