Lotus Blossom (5 page)

Petras’s head shot up and he stared at her. "Don’t you involve yourself with him, Lotus. He’s a plastic explosive in Savile Row suits. Don’t mess with him.”

Lotus nodded, knowing that the smile she gave him was weak.

“By the way, Lotus, I have a connection in New York City, another vet, who’s a photographer. If you decide to go, I’ll get in touch with him.”

She nodded. Then they talked for a few minutes about Christmas when Petras and his family would be coming East.

She left his shop, promising that she would have dinner with Martha and him and the children tonight before she flew East.

As she bicycled toward Cicero’s casino, she pondered what Petras had said to her. “Maybe it would be better if I just threw the file in a corner and let someone find it . . .” she muttered as a motorist careened around her and blasted his horn. “Same to you, fella. I’m where I should be,” Lotus shouted, the tough but fair Yankee upbringing she’d had never letting her back down, even to a disgruntled driver.

She was still arguing with herself when she reached the casino and put her bike in the stand, locked it, and carted her tote bag on her shoulder into the huge building.

“About time you got here, Lotus. Melanie’s sick. She wants you to take her shift at noon,” her boss, Harry, told her, rubbing his hands together agitatedly.

Lotus groaned and nodded. She owed Melanie a favor. No lunch for her today. She went down to the locker room, changed into her costume of black satin with the net ruffle across her backside. Impulsively, she shoved the folder in the bottom of the carrier for her camera equipment.
I can’t just put this any old place. What if the person who finds it doesn’t give it back? What if Dash decides to launch an investigation on how it got out of his office?
She shivered at all of the ramifications of her deed.
No. The best way is to return it to the office so that no one will know it has ever been removed.

She strolled up the long corridor leading to Dash’s office, trying to give the impression that she was where she belonged. She smiled at the other staff members hurrying past her. She had reached the short hall, more lavishly decorated than the corridor she had just traversed, when she saw Amy Blaisdell step out of Dash’s office. The bespectacled Amy was a valued employee at Cicero’s, but not one that Lotus would have chosen to see. She was the accountant!

“Hi, Lotus,” Amy called to her when Lotus paused. “The boss said you might stop by his office. Did you want to go inside?” Amy gave her a knowing look. “He said you were to be allowed in at any time.”

Lotus gave a weak laugh, not able to look Amy in the eye. “I just want to talk to him for a minute.” She didn’t, but she supposed she could tell him that she couldn’t meet him for lunch which was true, since she was filling in for Melanie.

“Oh, he isn’t there. Neither is Hans, but you can go in, if you like. . . ” Amy’s lips compressed a bit.

Lotus knew Amy resented anyone else having access to the private offices but herself or Hans. Amy was very conscious of the pecking order. Lotus blinked as Amy’s words sank home. The office was empty! “Well, maybe I’ll just leave him a note. Shall I lock it when I leave?”

“The automatic lock is on.”

“Fine.” Lotus let the door of the office swing shut in Amy’s face, heaving a sigh of relief that neither the outer or inner sanctum was occupied. “Luck, you are a lady.” She gave a giddy laugh, then almost ran into the inner office to the file cabinet. She didn’t have a key! “Damn, damn, damn,” she mumbled to herself. She hoped the ice-pick that Petras had given her would be in her camera bag. She ransacked the bag and was about to give up when she felt a sharp jab against her finger. “How like me to find it that way,” she muttered, sucking her finger where a dot of blood showed.

Grimly, she attacked the door and hastily scratched it with the sharp instrument, gouging the finish on the wood. “Damn. I hope I still have the cleaning liquid in here,” she muttered.

It seemed to her that it took longer to open the door than it had when she’d done it the first time, but she kept at it untii it popped. Then, without taking a breath, she tackled the individual lock on the drawer. After an eternity of jabbing and turning, it, too, snapped open. Her hands were trembling so much that when she lifted the folder to slide it between the ones marked
SIMMONS
and
SIPPEL,
she had to try three times before the folder dropped into place. She closed the drawer, her sweaty hands slipping on the surface of the metal, then as quietly as she could she closed the outer door.

