Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas Part 21

"I don't hear anything," Marcus breathed as if reading my mind. He insisted on entering first and I clung to the back of his s.h.i.+rt as he moved forward.

I spotted two suitcases on the floor, the one I had brought and the one they had brought to fool Anatoly. Marcus knelt down by the former...the lining had been ripped open. They probably would have slashed open the lining in both bags if the latter hadn't already been torn.

My knees buckled underneath me and I dropped down onto the stripped bed.

Marcus checked inside the bathroom "Uh-uh, no!" he cried.

I was immediately on my feet again. The bathroom was a mess. They had dumped my leave-in-conditioner into the sink. "I don't care how ruthless you are, you do not mess with a sista's hair products!" Marcus snapped I spun around and went back into my room, trampling my own clothes as I went to the closed door that adjoined mine with Marcus and Dena's. Marcus wasn't far behind, muttering (more to himself than to me), "They better not have gone through my stuff because if they lay a hand on my b.u.mble & b.u.mble no one will be safe."

I put my hand on the doork.n.o.b...

...and heard the jagged breath.

Right behind the door in the next room. It hadn't been loud but I had heard it. A quick glance at Marcus' face told me he had heard it too.

My heart, which had been breaking all the speed limits, came to an emergency stop.

I instinctively reached inside my purse. I felt the cool steel against my fingers.

As I pulled out the gun my hand was shaking so badly you would have thought I was going through a heroin withdrawal.

I heard the door on the other side of mine creak. Was he closing it or was he going to come into this room? I glanced down at my shaking gun and then at Marcus. I mouthed the word, "run."

"You run," he whispered as he gently took the gun out of my hand. "I'm going to get my b.u.mble & b.u.mble."

"Wait!" I hissed as he c.o.c.ked the gun, threw open the door and leaped into the room, his arms straight in front of him pivoting this way and that in the way we had all seen people do in every action movie ever made. Clothes were strewn all over the floor but the room was empty.

I turned toward the door leading to the hall. It was slowly closing the way weighted doors in hotels do when you let them close behind you on their own. The intruder had already left. I rushed to the door and Marcus rushed to the bathroom, gun outstretched. "Clear!" he shouted. But I wasn't paying attention. I pulled open the door and jumped into the hall. No one to my right. I heard the sound of an elevator ding at the far end of the hall to my left. I turned just as the doors opened. A dark haired man with his back to me, wearing a long sleeved black t-s.h.i.+rt, stepped onto the elevator. He was carrying the case to my MacBook.

At least you're traveling light.

That's what he had meant! I had left the MacBook in my room!

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h!" I screamed.

But, the elevator closed before I could even get close.

Marcus came up beside me, the gun now at his side.

"I thought losing Anatoly was the worst things that could happen to me," I said.

Marcus put his arm around my shoulders. "It's going to be okay. They didn't mess with my products so we can share tomorrow."

"I'm not worried about my hair, Marcus! They took my MacBook which means they now have every electronic copy of my unfinished ma.n.u.script and I don't have a hardcopy!"

"Oh...that is a little worse than losing your leave-in-conditioner."

"f.u.c.k these a.s.sholes." I turned to Marcus and he literally stepped back from the force of my anger. "They want to go nuclear?" I asked. "Fine, I'm ready blow this s.h.i.+t up, Right. Now."

CHAPTER 19.

"I hate it when my loved ones give me a hard time about my reckless behavior. So now I pick up all my dates outside of Al-Anon meetings. The trick is to get 'em before they walk in the door."

--Death Of The Party Marcus called Dena and caught her up. She was now hightailing it back to the hotel from the trade show. We went down to the casino to look for the rest of our party. We spotted Leah and Mary Ann at the c.r.a.ps table and Leah was jumping up and down like a little girl who had just been told she was going to get a box full of Barbies. I found myself hanging back. Clearly Dena hadn't filled them in on all the drama with Natasha and Anatoly and I didn't want to ruin my sister's good time. I had checked her room and it was still in tact. The intruder got what he wanted so it was best not to interrupt my sister's rare moment of giddiness. Marcus and I found a spot against the wall and ordered drinks from a pa.s.sing c.o.c.ktail waitress.

