“That’s right,” Sonny said, a congenial smile on his face. “I was just telling your uncle that his friend, Terrence Chatwin, might also be participating.” He was thinking that a little competition was the best way to assure Manetto’s participation.
“Oh.” I smiled at Sonny. “How nice.”
Sonny nodded. “I won’t bore you with all the details, but I wanted a firm commitment from your uncle before I invited anyone else. The tournament is limited to a select few who can afford to lose, but who are willing to take the risk for a chance to win the ten-million-dollar jackpot.”
“Ten million dollars?” My eyes widened. “That’s a lot.”
“Yes it is.” He was thinking that the tournament would lure in some of the biggest gamblers in the country, as well as several high rollers with money to throw around. He could clear at least half that in a week, and it would give him the funds he needed to pay his debts, as well as give him some leverage with his biggest investor.
My brows rose. “So it’s a winner-take-all tournament?”
“Yes. That’s what I was discussing with your uncle, along with the buy-in amount to play.”
“How much is that?”
He shrugged. “I’m asking fifty grand per entry. It’s a mere trifle if you win the whole thing, right Manetto?” Uncle Joey stared at him before dipping his chin. Sonny didn’t like it much, but he wasn’t going to let Uncle Joey get under his skin. “So what do you think? Are you ready for a chance to win it all?”
“I believe so.” Uncle Joey glanced my way, thinking that it would be fun to clean this guy out. “Are you talking to anyone else besides Chatwin?”
“Yes. I’ve been in contact with a couple of others, Timothy Branigan and Ken Miller, to name a few. I’m pretty sure Chatwin is coming, but Branigan hasn’t committed yet. Once I get a commitment from you though, it’s between the two of them, since I only have two spots left.”
Uncle Joey nodded, thinking Sonny definitely knew the high-rollers around here. If Uncle Joey didn’t know I could win the jackpot, he might not go for it. But the lure of beating Chatwin was almost more than he could pass up.
I caught Sonny’s gaze. “Are you playing in the tournament?”
Sonny’s brows rose. No one had asked him that, and he hadn’t expected it. “No. I can’t play in my own tournament.”
He was lying. He’d already tagged two of his best poker players to participate, with a third in the wings. He planned to win the money, even if he had to cheat to do it.
“But you could hire someone to play for you, right?”
Sonny’s brows furrowed. Why was I asking that? “I suppose I could. Not that I would.” He glanced at Uncle Joey. “You in?”
“What do you think, Shelby?” Uncle Joey asked. “You want to play?”
It must have been Sonny’s last thought about cheating to win that decided it for me. “I think it would be fun. We should totally do it.”
Uncle Joey smiled. “All right.” He settled his gaze on Sonny. “Put me down… and, while you’re at it, I would take it as a personal favor if Chatwin could join us as well.”
Sonny’s brows rose, then his eyes narrowed. Did Manetto have something against Chatwin? This could play to his advantage. “Certainly. I’ll let him know you’re in, and if he wants the spot, he’s got it.”
Sonny glanced my way. He hadn’t missed my exchange with Manetto and wondered if that meant I would play in the tournament. I didn’t look like the type to spend a lot of time gambling… which could be a good thing for him. “Then it’s settled. I only require a small token of five grand to hold your spot. You can pay the rest when you arrive.”
Uncle Joey’s face turned to stone. What had he said? Leaning forward, he caught Sonny’s gaze. “You don’t think I’m good for it?” Asking Joey “The Knife” Manetto for a retainer was an insult of the highest degree. It showed a lack of respect, and Uncle Joey wouldn’t stand for it.
Sonny froze. He was usually the one calling the shots, and he’d forgotten who he was dealing with. Ramos stepped from his spot at the door to loom over him, and Sonny’s stomach tightened. “Oh… I’m sorry, of course you are. Forget I asked. It was a slip of the tongue.”
Uncle Joey sat back with a curt nod. “Good to know.”
