Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (23 page)

She didn’t really know. She didn’t understand how
gamblers operated and casinos were run, how gang
sters set their lines of power. But she knew one thing.
She didn’t want Cody beaten up again.

She couldn’t go to the police. What did she have to
say to them? So she was going to Monty. It was a risk.
If Cody were somehow involved, she might be getting
him into trouble. If Monty were involved, she could
get herself into trouble. But she didn’t think so. Monty
and Cody had a genuine affection for one another.
She’d seen it in action. And the way Sadie was raving
about her renewed romance with Monty these days, he
owed her one.

It was Saturday and the girls were playing the Gol
den Unicorns. Kelly dropped Tammy at Heather’s to
prepare for the game and drove into town to the Marquis Casino. She refused to let herself feel afraid. De
termination steeled her. When she was finally escorted
into Monty’s plush tower office, her jaw was set and
her eyes were clear and sure.

“I have a favor to ask of you,” she said without
preamble.

Monty lifted his handsome, greying head and smiled
at her. “After the favor you’ve done for me? Any
thing.” He rose from his chair and gave her a hug be
fore offering her a seat across from his desk.

Kelly couldn’t help but smile back. Both he and her boss seemed to be floating on cloud nine these days. “You’re still seeing Sadie?” she asked, as if she didn’t
know most of the details from Sadie’s voluminous
narratives on the subject.

He grinned happily as he sat down behind the massive oak desk. “Yes. We’re getting to know one an
other again.” His smile was little-boy pleased, his eyes
twinkling.

Kelly refocused on her mission. For seconds she hesitated, not sure where to begin. “I’ve come to
see you about something very serious.” She licked her dry lips, then gazed straight into his eyes. “I want you
to fire Jasper Cramer.”

Monty’s eyes suddenly hooded with that look males
got when they decided a woman was intruding on a man’s private domain. “What on earth are you talk
ing about?” he said mildly.

Kelly sighed. She’d begun badly. Leaning forward, her face earnest, she began again. “Do you know how
I met Cody? I saved him in the alley right here, be
hind your casino. He was being beaten up by thugs.”

Monty’s face didn’t change. He merely waited for
her to go on.

“I saw one of those thugs here the other night. He works for Jasper.” She stared at him, her gaze triumphant, as though she’d certainly proved her point.

He shook his head. “Now, Kelly—“

She half rose from her chair. “No! Don’t try to
quiet me or calm me or tell me boys will be boys and
it was just a prank. They were warning him not to talk.
I heard them. They wanted him to keep something a secret and they were giving him a taste of what would
happen if he didn’t.”

Monty stared past her at the wall. As she’d talked,
she’d seen him distancing himself from her, his eyes growing cooler, his face hardening, his expression be
coming more remote. “And did Cody tell you what
that something was?”

“No. He wouldn’t tell me.” She drew in a deep
breath and tried to force him to meet her gaze. “But I have a pretty good idea it has something to do with il
legal activities here at the casino.”

The air seemed to freeze around them. “Is that
right?” His face was even colder now, closed to her. Her heart was beating harder and harder. Was this it? Was he the one who was behind it all? Had she come to exactly the wrong place? Had she just ruined Cody’s
chances for good?

Still staring at the wall, he went on slowly. “I ap
preciate how you feel about this, Kelly. I know how
you feel about Cody.”

“Do you?”

His gaze flickered over her. “Yes, I think I do. But
you’ve got to understand. This whole incident—you
should never have stumbled upon it. Things are hap
pening that you can have nothing to do with.”

She stiffened, feeling desperate. “That may be,” she answered, her voice low and hoarse. “But I will not stand by and watch Cody get hurt again. If I have to go
to the police—“

Monty’s frown was ferocious. “You stay away from
the police,” he growled, glaring at her.

“Why?” Her tone sharpened. She was truly fright
ened. For all she knew, Monty could be some sort of
gangster who would stop at nothing to keep his activities hidden from the police. But her feelings for Cody
were stronger than her fear. “Are you afraid of a lit
tle scrutiny?” She leaned over his desk toward him.
“Just what is going on here at the casino, Monty?”

His gaze was piercing hers. For a long moment they
faced each other, glare to glare. Kelly was trembling
inside, but she would never show it. Suddenly Mon
ty’s head went back. Kelly held her breath. Then laughter filled the room.

“Oh, Kelly, Kelly,” Monty said. He slapped the desk and grinned, taking her hand in his. “I think
Cody has found a good one in you, lady.”

She just looked at him, feeling bewildered and limp.

“You can stop right now,” he told her. “We don’t need the police.” He patted her hand. “What we do need is for you to stay quiet and lay low just a little
longer.”

His affectionate humor was as disconcerting as his
coldness had been. “But what about Jasper?”

“I’ll take care of Jasper.”

She looked at him uncertainly.

He shook his head. “Don’t worry, Kelly. I’m on
your side, honey. Cody came to me the other day and told me all about this. Jasper’s been running an ille
gal numbers game on his own, but operating out of my
hotel. Cody wanted to handle it by himself.” His smile was warm with affection for his friend. “At first he
wasn’t sure if I was involved or not, so he took the
time to watch and see how the land lay. You see,
there’ve been times in my younger days when I did a few things that
I’m
not too proud of. Cody knows all
about that. I can’t blame him for being cautious, for
feeling his way here. He wanted to make sure he didn’t
get me into trouble. I’d trust Cody with my last penny, my last piece of bread. And
I’m
not going to let any
one beat him up, believe me. You just calm down now.
Cody will be fine.”

