by the look of him—and Carmen was engrossed in her phone. I caught each of their eyes in turn and nodded towards the exit. No need to tell them twice. Even Valerie got the message.
Bradley, on the other hand… I found him sitting at a slot machine with a cocktail, his gaze fixed on the screen as he pushed the buttons over and over and over. Every so often, he’d stretch his neck from side to side and roll his shoulders. Yup, he was in for the long haul.
“Gotta go, champ.”
“What? No way. I’ve won seventy bucks so far.”
“And how much have you spent?”
“Uh… A hundred and ninety?”
“Perhaps we can leave while you still have some money left?”
“But I’m due another win. I know I am.”
“How about we find you a different casino, one that doesn’t have roaches, and I’ll give you another two hundred dollars?”
“Roaches? Ugh.”
But he didn’t stop. No, he pushed the buttons twice as fast, and then the worst thing happened. The absolute worst. A plume of confetti exploded, and I feared Bradley had somehow snuck Mr. Frosty into his manbag, but then sirens wailed and the machine went crazy. Bradley’s eyes weren’t just saucers, they were damn dinner plates.
“Holy shamoli! I won fifty thousand bucks!”
Ah, fuck. I was never going to hear the end of this, was I? Never in a million years.
“See? I told you I was feeling lucky. I told you.”
“Bloody marvellous.”
He climbed on his stool and started dancing, bits of Fraggle mixing with the confetti and floating around like the remains of a chicken that got totalled by a semi. Luckily, I managed to catch him when he fell off the seat.
“The drinks are on me tonight,” he shrieked. “And the purses. New purses for everyone.”
Please, no. “Let’s just collect your winnings, okay? And then we can get our arses out of here.”
“And go to the circus? Let’s go to the circus. Or the cabaret. Or a nightclub.”
With a hundred slot-machine addicts as my witnesses, I was never coming to Vegas with Bradley again.
CHAPTER 14
WHILE BRADLEY COLLECTED his cash, which secretly pleased me immensely because the fucknugget-backside-boil came out to hand it over personally and I could tell it pained him, I called Cesar, the general manager at the Black Diamond.
“Hey, it’s Emmy. What do you have in the way of employment vacancies?”
“Employment vacancies? Are you…looking for a job?”
“No, but I accidentally got two people fired, and I’m feeling a bit shit about it.”
“Fired from where?”
“From the Silver Shamrock.”
“People get fired from there all the time. The manager’s a douche.”
“So I heard. Anyhow, I need to find a home for a waitress and a croupier.”
“The waitress… We’re recruiting for waitstaff at the moment. Mandy from the VIP lounge moved to Montana with her girlfriend, so we shuffled… You don’t need to know any of that, do you? We don’t have any dealer roles right now, but Carina’s going on maternity leave in three months, and we’ll probably have a vacancy by the time she’s due back. If you don’t mind some crossover…”
“I’ll sign off on it.”
“In that case, send them over. We’ll give them a trial.”
“I’ll bring them over myself. Save me a spot in a poker game later?”
“You bet.”
That was one hiccup solved. Now we just had our original issue to deal with, and of course Bradley’s insufferable cheer. I herded him outside to where the rest of the crew were waiting on the sidewalk. Ana looked ready to jump into traffic.
“Are we taking a cab?” Bradley asked. “Two cabs? Or I could rent a limo.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“For the same reason we don’t take the elevator. Exercise is good for you.”
“But what if somebody mugs me for my fifty thousand dollars?”
Three people slowed to stare at him. Good grief.
“Maybe if you didn’t tell everyone about it…” Dan said.
I leaned in close enough to whisper in his ear. “I have a gun. Ana has a gun. Dan has a gun. Carmen has three guns and an itchy trigger finger. Good enough?”
He gulped and nodded. “Perhaps we could use some fresh air.”
“Is the right answer.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Mina asked. “Are we coming too?”
“We’re going to meet your new boss.”
“Our what?”
“Your new boss. You said you needed a job, yes? There’ll be a probationary period, but you can start right away.”
“Where?”
“The Black Diamond.”
“But they’re not even hiring dealers at the moment. I check the website every week.”
“I know the manager there. Come on—if we don’t hurry up, Bradley’ll complain his shoes are pinching.”
“I don’t