by Adrian White
“I’m burning in the sun,” said Katie. “I need to put some more lotion on my arms.”
As the car stopped, Katie became aware of the silence. But then she realised it wasn’t the silence she’d noticed, but the sounds of the desert. She was in a foreign country a long way from home, and she was alone with Bruno. While they were travelling, the motion of the car had reassured Katie that this was simply the next stage of Mike’s plan, but she felt isolated out here, and didn’t particularly like it.
Katie opened the car door and stepped out on to the perfect surface of the road. There were no cars visible in the heat haze hanging over the perfectly straight line of the highway. She opened the boot of the car and reached into her bag for the lotion. She poured it along the length of both arms and then across her shoulders. As she rubbed it in she caught Bruno looking at her in the rear view mirror. She wiped the remaining lotion on her hands across her face and forehead. She pulled out a light long-sleeved shirt and put it on, though it was clingy and uncomfortable on her arms.
“What’s the point of putting lotion on if you’re going to cover yourself up?” asked Bruno, when Katie got back into the car.
Katie started the engine and pulled away, without turning to look behind her.
“The point is,” she said, “it’s what I choose to do.”
Katie thought they’d have little difficulty with their act of not getting on too well together.
“Those cactuses are crazy,” said Bruno, looking at the strange plants that were scattered across the desert. They passed by the occasional billboard, and huge boulders of rock that looked as though they’d been thrown from the sky.
“Cacti,” said Katie. “The plural of cactus is cacti.”
She drove on for a while, and turned to look at Bruno.
“Why do you do that?” she asked. “You know the plural of cactus is cacti, but you have to say it wrong – just to be some, I don’t know, like there was some value in appearing more stupid than you really are.”
Bruno did his finger with the hat thing again.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Why do you have to correct me? Just to be some, I don’t know, like it makes you somehow better than me?”
Bruno slid down into his seat and pushed the hat back down over his face.
“Suarro,” he said from beneath the hat. “That’s what they’re called – they’re suarro cacti.”
Katie drove the rest of the journey in silence.
The noise in the casino was so overpowering that Katie didn’t believe the owners of the MGM Grand were aware of everything that went on in their hotel, but Mike assured her that they were.
“Don’t be distracted by the gaming machines,” he’d told her.
Katie understood what Mike meant once she and Bruno reached the quieter area of the card tables. It was hard to stay focussed when Katie knew that every move she made was watched and recorded from above. Okay, so they couldn’t keep track of every player all the time, but they could focus in on whomever they liked. The glass ceiling concealed a series of walkways that ran above the casino; security watchers looked down on the tables, and a series of cameras fed back to the main observation room deep within the hotel. Mike had told Katie repeatedly not to look up at the ceiling, however tempted she might be. And what did Katie do when she first walked in the room? Looked up at the ceiling, of course.
Bruno, to be fair, played his part to perfection – a loud, ignorant first-timer, kicking up a fuss about losing what for this casino was a pathetically small amount of money. His behaviour made it easier for Katie to play her role. She didn’t know how much of the antipathy she felt was towards Bruno, or the character he had become. The longer the day went on, the more repugnant Bruno was to Katie.
By early evening, Katie had had enough. She hated the unreal world of the casino. She hated the oxygen she knew they pumped into the room to stop her feeling tired. She hated the complimentary food and drinks; she didn’t want to be spoilt while the casino took her money. This wasn’t the America that Katie longed to see, and she hated Mike for bringing her here.
Katie looked over to where a crowd had gathered around Mike’s table. She knew what this meant: Mike’s winnings were large enough to attract the attention of players from surrounding tables. It wouldn’t be long before the watchers above alerted the security on the floor of the casino; Mike’s time was almost up.
Katie stepped up behind Bruno and tugged at his sleeve. He shrugged her off in a temper.
“We have to go,” said Katie.
“I’m not leaving till I win my money back,” Bruno shouted.
