Hook and Shoot (11 page)

Something was off. I stared at the door for half a minute before I got it.

I'd never seen a panic room door made of wood before. They were all slabs of steel with recessed hinges and overlapped edges to keep crowbars out.

I took the fabric off the Zulu and kept knocking past the double doors with the shredded hardware and found solid wall until I got next to the headboard. It went from a sharp rap on drywall behind the fabric to sounding like I'd hit the side of a submarine. I draped the fabric over the headboard and studied the flat gray door. No visible hardware or access keypad.

“Eddie, I know you can hear me. Probably see me too.”

His voice came through a speaker somewhere above me. “Why'd you mess up my bed? And where's Burch? He's not on any of the cameras.”

“He said you can come out now, false alarm. I'll help you make your bed.”

“I can see the dead body floating in the pool, asshole. And I've seen you upset before. I'm not coming out until you calm down and Burch says it's safe.”

“I'm going to find out what you two did.”

The statues leaned into the silence, waiting.

Eddie said, “If I find out you're digging even one grain of sand, I'll cut you out of Warrior for good.
You and Gil can rot. If Burch finds out, he'll kill you.”

“Damn right,” Burch said. He stood in the doorway, the pistol and suppressor pointed at the floor. He stared at me and spoke to the panic room. “You can come out, boss; it's clear. But we need to move to the secondary location.”

There was a clunk and a hiss, and the door eased open. It was six inches thick with steel cylinders that would extend into the jamb to make it all one piece. Impenetrable, sans artillery. Eddie still looked small in the small room, which had flat-screen monitors above a narrow table, a stack of bottled water, and a toilet. He held a chunky satellite phone and aimed the antenna at me. “Step back.”

I moved to the foot of the bed. If Eddie and Burch huddled up, maybe I could clunk their heads together and pile the statues on top, set the whole mess on fire. I tugged the bedspread. The crowd cheered the notion.

“Stop that,” Eddie said. He walked out of his vault, looked at Burch. “You're sure we have to relocate?”

“Afraid so. We move in five.” Burch got out of the doorway and nodded for me to exit. “Get your clothes. Or don't. Take Vanessa out to the limo and wait for us.”

“That guy outside said Marcela's name.”

“A bluff.”

“Doesn't matter. They know about her, so they
know about Gil. His wife, Angie. The guys at the gym. I can't let anything happen to any of them. I'm leaving.”

Burch and Eddie shared a look.

Eddie said, “You've had a hand in killing two of them. It doesn't matter where you go now. You're on the list, just like we are.”

“Best to stay with us,” Burch said, “so when they do come for you, all they find is you.”

I stood in the living room and watched Burch drag the body out of the pool and go to work with the garbage bags and duct tape. The pool's filter and chemicals already had the blood broken down to a hint of pink here and there. Eddie and Vanessa were banging things around on the second floor, rolling luggage onto the open bridge at the top of the stairs. If they expected me to take it the rest of the way, they'd need some cobweb repellent.

My phone buzzed. Gil.

“It's been more than ten minutes. You still want me to call Marcela?”

“No. I'll do it.”

“She's worried about you.”

“If I talk to her, that will get worse.”

“Thanks for practicing on me. See, you tell me to send your love to Marcela, then hang up. I gotta
wonder what's happening. Conjure up all sorts of scenarios, and not one of them involves smiling.”

“That's a rarity right now.”

Gil said, “You need me to bring the cops in?”

Burch dragged the body under the pergola so he could work in the shade. He had to backtrack and pick up bits of skull.

“Nah, they wouldn't be interested.”

“You might be surprised by what law enforcement finds interesting.”

“I know their number. Don't worry about me. But I need a promise.”

“Yes. Ah, wait. Give me a hint first.”

“If I call and tell you to run, don't ask questions. Send everybody home, and you and Angie go somewhere I don't know about. Stay there until I get in touch.”

“I won't make that promise. Don't you dare tell me to run. Time comes to make that call, tell me where you are. That's where I'm going. And I know what you're thinking: ‘Then I won't make the call.' Fuck you. Call me. You got it?”

