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Cody rolled his beautiful blue eyes dramatically, as we shared a secret grin. He released me and spun away, but not before planting a goosebump-inducing kiss on my bare neck.
Ten minutes later the three of us were walking into the casino, arm in arm.
We’d left Santiago behind, although at least this time I knew the reason. He was keeping an eye on the gym, the house, and the Lozano brothers’ movement. Not wanting to tie him down, I’d insisted on dropping Sebastian off at a kennel. The little shagball looked extremely unhappy about it, even disappointed in me.
“Sorry, boy. We’ll be back to get you.”
The barking of other dogs had suddenly interested him at the time.
“Make some friends while we’re gone.”
That was this morning, although by now it seemed like a month ago. We’d left late, then driven straight through, a good seven hours on the road. By the time we’d unpacked, dressed, and headed down, the night was in full swing.
The plan for tonight was to scope things out. The boys didn’t expect to find Mathias immediately, but they knew his favorite casino. They also knew his tables, his games, and his usual haunts. They even showed me photos of him, so I could keep an eye peeled. But my role, at least for tonight, was a passive one.
“See that guy over there?” Silas pointed out. “In the center of that roulette wheel?”
I nodded. “He’s a big one.”
“He’s an ex-champion. Bellator. Held the middleweight belt for a year and a half.”
“Cool.”
“Silas trained him,” Cody poked me. “That’s what he’s getting at.”
“Ah.”
“He’s a good kid,” Silas went on. “Sends money back to his sick mother each month. His parents are Uruguayan and Samoan.”
I laughed. “That’s a hell of a combo.”
“Sure is.”
Apparently Silas wasn’t willing to be recognized. We avoided the fighter by giving him a wide berth, then moved through an entire sea of slot machines before reaching the next bank of table games. The guys scanned the crowd for a bit, each of them still holding my hand. Simultaneously they let go, and began moving in the same direction: a Let it Ride table at the end of the row.
Before I knew what was happening, they were pulling up the two empty seats on the left.
“You’re actually going to play?” I asked.
Silas shook head with a sigh. Cody smirked.
“More like we’re going togetplayed,” he winked back over his shoulder.
Thirty-Six
CODY
She looked the same as last time of course, and that’s because she never aged. The woman behind the card table hadn’t gained or lost a pound since we last saw her. She hadn’t changed her hair, or her perfume, or her trademark, sarcastic grin.
“Well well well,” she sighed, without looking up. Her hands moved deftly, her fingers depositing machine-dealt card stacks in front of the three other players. “Look what the winds of change just blew in.”
The Let it Ride dealer extended two slender arms and cracked her knuckles. It could’ve been theatrical, but I knew it wasn’t.
“So what have you been up to, Veronique?”
“Oh you know, living the dream,” she smiled sardonically. “And it might very well all be a dream, you know. Or a simulation. Or something equally strange and totally screwed up, that we just don’t know about.”
She still hadn’t looked at us, not directly anyway. As usual though, she’d already seen everything.