“You can’t win your money back, you idiot,” said Katie. “You’ve no chips left to place another bet.”
The players at Bruno’s table looked away in embarrassment. Katie tugged again at Bruno’s sleeve. Bruno lashed out drunkenly behind him, and his arm caught the tray of a passing waitress, sending drinks across the floor and splashing the woman sat next to him.
“Oh, fucking hell, I’m sorry,” said Bruno, and he reached for a paper napkin. The woman stepped away, and put up her hands in front of Bruno.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” she said.
Katie walked away in disgust. She saw a security guard hold his hand to his ear, and knew he was receiving instructions from above. A man who could only have been a pit boss walked purposefully towards Mike’s table. Katie moved quickly across to intercept him; she could see he was oblivious to anything else that might be happening on the gambling floor.
“Excuse me,” said Katie, and stood in the man’s way. “Could you help me please? My husband – he’s . . . I need to get him away from the tables and back to our room. I’m worried he might harm someone if I don’t get him out of here.”
The pit boss listened to his earpiece as Katie spoke. He was torn between the disturbance Bruno was creating and the growing crowd at Mike’s table.
“Please,” said Katie.
The pit boss couldn’t simply ignore Katie; she was creating something of a stir herself. The players at Bruno’s table watched her asking for help; passers-by wondered just what a woman like Katie was doing with an oaf such as Bruno.
“I can’t actually stop a guest from playing at the tables, ma’am,” said the pit boss.
“Oh, for God’s sake, man,” snapped Katie, and she walked back to Bruno. A huge round of applause went up from the watching crowd over at Mike’s table. Bruno had his back to Katie.
“Either you come back to our room now,” said Katie, “or you’ll be sleeping alone tonight.”
There were a few laughs around the table. They wanted Bruno to be gone, but they were beginning to enjoy the show.
“Aw honey,” said Bruno. He spoke in a Texan drawl.
“Don’t you ‘Aw honey’ me!” said Katie. “It’s your choice.”
Katie turned and walked away. She heard the laughter at the table as Bruno scrambled to catch up with her.
“My hat,” he cried, and ran back, but Katie carried on walking. She could see Mike over to her left. He’d left the blackjack tables, but he didn’t seem to be leaving the gambling floor. Players were congratulating him, and Mike was making a big show of carrying all his chips – but he was lingering over by the roulette tables.
I don’t believe it, thought Katie.
She realised what Mike was about to do. She stopped and watched as Mike dropped his winning chips on to a roulette table. Mike’s usual trick – whenever he did this – was to place them all on red, but Katie knew he could quite as easily bet everything on a single number.
Katie dropped any pretence of storming out the casino. She couldn’t see the roulette table for the crowd that had once again gathered around Mike. She stood still and waited. The pit boss and security guard were over to Katie’s right; they could do nothing now that Mike’s success had become such a public floorshow. There was a hush amongst the crowd, and Katie guessed they’d spun the wheel.
Bruno came up behind Katie
, and tried to usher her towards the exit. She refused to budge.
“We have to get out of here,” Bruno said quietly.
He grabbed Katie’s arm, but she shook him off. Katie had to wait to see the outcome of Mike’s play.
“Katie,” said Bruno.
Another cheer went up around Mike, and the noise released the tension in the room. Katie and Bruno walked off the floor and up to their room.
As Bruno shut the hotel bedroom door, Katie knew this wasn’t going to go well. She could see that Bruno was still high, and when Bruno was high, bad things happened around him.
“Oh yes!” said Bruno. He dramatically rested the back of his head against the door. “We did it! We fucking did it, man!”
This was always going to be the difficult moment in Mike’s plan – when Katie was left alone with Bruno in private. She knew what Bruno’s mind would turn to; he never stopped thinking about it anyway, so why should he stop now? He was too high to expect anything else.
“You mean Mike did it,” she said.