Sonny bit back a sarcastic response. He hated bowing to Manetto, but he had other ways to get to him. It had been a shock to see Jackie after all these years. Now that he knew she worked for the mob boss, he might be able to use that to his advantage. Did Manetto know about her past? There might be a way to exploit that if things didn’t go his way.
“Of course.” His voice held a tone of compromise, but it didn’t fool anyone. “It won’t happen again.”
“Good. Then we’ll see you in a few days.”
“I’ll send you all the pertinent details.” He glanced my way, and I tried not to flinch from the calculating superiority in his eyes. “I look forward to seeing you again as well.”
We all stood, and Uncle Joey motioned toward the door. “Ramos will show you out.” Ramos ushered Sonny into the hallway and closed the door behind them.
“That was interesting.” Uncle Joey sat down, motioning for me to do the same. “Now tell me what he didn’t say.”
“He knows Jackie, but I don’t think he knows you’re married to her.”
“What? But I’ve never met him before.”
I shrugged. “As he left, he was thinking about Jackie and her past. Now that he knows she works for you, he could use that to his advantage. I don’t know what he meant by that, but he—”
Uncle Joey jumped from his chair and hurried to the door. He continued down the hallway, meeting Ramos as he came back into the office. “Where’s Jackie?”
“I don’t know. She left right after she spoke to Sonny.”
Worried, Uncle Joey pulled out his phone and called her. She picked up, and his shoulders slumped with relief. “Jackie… where are you?” As he listened, I picked up that she’d gone home. “Why? What happened?”
I didn’t want to eavesdrop, so I glanced at Ramos, but he didn’t know any more than I did.
“Okay… yes… I’ll be home soon, we’ll talk then.” He disconnected and turned his steely-eyed gaze on us. “Come to my office.”
We followed him down the hall and took our seats in front of his desk. “Shelby, is there anything else you picked up from him?”
I nodded. “Yes. That’s all I got about Jackie, but I think there’s more to the tournament than he’s saying. It sounded like he’s got two or three professional poker players entered on his behalf, and he’s planning on one of them winning… even if he has to cheat to do it. I think he might be in debt or something, because he needed the money to pay someone off, and that’s why he wanted to win so badly.”
“That’s good to know.” Uncle Joey rubbed his chin and looked out of his window, lost in thought.
“How does Jackie know him?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. She said she’d tell me when I got home, but she didn’t want to talk about it over the phone.”
“Okay… that sounds ominous.” I suddenly realized that I knew next to nothing about Jackie’s past. I didn’t even know how long she’d worked for Uncle Joey before I met her. They’d only been married for about a year now.
Uncle Joey focused on me. “Did you pick up anything else about Sonny?”
“No. But I don’t trust him.”
“If he’s connected to Jackie’s past, I’ll find out more, as long as she tells me everything.” He glanced my way, wishing he had my psychic powers right about now. If he could hear Jackie’s thoughts, he’d know if she was hiding something from him. He considered asking me to go home with him, but that was just a fleeting thought he quickly dismissed.
He’d given her a job after her run-in with the law, and now sharp disappointment crashed over him. Had she told him everything? He shook his head. It didn’t matter. He’d move heaven and earth to get to the
bottom of it, and if that meant Sonny had to die, he’d take care of that too.
CHAPTER 2
Uncle Joey glanced my way, knowing I’d heard that. “Thanks for coming, Shelby. I take it Ramos called you?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Then I guess we’re headed to Las Vegas this weekend.”
“Sounds good, but I might need to brush up on my poker. It’s been a while.”
He smiled at that, and it relieved some of the tension in the room.
“Is Jackie in trouble?”
“I don’t know. But with Sonny showing up like this, it seems suspicious.” He caught Ramos’s gaze. “I’d like to know more about Sonny Dixon. He said he owns the Mojavi Desert Hotel and Casino. Why don’t you check him out? I want to know if he’s had any brushes with the law.”
