All In: A Vegas Reverse Harem Romance

by Cassie Cole

  And my lover.

  Honestly, it wasn’t really a decision. All I could do was picture Sage’s beautiful face smiling at me. I would never be able to forgive myself if I drove off into the sunset.

  What was the point in living if I wasn’t with the person I loved?

  Because that’s what was crystal clear to me now, sitting in the truck a few blocks from the casino. I loved Sage. The last few weeks had been the happiest of my life, and it had nothing to do with potentially ending up with a few million bucks. I was happy with her.

  I drove back to the casino without a single regret. If we were doomed, we would be doomed together.

  I pulled up to the east loading dock and backed up to the bay. I grabbed my laptop and went into the back of the truck, then locked the door to the cab.

  There was the sound of helicopter rotors thumping somewhere above, but I ignored it.

  I walked through the back of the truck, past the two crates filled with newspapers. I heard the bay door opening outside. I stood at the back of the truck, waiting for the guard to open the door. To lazily ask what I needed.

  It rose vertically, filling the dark interior with light. “Heh, you forget something?” the guard asked.

  I swung my laptop like a baseball bat into the guard’s cheek, bringing with it the sound of broken silicon and bone. He staggered sideways into the wall of the bay but I was on him, grabbing his shirt and wheeling him into the truck. He tripped and fell on his back, and before he could draw his pistol I was pulling the door closed and locking him inside.

  Pulling my baseball cap lower over my face, I hoped the cameras wouldn’t catch me. Although now that I was here I realized facial recognition didn’t matter because anyone watching the security feeds would have seen me assault the guard and throw him inside my truck.

  In that case, hopefully I could get inside before anyone came and apprehended me. How long would it take them to reach me? Two minutes? Three?

  Were they already waiting on the other side of the door with guns drawn?

  I opened the door a sliver, just enough to see down one side. Then I stuck my head out and looked the other way.

  Empty.

  I slipped inside and stalked along the wall to the service elevator. Didn’t Eddie say it required a special badge? I really hadn’t thought this through.

  I was wondering if I could convince a guard to take me down to S3 when I heard the gunshots.

  They were coming from the interior of the casino, judging by the screams that followed. I peered out the door by the bathroom hallway. I could only see a small square of the casino floor, but what I saw was chaos: people running in all directions shouting, falling to the ground and scrambling on their knees. Some casino patrons jumped into the hallway for cover, covering their head with their hands. As if that might stop a bullet.

  Four more gunshots, like hammer blows against a tin roof. Was this related to my team getting captured by Yegorovich?

  Then I heard someone shout, “FBI! Stay on the ground!”

  Officers in blue jackets with yellow lettering on the back ran across my view, guns drawn. That drew more screams than before as someone, presumably one of the Volga’s special guards, shot at them.

  Well I’ll be damned. Totally unrelated to my team.

  The service elevator dinged and the doors opened. I whirled, ready to be apprehended by Yegorovich’s men…

  And instead I sighed with relief.

  “Sage!” I shouted, running to meet her. I pulled her against my chest and held her so tight she squeaked.

  “Good to see you too,” Xander said. He turned to show us his hands bound behind his back. “Mind doing somethin’ about these?”

  “Don’t you carry a pocket knife?” I asked.

  “They took it from me. Sorry, let me catch you up. Yegorovich captured us. They took my pocket knife and everything else in my pockets. Oh, and they beat the living snot out of us.”

  “Got a few broken ribs, but we’ll live,” Eddie said with a grimace.

  “What happened?” I asked. “How did they figure us out?”

  “Don’t look at me!” Sage protested. “They knew about us for weeks.”

  Before I could ask about that the other elevator opened and three men with submachine guns jumped out. The Russians from the roof.

  “Fuck,” I said.

  Sage and I threw our hands in the air while Eddie and Xander desperately tried to show them that they couldn’t do the same because their hands were tied. The Russians walked forward slowly, speaking Russian back and forth. They looked confused.

