Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 (12 page)

I must have dragged behind, because Liam turned around. "Are you okay?"

I rushed to assure him. "Yes, I'm wonderful. I'm just... taking in the moment."

He smiled and pulled me forward. "We have to hurry. You can take in the moment when we get there."

We stepped outside, and the breeze that hit me was chilly with the bite of moisture. The air was thick with the smell of wet asphalt mixed with smog. After living in Wyoming for the winter, the smell was foreign. I had no idea how I had been able to breathe with so much pollution.

Liam squeezed my hand as we raced down the sidewalk to an enormous man-made lake. Just as we reached the edge, the music boomed through the hidden speakers.

We continued down the sidewalk until we found a small area with no other people. Small droplets of water danced down from the sky, barely enough to qualify as rain.

I went to the railing to see the show and Liam came up behind me, his body barely grazing mine, but the heat of his body warmed me.

I leaned back to talk over my shoulder, my back pressing into his chest. "What a great idea."

He ran his hands around my waist and pulled me in close.

I enjoyed the loud bass thrumming through my whole body but had no desire to focus on the show when I was this close to Liam. We'd had a near kiss a few weeks earlier, and I wasn't about to let another opportunity slip by.

I turned and lifted my chin so we faced each other. "Thank you for dinner, Liam. I'm having a nice time."

He slid a hand up my back up to my hairline, where his thumb played over the side of my neck. Slowly he leaned down, and I stood on my toes to meet him halfway as my hands pushed to his chest.

The second our lips touched, it was like a dam broke. My heart soared, and the tension I hadn't realized I was carrying was gone. My knees buckled, and my hands snaked around his neck to steady myself. He responded by pulling me closer, his lips tasting lightly of the fruity wine.

He pulled back to look into my eyes as his fingers spread through the hair at the nape of my neck. "I've wanted to do that since we met." He had his other arm wrapped around my waist, while his thumb on my neck sent tingles down my spine as it played over my skin.

We were inches apart, my calves burning from standing up on my toes, but I couldn't bear to move any farther away. "Since you saw me standing by a dead body?"

He leaned in a bit closer as he whispered, "Since you swooned into my arms."

"I wasn't swooning... then."

"Oh?" He leaned in and his lips barely brushed mine when Mary's voice broke the moment.

"Di, we have to go!"

I inhaled sharply. "I'm busy."

"I'm sorry, but Loggin's hurt. He was run over by a chariot then caught on fire!"

***

"No, I'm fine. The fire was small." Loggin's eyes were wild, far too much of the white showing, and his face was pale.

"I think you might be in shock," I said gently. "I think you should go to the hosp--"

"No! I'm not leaving this room."

Orion, Liam, Mary, Moo, Minx, and I were huddled in the boys' room, where Loggin was sitting on the fold-out couch.

Minx sat next to him rubbing his back. "The paramedics gave him a quick once-over before they took Lucky away. They wanted him to go to the hospital just in case, but Loggin refused, and they didn't push it. He didn't hit his head, nothing appears to be broken, and the burn is very mild."

We had left the water show as soon as Mary found out. She had no details beyond what she already shared. Apparently, Minx had been crying too hard to say much more than that we needed to get back.

Loggin was looking around with wide eyes, a pillow clutched to his chest, with a baggy full of ice wrapped in a towel resting on his leg. Moo lay on the bed next to Loggin, his paws across Loggin's lap. He looked around the room, ready to attack anything that threatened Loggin's safety. Minx's eyes were red, but she seemed to be in better control.

"Minx, what happened?"

"Before the gala, they did the same thing they do every year. Give out some awards, have a speech from some celebrity that also shoots a bow, inductees to the Hall of Fame, and lastly, they present the archers that are still clean. It was in the arena. Afterwards there's free food and a cash bar. Becca came and got Loggin. Next thing I know, they dim the lights and a horse-drawn chariot comes out with flames shooting out the back with Lucky, then Unc, Fox, and Roo. Loggin was in the last one. When Lucky's chariot turned, the wheel came off. He fell then..." She sobbed and covered her mouth.

Loggin stared at the opposite wall with no emotion on his face. "They ran right over him. Thump, thump. I didn't want to ride in a chariot at all. I tried to get out of it, but Big Bobby said if I didn't do it, I would be disqualified, but when I saw Lucky disappear under Unc's chariot..."

Minx hugged him. "The horses stopped and more chariots tipped over. I thought Loggin was run over, then people started screaming that Loggin was on fire."

"It was just my pant leg. The chariot driver helped me. I might have been hit by something. I don't know..." His face was getting whiter as he trailed off.

Minx dabbed at her eyes. "Everything went crazy. They evacuated the tournament. They covered Lucky up. He didn't make it."

"I think we need to go. Loggin and Minx need to sleep this off. They must be cancelling the tournament now."

Liam stood up and headed toward the door. "I'll make some phone calls."

There was no chance that this was an accident, not after the way things had gone this whole weekend. "Was anyone else hurt?"

Minx shook her head. "I don't know. I had Moo with me, and we were standing on the top level. Security forced me out of there as soon as the accident happened. That's when I called you. I was freaking out about Loggin when I remembered the elevators security had told Di about. No one was guarding that exit. I found Loggin."

He reached out for her hand and squeezed it.

"They tried to make me leave, but Loggin refused so they had to let him go. We've been here ever since. What took you guys so long?" she snapped at me, her frustration and fear finally finding a place to land.

"We got here as soon as we could. It's Valentine's Day on the strip."

"Oh. I hadn't thought about that." She sniffled and dabbed at her nose with a crumpled tissue.

"I know." I patted her knee. Her bark and her bite were intense, but she was pretty scared right now.

Mary was unusually quiet, her eyebrows all knit up as she quietly observed.

