He continued focusing on Kramer’s thoughts. Kramer envied Aaron’s inexplicable connection to these two glamorous women dressed in the latest designer fashions, and it irritated him. What qualities did Aaron possess that allowed him to be graced with these women’s affections? In his eyes Aaron’s youth disqualified him from playing the high roller ticket. Aaron wasn’t famous, no obvious relation to the girls. Aaron must be spending enormous wads of cash, and therefore both women were high class escorts. Since he’d never seen or heard of them till recently, they must be new working girls in town. Kramer made it his business to know the more glamorous Vegas escorts.
Kramer’s primary vice were women. He couldn’t get enough of them. He didn’t particularly care for drink or drugs or any of the other commonly abused substances. Kramer filled his cup with beautiful women, and of that he drank to excess. Without mistake, Michelle was his focus, a goal to be attained. He addressed her first.
“Hello ladies, Mr. Pilan, nice to meet you. I’m always interested in meeting beautiful women.” He kissed the girls’ hands in a kinda-formal-sorta-creepy gesture. “I work in administration and security here at Caesar’s Palace. On behalf of the hotel I’d like to personally welcome you and attend to any special requests you may have. We like to accommodate our VIP guests any way we can.”
Kramer sat down with them at a corner booth in a quiet private area of the restaurant, and the waitress attended them immediately. He suggested, “Order what you like, it’s on the house. I recommend the martinis, my personal favorite, and the Chilean sea bass or the prime rib, they’re both exquisite.”
Ana took a breath to speak when Aaron ordered for her. “She’ll have the prime rib, a medium-well cut with the baked potato and a glass of merlot.” Ana stared with her jaw open in awe. He’d ordered everything she wanted, exactly as she wanted it.
Kramer smiled at her. “He must know you very well.”
Ana couldn’t speak except to nod her head yes. It occurred to her that this telepathic thing was pretty damn cool after all. To be understood on this level was simply wonderful.
He focused on Kramer, boring into him with an intent gaze. “Is this normal? Hotel management sits down to eat a meal with guests one-on-one?”
“Well, we do this from time to time. Your winnings have been significant here in our casino. We wanted to extend a special invitation. There will be a group VIP party tomorrow night. Of course, you’re invited, all of you.”
Aaron read Kramer’s curiosity as he caught a glimpse of the steel beneath Aaron’s boyish exterior. Kramer suspected there was a bit more to Aaron Pilan than met the eye. He began to wonder if Demarco’s suspicions were correct. Maybe there was something peculiar about Aaron.
Demarco. Where have I heard that name before? Aaron wondered what importance this Demarco character held in the situation, but he couldn’t catch any more of it. Kramer’s mind was inextricably drawn back to Michelle. It would be difficult to learn anything with her present.
He continued grilling Kramer, “I thought this was a group event. It seems odd you would meet us alone.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. He clearly read how Kramer crafted this invite simply to get up close and personal with Michelle, and size up her relationship to Aaron. This had nothing to do with VIP bullshit. It was all Kramer.
Kramer tried to reassure. “Of course, but we only do this with very special clients. You have been playing the table in excess of several thousand per day. This merits VIP platinum treatment. Your room tonight is one hundred percent complementary and I’ve taken the liberty of refunding you the first two weeks of room charges. I have a brochure here that describes some of the many benefits and comps available. Did you get a chance to catch the concert last night?”
Kramer was on a roll. The sad part: he believed his own line of shit. That’s what made for a convincing sell, the seller’s personal conviction. Aaron sensed the evasion beneath it all. But again, all he caught was Kramer’s intense interest in Michelle.
Michelle started in. “This is normal with me in Las Vegas. I have VIP treatment all the time.”
He caught a psychic kick from Michelle. “Aaron, mon choux, this special treatment is to be expected. Do not make waves with the managers!” She patted him on the leg in a motherly gesture. “I always have the VIP. You can share the VIP nightlife with me, Oui?” He grinned and accepted the hint gracefully.
