attention of
the pit boss, a pretty stick of a young woman in a black suit that
hugged her waif-like form. Petite she might be, but her piercing
gaze was pretty much the female version of the sheriff’s stare. She
managed to look thoroughly intimidating.
When Sadie’s stack of chips had tripled in
size, with the pit boss looking grimmer by the minute, she decided
it was time to switch to a table with a higher minimum bet. That
way her moves might attract less attention. She found a hundred
dollar table nearby, and ordered another mojito as she took her
seat.
When the two players on her right both pushed
out a pair of hundred dollar chips, Sadie followed suit. She’d
never been the slightest bit audacious, but coming to Vegas was all
about pushing past her limits. So far, audacity had been good
strategy, at least when it came to blackjack. She might be striking
out in the guy department, but numbers were her life. This she
could do.
As play continued and her stake grew, an
unfamiliar and exciting energy rippled through her body, making her
hands tingle and setting her nerves on edge. Taking a slow, deep
breath, she reminded herself that she was already more than fifteen
hundred dollars to the good. Unless she got a particularly vile run
of luck, she’d end up a few hundred ahead for the evening, at
worst.
But her hot streak didn’t quit. When her
first two cards were a seven and a four, she doubled down against
the dealer’s five. With a ten in the hole, the dealer dealt himself
a nine and busted. Sadie had to bite down on her lip to keep from
shrieking with excitement.
The next few hours flew by in a whirl of
chips, cards, and one or two more mojitos. When it was time to go
back to the room to meet Cassie and change for the nightclub, she’d
raked in nearly three thousand dollars. As she cashed out, a
powerful rush roared through her body, sending all her senses into
overload. It felt so damn good she could hardly catch her breath.
If she hadn’t made a commitment to her friend, she would have
stayed at the table until dawn, or whatever passed for dawn in that
perpetual indoor twilight. But she couldn’t disappoint her pal.
Cassie had carried on all day about how she couldn’t wait to check
out the hotel’s new nightclub, Esprit .
Trying to play until dawn would have been
risky business, anyway. If she’d hung in much longer, she had to
believe the pit boss would have fingered her for counting cards. As
it was, she’d already had more scrutiny than any other player at
her tables. She gave a ghost of a laugh. Sadie Bligh. Vegas card
counter!
Pushing her way through the crowd to the
elevator, she struggled to analyze the unfamiliar emotions she’d
felt all night—the highs and lows, and the thrill of having a stack
of chips in front of her that the other players eyed in envy. Even
the sense of danger when she fell under the scrutiny of the pit
boss had been kind of exciting. It all made her feel so…alive. Not
once tonight had the Eagleton Prize intruded into her
concentration. Not once had she worried about the gaping hole the
loss of that prize had blasted into her career plans.
She chuckled softly as she hurried down the
hall to her room. For almost four hours, she’d even
managed—mostly—not to think about Nick Saxon. Given the impact he’d
had on her senses, maybe that was the biggest miracle of
all.
* * *
Midnight.
Nick clasped his hands and stretched his arms
over his head as he glanced up at the old-fashioned stainless steel
clock on the wall of the super high-tech security operations
center. The nagging ache in his shoulder came back whenever he had
to hunch over a keyboard for more than ten minutes. It was a
reminder of the jagged piece of Humvee metal that had sliced into
his right shoulder blade in Anbar province. But he’d been one of
the lucky ones that day, something he tried never to forget.
It had taken him an hour to file his report
on the latest case of employee theft at the
the pit boss, a pretty stick of a young woman in a black suit that
hugged her waif-like form. Petite she might be, but her piercing
gaze was pretty much the female version of the sheriff’s stare. She
managed to look thoroughly intimidating.
When Sadie’s stack of chips had tripled in
size, with the pit boss looking grimmer by the minute, she decided
it was time to switch to a table with a higher minimum bet. That
way her moves might attract less attention. She found a hundred
dollar table nearby, and ordered another mojito as she took her
seat.
When the two players on her right both pushed
out a pair of hundred dollar chips, Sadie followed suit. She’d
never been the slightest bit audacious, but coming to Vegas was all
about pushing past her limits. So far, audacity had been good
strategy, at least when it came to blackjack. She might be striking
out in the guy department, but numbers were her life. This she
could do.
As play continued and her stake grew, an
unfamiliar and exciting energy rippled through her body, making her
hands tingle and setting her nerves on edge. Taking a slow, deep
breath, she reminded herself that she was already more than fifteen
hundred dollars to the good. Unless she got a particularly vile run
of luck, she’d end up a few hundred ahead for the evening, at
worst.
But her hot streak didn’t quit. When her
first two cards were a seven and a four, she doubled down against
the dealer’s five. With a ten in the hole, the dealer dealt himself
a nine and busted. Sadie had to bite down on her lip to keep from
shrieking with excitement.
The next few hours flew by in a whirl of
chips, cards, and one or two more mojitos. When it was time to go
back to the room to meet Cassie and change for the nightclub, she’d
raked in nearly three thousand dollars. As she cashed out, a
powerful rush roared through her body, sending all her senses into
overload. It felt so damn good she could hardly catch her breath.
If she hadn’t made a commitment to her friend, she would have
stayed at the table until dawn, or whatever passed for dawn in that
perpetual indoor twilight. But she couldn’t disappoint her pal.
Cassie had carried on all day about how she couldn’t wait to check
out the hotel’s new nightclub, Esprit .
Trying to play until dawn would have been
risky business, anyway. If she’d hung in much longer, she had to
believe the pit boss would have fingered her for counting cards. As
it was, she’d already had more scrutiny than any other player at
her tables. She gave a ghost of a laugh. Sadie Bligh. Vegas card
counter!
Pushing her way through the crowd to the
elevator, she struggled to analyze the unfamiliar emotions she’d
felt all night—the highs and lows, and the thrill of having a stack
of chips in front of her that the other players eyed in envy. Even
the sense of danger when she fell under the scrutiny of the pit
boss had been kind of exciting. It all made her feel so…alive. Not
once tonight had the Eagleton Prize intruded into her
concentration. Not once had she worried about the gaping hole the
loss of that prize had blasted into her career plans.
She chuckled softly as she hurried down the
hall to her room. For almost four hours, she’d even
managed—mostly—not to think about Nick Saxon. Given the impact he’d
had on her senses, maybe that was the biggest miracle of
all.
* * *
Midnight.
Nick clasped his hands and stretched his arms
over his head as he glanced up at the old-fashioned stainless steel
clock on the wall of the super high-tech security operations
center. The nagging ache in his shoulder came back whenever he had
to hunch over a keyboard for more than ten minutes. It was a
reminder of the jagged piece of Humvee metal that had sliced into
his right shoulder blade in Anbar province. But he’d been one of
the lucky ones that day, something he tried never to forget.
It had taken him an hour to file his report
on the latest case of employee theft at the
Similar Books