“Mike did it, you did it – we all did it. We’re a fucking team,” said Bruno, “that’s what we are.”
Some team, thought Katie.
“Well, it’s done now,” she said. “Mike proved it could be done.”
“You were fucking great, Katie,” said Bruno. “They didn’t have a clue, did they?”
“And do you think they bug the hotel rooms?” asked Katie.
“What?”
“Do you think they record the conversations of their guests? Or watch their reaction on closed circuit TV?”
“What do you mean?” asked Bruno.
“I mean,” said Katie, “ that you and I have just lost a fair bit of money down there – and we come back here and celebrate?”
“I dunno,” said Bruno and then “No-o. They can’t do that. Do you think? No, they’d have laws.”
“I’d say they could do whatever they like,” said Katie, “so long as nobody finds out. They’ve just been taken for a lot of money; my guess is they’d like to know how.”
“They can’t arrest you for counting cards,” said Bruno.
“But they don’t like it,” said Katie, “and they don’t believe it can be done.”
“But it’s going to be Mike they’re watching, and he’s left the hotel.”
“We hope,” said Katie.
“We know,” said Bruno. “We watched him leave. Come on, Katie, loosen up – we’ve done it.”
He threw his ridiculous ten-gallon hat across the room and strode over to Katie. He reached for her right hand and, although she stepped back, he pulled her towards the bedroom.
Katie resisted as the panic hit her inside. She knew this scene; she knew the inevitability of this scene, but had completely underestimated the strength of Bruno’s presumption.
“What are you doing?” she asked. She tried desperately to keep her voice at a level pitch.
“Come on,” said Bruno again, “you can drop the act now – we’ve done it. All we have to do now is get the hell out of Dodge – by which I mean we check the fuck out of this grotesque hotel – and fuck off back to Manchester. Nice Guy Mike isn’t going to stick one over on us, certainly not on me and he’s too smitten to cheat on you. So I say we go in there – ” Bruno indicated the bedroom with a nod of his head – “and we fuck each other’s brains out like I’ve wanted to ever since we first met.”
Bruno pulled Katie towards him and put his arms around her waist. He still held her right hand and this forced Katie’s arm up behind her back.
Katie prayed the panic wasn’t written on her face. How had this happened so quickly? Less than ten seconds to lose a lifetime of control? Was that all it took?
Katie tried moving her arm and felt the strength in Bruno’s grip. Would he really force her against her will? Katie doubted it, though if Bruno knew their happy threesome was at an end, then why not – nothing to lose at the last chance saloon? Katie looked into Bruno’s eyes but she saw no clues – he was high. Of course he was high; Bruno was always high. He was high on the drink and the oxygen downstairs, high on the performance of the past few hours – although it couldn’t have taken much for Bruno to act the loud-mouthed buffoon. He was high on the money – Bruno was just plain high, and nothing Katie could say would reach him.
“You’ve been fucking asking for it for years,” said Bruno, “hiding behind Mike all that time. But you’re not with Mike, are you? So why not?”
“I haven’t – ” began Katie, but she stopped and closed her eyes. Katie’s own act from downstairs – the frosty bitch partner – gave her a few seconds’ grace at most.
Please let me get out of this, she thought.
Was it so wrong not to be with someone? To never have sex?
There was safety at first in all their friends at college, but as the numbers had dwindled it became harder for Katie to hide. So she used Mike, who was too sweet either to notice or to complain. Katie used Mike to pass for normal – to pass for what the likes of Bruno would consider normal.
Katie let her head drop to Bruno’s chest, and let her body relax into his arms.
“Bruno,” she said, “I’ve thought of this too, believe me. How many times are we alone and away from Mike? Just this one time – and you’re right about Mike; I’m not with him at all.”
“I knew it!” said Bruno. He released his grip on Katie and paced across the room. Bruno let Katie go without a second thought, because he knew he could grab her again whenever he liked.
Katie took her opportunity.