“Yeah.”

“Woody.”

“I got it.”

Burch finished with the body—identical to the wrap job on the limo guy—and flopped it onto a rolling beverage cart he'd rolled from behind the outdoor
bar. He pushed it toward the garage end of the house. I couldn't hear through the glass, but it looked like he was whistling. I tried to imagine pulling Gil into the scene and felt my guts twist.

That would not happen.

“My phone is with me,” he said.

“Thanks. Talk to you soon.”

I got Marcela's number up, took a breath, and called. Tried to convince myself it was to reassure her, but the selfishness scoffed at me. I needed to hear her voice.

“Woody, hello.”

Woo-dee.
I had to turn away from the glass wall and sit on the wooden ledge that framed the room. “Hey, how you doing?”

“Shut up with that. What's going on? Gil's worried sick over you.”

“I just talked to him. He's fine.”

“Oh, you talked to him. Did you
listen?”

I felt better already. “Everything is fine.”

“This is when I start to pray. Where are you?”

“I'm with Eddie.”

“That one.” She snapped out some Portuguese. It didn't sound like praying. “When his mouth opens it's a lie. Leave now. Go back to Gil.”

“I'd like to.”

“So? Are your legs not real? Are they painted on? Go.”

“It's not that simple.”

“It's always that simple.” She talked rapid-fire to someone away from the phone. Incredulous needs no translator.

“Who's that?”

“Jairo says you're stupid to help Eddie after everything. He wants to smack some sense into you.”

“Tell him no thank you.”

After the shootout at Chops's, Jairo had vowed to pull Eddie's ribs out. One of the reasons Marcela and I had hustled him and his brothers onto a plane to Brazil.

If Marcela came to Vegas, I'd worry about her.

If Jairo came, I'd worry about everybody.

“What does he have you doing?”

I told her all of it, except the dead bodies. No need to indict either of us on an open line.

She said, “If I come up there to kick his face, would you stop me?”

“After a hundred or so. But please don't.”

“I hate these people. They look at you and see a tool—a hammer or a wall.”

“Are walls tools in Brazil?”

“After I finish with Eddie, I kick you for a while.”

The line hummed until I said, “I miss you.”

“Come see me.”

“I will.”

“Now.”

“Soon.”

“You sound like your head is down.”

I lifted it, saw Burch staring at me from the foyer, covered in sweat and holding a fresh suit on a hanger. “I have to go. I'll call you.”

“This hurts my stomach.”

“I know. I'm sorry.” I put the phone away.

Burch stared for a few more seconds, then walked into the kitchen. I heard him go through the doorway in there, probably on his way to the security room. The cameras had evidence of him shooting a man three times and preparing the body for disposal. He had some erasing to do.

I looked at the black cube table and wondered how much I'd give to have that button implanted.

I rode in the limo's front seat with Burch. He didn't like it, but he couldn't leave me in the back with Eddie and Vanessa. I might convince her to hold Eddie while I checked his damaged throat from the inside. I offered to drive so Burch could ride in back, but he declined. Must have pictured me crashing the limo onto the runway at McCarran and diving out, hijacking a plane to Brazil, and never coming back.

I made a note to research British clairvoyance. “Where are we going?”

“Isolation doesn't seem to be working. Time to try the opposite.” He got off 215 onto Flamingo Road, headed for the Strip.

“So now they get to kill bystanders too. This is a good plan.”

“They made a play; we adapt. Sitting there until
midnight would be suicide.”

“Hey, I mentioned the midnight thing before you shot that guy. He didn't seem bothered by the breach of etiquette.”

“I heard him.”

“So you could have jumped out of the bushes sooner, distracted him while I gave him a chair massage.”

“That's right,” Burch said.

“You didn't have to shoot him. But if you heard all of what he said, my guess is you wanted to.”

“Goes without saying. Everybody I've ever shot, I wanted to. Better now? Good. He was a probe, a scout. Looked to me like he got bored and started wandering around. No discipline. So the full assault, whatever that entails, hasn't started yet.”

