LITMIR.BIZ

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five. A hard ten.

      The screaming and shouting was deafening. Hands clapping, high fives all around. She wasn’t sure who picked her up and swung her around, but she didn’t protest that any more than she protested the hugs and backslaps that came her way, or even Coot’s enthusiastic kiss on her cheek. She was simply too stunned.

      The one man who didn’t grab her or go insane was the tall, dark-haired stranger. He just watched her, pleased, and yet somehow grave.

      Jessy couldn’t believe the number of chips coming her way.

      “I’m cashing in,” she told the dealer.

      He gave her an odd look. “You’re still rolling,” he reminded her. “If you leave, these folks will lynch me. Don’t pass the roll. Go until you crap out.”

      She glanced to the side, looking for the dark-haired stranger.

      He was gone; of course. He wasn’t rolling. Still, she missed him. And she had the oddest feeling that things weren’t going to go right, now that he was gone. And she was right, because it wasn’t long until she crapped out. Still, as she collected her chips, which were still worth far more than the three thousand dollars she needed, everyone regaled her as if she were a celebrity. She thanked them, then turned, eager to escape as quickly as possible.

      That was when the huge man plowed into her.

      Huge. Bodyguard huge. He was bald and built like a wall of solid rock. His eyes were hazel and streaked with red.

      “Hey!” Coot yelled indignantly.

      It didn’t stop the man, who hit her so hard that he knocked her flat onto the craps table, then fell on top of her.

      She was pinned, and when she tried to budge his weight, she couldn’t. She started to ask the onlookers for assistance, but her words were cut short by someone’s shrill, hysterical scream.

      And then she felt the blood trickling down on her as she struggled under the man’s weight.

      His dead weight…

      His glazed and frozen eyes stared at her, and then his mouth moved.

      He spoke one word.

      “Indigo.”

      And then his lips stopped moving and something, some light, went out in his eyes.

      She tried to twist out from beneath him, and that was when she saw the knife sticking out of his back, saw the blood, and began to scream herself.

      

      Dillon Wolf heard the screams just seconds after he had stepped into the special “high-roller” section of the casino. He spun around, returning at a breakneck speed, and arrived back at the craps table just as casino security descended on it. He saw the beautiful redhead he’d staked earlier, desperately trying to push the weight of the huge man off her, and he saw the man’s face almost as quickly.

      Tanner Green. Hell.

      He’d spent most of the night keeping track of who was coming and going, trying to get a handle on who was frequenting the new casino, and the last damn thing he’d imagined was Green turning up dead. The man was a pro. Had been a pro. Not only that, before rejoining the world, he’d worked as a mercenary; there was no way in hell he should have been taken by surprise by anyone. But a knife in the back? That pretty much screamed surprise.

      The fact that the police would want the body left in situ didn’t prevent him from diving in to help the redhead free herself as quickly as possible.

      “Hey, hey!” one of the security officers said, hurrying forward, but he ignored the man.

      “Thank you,” the redhead whispered as he shifted her free of the corpse and she managed to get back on her feet. For a moment, though, her eyes were on his. Huge. A deep, radiant blue, like a cloudless sky. Those eyes had first met his just a few minutes earlier as she rolled the dice. Now he also noticed that she smelled good, not to mention that she felt good against him.

      As soon as he saw that she was steady, he delved into his pocket for his ID, presenting it to the security officer.

      “Dillon Wolf, licensed P.I.,” he said. “Have the police been called?”

      “The 911 has gone in, they’ll be here momentarily,” the security officer said. Two of the men accompanying him had already begun to form an invisible ring around the craps table; two more were hurrying over to bar the door.

      “Oh God, I have to get out of here. I have to get out of here!” a woman cried hysterically.

      “Calm down,” Dillon said, his voice taking on a deep authoritative pitch. He had long ago learned that people didn’t obey high voices in an emergency; they only became more hysterical.

      The redhead was silent, but he saw that she was shivering. Something in her eyes told him that she knew she was going to be there for a long time, the center of a murder investigation. She was stunning, absolutely stunning, and something about her intrigued him. Las Vegas was full of gorgeous women, of course—showgirls, waitresses, actresses, singers—but she seemed different somehow.

      When he’d first noticed her, those eyes of hers had been…haunted. Not as if she was afraid of losing a dream, certainly not as if she was afraid of simply losing…money, but as if she was terrified of losing something far more precious. As if the roll of the dice could cost her her very soul.

      He gave himself a mental shake. He had other things to think about here. Not only was there a dead man lying on the craps table, but that dead man was Tanner Green.

      A man came striding onto the scene. A big guy with an attitude. Jerry Cheever, Las Vegas homicide. Dillon was pretty sure that Cheever resented him, but Cheever knew the lay of the land. He might despise Dillon on every level, but he’d been told by his bosses that Dillon was to be granted free rein. Cheever liked his paycheck and his position, so he obeyed, but he also liked to take credit for things that went well, and he knew Dillon had a talent for seeing an investigation through, and he wasn’t above taking advantage of that fact.

      Especially because he simply wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

      “No one move!” Cheever bellowed. “And I mean no one!”

      He took note of the blood seeping into the green felt tabletop and soaking the multicolored chips.

      “Wolf,” he said curtly, acknowledging Dillon’s presence. His eyes settled on the redhead as he asked Dillon, “What happened?”

      “I wasn’t here. I ran over when I heard the screaming,” Dillon said.

      Jerry Cheever turned to the redhead.

      “What happened?” he demanded curtly.

      “I was leaving the table. This man came over and…and fell on me,” she said.

      “Do you know him?” Cheever demanded.

      “I’ve never seen him before,” she said.

      “You’re sure?” Cheever pressed.

      “Absolutely sure,” she said with confidence. She was still trembling slightly. Not surprising, Dillon thought, given that she was wearing the dead man’s blood.

      “Are you hurt?” he asked her quietly.

      She shook her head.

      Cheever took in the corpse. “Christ! It’s Tanner Green.” He glared at Dillon again. “Aren’t you two working for—”

      “Yes,” Dillon said curtly.

      “But you weren’t together?”

      “No.”

      “Lieutenant Cheever, the M.E. is here,” a newly arrived police officer informed him.

      “Give him room. No one gets out those doors, do you hear?” Cheever said.

      A murmur

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