"The tournament's still on," Liam announced as he entered the room.

"Are you serious?"

He nodded. "I talked to my mom. She was at the meeting as one of the major sponsors. The tournament board was there along with the sponsors, and they voted to continue. Bobby recommended against it, along with most of the sponsors, but the archers on the board insisted and said the rest of the divisions agreed. It was a pretty heated meeting. But the tournament can only be cancelled by--"

I finished his sentence. "A two-thirds vote by the tournament committee. If the tournament is canceled before the shoot-off, then no shoot-off amounts are paid out, and only the non-shoot-off payouts are given which are much lower. The same thing happens if there's no shoot-off."

Liam raised an eyebrow.

"We read the rules last night. A much bigger point is that if they cancel the tournament, then something similar happens to the payouts across the board in every single division, not just the huge payout in the pro male compound. I'm sure a lot of archers were pushing to continue to tournament. Loggin, you have to pull out. This is way out of control. If you had been in the first chariot--"

Minx stood up and pointed a finger at me. "Shut up! Don't say it!" Tears streamed down her face.

"It's okay, Minx. It's okay. He wasn't. He's safe." Things were rapidly getting out of control. "Mary, can you take Minx back to her room? I'll take Moo on a walk, then we can go to bed."

Mary nodded. "Good idea. Come on, Minx, I'll tuck you in and everything. If you need us"--she cast the comment to the entire room--"just call."

I pulled Moo off of Loggin's lap, and Liam followed me.

"I'll go with you," he said as he grabbed a key card off the dresser and followed me to the hallway.

We saw Mary and Minx into our room then continued down to the elevators.

"Mom's pretty disgusted." Liam stepped into an elevator and pushed the button for the lobby. "People were screaming and threatening to sue the organization and Bobby personally for their expenses if the tournament was cancelled. Bobby tried to convince them that everyone's safety was more important than any tournament, but no one would listen."

I shook my head in disgust as we exited the elevator. There was a pet area near the elevator, and Liam pushed the door open for us to step through. "It's just a tournament, and already two people have died."

"Unc was apparently one of the loudest. Mom said that she thought he was about to leap the table and punch Bobby across the face."

"He's in the shoot-off. He has one hundred thousand dollars to lose."

"That's a lot of money. Men have been known to kill for less."

Moo sniffed a bush and claimed it as his.

Liam held the door open for me. "This isn't quite how I thought tonight would go."

I stifled a yawn. "I'd say it was pretty awesome for the most part if you ignore Loggin almost getting flattened."

A few archers crowded into the elevator with us, complaining about a rumor they'd heard about cancelling the tournament. Liam and I held hands in silence on the way up, although Moo insisted on standing between us.

Stepping out of the elevator, Liam gave the men a nod. "Good evening."

As we approached my door, passing groups of people huddled in the hallway, I could have kicked myself for not considering that Liam and I weren't going to have a private moment to say goodnight. Why hadn't I thought of that when we were alone outside?

When we got to the door, I poked my head inside to see if maybe we could sneak in there, but Mary was in her pajamas already. I flipped the lock and turned back to Liam.

He wrapped me in a hug, his lips brushing my forehead. "I'll try to come over and watch you shoot in the morning, but Mom wants to meet for breakfast."

"Sleep well." There was more I wanted to say, but it would need to wait.

Stepping inside the room, I closed and locked the door then tore off my shoes.

Mary waved me over to the computer. "I want to show you this. Remember Indy saying they were filming the tournament? They filmed the thing tonight too."

I gasped. "They didn't film Lucky being killed, did they? That's not right."

"No, no. Here, watch." Mary pressed a few buttons and the screen popped up. The chariots were barely visible in the dark arena. "I skipped over the other stuff."

The first chariot, carrying Lucky, rolled out. Lucky waved to the crowd while the handler snapped the reins on the horse's rump.

My heart twisted in my chest knowing that this was the last image of him alive.

Following behind him was a second chariot, then a third, a fourth, and lastly the fifth chariot came out from behind the curtain into the arena, carrying Loggin. Lucky's chariot had just disappeared from the left side of the screen when the crowd, as one, gasped and cried out. A second later, the arena was obscured as people stood, blocking the camera, but the screams were still audible until the video stopped.

Mary moved the mouse to rewind the video. "There are only a few seconds, but look at the wheels on the chariots." She hit Play and pointed to the wheels as they popped off. "The left wheel fell off on every single one. Like someone went down the line and loosened them."

"I figured it wasn't an accident. Can we see who is behind the curtain?"

"Good idea." She scrolled around in the video. A number of people could be seen behind the curtain. All the shooters that were clean--Lucky, Unc, Fox, Roo, and Loggin--tournament staff, judges, Big Bobby, and Becca along with two dozen sponsors and archers. "Basically anyone."

"Let's make a list. That's what we normally do."

Mary flipped open her notebook. "I'm putting Unc, Fox, and Roo at the top; they have the most to gain."

"Lucky could have done it and made a miscalculation," I pointed out.

"If that's the case, then he's already paid for his crimes. Next, Pinkie and the rest of the angry female compound shooters that protested."

"We haven't heard anything since Westmound announced the additional prize money. If they were behind it, then wouldn't they still be angry and protesting?"

Mary pointed her pencil at me. "You may not have heard about it, but I heard plenty. Pinkie came over to complain after she was done fighting with Lucky and Katie. Speaking of which, what if Lucky dying had a two-for-one motive? Not only was he a pro male, but he also cheated on Pinkie."

"Oh! Mary, I didn't even think of that. Put Pinkie at the top of the list. We can sniff around some more tomorrow. Who else? Anything tie the remaining shooters together? Like could a company have eliminated the competition so their people would win?"