Hot Number

by V. K. Sykes

  Nick waved off the apology. He wasn’t about to second-guess the man who had made it possible for him to stay in Vegas and care for his mom instead of having to put her in a nursing home.

  “I understand. But I may need your help again, Mike. I need to hold onto this job. Mom’s care costs a small fortune. And I’m pretty sure there’s no way I could make as much money anywhere else as I do at the Desert Oasis. Not until I can get more experience on my résumé. Hell, I only got this assistant chief position because of your backing.”

  “That’s true enough. And you know Carson has the support of the GM, because he’s such a pit bull, which makes him damn good at what the hotel expects him to do. If he fires you, it’s not likely I’ll be able to do anything about it. Not unless he had absolutely zero cause.” Webb gave him a grim look.” Nick, just make sure you don’t give him anything to hang on you, understand?”

  “Like busting his nose?” Nick couldn’t help letting a half-smile escape, even though there was nothing to smile about. He’d been under no illusions that Mike Webb would be able to protect him against Carson, but it still left a hollow feeling in his gut to hear it confirmed. “I hear you. I just don’t know how much more I’ll be able to take if he keeps pushing my buttons every damn day.”

  “You’re a smart guy, Nick. And you’re proud—almost to a fault, just like your dad. That’s a good thing, but you have to swallow that pride sometimes, especially when the stakes are so high. I want you to do your job the best you can and follow Carson’s orders, even when you think they don’t make sense. Like I said, don’t give him an inch of rope, or he’ll make a noose and hang you high.”

  * * *

  Sadie had hung out the “Privacy, Please” sign last night, so who the heck was pounding on her door?

  Cassie, of course.

  She’d ignored the ringing phone twice already this morning, pulling one of the pillows over her head the second time. That had no doubt been Cassie, too. She’d neglected to leave a message on her friend’s voice mail before heading off to Laughlin with Nick. Cassie had left a message while they were at the spa, but Sadie had other things on her mind and hadn’t bothered to check. Her friend might be frantic with worry by now.

  “I’m coming.” Sadie threw off the duvet and slipped on her robe.

  “Jesus, I thought you might be dead in there,” Cassie yelled through the door. “Why don’t you answer your goddamn phone?”

  Sadie swung the door open. “Good morning, Cass.”

  Cassie barged into the room. “Morning? Hell, it’s twelve-thirty.”

  Sadie stumbled back to collapse on her bed and glanced at the bedside clock. “Wow. So it is. Sorry, I was up really late. Then I couldn’t sleep. I remember seeing the clock read seven.”

  “What were you up to, anyway? Don’t tell me you were up all night playing freaking blackjack?”

  Sadie could feel her cheeks turn hot. In an instant, Cassie’s worried look gave way to a mischievous glint. “Ah, okay. You were with Sheriff Studly.”

  The hot feeling spread over Sadie’s whole body as images of last night’s magical spa journey with Nick flashed through her mind. That’s why she hadn’t been able to sleep. She had always thought she knew what sex was about. It was pleasant, but nothing to write home about. But that was before last night, when she discovered what sex could really be like. It had curled her toes, set her heart racing, and left her craving more—much more—with the man who’d opened the door and led her into that brave new world in the first place.

  For the first time in her life, Sadie felt liberated. At ease in her own skin.

  Flopping back onto the rumpled pillows, she pulled her legs up under her. “Dial room service for me, will you? I need coffee, preferably by IV.”

  Cassie quickly ordered a pot, then took the armchair by the window. “Come on, I want every last juicy detail. Don’t leave out a thing or I’ll know you’re holding back.”

  Sadie couldn’t repress the stupid grin blossoming on her face. “Well, I was having a great night at blackjack, but then Nick tracked me down and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

  Cassie clapped her hands in delight. “Excellent! I’m really liking the sound of this.”

  “It wasn’t anything like I’d expected. If you can believe it, he bundled me into his car and we drove all the way to Laughlin. It’s some casino town about an hour and a half south of here. I had no idea what kind of evil scheme he’d concocted, but I had no doubt it would be something interesting, to say the least.” She swallowed, once again feeling those flutters of nervous excitement. “My God, the way he looked at me in the car, Cass—like he was taking me to a barbecue, and I was the main course.”

