LITMIR.BIZ

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be found, there was usually some dope addict around, willing to take a life for a few thousand—or a few hits. But dope addicts weren’t playing with all their cards, and such an attempt usually ended with a dead dope addict.

      Tonight Dillon had been checking out the casinos, seeing who was in town and had the right money and connections to order a hit, along with a real bone to pick with Emil Landon. He still wasn’t certain that Landon was even in any real danger. During his first consultation with the man, Landon had told him that he’d been having dreams about being murdered. Gunned down in his own casino, stabbed in his own bed. He was certain he was being followed, though he had no proof of it.

      He had hired two of the best-known bodyguards in Las Vegas, Hugo Blythe and Tanner Green. Though now only Hugo Blythe was left, and he lived in a penthouse high atop the Big Easy, where the casino security staff—bonded and put through a screening process that would have done the CIA proud—was always on guard at both the penthouse elevators and the actual door to his suite.

      When Dillon arrived, Landon was wearing a designer leopard-print robe and was surrounded by his secretary—a blonde with breast implants the size of Texas—his chief security officer and Hugo Blythe.

      And he was in a state.

      Pacing, he barely paused to glare at Dillon when he entered, then launched right into a tirade. “I told you I was in danger. I could tell you didn’t believe me. But now Tanner Green is dead, and it’s a warning to me. A message that the killer can pick off people around me so I don’t have anyone to depend on. How the hell was he killed right in front of you?” He paused in his pacing to stare accusingly at Dillon.

      Dillon just shook his head disdainfully.

      “He wasn’t killed right in front of me, he was stabbed outside the casino. And there are dozens of security cameras focused on the area, so hopefully the cops will find something on one of the tapes. My theory is that he was stabbed inside a car, then thrown out at the entry. From there, he staggered inside before dying. I suggest checking his phone records and his movements over the last few days to see who might have gotten him into that car and under what pretense. Of course, there’s still the possibility that he was killed for something he did in his past, or just because he pissed off the wrong person.”

      Landon frowned at him, shaking his head. “I told you, someone is after me.”

      “Yes, you told me that, but have you told me everything I need to know?” Dillon asked. He wasn’t expecting a real answer from Landon. The man had been cagey from the start. There was no doubt that his activities hadn’t been totally legit through the years, and he seemed to have a hidden agenda, as well, maybe pertaining to the casino on tribal land. Still, asking him questions, even if Dillon didn’t expect real answers, might provide some bit of information he needed.

      “What the hell are you talking about?” Landon demanded impatiently. “Someone is trying to kill me. What more do you need to know?”

      “I need to know all the possible whys,” Dillon said. “I need you to be honest with me, to think really hard about any business deal that might have gone sour, any affair that might have ended badly. I need to know any possible reason why someone with the resources to have you killed might want you dead.”

      “I am being honest with you. Sure, I have enemies.” Landon’s eyes narrowed. “There are some radical members of certain Indian tribes who don’t get the fact that my casinos could provide jobs for a lot of people. Any rich man has enemies. You know that. But this…shit! Tanner Green? He was a pro.”

      The quadruple-D blonde came over to Dillon with a tray of shot glasses filled with assorted liquors. “Drink, Mr. Wolf?”

      He shook his head. “Thanks, no.”

      “Mr. Wolf, I’m going to be on duty twenty-four hours a day now,” Hugo Blythe said earnestly. “I’ll be following Mr. Landon every step he takes. But we’ve got to figure out who’s trying to kill Mr. Landon, and take care of him.”

      “I’m not an assassin,” Dillon said sharply. “Anyway, the police are on this now.”

      “The police?” Landon exclaimed derisively, then suggested what the police could do with themselves.

      Dillon rose. “I should be seeing those tapes first thing in the morning. I’ll call you after I’ve seen them.”

      “You’ve got to do something, and you’ve got to do it quickly,” Landon said.

      “I can still use more help from you,” Dillon said.

      Landon looked as if he wanted to explode at Dillon again, but though he wasn’t a genius, he wasn’t stupid, either. “I’ll think back and come up with whatever I can,” he acknowledged.

      Dillon left. As he rode down on Landon’s private elevator and strode out onto the main casino floor, he appreciated the fact that Landon had found the right business managers and builders. The Big Easy was going to do well. He wasn’t too sure that he would choose Vegas for a family vacation himself, but plenty of people did, and Landon had made sure to cater to them as well as the hard-core gamblers. The Big Easy offered an entire floor of arcades, character restaurants, toddler rides and one huge roller coaster. There was a Western show aimed just at kids and a room reserved for “young’uns’” birthday parties.

      As he headed over to the elevators to the parking garage, his eye was caught by an advertisement for the party room. It showed two Old West gunslingers with a pretty saloon maid between them. The picture was pure PG, but the face of the woman grabbed his attention and stabbed oddly at his heart.

      It was Jessy Sparhawk. Smiling, her beautiful red hair twisted up on her head and topped with a saloon-girl hat. The costume she was wearing was almost prim, and yet he didn’t think he’d ever seen a picture of such an arresting woman.

      He headed down to the parking lot, his mind still full of Jessy, so lost in thought that it took him a moment to recognize the presence at his side.

      “Brilliant, just brilliant,” Ringo said, keeping pace with Dillon Wolf’s strong and determined walk. The folds of his long railway jacket made a slight rustling sound, but nothing compared to his spurs ringing against the ground.

      Every now and then Dillon saw a head turn. Someone out there, someone who couldn’t quite see Ringo, was still aware that something, someone, was in the area. They heard the sound of his passing on some distant level.

      “What?” Dillon asked impatiently.

      Ringo cleared his throat. “The most beautiful creature in the world holds court at the craps table, I perform amazing tricks—and you let her get away. Brilliant. I may be deceased, but you’re the one who’s really dead, my friend.”

      “Excuse me, my friend,” Dillon said. “But I have work to do. Tanner Green was murdered and Emil Landon is getting restless—and working for the man, I might remind you, is something you pushed me into.”

      Ringo ignored him and stuck with his original topic. “I saw the way you smiled at her. Take a minute to smell the roses or you’ll be dead a whole hell of a lot sooner than you think,” he said knowingly.

      “The way I hear it, you stopped to smell the roses and wound up smelling a dung heap,” Dillon said curtly.

      “Ouch! Not kind at all,” Ringo said. “And may I remind you, I died because I was caught up in someone’s grudge against one of your ancestors.”

      “Ringo, I’m sorry, but that was more than a hundred years ago, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it now. I’m sure he appreciated your help.”

      “Probably. I was good back then. Damn good.”

      A woman walked by, frowning nervously as she stared at him. He lowered his head, wincing. Usually Ringo refrained from speaking to him when they were in public, because usually he didn’t reply. What the hell was up with him tonight? A man had been killed, of course. But it went beyond that. Something felt off. Felt…

      Felt

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