All In: A Vegas Reverse Harem Romance

by Cassie Cole

  “It… It’s a performance!” I stammered. “That’s how one performs in Vegas lounges like that!”

  “Uh huh.”

  I replayed it in my head. I wasn’t more sensual than any other singer. Or was I totally wrong?

  Before I could ask him, we arrived at the diner.

  13

  Xander

  Everyone loved to rag on country singers while thinking whatever they sang was the height of class. I know I sounded like an asshole but it was tough not to while she tried tearing down my profession.

  Country music was still music. It just had different cliches.

  She didn’t say anything more to me as we went inside and joined Bryce and Eddie, both of whom were already dressed for their jobs so they could go straight to the casino after this. We ordered some food and made small talk until it arrived.

  Once the waitress delivered it, and we were alone, we got down to business.

  “So,” Bryce said. “We now know the general area the mules go to get the money.”

  I bobbed my head. “I checked it out when I left last night. It’s an employee access hallway down behind my stage. There’s a couple of elevators, some storage closets, and a door leading to the east loading dock.”

  Sage’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead. “That’s probably where they’re bringing in the money!”

  I gave her a no shit look.

  Eddie bit into his cheeseburger and wiped grease from his chin. “I’m not allowed back there. I checked the security coverage map. But I can work on getting access. Maybe switch shifts with a guy. Shouldn’t be hard.”

  I grinned around the table. “I’ve got a better idea. I ordered some new sound equipment late last night with one day shipping. It’ll be arriving on that dock tonight.”

  Bryce’s face darkened. “That’s not suspicious? Randomly ordering new equipment?”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Hey, I can’t help it if one of my soundboard relays short circuited last night.”

  “So what’s the plan tonight?” Sage asked. “You hang out in the loading dock while the rest of us stand around doing nothing?”

  “Easy now Priscilla,” I said. “You don’t always get to be the star of the show.”

  “We still need to act as spotters for the mules,” Bryce said. “So we can warn Xander when they’re coming.”

  “This loading dock,” Eddie said casually. “If they’re bringing in a bunch of dirty money, are they really gunna let you hang out there and watch?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it.” I spread my hands. “I guess we’re going to find out.”

  *

  Tonight was my one night off a week when I didn’t have a show. Usually I tried to go do something for me, but I’d enjoyed going to the Lucky Lucy and watching Sage sing. She was good. Not just a good singer, but a good performer. The way she’d made love to the microphone with her voice…

  She had a real chance to make it big, regardless of our casino heist.

  “Hey,” I said on the way back to the casino. “I was only trying to offer honest feedback earlier.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wasn’t trying to put you down.”

  “I know.”

  She didn’t say anything more. I wished I could make her believe me.

  I dropped her off by the employee entrance in the alley, then I drove around the back to the parking garage. I heard the helicopter arriving on the roof above me as I circled the garage for a spot. Some high rolling celebrities arriving for a night in the casino, probably. Yegorovich had been bringing in various Russian celebrities to show off around the casino and get their faces in the tabloids. Generating media buzz for the casino.

  I went in through the kitchens, shooting the shit with the cooks in passing. Me and the grunts got along well. It helped that I made an effort to learn everyone’s name. Showing people you cared enough to remember their name went a long way toward maintaining respect.

  I wasn’t a big shot yet, but no matter how big I got I never wanted to act too good for the little guys. I’d been that little guy for a big chunk of my life.

  My sound manager was up on stage, frowning at the circuit breaker from his wheelchair. “I’m still stumped about what caused it,” the kid said with an exasperated sigh.

  “Don’t sweat it,” I said. “Ain’t nobody’s fault.”

  “But if I don’t figure out how it happened, I can’t prevent it from happening again.”

  I felt bad for causing the problem and giving him so much grief. It’s a shame he was such a good sound manager; it would have been more convenient if he was lazy and just shrugged his shoulders at the problem.

  “Take the rest of the night off,” I said. “We’ll install the new sound relays tomorrow.”

  He mumbled something as I walked away, still focused on the breaker.

  There were a lot of moving parts at a place like this. Lots of deliveries at any given time for the casino, or restaurants, or the hotel. Forget the actual operations involved: just getting a place like this properly supplied so it didn’t run out of cocktail napkins was a carefully choreographed dance of supply chain management.

  There was lots of security surrounding it all, too.

  I paid a visit to the shipping and receiving manager, a friendly guy named Viktor whose office was in the first basement level and smelled like mildew even though the building was only a few months old. I liked Viktor. Sure, he was part of Yegorovich’s inner circle, but I couldn’t help but like him. He was friendlier than most of the Russian guys in management positions at the Volga, and he took his job seriously. Even if you took away all the money laundering aspect of the casino I could still picture old Viktor chugging away, making sure the trucks full of liquor arrived on time.

  He greeted me with a smile and a warm handshake. “I caught your show last night!” he said with almost no hint of a Russian accent. He was completely bald. He didn’t even have eyebrows, which made him look like a skeleton with skin. “I loved it. You are better each night!”