  “A little hungry, was he?”

  “Part of me was bone-shaking nervous. But the rest of me couldn’t wait for him to get his hands on my body.”

  Cassie practically crowed. “I love it. So, you checked into a hotel there and got busy for the rest of the night. Am I right?”

  Sadie laughed. “Good guess, but no cigar. Actually, a friend of Nick’s owns a spa down there. It’s dreadfully tacky on the outside, but inside it’s stunning, like straight out of a Casbah. He kept the place open until we got there and then he left, giving us the spa all to ourselves for as long as we wanted.”

  “And you gave each other mud baths,” Cassie said with a grin.

  “Not exactly. Nick started by treating me to a full body massage.” She sighed at the memory. “Then we had a sauna, and after that a swim in the pool.”

  “And somewhere in there he made love to you until your brain melted.”

  Sadie thought her friend had hit the mark. “Everything inside me got thoroughly heated, that’s for sure.”

  Cassie studied her for several moments, her look sharply perceptive. “Sade, I have to say that from that look in your eyes, you’re in serious danger of falling for the sheriff. A Vegas fling is one thing, honey, but I can’t bring myself to believe that Professor Bligh is losing it over a hardass security man. No matter how ridiculously hot he is.”

  Sadie grimaced. Was she that transparent? She’d tried to keep her tone breezy—as if the Laughlin evening had simply been a diversion, delicious but far from life-changing. She couldn’t deny she found Nick Saxon both fascinating and disarmingly sexy, but was there already more to her feelings? After all, what chance would she and Nick have in the real world? And would she even want something like that?

  She clamped down hard on the little spurt of hope that came with the idea of a relationship with Nick. This was just a crazy week in a crazy town, and she’d be a fool to let it become more than that in her mind. “Cass, you’re letting your penchant for drama carry you away. The fact that the sheriff and I had a diverting evening hardly means I’m ready to select my bridesmaids’ dresses. Remember, we came to Vegas to have fun, and that’s all I’m trying to do. Bucket list, remember?”

  “Uh huh,” Cassie said, clearly not believing a word of it. “We’ll revisit this conversation at the end of the week.”

  Sadie ignored her as she rolled off the bed and started toward the bathroom. Cassie snorted with laughter. “Okay, I get it, Professor. Conversation over. So, what are you up for today, anyway? Want to hit the pool?”

  “I think not.” Truth be told, Sadie couldn’t wait to get back to the blackjack pit, though keeping her focus on the card count would be a daunting challenge with Nick Saxon continually invading her thoughts like a marauding Visigoth. But if she couldn’t spend her days with him, playing the tables was the next best thing. “I want to try my luck at blackjack again,” she yelled from the bathroom. “I’m on a lucky streak, and I want to see if it keeps going.”

  She was lying, of course. Her streak had to do with more than luck. But that was her story and she was sticking to it. She wasn’t about to tell Cassie or anyone else that winning at blackjack—by using her brain and her skills to challenge the negative odds—had made her feel almost like a different person. A
person who lived closer to the edge instead of down life’s boring center line. It might only last for a few days until her life in Chicago came roaring back, but as long as she was in Vegas she wanted to live right on that edge, both at the blackjack table and in Nick Saxon’s arms.

  * * *

  Nick mulled over Michael Webb’s warning as he strode into the casino from the sweltering parking garage. Sweat had already soaked through his once crisp white shirt. On days like this—and there were so many of them in Vegas—he wished for his lightweight Marine uniform, not the business suit that was mandatory for casino security personnel.

  He still wondered why Carson had summoned him to his office for a two o’clock meeting. Carson’s voice mail this morning had been frosty—almost imperious. The implications in its tone had dogged him all through his lunch with Webb, adding another layer to his concern about his future at the Desert Oasis.