"I have to go back to Alex's," I said as I watched Leah take the dice again.

"Why?" Marcus asked. He was leaning against the wall as if it was the only thing holding him up. In his hand was a plastic bag filled with his hair products. He had decided it wouldn't leave his sight for the rest of the trip.

"If Natasha's right and he's behind this then I have to get close enough to prove it. If she's wrong then he's the only one who has offered to help me! And I have to find out where in the h.e.l.l Anatoly stored that information."

"Well they've stolen both your computers and your storage devices and undoubtedly they've stolen his laptop too so..."

"So Anatoly's not stupid! These people have totally underestimated him! If he was going to store top secret information he wouldn't put it on his girlfriend's computer and he wouldn't store it with all our other USB sticks!"

The waitress arrived with our two cosmopolitans and we clinked our plastic gla.s.ses together before we knocked them back.

"You've been living with him for more than a year," Marcus noted. "You never noticed any special, secret hiding place...your sister is moving to the blackjack table."

"I see that. And I don't think you find secret hiding places when you're not looking for them because that's what makes them secret," I countered. "He would hide it somewhere I would never check...never even consider going near."

Marcus raised his eyebrows. "The laundry?"

"Oh shut up!" I downed the rest of my drink and started looking around for another c.o.c.ktail waitress. "We eat the same food, share the same bathroom, listen to the same music, sleep in the same bed. What else..."

"What?"

I squeezed the empty cup in my hand until it made that plastic scrunching sound. With my free hand I pulled out my phone. "Mama?" I said when my mother answered my call. "It's me."

"Mommehlah, where are you? Your sister called and said you both were staying through Monday? You're not getting married again are you? There's only so much an old woman can take before she starts getting ulcers!"

I glanced over at Leah. She was studying her cards with an intensity that implied that the stakes were maybe a little higher than they should be. I wondered how much this little rebellion was going to cost her.

"Mama everything's fine...but I need one more favor. In my garage there is a box of books. The box is marked Library and on the top of the pile are a few books on soccer. I need you to look to see if there's anything inside those books."

"Of course there's going to be something inside those books! Pages and pages of something!"

"No, no, something else. Look, if you see any cars parked anywhere near my place or anyone even slightly suspicious hanging around you just drive on past. But if not, get those soccer books. Please?"

"The things I do for you, mommelah! If we were Catholic I'd be a saint already!"

I almost pointed out that one would have to die for that honor but decided against it. "Thank you, Mama, I owe you."

I hung up the phone.

"You would never open a soccer book," Marcus said thoughtfully as he finished off his drink.

"No, I wouldn't. Not unless Anatoly's life...and my ma.n.u.script, depended on it."

"Found you."

We both looked up to see Dena approaching. She pushed herself between us and leaned lightly on her cane. "Well you two have had quite the day, haven't you?" She said irritably. "I can't believe you didn't come right back here after Natasha tried to kill you."

"I didn't have a choice! Anatoly took us out to Red Rock. Anyway, he promised Natasha wouldn't try to kill us again."

"Oh, gee, really? Was it a pinky promise?" Dena asked. "Too bad he couldn't promise that no one would break into our room. Did you happen to see if this intruder made off with my leather underwear?"

"I don't think so," Marcus said. "I'm not sure the black market value for leather panties is all that high. Of course there are fetis.h.i.+sts who have a thing for used panties..."

"Yeah, but those guys are usually into granny panties," Dena said. Our waitress came back and Dena took one of the drinks for herself. "How 'bout my s.e.x toys? Did he get those?"

The waitress gave her a funny look and took off quickly.

"I did see those." Marcus said, taking a swig of the remaining drink. "I think they're all there but a few of them, like your vibrator, had been thrown on the floor."

Dena made a face. "Looks like I'm going to have to soak that in alcohol before I bring it anywhere near me again."

