Elaine Overton - Fever

She sighed in frustration. He was still there. The stranger she’d dubbed Wolfie for the predatory stare he’d been giving her all night was still at his post. He’d been milking that water or soda pop for the past hour. Roxie was certain that, as well as the two little wolves that kept circling her every few minutes, they were casino security. Their presence came as no surprise. She’d known all along that her method of winning would draw attention.

Roxie was sure they were on to her. She glanced at the twenty-seven thousand dollars in chips piled on the table before her. Only twenty-three thousand to go.

Lost in thought, she was startled when the dealer called to her. She glanced at the cards on the table, the ones in her hand, and then quickly scanned her memory for previously played cards. There was still the ace of diamonds out there somewhere. She glanced around at the four other players and decided to take her chances on the deck. She pulled another card, and exhaled a relieved breath to see the large red diamond in the center. She tossed it down on the table, and watched every face at the table fall as the other players accepted she was about to win another hand. Two of them folded and the game continued.

Roxie was certain the security guards knew she was cheating, but was equally convinced they did not know how she was cheating and that was her trump card—the one thing that would allow her to walk when this little game played out. They couldn’t prove anything.

Roxie had discovered early in life that her brain worked differently. She was able to mentally record images as vividly as a camera recorded photographs. Other than allowing her to breeze through her studies with little effort, she’d found no real use for her special skill as a child, and therefore thought little of it.

It wasn’t until after her grandmother died, and she found herself alone in the world, that she came to value and appreciate her unique memory. A ten-year-old orphan had few options for survival and none of them were appealing. Her exceptional brain gave her an option that did not exist for most in her position. It gave her the ability to provide for herself. Unfortunately, this had to be done through card sharking and hustling, but still she’d survived.

Until the day Theo and Tessa Sanchez rescued her from the clutches of a monster. And now, with the help of her unusual memory, she would return the favor.

In her peripheral vision, she watched the man at the bar as he quickly downed the last of his drink and began walking in her direction. Roxie tossed down a ten of spades, and sat up in her seat, preparing to meet the wolf head on. He may not know how she was cheating, but apparently he wasn’t going to let that stop him from doing his job, which was more than she could say for Las Vegas’s finest.

It had been almost a full week since she’d gone to the police to report a robbery. She ended up being laughed right out of the precinct. They’d listened intently for the first few minutes until she dared to accuse the powerful Bobby Kincaid of swindling her elderly parents out of fifty thousand dollars to fund his condominium development. After that, not one officer had taken her complaint seriously.

The police had asked her questions she could not answer. Questions she’d mulled over in her own head for days. Why would a man worth millions jeopardize his professional reputation over fifty thousand dollars? Why would he target her parents when there were others who’d invested two and three times as much?

What hurt the most was that even if the police had believed her, Roxie knew they could never give back to Theo and Tessa what mattered most: their professional dignity. For two retired con artists, nothing was worse than being duped, the sense of having been bested at what they were once best at.

When the pair inadvertently found themselves the parents of an abandoned ten-year-old girl, they vowed to give up their shady occupation in the interest of setting an example. After a lifetime of easy scores, they’d both found legitimate occupations and had walked the straight and narrow for the past twenty years. The only remnant of those adventurous years gone by was the nest egg they’d stocked away, some of which they’d invested in Bobby Kincaid’s Tumbleweed condominium development, believing the price of the stock was a steal.

They’d jumped on the opportunity with both feet, hoping the return would not only take care of them in their old age, but also take the burden of their well-being off the shoulders of their adopted daughter. For their small investment, they would be given stock and one of the condominiums as a beautiful retirement home. It would have been the perfect arrangement. That is, if the deal had been legitimate, which it apparently was not.

Roxie had tried to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Bobby Kincaid to get her parents’ money back, but there had been more red tape and hoops to jump through than if she’d tried to meet with the President of the United States. In the end, the most Bobby’s secretary would promise was a tentative appointment in six weeks, or Roxie was welcome to send correspondence addressing her complaint.

Of course, both of those options were unacceptable. Exactly how did you accuse someone of theft in a letter? Especially when you had no proof! Besides, she didn’t have six weeks. Her parents needed the money back right away.

Believing they would soon be moving into their newly built condominium, they’d sold their home without Roxie’s knowledge, and were now only days away from being forced to leave.

Roxie made a decent salary, and if push came to shove, she knew she could take care of her folks. Although, she was certain her parents would fight her tooth and nail before accepting her help. Anyway, it was not the money that had brought her to this act of desperation.

No, what had brought her here was the look of humiliation she’d seen in Theo’s eyes when he’d been forced to reveal to Roxie all that had transpired.

Pressed for time, and knowing she would get no help from the authorities, Roxie decided to fight fire with fire. Bobby Kincaid had stolen the money from her parents, and tonight she would steal it back. If only she could keep the wolf at bay for another thirty minutes.

She’d spent a fortune on creating just the right look tonight. She needed to be a high roller. An experienced gambler, whom Bobby Kincaid would tolerate, believing that, in the end, she would lose more than she won. And true to her role, Roxie had consistently allowed herself to lose the occasional hand throughout the evening. But obviously she had not lost enough.

She discreetly watched as Wolfie approached. The closer he came, the more imposing he became. She sat ramrod-straight in her chair…waiting.

But instead of stopping at her stool, he walked right past her and around the table to sit directly opposite her. As he took a seat, he motioned to the dealer to deal him in to the hand.

It took all of Roxie’s concentrated effort not to stare at the newcomer. This man was very different from the one casually relaxing at the bar. That man was a nonthreatening, grayish blur. The superfine brother sitting across from her was dangerous and vivid in the extreme. His caramel-brown skin was tinted with a touch of reddish hue that seemed enhanced by the bright casino lights. His full lips were perfectly outlined with a thin mustache and goatee. His dark hair was close-cropped and freshly trimmed. The snug-fitting, coffee-colored sweater and matching slacks indicated a very fit body beneath.

This was not your typical rent-a-cop security guard that worked the Vegas casino strip, Roxie thought. This was definitely a different breed. Maybe Wolfie wasn’t such a good nickname. Now, that seemed too apt a description.