After she’d sprayed the cleaner and wiped the area, she shoved the bottle back in her bag and closed it.Then she wiped her perspiring face with a tissue she’d pulled from her bag. “Get out of here, Lotus,” she warned herself.

As she scampered across the inner office to the reception area, she remembered that she hadn’t left the note she told Amy she was going to leave for Dash. When she scuttled back to the office, her trembling hands made it difficult for her to hold the pen. It took twice as long to write the message. “I can’t see you at one o’clock for lunch because I have to take Melanie’s shift.” Finally she scratched out her name, then lifted a paperweight and placed it on top of her note. Finally, she replaced Dash’s gold pen in its holder

“What are you doing in here?” It was Hans Melford, Dash’s righthand man. He scowled at her and she jumped. His eyes shot from her to the desk and back again.

“Ah . . . Amy let me in so that I could leave Dash a note,” Lotus said and struggled to control her breathing. The man was a threat! He never seemed to do anything but frown, and he moved like a wraith! “You could ask Dash . . .” Lotus continued.

“No need. He said you were to come in here whenever you chose.” He stood against the open door, more or less inviting her to leave.

Lotus shivered as she walked by him. He didn’t trust her! She prayed he wouldn’t look in the file drawer and see the scratch on the door that not even the cleaning fluid masked completely. “Good-bye,” she said, and hurried away.

She barely noticed her growling stomach as she photographed the flux of customers in the early shift. It was a good shift for a Foto girl because the diehard gamblers didn’t arrive until much later. There were more tourists in this shift.

While she worked she thought about what had happened.

She had stayed too long in Las Vegas, and should never have involved herself with Dash. He represented everything she feared and hated. If it hadn’t been for men like him, her uncle would not have been charged with a crime he hadn’t committed. She must never forget that. She had the copy of the file. She had stayed longer than she should have, and right at that very moment Hans Melford might have discovered the scratch and be piecing things together. She shuddered at the thought, then smiled at a customer who raised a quizzical eyebrow at her.

“That’s a great picture.” A round man with eyes like agates smiled at her, then showed the instant camera print to his equally plump wife

“Thank you, sir. Ah, excuse me just a moment.” Lotus left the gaming room where she had been taking pictures and went out to the lobby to the rows of public telephones. She dialed and waited. “Petras? Yes, it’s Lotus. I’m ready to leave, if I can get a flight out tomorrow. You will? Oh, that’s nice. Of course I’ll get over to the house. Yes, I’ll be here, if you want to call me back. They’ll page me. Thanks.”

When she hung up the phone, she stood there staring at the receiver, listening to the signal that told her the connection was broken. Tomorrow she would be leaving Las Vegas, leaving Dash. Her heart seemed to squeeze in her chest, sending a pain of loss through her whole system. She was losing Dash!

“Aren’t you going to hang up the phone?” His silken laugh coiled around her as he took the receiver from her hand and replaced the instrument. “You’re pale. What is it? Aren’t you feeling well?” He lifted her, cameras and all, up his chest so that he could scrutinize her. “You’re working too hard . . . and now you want to give up your lunch. No way. You’re eating with me. Do you want to make yourself ill?”

Lotus looked into his eyes and shook her head.
I want you,
she said in her mind, her hands coming up to clutch his neck.
I’m losing you and I don’t want that.
Her eyes felt damp.

“Lotus . . . baby.” Dash felt her panic. “I’m getting you out of here.”

“Can’t.” Lotus gulped. “Have to work.” Where had all her restraint gone? What had happened to the stiff-upper-lip theory she had always subscribed to? She rubbed her hair against his chin.

He let her slide down his body, keeping her sheltered from the curious eyes of passersby, but not releasing his hold on her. “I’m getting you out of here. Hans will find someone to fill in for you.” Lotus felt immobilized, disoriented. “Can he do that?”

“Yes.” Dash looked around him, his face a polite mask as people gazed at him. “Let’s go.” Keeping his arm around her, he led her to the office, went through the outer office to his own, then punched a few buttons on a console. “Hans, I want to see you, please.”

When the stocky assistant entered, his eyes narrowed on Lotus, but other than that he made no sign that he even knew she was there. “You wanted me, Dash?”

