* * *
By 6:30 the following morning Ross had put himself through a vicious, body numbing workout, one he reminded himself he hadn’t done in four days.
The endorphin rush helped bust up the stress of the day before and set his mind straight. Freshly showered, he’d picked up a quick breakfast at the cafe and headed back to his office to start clearing the debris known as emails. By now, his daily revenue report should be ready. He’d read it and then face a day stacked with meetings. Two days of meetings packed into one and dealing with the redheaded consultant who distracted him at every turn.
A slow panic filled his chest and he walked faster trying to burn the igniting negative energy. After the encounter in the conference room yesterday, the vulnerability Kate had shown had every part of him—every part—roaring.
Not good when she was tasked with finding holes in their security. His life was normally a roller coaster, but this? This was pushing it.
At least she’d given him a break and taken off when he’d suggested it. At that point, they were all too strung out to deal with the intricacies of casino security.
Focus here. Get organized. Over breakfast, he’d sort out the day. Take five minutes to figure out how to handle Kate. Or maybe he’d back off. Stay out of her way. Her and her slaying green eyes would be off his radar.
But that meant not seeing those slaying green eyes. Or her legs. Or her perfect little ass.
I need to get laid.
Sure did. But in this scenario, he needed to follow Don’s advice and let her do her thing. Between he and Don and their combined experience and intelligence, if Kate found something, it wouldn’t be major. That, he knew. Damn straight.
He strode into the executive suite, found Marcia already at her desk. Not unusual for her. Like him, she was a workhorse and liked to get a jump on the day. By now, she had enough comp time racked up that she could take three months off.
She held out a stack of folders. “Morning, boss. Here’s your stuff. Any schedule updates I should know about?”
“You’ll know when I know. Next week take a few days off. You need to use that comp time.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll get right on it.”
What a load that was. Ross snorted. “I won’t hold my breath.”
“Best not to.”
He held up the cafe bag. “I’ll be in my cave. Kate’ll show up at nine. As of yesterday, she said she wants to spend the day with surveillance so she shouldn’t need me. Which means, I have half a shot at getting through everything on my schedule.”
“What can I do?”
“Nothing you’re not already doing. I saw the memo HR put out about Dale. Let’s keep tabs on any employees who get press calls.”
HR had instructed all employees to forward any statement requests from the press to the company’s in-house public relations department. Ross didn’t expect a lot of calls at Fortuna, considering Dale hadn’t worked there, but some of the dealers had come over from Dominion and might be contacted.
He entered his office, went about his morning ritual of hanging his jacket and organizing the folders Marcia had handed off. The all-important revenue report sat on top of the stack in the tattered red folder marked CLASSIFIED.
Marcia and her humor. Kept things light.
He sat at his desk, dug his breakfast sandwich from the bag and the aroma of the spicy mayo and bacon sent his stomach growling. He flipped open the folder and scanned the summary report.
Whoa.
Revenue from yesterday compared to the day before was down. Only by half a percent, but since the opening they’d developed a month-to-date average and table revenue had either been flat or up.
Until today.
“Where’s this coming from?”
He dropped his sandwich, wiped his hands and flipped to the detail pages. Blackjack up four percent, Keno down one percent, mini-bac down twelve percent.
Twelve percent.
That number he hadn’t seen before. Mistake. Had to be. “Marcia?”
In seconds, she appeared in the doorway. “Yes, master?”
“Do me a favor. Have Jackie pull the hit sheet and check these numbers. Mini-bac specifically.”
“Something’s off?”
He glanced up. “I hope so. Wait. Never mind, I’ll do it.”
“Ross, I can do it. You’re already imploding your schedule.”
“I know. But this one I need to handle.”
Either that or he’d have a stroke while waiting on an answer.
He scooped up his desk phone and dialed Jackie, his numbers guru.
“Hey, Ross.”
“Jackie, good morning. Question on the reports.”
“Sure.”
“Mini-bac is down twelve percent.”
“I noticed that too. I triple checked it. According to everything I have, that’s the number.”
A triple check. And Jackie was good. If she took the time to triple check it, it had to be right. Crap.
“Thanks. I’ll call you back if I need anything else.”
He hung up and perused the numbers again. The error might have occurred before the numbers had gotten to Jackie. Machine error in the count room? Or maybe one of the vault employees miscounted the banks delivered from the count room? Hell someone could have entered a wrong number into the system.
Could happen.
But with all the checks and balances, someone would have caught it. He spun to his laptop, pulled up the reports from the count room. Identifying which table was short would take him all of twenty seconds. A couple of clicks later and there it was. MB18, Mini-bac18 down ten percent and Mini-Bac 17 down two percent.
Seriously wacked numbers. Ross sat back, stared at the hateful report that had just ruined his day. With numbers like these, a double-digit revenue loss when they typically only saw single digit losses, it could be a freak occurrence. One of their whales could have had a landslide of a win after Ross had left last night.
That, or the lovely Kate Daniels might have her first assignment.