  As he passed through the operations center, with its dozens of LED screens and racks of high-end servers and communications gear, he got the usual tepid responses to his greetings. Staff who were outgoing and friendly toward him outside the ops center would barely give him the time of day inside Buzz Carson’s stronghold. Nick was a pariah to Carson, and everybody knew it.

  He rapped on the chief’s open door. “Ready for me, Chief?”

  Carson couldn’t even be bothered to glance up. “Shut it behind you, Saxon.”

  Nick did as he asked and came to attention in front of Carson’s desk.

  His boss looked up with a sneer. “Sit down, Saxon. You’re not in the goddamn Marines anymore.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ve got a special assignment for you, so listen up. That bimbo you escorted up to her room the other night? Well, one of the blackjack pit bosses has made her as a probable counter. I want you to follow up.”

  Nick fought to suppress his surprise, but an astonished chuckle managed to escape. Sadie Bligh a card counter? The accusation was too absurd to even think about.

  Carson glowered at him. “What’s so damn funny?”

  “Chief, I spent a fair bit of time interviewing Ms. Bligh. Believe me, she’s the last person I’d expect to be cheating.”

  “You’re basing that assessment on intimate knowledge, are you? From the looks of things, I gather you know her pretty well already.” Carson’s cutting tone was laden with innuendo. “That’s why I figured you should be the one to monitor her and then nail her ass. Not literally, of course.”

  Nick held back a frustrated curse. As assistant chief of security, it wasn’t his job to monitor card counters and other cheaters. There were plenty of other, more junior, security personnel for those routine assignments. Carson had chosen Nick for an obvious reason, and it sent a chill through him.

  He’s setting me up.

  He kept his voice level. There was no point complaining, since it would only drive Carson’s suspicions even higher. “Chief, as far as I can tell, she barely knows how to find her way in and out of the casino. And she always seems to be drawing attention to herself, unlike counters, who want to avoid attention at all costs. Besides, you know counters almost always work in pairs or groups. Ms. Bligh came with a friend, but I’m not sure the friend has even been in the blackjack pit.”

  Carson shot him another disdainful look. “Nobody said every goddamn card counter is smart about it, Saxon. One of our best pit bosses has fingered your friend for intensive surveillance, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. What you’re going to do, to be more specific. I want you to sit your ass in front of a console for as long as it takes to confirm that she’s counting. Then, I want you personally to escort her to the fucking sidewalk with a do not return sign stuck to her cute little forehead. Is that understood?”

  Nick stared back at his boss, keeping any sign of emotion off his face. Inside, though, he seethed. Carson would never accept a conclusion that Sadie wasn’t counting cards. The bastard had set this whole thing up precisely to force Nick to do something he didn’t want to do—something he didn’t think was right.

  But what choice did he have? His boss had given him a direct order, and Webb’s warning about not crossing Buzz Carson still rang in his ears. He couldn’t afford to lose his job, especially since the costs of his mother’s care would only grow in future. “All right, Chief. I’ll monitor her. But the pit boss might be wrong this time, you know.”

  “I doubt it.” Carson didn’t even try to repress a smirk.

  “Is that all, sir?”

  “Just do your job, Saxon. Do what we pay you for.”

  Nick rose and headed for the door. If he didn’t get out of there right now, he would deck the arrogant jackass, warning or no warning.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Sadie gave her head a guilty shake as she hurried past the hotel lobby to the casino. She really should be spending more time with Cassie, doing what her friend wanted to do. Cassie had put on a whatever look when Sadie opted for blackjack over the pool again today, but she was miffed and not very skilled at hiding it. Sadie, feeling bad, silently vowed to make it up to her friend. But she’d come to Las Vegas to break out of her stifling life pattern, and blackjack had unexpectedly become a major part of that plan. To the point that obsession came to mind—but that was too strong a word.

  Or was it? In those rare moments when she wasn’t thinking about Nick Saxon, her mind kept returning to the blackjack table. The smooth slide of the cards out of the shoe, the tension around the table as the dealer revealed his cards, the escalating counts, the high of winning—it was almost physically seductive.