  As soon as they heard gunshots inside the casino, they ran past us to the door to the bathroom hallway. One of them kicked open the door and sprayed a volley of bullets into the casino while the others took up positions along the side.

  While they were occupied, we scurried to the elevator and smashed the button for the roof. Even when the door closed and we were rising high into the hotel we could still hear the drumroll sound of automatic gunfire.

  “They’ve known for a long time,” Sage told me. “Yegorovich said our communicators weren’t encrypted.”

  I glared at Eddie.

  “My guy said they were encrypted.”

  “If we get out of this alive I’m going to pay a visit to your guy,” I grumbled. “I’m just glad you’re all okay. When Yegorovich told me he had you three I didn’t think I’d see you alive…”

  “Hey!” Sage shoved me hard in the chest. “Why did you come back! What’s wrong with you? You were walking into a death trap!”

  I took her in my arms. The anger in her eyes was fierce. “Sure, it was suicide walking back inside the casino, but I couldn’t leave you. I couldn’t run away from the woman I love.”

  I didn’t really mean to say it. Not consciously. But it was something I knew would take the sting away from her. Besides, it was true. I knew that now.

  The surprise in her eyes morphed into acceptance. “The woman you love, huh?”

  I scratched the back of my neck. “Yeah, umm, well I don’t know if…”

  “I love you too,” she said, smiling in spite of the gunshots down below. I gave her a quick kiss and then held her against my chest.

  “I’d love to join in the group hug, but…” Xander twisted to show us his tied hands.

  The moment the elevator stopped and we walked out onto the roof the wind struck us like a barrage of tiny needles, sharp and painful and cold. I hadn’t thought about what our plan was beyond getting as far away from the gunfire as possible, but now that we were here a new option presented itself.

  I pointed to the helicopter on the helipad and looked at Eddie. “You might get your chance to fly after all.”

  His face split with a huge grin.

  We ran up the steps and banged on the pilot’s door. Confused, he opened the door and said, “What do you—” before we pulled him from the helicopter and threw him to the ground. I checked him for weapons but he was unarmed. Except for…

  “Ah hah!” I said, holding up a pocket knife. I tossed it to Sage, who cut Eddie and Xander from their bindings.

  “Stay right here!” I said. “Nobody needs to get hurt. Oh, and I guess avoid going downstairs. It’s a mess right now.”

  Eddie jumped into the pilot’s seat and Xander took shotgun, so I hopped in the back with Sage. I took the rear-facing seat and she took the normal one across from me. The seats next to us were blocked with equipment boxes.

  “Can you fly it?” Xander asked.

  “This is a Bell 525 supermedium.”

  “That means literally nothing to me.”

  “It means it’s almost identical to what I got my training hours in. I’m good. Very good!”

  The engine hummed to life and rose to a crescendo before we lurched into the air, suddenly jerking to the left and then the right. Sage and I yelped out loud at the sudden movement before the chopper steadied out.

  “Sorry. Controls are sensitive.”

&nbs
p; Sage grabbed my hand and held it tight, which was good because I needed comforting too.

  I was second-guessing Eddie’s flying ability until he pulled us into the air and into a smooth turn. The tilt gave us a view of the strip below, where at least 50 police car lights flashed on four sides of the Volga casino. I couldn’t believe we had just been down there, my teammates discovered and captured by Vladimir Yegorovich. I couldn’t believe we’d gotten away.

  Up into the night sky the helicopter turned, away from the bright lights of the strip.

  Eddie pulled his helmet microphone down in front of his mouth. Over the sound of the rotors I could barely hear him say, “Roger that, tower. This is november-niner-seven-eight-papa-charlie. Just taking some tourists for a spin.” A pause. “You bet. We’ll avoid that airspace.”

  “Where are we going?” Sage asked.

  “Anywhere but east, where McCarran is. This vehicle has a sightseeing license so we’ve got free reign to go anywhere we want, but if we approach the airport we have to have a flight plan.”