  A funny thing about Russians I’d noticed is that they were obsessed with cowboys and cowboy culture. Especially country music. I guess they thought it was stereotypically American.

  “I put my best effort forth every night,” I said.

  “Do you do house parties?”

  I almost laughed, but he was staring at me intently. He was serious. “Ahh, I used to. Don’t much have the time anymore on account of the show here at the Volga. Gotta focus on that, ya know?”

  He waved it off. “I’d love to bring you to my home to sing for my wife. Her birthday party is next month. A small, private affair.” He tapped the front breast of my button-down shirt. “How much cash would I need to stuff in your shirt pocket to convince you to come, huh?”

  Doing private events was the last thing I wanted. And if all went according to plan we wouldn’t even be here next month. But I wanted to butter him up for what I was about to ask.

  “Shoot, Viktor. For a buddy like you I’ll do it for free. Send me the details and I’ll see if we can make it work.” Before he could thank me I said, “Hey, quick question for ya. I’ve got a shipment coming in on the east loading dock in the next hour. I already notified security and sent them a copy of the invoice, but I wanted to make sure you were aware.”

  “Let me see.” He bent over his computer terminal and tapped some keys. I tried to get a look but the monitor was tilted at a bad angle. It wouldn’t have mattered even if I could—it’s not like they would put MONEY LAUNDERING DROP-OFF on the shipping and receiving schedule.

  “Here we go,” Viktor finally said. He frowned at the screen. “This says it’s arriving at the south-west dock. By the employee entrance.”

  “I submitted it for the east dock.”

  He clicked his mouse. “Ahh, here we go. Looks like security moved it.” He stood up and shrugged like that was the end of that.

  Crapola. Well, the good news was that if they didn’t want my sh
ipment arriving on the east dock it more or less confirmed some shady shit was going down there. But knowing that wasn’t as valuable as trying to actually witness it.

  “Yeah…” I said, removing my hat and scratching my head. “I hate to be a bother but is there any way you can override that? The east dock is right next to my stage, meaning I don’t have to lug that junk all the way across the casino.”

  Viktor chuckled. Have you ever seen a guy without eyebrows chuckle? It was creepy. “A big shot like you doesn’t have a crew to move stuff?”

  “They’ve got the night off,” I said. “And I don’t trust the equipment to sit back there for a day, know what I mean?”

  I could see his internal struggle. Did he know why the east dock was off-limits around that time? Or was he left in the dark about it all? I couldn’t imagine everyone in Yegorovich’s inner circle knew about the money laundering scheme.

  Stop it, Xander, I berated myself. Of course he knows. Just because I like the guy doesn’t mean he’s not a criminal like the rest.

  I couldn’t let personal biases affect the job.

  “You know what?” Viktor said. “I’ll do this favor for you. But only because you have the pipes of an angel, and I would hate for you to strain something moving this across the casino!”

  I slapped him on the arm. “You’re the best, Viktor.”

  I waited until I was climbing the stairs back to the main floor to speak into my ring: “Will let you guys know when I’m in. Any sign of the mules?’

  “Nothing so far,” Eddie said.

  The casino was reasonably busy tonight as I crossed from one end of the building to the other. A few patrons noticed me and pointed or waved—I always made sure to tip my hat at them, but I didn’t slow my stride. I crossed underneath my stage, then around the back to the special employee hallway.

  The hallway was 50 feet long. On one end were two elevators that serviced the penthouses and roof, and at the other end was an elevator that went down to the service floors in the basement: the laundry services for the hotel, long term storage, the security rooms where geeks stared at camera feeds showing every inch of the casino. The door to my stage—through which I had just entered—was in the middle of the hall next to the door leading to the bathrooms where the mules entered. And across the hall was a set of double-doors leading to the east dock.

  I twisted the knob on the door. Locked.

  I twisted it the other way, then pushed and pulled. Nothing. Crapola. What was I supposed to do now? Most doors in the casino were accessed by using the employee badge, but this door had none. Was there a special key required? I could go back to Viktor but I was wasting precious time.

  Before I could speculate further, the door opened. A grim faced guard barked, “What do you want?” His uniform was darker than the casino floor uniform that Eddie usually wore.

  “I’m here for a shipment,” I said. “Music equipment for the stage.” I tried to act like I belonged but I wasn’t sure if it worked. This guy had a gun on his hip and an expression like he wanted an excuse to use it.

  He reached for the gun… But pulled a walkie talkie off his belt instead. He barked something in Russian into it. A moment later I heard Viktor’s voice in English.

  “He’s good. Let him in.”

  The guard looked like he wanted to disobey the order, but jerked his head to allow me in.

  I let out a sigh as I slipped into the dock.

  It wasn’t very large as far as shipping and receiving docks went. There were two bay doors at the far wall where trucks could make deliveries. The ceiling was only about 15 feet high instead of the normal 20 or 30 for a receiving room where crates might be stacked high. There were some such crates organized around the outside of the room but most of them looked empty.

  Overall, this dock looked pristine. Not too surprising since the casino was new, but…

  “Truck should be here in a minute,” I told the guard.