  What she wanted for the rest of this fantasy trip was to sleep away her mornings, fill her afternoons with blackjack, and—hopefully—spend her remaining evenings and nights as close to Nick Saxon as humanly possible. If that meant she’d see less of her friend than they’d planned, she’d have to accept that as the temporary collateral damage of the crazy changes she’d found herself going through. Cassie might grumble a bit, but Sadie vowed she’d make up it her friend once they got back to Chicago.

  As she passed a wall of mirrors just off the casino floor, she gave herself a quick check. She’d thought hard today about changing her look, and had eventually decided to go for it. She’d tied her hair back in a tight ponytail, and had shunned makeup except for a bit of lip gloss in a soft pink shade. A royal blue tee shirt, Levi’s, and navy blue Crocs sandals completed her half-hearted effort at disguise. The look felt natural, and was close to how she looked and dressed both at home and at her office on the weekends.

  Sadie had no illusions that she’d fool any of the sharp-eyed dealers and pit bosses—especially Ms. Laser Eyes, if she was on duty today. But it sure couldn’t hurt to fly lower on their radar screens.

  The cell phone in her pocket started to vibrate. She’d stuffed it in her jeans when she decided to leave her bag in her room, wanting to be as comfortable and unencumbered as she could while she gambled.

  “How’d you sleep?” Nick’s husky voice sent a welcome warmth rippling through her chest. She hadn’t expected him to call until tonight.

  “Like a baby,” she lied. Well, maybe it wasn’t a total lie. Some babies did wake up at all hours of the night, didn’t they? “How about you?”

  “Barely got a wink. I couldn’t stop thinking about a certain hot number and a crazy Moroccan spa. I finally had to take a cold shower. Brutal.”

  Sadie laughed, feeling incredibly lighthearted. “Oh, come on. Surely not for a battle-hardened Marine.”

  “Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. But the night ended too soon for me.”

  “For me, too. But I understand why you had to leave. When we’re at the hotel we might as well be in a fishbowl.”

  “That’s exactly what it feels like,” he said, his voice turning a little harder. “And that’s why I want you to come to my house tonight. It’s not much to look at, but at least we won’t have surveillance cameras on us. I’ll throw a couple of steaks on the grill.”


  If she hadn’t been in public, she would have jumped up and down like a maniac. Even though she knew Nick had enjoyed himself—and her—last night at the spa, she still didn’t have enough confidence to assume he’d want to spend any more time with her. She cringed at the thought of being just one of what she was sure was a long series of notches on the sheriff’s proverbial gun stock.

  “That sounds perfectly delightful,” she said, trying to sound like hot guys asked her over for steak and sex all the time. “I can make a salad if you get the fixings.” Oh, hell. Did that come off a bit too eagerly domestic?

  “You’re on. I...” He paused for a moment, and her anxiety spiked.

  “Nick?”

  “Sorry, I guess I’m more wiped than I thought. I just finished a rough meeting with the chief.”

  Her heart melted. He had so much on his plate, especially with his mom still in the hospital. “I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do to make it better for you.”

  “I’ll be fine. Actually, I was just going to ask what you’re doing this afternoon.”

  Sadie smiled, deciding to lighten the mood. “Oh, I thought I’d confiscate some more of your casino’s money,” she said breezily.

  Another pause. “You’re playing blackjack?” he asked, his voice guarded.

  She had to resist the temptation to pull the phone from her ear and stare at it. Did he really object to her gambling? His tone made it clear he wasn’t thrilled by what she’d said, but he hadn’t talked about it like that before, even though he knew she’d been playing and winning. “Am I talking to Nick, or to the sheriff?”

  “Nick,” he answered quickly. “Look, don’t worry about it. I just thought you might want to catch some rays around the pool. It’s a gorgeous day out there. Sunny and hot.”

  “But what if I got sunburned? Wouldn’t that put your nefarious plans for tonight into some jeopardy?” She didn’t know what his problem was, but she was determined to deflect the conversation before it got any weirder. Not even Nick was going to tell her how to spend her time.