“Midnight.”

“Or before, possibly after.”

“Anytime, then.”

“Now you're getting it.”

We hit the overpass above 15 and dropped between Caesars Palace and the Bellagio, two sentinels welcoming us to Vegas proper. I made sure my wallet was still in my pocket.

“So the photo, the deadline, that was all bullshit.”

“Wouldn't say that. I think the offer was good for you at one point. Not anymore.”

“And it never was for you.”

He gave a tight smile. “You heard the man before I gave him head vents. They want me almost as bad as Eddie. Probably included me in the note so you'd think I'm an idiot for staying, push you toward abandoning us.”

Smart bastards.

Burch cut across the Strip and turned right on a narrow service road that ran behind the casinos. He wove through employee parking lots and loading areas, and I wasn't sure where we were until we crawled over a speed bump into the walled service lot behind the Golden Pantheon Casino, home of Warrior events. Eddie had part ownership of the hotel and casino looming above us, all columns and arches, scenery and statues worked into the facade. They were much bigger than Eddie's personal collection and wore formal Roman garb. They waved and beckoned and didn't hold any weapons that I could see.

It was a different access point than the one Jairo and I had blown through, both of us stinking like Tezo's pit, right before the Burbank fight. I could see where I'd dropped Eddie off that night. Marcela had been in the truck with me. I locked onto the scene, her looking out the window, then those little eyebrows going together when she saw my face was bleeding again.

Burch aimed the limo at a metal garage door and
the scene slid away.

I let it go before it tore me right down the middle.

Burch hit a button on the dash panel. The metal door rolled up. He eased the limo into an empty underground parking garage that was big enough for a few stretch vehicles to turn around but small enough to feel exclusive.

He parked like an asshole. “You carry everything. I need my hands free.”

The elevator had a numbered security keypad and two other buttons: Casino Floor and Penthouse.

Burch punched in a code and hit Penthouse. I stood closest to the doors, loaded with rolling luggage, laptop bags, my clothes and shoes in a plastic shopping bag, and a hard plastic case the size of a table that felt like it had floor magnets inside, pulling my arm out of its socket. Eddie and Vanessa were behind me and all the freight. If the doors opened and somebody sprayed me with a machine gun, the two of them might hear it.

I couldn't tell the elevator had moved, but the doors parted and we were in the penthouse suite of the casino hotel. Solid slabs of black marble pulled light into the walls and floor of the circular foyer, which had matching white curved sofas facing each
other on the sides.

I lugged everything into a huge square room that looked like a villa courtyard. The floor was black marble tile with small white mosaics spaced evenly wall to wall, each one the shape of a different type of knot. White marble columns ran along the walls and supported a balcony that wrapped around the room. I could see the tops of doors up there. Above that the ceiling was domed glass. Despite the late afternoon sunlight pouring in, the room was almost cold.

Burch pointed at the elevator. “That's the only access point. We control the elevator from up here, so unless they have an air force we're safe.”

I checked everyone's face: no incredulity. “I'm the only one? Why didn't you just come here to begin with?”

“My ass isn't the only thing on the line here,” Eddie said. “I gotta save face too. I show up at my own hotel needing a room, people talk.”

“If anyone asks,” Burch said, “renovations are being done on his living room and master suite.”

I looked at Eddie. “You should make that a reality. Your bedroom is fucked up.”

“Stay here.” Burch pulled his gun and walked through an arched opening in the far right corner. The soft soles on his shoes made no noise.

I set the hard plastic case down. It echoed.

Vanessa and I stood there looking around and
Eddie poked at his phone until Vanessa said, “This is really nice.”

“Be nicer if somebody else was paying to stay here,” Eddie said.

“How pricey is it? Is that tacky?”

“A bit. It's eight grand a night. Burch called ahead, had the staff kick out a party of twelve. So not only are they not paying for this, they got comped for whatever rooms they're in now, plus dinner and who knows what else.”