Kramer perked up. “Is that a French accent I detect? Are you French?”
He followed Kramer’s mind as the pervert envisioned all the rumors of debauchery with Parisian prostitutes, and how especially freaky everyone says they were. Kramer’s obsessive fixation on Michelle deepened.
“Oui! Par lez vous Français?”
“No, no. I wish I had taken French classes, but unfortunately no. Perhaps we could spend some time together and you would be kind enough to teach me some French?” Kramer tested the waters, looking for their reaction to his subtle invitation.
“Michelle, his thoughts are perverse. He thinks you some French whore, a filthy plaything.” Aaron struggled against the predator’s urge to gut Kramer like a fish.
He smiled at Kramer, feigning a bland pleasant look. A tweak of interest kicked in from Michelle. “Can you not smell the blood and money? Like you say––we will take his shirt!”
She turned her bright gleaming smile on Kramer. “Très magnifique! I would like that very much!”
“You know what he wants. Why are you playing with the managers?” Aaron threw it back on her with a psychic bump of his own.
She pinned him with a stare. “He is no different from the rest. His aura shows me desire, and maybe a little Vegas corruption. Ce n'est pas la mer à boire––No big deal. This kind of man pays for my attention.”
She did not have Aaron’s unique ability as a telepath. But Michelle did have the advantage of discerning a special color spectrum. The colorful aura surrounding each person gave her insights into mood and character. She knew what Kramer was up to.
“Michelle, lover, you can’t see what I see. He is a problem. There’s some other agenda here. I don’t like it. He is different from other men, you must be careful. Remember the detectives?”
He could tell by the flavor of her thoughts she wasn’t concerned in the least bit. Corrupt men willing to pay for a few moments with her were common fare. She sealed the deal with Kramer. She caressed his leg underneath the table, creeping up towards his crotch. His cock stiffened under her touch.
Aaron looked to Anastasia and smiled, trying his best to ignore his master’s advances towards Kramer. He let it be, though he didn’t like it.
The predator growled its fury at Aaron for being so foolish. But Michelle had been taking care of herself for a very long time. Who am I to tell her what to do? She’s the boss.
The dinner flowed smoothly from there on out, with small talk about the numerous Vegas acts available through VIP perks. Kramer mentioned ‘Carrot Top’ and the ‘Cirque du Soleil’, everyone’s favorites. The conversation split off between Kramer and Michelle. They talked of Paris and London while Aaron and Ana got to know each other better.
He picked Ana’s brain to find all her likes and dislikes of music and films. They chatted about things that couples usually knew about one another long before making the commitments they had already made.
“How would you like to accompany me to the casino after dinner?” He invited her, knowing full well she would accompany him to the ends of the earth if asked.
“Wherever you go, I go. The casino sounds good to me.”
She only had eyes for him. Eyes filled with a hero-worship kind of adoration. He glanced at Kramer. The man’s obsession with Michelle paled in comparison to Anastasia’s fixation on him. Ana had committed her body and soul to his safe-keeping. He hoped he’d be up to the task of keeping it safe.
“And when will we make it back to the room?” Ana reached down between his legs, her eyes glittering with mischief as she sent him vivid
images of her mouth swallowing his cock whole. She wanted to serve him every day of her life, in any way she could. The girl radiated devotion.
Michelle distracted his focus from Ana with her blatant proposal to Kramer. “Would you like to see me later this evening for a French lesson?”
Kramer smiled wide. Looking to Aaron he asked, “Do you mind if I steal her away for a little while?”
Michelle zapped him with a psychic tag. “You do not mind!”
After a smirk in her direction and a wink, he addressed Kramer. “Of course not. I don’t mind at all.”
The predator wanted to reach across the table and peel the skin off Kramer’s grinning skull.
Michelle winked back at Aaron. “My French lessons are one thousand per hour with a two hour minimum. D’accord?”