  “You didn’t answer my question. Where are we going?”

  Eddie shrugged. “I’m open to suggestions. Wherever we go, let’s decide fast.”

  “The Guitar Center warehouse,” Xander said. “Down in Henderson.”

  “Works for me,” Eddie said. “Let’s get the hell out of dodge.”

  Only then did I sigh and relax back into my seat. “We’re alive, you guys. Can you believe it? We’re alive and that’s all that matters.”

  Sage was fiddling with the equipment in the seats next to us. Only then did I realize it was identical to the crates we’d put on the truck.

  “Guys?” she said as she unclipped the lid. “I think we have more to be grateful for than just being alive.”

  She flipped open the top.

  Money. Stacks and stacks of money. Perfect $100 bills in paper bands, then shrink wrapped into larger bricks.

  “Holy shit,” I said, removing a brick and hold it up to the cockpit. “The money! Holy shit!”

  “Holy shit!” Eddie said.

  I started laughing, and then Sage joined in. Soon all of us were laughing the laughs of men and women who had gone from one emotional extreme to the other and almost couldn’t believe it.

  Tears streamed down our cheeks as we flew south toward safety.

  52

  Sage

  It almost didn’t feel real.

  Minutes ago we were accepting the fate of being sent to Russia to become an angry oligarch’s torture toy, and the next we were escaping. Just getting away relatively unharmed felt like winning the lottery.

  But we weren’t just getting away. We were getting away with the money.

  I ran through the gamut of emotions as the helicopter flew south. Incredulous laughter with my teammates. Then weeping as the adrenaline wore off and my brain realized what had just happened, processing the bullets that had whizzed past my head and the beatings Eddie and Xander had taken. Grief for them, my lovers, and guilt at their decision to attempt to rescue me rather than save their own lives.

  It left me exhausted. Fortunately Bryce was there to hold my hands in his, lending me a little bit of his strength.

  “Let me get this straight,” Xander said. “Your roommate, the ditsy girl I saw in your apartment the other day, was an undercover FBI agent.”

  “It appears so.”

  “An agent investigating Yegorovich all this time. And you had no idea.”

  “I’m just as shocked as you are,” I said. “I mean, in retrospect I can see some of the signs. Secret phone calls and becoming a recluse on her laptop. But I still hardly believe it. She would complain when she broke a nail doing the dishes!”

  “The moral of the story is never trust and innocent looking exterior,” Bryce said, poking me in the leg.

  “Cheers to that,” Eddie said.

  Bryce let go of my hands and began counting the money. Not all of it, but enough to get a more accurate estimate.

  “Let’s see,” he said under his breath. “Each stack is $10,000, in a four by 15 grid…” He sat up straight. “Guys. This is closer to $20 million!”

  I sucked in my breath. “$5 mil each? Holy moly!”

  Xander chuckled to himself in the front seat. Eddie only grinned to himself.

  $5 million for me. From a practical standpoint there wasn’t much I could do with $5 million that I couldn’t do with $3, but it still put a huge smile on my face.

  We reached Henderson in 15 minutes. Eddie and Xander struggled to find the right warehouse, circling for another five minutes before finally seeing the big Guitar Center sign from the right angle. He brought the helicopter down in the empty lot behind the shipping and receiving area, bouncing roughly on the pavement.

  “Woah there,” Bryce said. “Gotta work on your landing.”

  “Don’t listen to him. I’m absolutely thrilled in your ability to get us away in one piece!” I said.

  Eddie glared back at Bryce. “That’s the kind of gratitude I was hoping for.”

  Xander chewed on his lip. “I wish I had my phone on me. I’d call Ernesto, the owner, and tell him why a chopper just set down behind his warehouse.”

  We got out and unloaded the two crates of money. Even with handles on the side I struggled to carry my side of the load. None of the boys called me out on it, but it was a good thing the warehouse lot was empty because we made for an embarrassing scene. We carried the crates 50 feet them set them down so I could rest. Then another 50 feet. Being barefoot certainly didn’t help since I’d lost my heels somewhere in our escape.