She searched his gaze. Could she believe him? Yes, she was fairly sure she could. If there was one thing she’d learned lately, it was that there were moral codes just as valid as her own, even if they were slightly
unorthodox. Gambler or not, casino owner or not, Monty was a good man.

“Where is he?” she asked, almost whispering.

“You don’t know?”

Alarm swept through her once again. “What?”

Monty looked uncomfortable. “Well, he’s not here.
He quit the other day. The same time he told me all
this stuff about Jasper.”

The world tipped and swayed around her. She
blinked hard, trying to keep a fix on it. “I don’t un
derstand.”

Monty hesitated, then patted her hand again. “Cody
is a real gambler at heart, honey. He loves poker. He loves the bluff and the odds. And he’s got that lucky streak going for him. That boy must have been born under a lucky star.” He shook his head admiringly. “He never did belong here in the casino. He belongs at the poker tournaments, playing against the best in the world, playing in the world series of poker.”

She could hardly assimilate his words. All she knew
was that Cody had left, and she didn’t know where to
find him. “Where did he go?”

Monty frowned and looked down at the blotter in front of him, avoiding her eyes. “I don’t really know
if I have the right to tell you that. Maybe you’d better
ask him.”

Fury propelled her out of her seat. “Well that would
be just fine,” she cried, “if I could find him.”

He rose, too. “You just wait. I’m sure he’ll contact
you. And then he’ll let you know what he wants.”

“What he wants? How about what I want?” She turned on her heel and started for the door.

“You and he are going to have to work that out for yourselves,” he called after her. “Goodbye, honey.”

Kelly left the hotel in a daze, blinking in the bright
sunlight as she came outside. Cody might have left town. For all she knew, he might have gone to catch
up with the poker circuit somewhere. What if he didn’t
ever come back?

She drove down the Strip all the way to the airport,
then back and onto side streets, up and down, not
knowing where she was going, just moving for mov
ing’s sake. The lights and colors of the oasis commu
nity seemed to swirl around her, a tangle of the tawdry and the pure, Las Vegas and the desert. Her thoughts
swirled, as well. Cody and Monty and Jasper and
poker all mixed together, and behind them flashed the image of Cody’s face beside her on a pillow, the feel of
his hand on her skin, the delight of his lovemaking,
the pleasure he was to watch, the comfort of his words, the ecstasy of his affection.

She stopped at a light. Church bells were ringing. She looked around vaguely and then frowned. The
bells were tolling the hour. Her glance fell on the clock
in the center of her dashboard. It was almost three
o’clock. The softball game would be almost over. She’d forgotten all about it.

Suddenly her movements had purpose again. She
was so late! What were the girls doing without her?
What if they’d been forced to forfeit the game? An
other humiliation for the Robins—and this time it was
all her fault!

She raced along the highway, then onto a little street
that twisted and turned and had stop signs on almost
every corner. At last the field was in sight. There were
still plenty of cars in the parking lot. It looked as
though they’d gone ahead and played the game with
out her.

She parked and ran to the ball field. The place was
in pandemonium. People were jumping up and down,
shrieking with cheers and laughter. The game, it seemed, was over.

“What happened?” she cried, catching hold of Tammy and tugging on her arm. “What’s all this?”

“We won!” Tammy cried, throwing her arms around
her mother. “We did it!’”

“Oh.” Kelly couldn’t conjure up the proper joy for the occasion. “That’s nice. I’m glad you went ahead
and played without me.”

Suddenly, her eyes met a pair of dark ones that blew
all the words right out of her mouth.

“Cody,” she breathed, staring at him.

Tammy pulled away and disappeared into the crowd.
Cody stood looking at Kelly, his eyes serious, waiting.
He was wearing the coach’s shirt and a blue baseball
cap turned backward on his head.

Ordinarily she would have laughed at the picture he made, but there didn’t seem to be anything very funny right now. Their gazes locked, and between them was the memory of that last night, when he’d pushed away
from loving her, when she’d frozen at his touch. She
wanted to look away and block it out but couldn’t.
The pain shivered between them, its jagged edges just
as sharp as they had been that night.

“You coached them?” she asked stiffly.

He nodded. “They played great.”

She tried to smile. “It must have been the uniforms,” she murmured.

He shook his head. “It was the girls. And the
coaching you’ve been giving them all along.”

“Oh.” She looked away, then back again. “Well,
it’s really nice of you to come and...and coach.” Her
gaze sharpened. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“I couldn’t just abandon the girls, after all the work we’ve done. Especially for the big game with the Uni
corns.”

She nodded, avoiding his eyes, feeling miserable.

“Where were you?”

She looked up quickly. “Me?” Her voice squeaked.
“Oh. I was...detained.”

The crowd still whooped and hollered all around
them, but they didn’t seem to have anything left to say.
The silence was unbearable.

Finally, Kelly couldn’t stand it any longer. She started to turn away, and then his hand was on her arm.

“Kelly,” he said, his voice hoarse and ragged. “I’m
so sorry.”

“For what?” She was dying inside. She couldn’t
look at him. Was he apologizing for having made her love him? Was he apologizing for what he was about to do? Tears were threatening. Above all else, she had
to hold them back until she was alone. “I don’t un
derstand. What are you sorry about?”

“For being such a jerk. For not being there when
you needed me.”

She tried to look at him, but his image swam be
fore her eyes. She realized the tears were coming. She
was naked, revealed. But perhaps that was the only
way. She wasn’t good at strategy or subtlety or hedg
ing her bets. She wasn’t a gambler. She had to come
right out and say it.