“Yes.” In short sentences Dash told Hans what he wanted done. “Get Harry to find a substitute for Lotus.” Then he dismissed him. He looked at Lotus. “You’re still white. I don’t like that.” He punched a few more numbers on the console then spoke again, his voice muffled when he half turned away from her. When he faced her again, he was smiling. “You’re coming with me. I’m taking you to my house.”

“But I can’t, my own shift starts in a short time and . . . Lotus bit her lip. She had been about to say that she had to wait for Petras to call and tell her what time her flight was tomorrow, but she caught herself in time. “Well, you know . . .” she finished weakly, wishing she could go with him and stay with him all day. How could she think such a thing! Petras would be calling soon! She couldn’t stay with Dash.

“Your job is all taken care of,” Dash informed her, his eyes roving over her. “That costume is too brief. I don’t like all the men who come through this casino seeing you that way.”

“Most of them don’t see me.” Lotus smiled. “They’re thinking about gambling.” It surprised her that he would say that! Many of the show girls wore even skimpier costumes than hers. Then she remembered what she had to tell him. “Dash, I can’t come . . . anywhere with you. After my shift, I’m going to a . . . that is, I was just going to have something simple and go home.”

“I’m taking you home with me.” Dash was adamant.

“Ah . . . but . . .

“And don’t try to figure me out, Lotus. I can’t work out why I feel the way I do about you.” His rueful smile lifted a corner of his mouth, giving his lips a mysterious satanic style that made her catch her breath.

“Where are we going?” Lotus wondered if she should try to get a message to Petras, then she decided that it might be too risky. But he and Martha were expecting her for a meal! She groaned inwardly. There were so many reasons not to go with Dash. How was she to get a message to Petras? And more important, how was she to prevent herself from falling more in love with Dash?

“My home. It’s on the edge of the desert and very private. We’ll have a swim and some canapes, then we’ll have a dinner.” He grinned at her. “That I will cook for you.”

“Oh. Will I survive it?” Lotus couldn’t chase away the lightheartedness she felt. Her voice of reason was buried as she thought of being with him. She would be spending hours with Dash! She would be leaving tomorrow, but for now she would savor the moment. From the time she’d been a child, she had always projected into the future, her goals and aims always in front of her, but now she was going to put it all aside. Today, this minute, was all she would consider.

Dash bent over her, kissing her nose. “You will not only survive. You will enjoy it.”

Lotus laughed out loud.

Dash’s smile disappeared. He cupped her face with his hands. “That is also a very beautiful thing about you, China Doll.” His mouth nuzzled her lips, parting them, letting his tongue quest gently over her teeth to the roof of her mouth

Lotus’s heart dropped to her feet, then soared up and out of her body. Even as her eyes closed and she sagged against him, she knew that he was the One who had walked her dreams when she was a child. He was the Knight, the Warrior, the Hero who would sweep her away and keep her safe all her life. As her rational mind told her she was a fool, that he was gambler, a womanizer, a high-road freewheeler, her heart told her that she loved him. Even if she never saw Dash again, she knew that there would never be anyone who would come close to taking his place.

“Open your eyes, darling.” Dash’s voice was hoarse. “We have to get out of here.” He grasped her hand in his and pulled her along behind him, his long strides making her run. “Now hurry and change.” He left her in the locker room.

She changed in record time, curses escaping her lips when she fumbled with a snap or zipper. She had to get to Dash! She thought this as she rushed from the locker room and he was there, waiting to grasp her hand again. They ran from the building like children.

When they reached his Ferrari parked behind Cicero’s, she was out of breath. “Whew! I’m glad you weren’t parked blocks away . . .” Lotus wheezed, bringing Dash’s gaze around to her.

He frowned, then his brow cleared and he looked contrite. “Sorry, love. I forgot for a moment how tiny you are.”

“Five feet five is not tiny,” Lotus said, after he seated her in the front seat, then went around to climb in under the wheel. “Only a giant would make that statement. How ever did you get so tall?” “I come from an old Boston family. Being tall is a prerequisite.”

“You come from an old Boston family!” Lotus exclaimed incredulously . “I’m sure they’re delighted they have a gambler in the family.”

Dash’s mouth lifted in hard amusement. “Oh, yes, they’re delighted.”

“Are you joking about your family?” Lotus asked.