Kramer noted Aaron’s non-chalant glance at Michelle. Obviously she offered French lessons regularly.
“Yes I think that would work for me. Why don’t we meet back here in an hour?”
Michelle smiled brightly and reached across to touch Kramer’s thigh as she pecked him on the cheek exclaiming, “Voilà! How exciting!”
Anastasia finally caught on to the situation. She leaned into Aaron whispering. “Michelle’s gonna give this guy a coronary. She’ll fuck him to death.”
He whispered back. “One can only hope.”
He decided to keep a very close eye on Kramer and Michelle. He didn’t trust Kramer. He just didn’t know why––yet.
* * * *
Chapter 9
“I don’t trust him, there’s something going on. I haven’t figured it out yet, but he’s hiding something, and it bugs me. I don’t want you alone with him for more than an hour.” Aaron cautioned Michelle in their hotel room as she prepared to meet Kramer.
“C’est Mignon, that is so cute. Is so sweet when you worry!” She kissed him on the lips cupping his face with her hands. “I will be fine. Don’t worry. And what can he hide from you?”
“I felt something there, but he’s slippery. He was too heavily focused on you. The man has a dark side. Please be careful.”
Michelle smiled and patted Aaron’s cheek affectionately. “They all have a dark side, but not as dark as mine.” She grinned, a hint of fang showing.
Anastasia winked at Michelle. “I could tell he was dangerous, not like you and Aaron, but if there’s anything I know well, its predatory men. I’ve got a lot of experience with that, and I know one when I see one. Kramer’s a predator, a very slick predator.”
“Men who play with me learn the hard way. I am not a toy.” Michelle winked back at Ana.
He kissed Ana on the cheek, proud of her for trying to talk sense to Michelle. He considered another round in bed. She looked so damn sexy in her new dress, and she kept touching him, running her hands all over him.
“You want me.” Ana rubbed on the bulge of his crotch, picturing in her mind the wicked things she wanted to do with it.
He smiled. She had learned to play the game. She knew full well he read the imagery straight from her thoughts.
“Would you have me beg for it?” She got down on her knees and unzipped his fly, running her tongue across her lips and teeth.
His cock stiffened immediately. She played this game a little too well.
He cleared his throat. “We better wait. I know you’re still sore. You need time to recover. You’re tempting me, but you can’t hide the truth.”
He watched her as she tried her best to suppress that depraved need welling up. She’d have to wait a little longer to be punished. Averting her eyes, she tried to direct her thoughts towards something else.
“I’m not hiding.”
* * * *
Michelle thought it best to make her escape while Aaron played with his new pet. He’d been crowding her lately. His protective nature could be stifling at times. She had almost ceased attending her regular dates since they arrived in Vegas. She itched to play with someone new. Kramer’s perverse nature fit nicely with her needs.
“I’m so very hungry. I need to feed. Kramer will have a very good time tonight. I don’t want to wait another minute. I send you a text when I’m finished. Don’t worry.” With that she exited, no chance for further warnings and attempts at changing her mind.
When they met at the entrance to the restaurant, she studied Kramer closely. No hints of violence colored his aura. He showed anticipation. She pleased him by arriving on time. He had a healthy measure of desire and some possessiveness, like a man preparing to test drive an exotic sports car. All these things were fairly typical. She saw nothing out of the ordinary to be concerned about.
While Kramer’s aura leaked a little corruption, sexual perversion, lust and greed, these traits were normal among her clientele. This kind of man could afford and was happy to pay for her attentions––at her price. He appeared no more dangerous than any of the wealthy customers she dated in New York.
* * * *
Chapter 10
Aaron and Anastasia observed the roulette table as it spun, the little white ball bouncing until it randomly found its notch on black nineteen. They watched the wheel turn over and over and over again. The gamblers placed their bets of stacked chips on various numbers.
“See … they bet on the big payout, the eight to one or seventeen to one. That’s a fool’s game. You can’t beat the house. The smart game is to play with the flow of probabilities and plan to lose three out of five bets,” he whispered into Ana’s ear.