* * *
When Kate approached Marcia’s desk just before 9:00 the first thing she heard was Don Sickler’s voice.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Twelve percent?”
Great. She’d spent the entire ride up here, prepping herself, getting her emotional armor in check after the scene in the conference room yesterday only to walk into a crisis.
Maybe it was a good thing. Something she could latch onto. Something to distract her from her friend’s murder. Something that would force her to ignore the sizzle between her and her client.
Marcia leaped from her chair, a cheery smile in place. “Good morning. How was the drive? Okay, I hope. I know he’s expecting you.”
Even as she spoke, she speed walked to Ross’s office and casually closed the door. No wonder he liked her. The woman had an obvious efficiency about her and multi-tasked like a demon. In this case, her chatter occupied Kate while separating her from the discussion happening in Ross’s office.
Whatever Ross Cooper did in his professional career, he should never, under any circumstances, let this woman go.
“Good morning,” Kate said. “The drive was actually quite lovely. The foothills are calming.”
“They are, aren’t they?”
She waved to the seating area beside her desk. Corporate’s mini-reception area with a loveseat and cushioned chairs. At the pace these people moved, they needed it.
“Have a seat while I let them know you’re here. It should only be a second.”
“Of course.”
Before Marcia could get to her phone, the office door opened a crack and Ross stuck his head out. Marcia swooped her finger to Kate. “Kate’s here.”
He ripped off that crooked smile she’d seen all over the internet and knew exactly why women dropped for him.
Dangerous.
“Morning,” he said. “Come in.”
He stepped back, locking eyes with her as she approa
ched and the heat poured right into her. Devastating man. Simply devastating.
Don stood by the window, leaning against the glass and Kate’s mind drifted back to childhood. Back to being warned never to lean on windows because she might fall out. To this day, she wouldn’t chance it. “Good morning, Don.”
“Ha!” he barked. “Helluva day so far.”
Kate settled into one of the guest chairs and retrieved her notebook and pen from her briefcase. Unlike many in the business world, she preferred taking notes in a notebook. She found it easier to flip the pages back and forth rather than up and down on a legal pad. Call her quirky, but it worked for her. The notebooks had gotten her more than a few stares from FBI agents and casino executives.
Ross? Not even a glance. Preoccupied obviously.
She tapped her pen against her notebook. “What’s up?”
Don grunted.
Whatever it is, it’s bad.
Ross dropped into his desk chair and scooted forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “Mini-bac revenue from last night is down.”
“I’m assuming it’s a lot?”
“Ha!” Don said.
Ross shot him a look, then came back to Kate. “Yesterday Don and I discussed Dominion’s mini-bac revenue falling short of their average. Interesting that we suddenly have an issue here.”
“Do you think you got hit?”
“That’s what we’d like to find out.”
Kate straightened. Oh, yes. Perfect distraction. Some good solid work to be done. “We need to look at each player’s individual winnings, see if we can narrow it down to one player.”
“Already did that,” Don said. “Biggest scores were between two guys.”
“All right. May I review the video? I need to study it for anything suspicious. Did the dealer see anything?”
“Nothing was reported.”
Don finally moved away from the window and headed for the door. “Kate, come with me. My guys are on video now. I’ll set you up.”
Kate stowed her notebook and glanced at Ross. “Email me the video. I’ve been building a database of suspected cheats and can run the images through it.”
“This could be a fluke, but if it’s not, I want it dealt with. Fast.”
Marcia buzzed him. “Ross, I have your conference call on hold. What do you want to do?”
“I’ll take it.”
“Okay. And, your mom called to remind you about dinner tonight. You have a dinner tonight?”
Ross’s head fell forward and he wrapped his hand around his forehead and squeezed until his knuckles popped.
“I forgot to tell you,” He muttered. “Dammit. Double-booked myself. What an idiot. Sorry, Marcia. Cancel anything you scheduled for me.”
Parents came first. Good for him. He’d told her as much yesterday when he’d lectured her about her brother blowing her off.
His lifestyle, one most would find exciting with all the glitz and glam and high stakes, came at quite a cost if he couldn’t take an hour to share a meal, to connect, with his family. Was it all worth it?
For her? No. Compared to this, that quiet life on a ranch looked like paradise. None of this constant running and stress.
Another reason to avoid personal entanglements with Ross Cooper. His lifestyle didn’t lend itself to serenity. And she needed serenity. Fresh air.
Stillness.
“That’s nice,” she said. “That you didn’t break your dinner with your folks.”
“My parents got me here. They deserve better from me.”
“Ross?” Marcia again. “You ready?”
Kate stood. “Don is waiting. I’ll let you go.”
He nodded. “Check in with me later. Please.”
“Will do.”
She strode to the door, found Don in the hallway rifling through a stack of messages. “Do me a favor, hon,” he said to Marcia. “Call this mope back and tell him I died.”
Marcia laughed.
“You think I’m kidding? I’ve told this guy a hundred times I’m not interested in untested software. Tell him I had a heart attack.” Don grinned. “Then send him to Ross.”
“I heard that,” Ross hollered.