He glanced my way. “Would you mind taking Jackie’s place at the front desk for a little bit? I have a meeting scheduled with Nick Berardini before I can leave. Maybe you can help Ramos with the research until then?”
“Sure.”
“Good. Then get started.”
He picked up his phone to make a call, and I followed Ramos to Jackie’s desk. As I sat down, I realized she’d left so quickly that she was still logged into her computer. To my surprise, Ramos grabbed one of the extra chairs and pulled it right next to mine.
Sitting this close beside him, I found it too tempting to resist inhaling his fabulous, musky scent. I tried not to let my breath out too loudly and give myself away, but his lips twitched, and he leaned in a little closer. “Is that better?”
I smacked his arm. “Maybe. Why are you sitting so close to me anyway?”
He raised a brow. “Manetto said to work together. You complaining?”
I swallowed. “No… ”
“Good. Let’s see what we can find out about Sonny Dixon.” He opened the browser and typed in Sonny’s name. It came up on Google, and the search took us to his hotel website, with Dixon Property Management as the owner.
He tapped the screen. “It looks like he bought the place about five years ago and upgraded the hotel and casino from the ground up. You’d have to have some serious money to do that. It would be interesting to know where he got all that money.”
I nodded, while Ramos opened another tab and typed in a public police records site. Using the state of Nevada, he entered Sonny’s name. Nothing came up, so he went to another website and did a search for criminal records.
This time, after entering Sonny’s name, a record came up showing that he’d been arrested for insider trading and securities fraud. The charges weren’t dropped, but his sentence only amounted to a short probationary period of ten months.
“Wow. You sure know how to get information off the Internet.” I grabbed a notepad to write down the names of the websites he’d pulled up.
“I’m surprised you don’t already know this.”
“Well, most of the time, I just look stuff up on my computer at the police station. Everything I need is usually there, but I didn’t know you could search for criminal records.”
Ramos turned his head to look at me, his face startlingly close to mine. “Since they’re public records, it’s just a matter of knowing which sites to go to. But there is a lot more I could teach you.”
“Yeah? I’d like that…” I suddenly realized that only a few inches separated our lips. His eyes darkened, and I gasped. “Wait… you’re still talking about research, right?”
His lips turned into that sexy grin that sent heat down my spine and made my brain quit working.
“Of course. Aren’t you?”
I snapped my mouth shut and turned my head away to break his spell. “Yes.”
With a satisfied grin, Ramos turned his attention back to the computer. “His sentence of probation for the charges indicates that he must have turned on someone, otherwise, he would have gone to prison. Let’s see if we can find out which company he worked for at the time of his arrest.”
The name, Linaria Investment Management, came up, and Ramos sat back in his chair. “I remember hearing about these guys. They were involved in a big scandal a few years back. The owner and his partners ended up in jail for securities fraud, perjury, and insider trading—all white- collar crimes.”
Ramos glanced my way. “Maybe Sonny was the biggest winner of all. If he had access to any of the company’s off-shore bank accounts, he may have siphoned all that stolen money into an account of his own, and that’s where he got the capitol to buy the hotel and casino. But, even then, he’d need more investors in order to purchase and renovate a hotel that big.”
“So you’re thinking he took the money the investment firm stole, and put it into buying and renovating the property in Vegas?”
“Yeah. That makes the most sense.”
I nodded. “That might explain why he thought about using the money from winning the tournament to pay someone off.”
“Maybe. But it doesn’t explain his connection to Jackie.” He caught my gaze. “Have you ever picked up anything about her past?”
“No. Nothing.”
“I don’t know a lot, either. When she first came, Manetto hired her on the spot, and it was clear they knew each other from somewhere. It looked like Manetto was doing her a favor, and it earned her loyalty. But she kept her distance until Carlotta showed up. I didn’t realize how she felt about Manetto until then. Hell, I don’t think she did either. I saw a side of her I didn’t know existed.”