  It took us 30 minutes to carry the crates around the side of the warehouse, and then to the front by the main street. We wanted to be as far from the helicopter as possible in case someone came looking for it. Hopefully nobody noticed our escape—or cared—during the chaos at the Volga.

  We didn’t have any wallets or cell phones. It was almost embarrassing standing around with $20 million in cash and nowhere to go.

  “I’ll volunteer to get transportation,” Eddie said. He used the pocket knife to cut into a brick of cash, removing three crisp $100 bills.

  “That’s coming out of your share,” Bryce joked.

  “Put it on my tab,” Eddie said before walking in a random direction.

  We were exhausted from all the excitement, and the wind was biting enough to make me feel chilly in my cocktail dress. Xander took me by the shoulders and rubbed his palms up and down my arms, using the friction to keep me warm.

  “Don’t stop,” I said, closing my eyes. “Believe it or not, this helps a lot.”

  “That’s the idea,” he said with a grin. Then he grew serious. “Sage. I have to say somethin’. I know it’s real awkward on account of what you and Bryce said…”

  Bryce cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable.

  “You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met,” Xander said in a rush. “We haven’t known each other very long. I know that. But the last three weeks have been the most exciting of my life, and it has more to do with you than the heist. I… I think I’m in love with you.”

  Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. Like I’d known it all along, deep down, but hadn’t actually thought about it until now. The words weren’t shocking—they felt right.

  “I think I’m falling in love with you too,” I said. It was the truth, though I hoped he wouldn’t get hung up on the falling in qualifier I’d added.

  He grinned and adjusted his cowboy hat. “Well ain’t that somethin’.”

  “I like you more when your hands are moving though…” I said.

  “Oh! Sorry.” He continued rubbing up and down my arms to keep me warm.

  Bryce cleared his throat. “I’m not sure how I feel about this.”

  “Me neither, friend,” Xander said.

  “Guess that’s one more thing for us to figure out.”

  It took a couple of hours for Eddie to return. We were alarmed and afraid of the van that drove up u
ntil we realized it was him. “I walked four blocks that way before finding a drug dealer,” he explained. “I swapped one of these bills for smaller change in case they’re marked, then walked another two blocks to a 7-11 to call a cab. He got me to the diner where my car was parked with the bug-out bags. Then I rented this.”

  “Oh thank God,” I said. “My feet are frozen solid.”

  We loaded the van up and got on the road. Eddie and Bryce discussed the route in the front seat: we were sticking to highway 167 which followed Lake Mead east before curving north. I rested my head on Xander’s shoulder in the back seat and drifted to sleep, disturbed only by the dumps of the road.

  90 minutes later we were pulling into Moapa Valley, a shithole of a town with only one hotel. Eddie went inside and came back with a grim look on his face.

  “Only one room available. Double beds. We can draw straws to see who gets to share with Sage.”

  “Or I’ll pick who is worthy enough,” I said with a weary smile.

  The rooms had exterior doors, so we drove around the back side of the hotel and backed into a parking space right in front of our room. It was on the first floor which was good since we were bringing the crates inside. Eddie was insistent that we don’t leave them in the van, and nobody argued. I doubt I would have been able to sleep without the money within eyesight. We had to turn them on their sides to fit through the door, but fit they did.

  As soon as the door was closed Bryce said, “Uhh, guys?”

  I saw what he meant: the room had only a single king sized bed. Eddie sighed.

  “I’ll take the couch, and we can ask for a roll away bed. It’s better than sleeping in the van.”

  “How about some eats?” I said. “I packed some granola bars in my bag but I don’t have enough to share.”

  “We passed a pizza place on the way in,” Eddie said.

  Bryce nodded. “Pizza works for me. Think they deliver?”

  “No way,” Eddie said. “I’ll go pick it up.”

  That was a good point. Even though the crates were inconspicuous looking, it was probably safest if nobody laid eyes on them inside our room.