"You could," Marcus said, "or you could just toss it and try to make do with the remaining twelve you have at home."

Dena eyed the plastic bag in Marcus' hand. "What's that?"

"Hair products."

"Well, all right then," Dena flashed us a relieved smile. "We've got leather underwear, s.e.x toys, hair products and a gun. That pretty much covers the necessities, right? Oh," she reached into her large hobo bag and pulled out her iPad, "we also have this. I can't say I have your ma.n.u.script stored on it but at least we do have access to the Internet."

I exhaled in relief. It was a small thing since I still had my smartphone but at this point every little advantage helped.

"Sophie wants to go see Alex again."

Dena hesitated. "That's probably not such a bad idea."

Marcus' mouth dropped open in shock. "But you're always against Sophie taking risks!"

"And she never listens to me," Dena pointed out. "Look, Sophie hasn't been arrested yet so clearly this Alex guy has followed through on at least one promise. Find out from him if there's anything else we need to worry about and if there isn't lets get the h.e.l.l outta Dodge."

"But-" Marcus began and then stopped short. "Look!" he said in an urgent whisper.

I followed Marcus' gaze to the middle of the crowded casino. And there he was, standing next to the roulette table.

"Oh my G.o.d," I hissed. "It's Bo-Bo the gay mafia thug!"

Dena lifted her eyebrows and took a sip of her c.o.c.ktail. "Well that's a new one."

"Should we get out of here?" I asked.

"No," Marcus said thoughtfully. "Go deal with Alex, I'll deal with this guy."

"You can't be serious! Natasha could be around!"

"Maybe...but I doubt it."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I do. He may be a fighter by profession but he's a lover at heart. He just needs the right guy to bring it out in him."

"Marcus," I stepped in front of him and grabbed both of his arms. "This isn't like the time you decided to try out that gay biker bar. This guy really is a violent criminal, no matter what he did for us back in the limo!"

Dena looked at Marcus curiously. "What did Bo-Bo do for you in the back of a limo?"

"Not as much as I would have liked," Marcus admitted with an evil grin before turning back to me. "I'm going to take care of Mary Ann and Leah. I'll protect them like...like they were my own little b.u.mble & b.u.mbles. But this time you have to trust me."

I glanced at Dena who shrugged. "I don't know what the f.u.c.k either one of you are talking about so I don't have an opinion. But I do agree that if we're going to confront this Alex guy we should do it now and do it together."

"We're not going to confront him." I glanced back at Leah and Mary Ann. There seemed to be several stacks of chips in front of Leah. Had she emptied out her savings account or something?

"What are we going to do then?" Dena asked.

I hesitated. "We're going to play him," I finally said. "We're going to make him believe that he has our trust, get his guard down and get the information we need, even if it means we do a tag-team search of his house."

"And how long is this going to take?" Marcus asked, his eyes still on Bo-Bo.

"I don't know, don't wait up."

That was enough to get Marcus' attention. "Now you're the one who can't be serious."

"I'm not going to do anything bad...but if he offers me a room to stay in, with Dena, then I'm going to take it. He's not going to murder me in the middle of the night. What would be the point? But I need him to trust me enough to let me wander around his place without being watched. It might be easier to do that if we stay the night."

"Now that's crazy."

"It is," Dena agreed. "But like I said, I want to get this whole drama in the rearview mirror. I'll be with her," she said to Marcus, although she was looking at me. "I won't let her completely throw caution to the wind."

"I have to do this Marcus."

"For Anatoly?"

"For my ma.n.u.script." And for Anatoly, I added silently.

Dena patted Marcus on the arm. "Try not to sleep with the enemy." She started to pull me away, showing surprising strength for a woman who used a cane.

"Why are you being so accommodating of this?" I asked as she pulled me out of the casino and toward the hotel lobby. "You never go along with my crazy plans."

"Never say never," Dena said dryly. "Come upstairs with me. We'll throw a few things in an overnight bag just in case we do end up sleeping over."