“Believe me, Bruno,” she said. “I’ve thought about this – about us – and I want it the same as you. But not here, not while we’re still in this hotel; not while we’re still in the game.”
“Where then?” asked Bruno. “And when?”
“The desert,” said Katie. “I had this idea – we meet Mike now to say goodbye, and then we drive back to Phoenix. I was going to suggest we pull over from the highway, out in the desert, under the stars – away from all this. Out there with just the two of us – that’s how I’d pictured it. Maybe I was just being silly,” she added.
“Are you serious?” asked Bruno. “I mean – ”
“Of course,” said Katie. “Do you really think it hadn’t crossed my mind? Out alone in the desert with you? Of course I’d thought about it – that’s why I was so irritable this morning. But I want it to be right – we still have to get out of here; we still have to do our leaving act together. Everything we can do to distract them from Mike, the safer it is for all of us. I’d say he’s pretty lonely right now.”
“You’re right,” said Bruno, “you’re right. We’ve got to be professional about this.”
As though being professional included the promise of a fuck in the desert, thought Katie, but it worked.
Bruno grabbed their cases – they hadn’t unpacked because they knew they wouldn’t be staying the night. Katie kicked off the dress shoes she’d worn down at the casino, and changed back into the comfortable driving shoes from earlier in the day.
The desk clerk at reception wasn’t surprised when Katie and Bruno asked to check out the hotel; he was too busy to care.
“I’ll have to charge you for the full night’s stay though, ma’am,” he said to Katie.
“I’ll bet you do,” said Bruno. “As if you haven’t taken enough of our money already. And stop calling her ma’am, can’t you? Does she look like your ma’am?”
Katie paid the bill in cash.
“Can we offer you this memento of your stay with us?” the clerk asked Katie. He held up a metal replica of the hotel. “It’s a model of the MGM Grand.”
“Is it worth anything?” asked Bruno.
“Well,” said the clerk, “we are moving to a brand new building, so who knows – maybe in a year or two?”
“No thanks,” said Katie, but Bruno reached across her.
“We’ll take it,” he said. “You fucking owe us big time, man. Come on, let’s
get out of here.” He grabbed the model and picked up the bags. “Where’s our fucking car? You! Yeah you, ya little prick! Go and fetch our car!”
Katie had to admit Bruno was good, and she was relieved to be getting out of here.
When they met up with Mike, Katie relaxed a little, though she knew she still had to get to Phoenix.
“The roulette wasn’t part of the plan,” she said to Mike.
“Oh, you saw that, did you?”
“It was stupid,” said Katie.
“What was stupid?” asked Bruno.
“Mike placing all his chips on the roulette table.”
“I won, didn’t I?” said Mike. “That doubled our winnings in one stroke.”
“But you could have lost everything,” said Katie, “including our stake money.”
“But I didn’t,” said Mike, “and now we stand to make a fortune. I’ve paid off the Chinese, so we’re in the clear – everything from here on in is pure profit.”
“But what if you’d lost?”
“But I didn’t,” repeated Mike. “Besides, it helped me get out of there. They can’t be seen to have a problem with someone winning at the roulette table, and it took their attention away from the cards. They cashed in my chips without blinking. Come on, let’s order some drinks and food – I’m starving.”
“I don’t know why we can’t just leave now,” said Bruno. “I mean, forget about the second part of the plan.”
Bruno knew why Mike was staying in the States and he understood the potential of what Mike had in mind. He also knew it was illegal, but this wasn’t what was bothering Bruno – now they had some money, Bruno would have settled for less and the chance of seeing Mike again.
“Fuck it!” he said. “I’m going to powder my nose. I don’t want any food – would you order me a beer? Several beers, actually.” He picked up the metal model of the MGM Grand; it was tacky but Bruno had taken a liking to it.
“Is he okay?” Mike asked Katie, once Bruno had left the table. “How the hell did he get hold of drugs? I didn’t know he had any money on him.”