“Did you need something?”
“Yes.” Lucy strode out into the hall and shut the door. “My brother is here with some friends. I want to visit him.” Con man rule three: Best to stick to the truth (mostly) when you were lying. Good ole Dad. His adages were the deception-wrapped gift that just kept on giving.
“Your brother?” Lil crossed her arms over her chest. “The Jer’ol did not say anything about your brother.”
“I’m not leaving the casino.” Lucy crossed her own arms over her chest, copying Lil’s pose. Another trick, relax people by mimicking their posture. “Go ahead, call him. He said I could go where I wanted. And I need to do some shopping for this ceremony thing.”
Lil looked suspicious. “You won’t find the right clothing for the ceremony in human shops.”
Oops. Back-pedal. “Oh right, I meant cosmetics and things for my hair.” Lucy hurried down the hall as if it was all settled. Con man rule number four: Act confident.
Lil walked behind her, then passed her to get on the elevator first. “What floor?”
“Five.” Lucy couldn’t help the smile the stretched her face.
At suite 504, Lucy knocked with her familiar rap to let Joey know it was her. Dat-da-da-da-da-Dat-Dat.
Joey yanked the door wide. “Luce—” He stopped short when he saw Lil. “Who’s this?”
“Alec’s sec-ur-ity,” She drew out the word.
Joey immediately leaned on the door and affected a nonchalant air. “So nice to meet you,” he said to Lil, with a charm that had worked on legions of women. “Would you like to come in? Room service hasn’t been here yet, but you’re welcome…”
“No, no,” Lucy knew the code. “No room service” meant there were things Lil shouldn’t see in the room. “I’m sure Lil isn’t interested in your dirty underwear.”
Lucy pushed herself into the room and locked the door before Lil could object.
Lil banged on the door. “I don’t like this, Lucy,” she shouted. “You’ve got ten minutes before I’m coming in.”
“No problem,” Lucy called back.
“What. In. The. Hell?” Joey whispered the words and threw his open hands at her. “You brought security to the command room? What’s the matter with you? Gino will kill you.”
The room was dark, the curtains closed, but she could see all the accoutrements of a robbery in progress. Computers, blueprints, and plastic-wrapped costumes. Several days’ worth of dirty room-service dishes piled in a corner. The tan janitor’s costume lay on the floor in a heap. The evidence of Joey’s illegal lifestyle made her suddenly feel like a defendant on trial.
Guilty as charged, she almost heard the gavel fall.
The Padma sapphire seemed to burn against her leg in accusation. This was wrong, all wrong. Suddenly, a future with dragons seemed more certain than a future with Joey. She sat hard on the couch and clasped her hands to halt their shaking.
All wrong. Very, very wrong.
Weariness pushed on her shoulders, making her sink farther into the droopy couch. She was tired. Tired of forming her choices around Joey’s wayward life. She’d fooled herself. He wouldn’t change, not even in Brazil.
And she felt physically ill when she considered leaving Alec. Alec who could help her understand her strange new magic. Alec who said he wanted a life with her. All right a dragon life, but at least it was a chosen life, and not one chasing Joey’s messed-up, zig-zagging, pathetic trail. She should stay with Alec, brave the dragon creatures, and let Joey go.
Alone.
“Joey, come here.” She patted the cushion next to her, but Joey slouched in the armchair across from her instead. “Gino is dead. You need to walk away from this. You don’t like Brazil, fine. Pick anywhere in the world, I’ll help you get there.”
“I just talked to Bruno, and Gino is not dead. We’re still a go for tonight.”
“Bruno’s wrong.” Lucy fought to keep her voice even. “Joey, I don’t have a lot of time. I saw Gino die, and I saw the exhibit destroyed.”
Joey shook his head in denial.
“What are you planning on robbing, charred curtains?” she asked.
“You are supposed to find out where they moved the jewels.” Joey leaned forward, his face red with indignation. “We’re waiting on you. You are the problem.”
“I am the problem?” Fury swelled up in Lucy’s chest and exploded into words. “I am not the problem.” Lucy jumped to her feet, straining to keep the volume of her voice under control so Lil wouldn’t hear. “YOU are the problem.”
Joey glared up at her with a mutinous look.
“When I called you, hurt and scared—” Lucy’s voice broke and she couldn’t continue. Instead, she picked up a pillow and threw it at Joey’s face.
Joey swatted away the pillow with a casual toss of his hand.
Lucy’s chest heaved with feelings too long suppressed. Spittle gathered on the sides of her mouth, and tears filled her eyes. She crossed her forearms arms around her stomach protectively and tried to get control of her tilting emotions.
“I got news for ya, little sis.” Joey crossed his ankle over his knee and jiggled his foot. “I have helped you out, not the other way around. Do you know how many people wanted to take you out when you turned your back on Dad’s connections? I stopped them. I put myself in your shoes, I paid your debt.”
Lucy searched his face for the telltale look to the right that meant he was lying. He stared straight at her, his eyes unwavering.
“All you care about is the next big score,” she whispered.
“Yeah, Luce, so what. It’s what I do.”
“But it’s not what I do!”
Joey shook his head in disgust. “Fine, you don’t want to help me, I’ll do it all myself.”
“I just want you to quit with the stealing and gambling.”
“Not going to happen.” Joey shrugged his shoulders and cast his eyes around the room. He was disengaging from her—the sister always in-the-hand—to focus on the robbery-in-the-bush.
“You’re never going to change, are you?” Lucy’s words were somewhere between misery and acceptance.
“Now you’re listening,” Joey said. “I gotta gift. With the cards.”
“What?” This was the first she had heard about a gift. Could Joey have magic, too? “What kind of gift?”
“I just know what’s coming out of the card shoe.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” Joey met her eyes and glanced away, to his left.
“Then how come you don’t win?”
“I didn’t say I was always right, but I’m getting better.”
Lucy was stunned. Her agile mind tried to sort through the new information. “Do you think you have some sort of magic?”
Joey’s mouth opened, and he gave her a look like she had lost her mind.
Suddenly, the hotel door splintered in half, and Alec stormed through the pieces.
Lucy jumped in front of Joey, shielding him from the murderous look in Alec’s eyes. “No, no, he didn’t do anything!”
Alec stormed to the middle of the room, followed by an aggrieved-looking Lil. Alec scanned her up and down. Fury pulsed off him in waves. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes,” Lucy insisted, pushing her hands toward the floor, placating. “It was my idea to come see him. This is my brother Joey.”
“Who’s this guy?” Joey stepped around her and raised his chin and fisted his hands at his side.
“This is Alec Gerald, the owner of the casino,” Lucy explained.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to explain the broken door to anyone.” Joey’s words were cocky, but Lucy knew he must be thinking fast, trying to come up with an excuse for the room full of thieving paraphernalia.