  He ignored me and locked the door. The click of the deadbolt echoed through the room like a gunshot.

  Easy, Xander. Everything’s alright. Just play it cool.

  I wandered over to the loading side of the room until I was a safe distance from the guard. I scratched my cheek and whispered, “I’m in.”

  “We’ll let you know when we see the mules coming,” Sage said.

  I loved her voice. Silky and melodic, even just speaking into a tiny microphone. It felt like she was whispering directly into my ear. If I concentrated I could even imagine her breath on my skin.

  It was silly, but I couldn’t get her out of my head since watching her sing. The way she smiled with half her mouth between songs while the crowd cheered. How she tossed her hair at really energetic parts of her songs, leaving the hair strewn across her face while she continued to sing. The memory of how she looked and sounded clung to my mind like perfume.

  I shook it off. I wasn’t the kind of guy to get serious with anyone. It was tough when you were a performer, always on the road and rarely at home. Even though I had a steady booking at the Volga for the next few weeks, I had no idea what would happen after that. I might be up in Reno next, or out in Los Angeles. It made keeping a steady girlfriend tough.

  But there was something about Sage that made me wonder…

  Time dragged while I waited. I tried making polite conversation with the guard but he was in no mood. The walkie talkie on his hip crackled a few times but the voice always spoke in Russian. I wondered how much intel I was missing because of the language barrier. They could be talking about the money shipment at that very moment… Or discussing which dancer in the burlesque show had the best tits. I had no way of knowing, and it drove me nuts.

  It felt like hours but was actually only 15 minutes before Sage suddenly said, “I’ve got eyes on the first mule. Hugging the wall leading to the dock area.”

  It’s funny how easy it was to spot them once your focus narrowed from the whole casino to just one area. I may have been skeptical about the inclusion of Sage, but she’d been helpful so far. I had to admit it.

  “I’m moving into position,” Eddie said. That meant he was positioning himself to watch the bathroom hall itself leading to where I was, so he could confirm the moment they went inside.

  “Two more coming,” Sage said. “Both from the same direction.”

  The rumble of a truck engine rose as a truck approached outside the dock. I could hear it slowing down, then backing up to the dock, although I couldn’t see it.

  My skin tingled with anticipation. Would they kick me out of the dock area while they unloaded the money? They would have to, right? I guess it depended how obvious it was. And if the mules would grab their portions in here.

  But when the personnel door opened next to the shipping door, the truck driver who came inside said, “Evening. Got a couple of… Sound relays?” He squinted at his clipboard.

  This was my shipment. I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that I had an excuse to stick around or upset that it wasn’t the money. “Right here,” I said, signing the invoice in the areas he pointed.

  “Mules are by the bathrooms… And they’re in the employee hall,” Eddie said. “Out of my vantage.”

  They should be here any moment. Where was the money? I looked around the dock. Was it in one of these crates already?

  Maybe they would come in here and wait for it to arrive. I needed to make myself look like I had something to do so I grabbed the hand forklift and pushed it over to the door. The truck driver rolled it open, revealing the shipping container on the back of his truck, then opened the door to that.

  “That’s yours,” he said, which was pointless since there was only one shrink-wrapped pallet on the truck. I rolled the hand lift underneath the pallet, then pumped the handle to raise the fork teeth and lift the pallet off the ground. It didn’t weigh much, allowing me to easily pull it back onto the dock.

  “Thanks, pal,” the truck driver said as he left.

  The guard at the door w
atched carefully as I lowered the pallet. The walkie talkie on his hip crackled in Russian, and he put it to his mouth to say something back.

  “Guys, I’m all alone,” I said into my hand while the guard couldn’t hear me. “No mules in here, and no money truck.”

  “It’s been two minutes,” Eddie said. “They should be there.”

  The guard was looking at me again so I grabbed an exacto knife and started cutting away shrink-wrap.

  Where the hell did they go?

  14

  Sage

  I handed the gin and tonic to the smiling old man at the roulette and turned away. I didn’t even care that he didn’t leave a tip.

  “What do you mean they disappeared?” I said into my ring.

  “Why’re you askin’ me?” Xander hissed. “Y’all saw them last.”

  “They went into the employee hall and that’s all I know,” Eddie said.

  This ring communication system might be nice, but it wasn’t as convenient as having real conversations. I had to weave to avoid people so I could whisper, “Xander, can you leave the dock and go back into the employee hall?”

  “No.”

  I waited for an explanation but none came. Presumably the guards were watching him unload the equipment he’d just received.

  I reached the next table and started handing out drink orders, accepting their chip tips in return. Bryce was down in the pit chatting with another dealer. I stared him down until he gave me a worried look.

  Eddie cursed in my ear. “I can’t go in. That area’s off limits for me since I’m wearing a floor guard uniform.”

  Bryce must have left his conversation because he said, “Nobody do anything drastic. Just sit tight and see what happens.”

  I finished delivering my drinks to that table and glanced at the clock. It was time for one of my shift breaks. But instead of heading back to the locker room, I turned and went the other way. I couldn’t do nothing when we were this close.