Kate shook her head. “You people are insane.”
She’d certainly never experienced an office environment like this. Palpable stress, but they found humor in odd places. Gallows humor, she supposed.
Fascinating crew. As nutty—as politically incorrect—as they were, simply fascinating. At the FBI, no one dared speak to higher ups the way Marcia did, but the obvious respect, the chemistry of this team and their ability to get things done, triggered a bit of envy.
A longing to fit that Kate had never felt before. Not since her days working the ranch had she’d felt that sense of belonging. She may have had friends at the FBI, but it didn’t compare to this.
She wanted it. To be a part of something.
Don shoved the messages in his pants pocket. “Kate, let’s go bust some balls.”
Chapter Six
By noon, Kate’s eyes nearly bled.
Don had set her up in an empty office at the opposite end of the floor where she’d been staring at video, studying each frame, rewinding, studying again, fast forwarding and rewinding again looking for any tell. Any sleight of hand trick or use of illegal devices—a magician’s holdout or a Kepplinger—used to hide cards on their person and surreptitiously switch them out. If the two targeted players were cheating, she didn’t see it. And that was saying something because Kate could spot a cheat.
Between the rough sleep last night and hours of studying video, her mind and body dragged.
Unfortunately, according to Don, no one knew “shit about these jokers.”
And from what she’d seen on the video, they were simply two men who’d come to gamble and gotten lucky.
Extremely lucky.
She’d learned though that sometimes video didn’t catch it all. As sophisticated as the Fortuna surveillance system was, sometimes a girl needed to get into the middle of the action and hit the casino floor to play a little mini-bac.
Kate poked her finger at the screen. “I’ll get you.”
The half-closed door eased open and Ross stood there, one hand against the door, the other supporting his weight on the doorframe. She felt a little whump-whump in her chest.
The man had a way about him. All hot and confident and so very pleasing to the eye.
A word hadn’t been uttered, yet his energy stormed the quiet office, coming off of him like a rogue wave, taking out anything in his path. Whatever he was about to say, his mind had probably already skipped ahead three steps.
He cocked his head. “Who’re you talking to?”
“Myself.”
“Ah.”
No reaction to that. No questioning the crazy consultant. No contemplation. Excellent. “Do you need something?”
“No. Have you eaten? I have twenty minutes. Want to grab a sandwich?”
He wanted to take her to lunch. If twenty minutes could be considered lunch. And was this a pleasure thing?
More than likely, he wanted an update. Of course he did. Only he was too much of a schmoozer to say that.
She smiled at him and his eyebrows hitched up. “What’s the smile about? Is that a yes?”
Kate stood, walked around the desk and leaned on the doorframe across from Ross. The earthy scent of his soap reached her. “Well, sure. But I’m thinking you’d like an update on what I’ve found and you’re using lunch as an excuse.”
Because after all, his boss had installed her here and now it was time for her to pony up some answers. Answers she didn’t have.
“Think whatever you want. Maybe I’m just a guy looking for food and the company of a beautiful woman.”
Oh, the charm. “Whoa fella, no need to tax yourself.”
Ross laughed. “Kate, I’m hardly taxing myself. Now, if you weren’t working for me, then you’d be in trouble. Wicked good trouble if I had my way.”
The blood rush to her cheeks should have set her face ablaze. Kate Daniels, homebody, lover of stillness, had no business challenging a player like Ross Cooper. When it came to the art of flirting, he’d win. Every time.
Ross leaned in. Not too close, but enough that his presence, that sexual energy that oozed off of him drew her an inch closer.
The man was a master.
“I don’t need an update” he said. “But we’ll use it as an excuse if you want a reason to go to lunch with me. In case you were in the next state and didn’t hear him, Don came to my office half an hour ago screaming about his hack saw.”
“Hack saw?”
“So he could take someone’s hand off.”
Oh. Wow. She’d completely missed that show. She had taken a bathroom break. “I see.”
“In Don speak, that means he’s no further along than we were this morning and it’s aggravating him.”
From what she’d seen on the surveillance video, that wasn’t surprising. “The photos of the players from last night didn’t match anything in my database,” she said. “My boss is looking into it from his end. I also called a friend from the Bureau. They don’t have anything on them either.”
“So these guys just got unusually lucky on the same night.”
“Maybe.”
“You believe that?”
Kate rolled her bottom lip out, thought about it a second. “I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not done yet. Before you came in here, I decided a trip to mini-bac might be in order. I’ll spend the afternoon at the tables. Maybe one of them will come back.”
“We’ll have surveillance watch for them. If they come back, you can hop over to whatever table they’re at.”
“Exactly. Ross, if there’s a cheat in your casino, I’ll find him.”
* * *
At 10:00 P.M. Ross walked through the front door of his condo, tossed his keys in the tray by the door and flipped on the hall light.
Silence.
He tilted his head back, stared at the ceiling, resisted moving.
For once.
On the drive home his brain, normally sharp and snapping, ready for the next task, had simply quit. Short-circuited to the point where he couldn’t even decide whether he should go to bed or check his emails.
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