Fever

I don’t know you! her mind screamed, yet she was dying to tell him the real reason she was at the casino.

“Tell me, Roxie.”

His quiet words couldn’t have been any more appealing than if he’d thrown open his strong arms and said come on in.

“What do you know about Tumbleweed?”

“Bobby’s condominium development?” His eyebrows crunched in confusion. He had no idea where this conversation was headed.

She nodded.

“Not much. Why?”

“Kincaid is using it to scam people out of thousands of dollars.”

All the warmth and lust Ike was feeling for Roxie came to an abrupt halt as he began to suspect he was being played. Did she really think he was gullible enough to believe such a ridiculous story? “Really?”

Seeing the doubt and skepticism in his eyes, Roxie immediately regretted her confession. But it was too late to turn around now. Her only choice was to go full speed ahead. “I know because he scammed my parents out of fifty thousand dollars.”

“Your parents? Are we talking about that pair of con artists who raised you?”

She sighed, feeling defeated and quickly vowing never to trust her heart again. “Look, Ike, you can believe what you want. But it’s the truth, whether you like it or not.”

“And why would one of the wealthiest men in Vegas need to steal fifty thousand dollars from a pair of con ar—”

“Stop calling them that! Yes, that’s what they did in the past, but it has nothing to do with this! They invested that money in good faith, and he took it without so much as a blink of an eye.”

“Why?”

“Why is he running the scam? How should I know?”

The couple fell silent when they realized people were staring. Ike turned his attention to the remainder of his chicken cordon-bleu. His mind was trying to come up with some rational reason why Roxie would believe something so stupendous. There had to be some explanation that would justify her claim. Otherwise, he would have to accept that she was trying to run some kind of game on him. Which meant he would have to open the cage door and set her free. And he just wasn’t ready to give up yet. Then it occurred to him.

“How did you find out about this?”

“Tessa and Theo told me.”

Bingo. He took a bite of meat, suddenly feeling much better.

Roxie searched his face as he concentrated on cutting into his chicken. She was unsure herself as to why she was so desperate to make Ike believe her, but she needed to convince him. “Ike, why would I go through the trouble of making all this up?”

“I don’t think you are. I think you’re just acting on whatever lies you’ve been told.”

“Okay, and why would they tell me something like that if it wasn’t the truth?”

“I don’t know.” He hunched his shoulders and dug into his pasta. “Maybe they lost the money somewhere else, and just didn’t want you to know.” He tilted his head as a thought occurred to him. “Did they know what you were planning? Trying to get the money off the tables?”

“No, but what does that have to do with anything?”

His mouth twisted. “That’s what I thought. They probably told you that lie, never realizing that you would try to do something about it.”

She sat looking at him with sullen eyes while he continued to eat. “I should’ve known better than to try to convince you of the truth. You’d already made up your mind about me before we walked through the door to this restaurant.”

“No, that’s not true. At first I thought you were a professional hustler trying to run your game in my casino. Now I know that you are just a pawn in the Sanchezes’ little scheme. Overall, I think it has been a very productive evening.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Do you?”

He nodded in ignorant bliss, never sensing the growing anger boiling inside her chest. “Yup. But it’s okay. I’m sure once you explain to them what happened last night, they will confess all and we can put this whole little incident behind us.” He considered something else. “How about we go back to the casino and you can talk to Bobby yourself?”

“I considered that, but when the police wouldn’t even believe me, I knew it was pointless. Your reaction only confirms that.”

“But if you talk to him—”

“What do you think? He’s just going to confess? ‘Sorry, you tried to take my money, but I forgive you. Okay, here’s your money back’,” she said in a mocking voice. “No, talking to him won’t solve anything.”

He just looked at her, and knew she believed what she was saying. He laughed at Roxie’s naiveté. She didn’t realize the money she was winning at the poker table wasn’t even Bobby’s. She wasn’t stealing from him at all.

“What?” Roxie asked, her eyes narrowing on him.

He explained to her the flaw on her scheme at the poker table. “You should’ve played blackjack or roulette if you wanted to take Bobby’s money. The casino has nothing invested in the poker tables. It’s just a bunch of customers exchanging money around. We don’t see a dime of that.”

Roxie’s face flushed a deep shade of embarrassment. After several moments, she laughed, too, at her own silly error. She really should have thought of her plan better before storming into the casino. She’d been out of the game too long.

“Look, I’ll talk to Bobby,” he said finally, when Roxie had recovered.

“Please, Ike.” Roxie reached across the table and grabbed both his hands in a death grip. “Don’t tell Bobby Kincaid about them. I only told you because…just please, Ike. If he found out we went to the police, I don’t know what he might do.” She knew that if Ike told Bobby even half of what they’d shared this evening, then matters would be out of both their hands.

Ike was staring at her in confusion. There was no faking the kind of fear he was seeing in her eyes. She was a woman truly terrified. The Bobby she was describing, and the Bobby he knew were so different he couldn’t reconcile the images in his head. Just what had those old swindlers told her?

Whatever her parents were working at, there was no doubt they’d sold Roxie a bill of goods and she’d bought it all. Unless she was in on it with them, and this was her attempt to keep Bobby from learning the truth about them. Maybe, Ike thought, she believed she could convince him to help her with her scheme.

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