I chuckled. “Yeah… I’m still a little shocked that Jackie hired that hitman, Mercer, to go after Carlotta. She was pretty upset.”
I glanced at Ramos, remembering that day because he’d killed Mercer before Mercer could kill me. It was the second time that Ramos had saved my life. I’d never tallied up the number of times he’d done that, but I knew one thing for sure… I owed him a deep debt… more than I could ever repay. My heart swelled with gratitude and—
“What are you thinking right now?” Ramos asked, his brows drawn together.
I blinked. “What?”
“You’ve got that look in your eyes… like you want to kiss me… really bad. I’m happy to oblige—”
I sucked in a breath. “What? No. I was just… ugh! You drive me crazy, you know that?”
He chuckled, giving me another grin before standing. “I’ll take this information to Manetto. If Berardini gets here before I’m done, have him wait.”
“Okay, sure.” My shoulders slumped. Thank goodness he broke the spell before I did anything stupid… like kiss him… that would have been a huge mistake.
Sending another grin my way, he stalked down the hall. I felt a chill as his heat left my side, and my traitorous gaze followed his backside all the way down the hall. Shaking my head to clear it, I glanced back at the computer and got busy taking notes on the websites he’d used. These would be great references for my own cases.
While I finished up, Nick Berardini came through the doors. His eyes rose in surprise to find me sitting at Jackie’s desk. “Hey Shelby, it’s been a while. How are you?”
“Good.” We spoke for a few minutes before he asked me about Jackie, and I told him she’d gone home early. “Have a seat, and I’ll let Uncle Joey know you’re here.”
“Oh… sure.” He was thinking that Jackie usually just sent him down to Manetto’s office, but I probably didn’t know that. Still, he hated waiting, especially when he had such good news to share.
Hearing that little tidbit lightened my mood, and I quickly called Uncle Joey’s extension. “Nick’s here with good news.”
“Oh? Nice. Tell him to come on down… and thanks for staying, Shelby. You can leave now. Just be sure to turn off Jackie’s computer before you head out. Why don’t you plan on stopping by tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“Good, I’ll send you a text with the time.”
“Okay. See you then.” I disconnected and smiled at Nick. He was wondering how I knew about his good news, so I hurried to exp
lain. “Uh… remember that I have premonitions? That’s how I knew you had good news… although I don’t know what the good news is all about, so you don’t have to worry if it’s private.”
“Oh… right. You can still do that, huh?”
At my nod, he realized he’d forgotten all about my weird quirk. After spending a few days with me and Ramos in Orlando, it shouldn’t have taken him by surprise, but it wasn’t something he would ever get used to.
After he hurried to Uncle Joey’s office, I straightened Jackie’s desk, turned off the computer, and stood to go. I hesitated for a minute to see if Ramos would come back out, but Uncle Joey must have wanted him to join their meeting.
With nothing left to do, I walked out of the office and took the elevator down to the parking garage.
I arrived home, opening the door to an excited woof. Coco, a beautiful German Shephard, and the newest addition to our family, rushed to greet me. He snuffled and woofed before licking my face, and I heard, you here, you here.
It still surprised me that I could understand him, but since it was mixed up with my mind-reading ability, I just went with it. “Yup. I’m home.”
He woofed again, and this time I heard play.
“Sure, let me change my clothes first.” It was kind of weird to be talking to a dog like this, but I’d learned that most dog owners spoke to their animals all the time, so it wasn’t too far from normal.
Now that school had started, I knew Coco was missing the kids, so I hurried to my room and changed my clothes. With him home alone, I was grateful we had a doggy door to the back yard so he could come and go as he pleased. We’d also upgraded the fence around our yard so it was more private.
I stepped outside with a diet soda. Coco brought me his Frisbee, and I threw it several times to help him release some of his pent-up energy. Twenty minutes later, he was worn out enough to rest, and I was more than happy to have a few minutes to myself before the kids got home.
High Stakes Crime: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Shelby Nichols Adventure Book 15) Page 3