“But how can you win if you’re losing all the time?” Ana puzzled.
“It’s your money management and betting strategy that makes the probability of winning much higher. You bet on the same color all the time. When you lose, keep doubling the next bet until you win.
Her brow furrowed in confusion. He explained further. “Look at the bar tracking all the bets.” He pointed to a vertical score bar that showed the last 20 spins of the wheel by color and number. “See how the red and black goes in strings of no more than two or three in a row? If you bet all one color, you will always win your money back by the fourth or fifth bet. This strategy has a ninety two percent probability of winning.”
He demonstrated by betting fifty on black, and the ball hit red. He lost. He winked at Ana and put down a hundred in chips for another bet on black. The stubborn little white ball landed on red yet again.
He was unperturbed. “Watch.” Putting down two hundred in chips on the same color, he won four hundred when the little white ball finally landed on black.
He stepped away from the table with his earnings. “Did you count how much I lost?”
She did the math in her head quickly and blurted out, “Three hundred fifty.”
“And how much did I win?”
“Four hundred.”
“I won fifty. The rest was a recoup of losses. Each time I bet I’m betting double to regain my loss, but the initial bet is my actual gain, fifty dollars.”
“Oookaay.” She accepted what he said, but was still slightly confused.
“Come on, I’ll show you how it works with a card game. It’s basically the same.” He led her over to the Baccarat tables.
“There’s only two ways to bet in Baccarat, it’s a binary game, just like betting red or black in roulette. Here you bet on the player or the bank, a fifty-fifty chance of winning. Same exact strategy applies.”
She looked to Aaron beseechingly, “Oh please, can I try? That sounds so fun!”
He could never deny her. She held his heart strings within her smile, tugging on them with her enthusiasm.
“How about we start out with $500? That’s a good conservative first bet.”
He smirked as her eyes popped out in surprise. He enjoyed challenging her delicate sensibilities about money.
He sat down with her at the table with a wink of assurance and turned to the dealer. “What’s the maximum bet?”
“Ten thousand.”
“Good. Here, start with this, and pick a side.” He pushed five
hundred dollar chips at Ana.
Ana placed her chips on player and promptly lost the hand to bank. She glanced at him nervously, instantly wondering if he would beat her when they returned to the hotel room. He smiled reassuringly and set another ten, hundred dollar chips on the table with a single word, “Again.”
She made a second bet of a thousand dollars on player, and lost to the bank again. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes and a tremble in her lower lip. She just knew he would hit her for losing all this money, they always did. She’d been beaten several times for losing-spending someone else’s money, but never as much as $1500 at once. It was a lot of money to her.
Aaron put his hand on her shoulder calmly. “Its fine, don’t worry. You can do this. One more time.” He dropped four, five hundred dollar chips in front of Ana and gestured for her to continue.
Her hand trembled as she pushed the chips forward to the player side of the bet for a third go round. The player won this time paying Ana four thousand dollars. The dealer asked, “How would you like that?”
Ana stammered, “Um … hundreds I guess.”
As soon as the dealer slid the chips at her, she scooped up her money and stood up quickly, ‘Thanks.” She backed away from the table with a massive sense of relief. He took her into his arms trying to calm her down. She was almost hyperventilating.
“Oh my god!” she whispered in his ear.
“Its fine, relax, you won. See I told you so.”
“Oh god I was so scared!” She looked wide-eyed, clinging to his arm as they walked away.
“It can be kinda intense when you’re throwing around that much money. We’ll stick with smaller bets next time.”
He stopped and turned to her. He pulled her chin up forcing her to look him in the eyes.
“Ana, I know what you were thinking. Lets get something straight here, I will never ever hit you. You have to trust me when I say that. I know you’ve been with men who hurt you, but I’m not one of them.”
The Nightlife: Las Vegas (The Nightlife Series) Page 6