The dealer wanted to know if I was going to play.
'What?' I asked.
'You need to put a chip in to play'
I shoved a red chip into my circle.
'Red chips are worth ten,' the dealer said. 'This table has a twenty-five-dollar minimum.'
I pushed a different colored chip at him. The chips had numbers on them, but I was too flustered to make sense of it.
The dealer gave me a ten of spades and a two of hearts. This was easy to add. Twelve. A long way to go to twenty-one, right? I asked for another card. This started a lot of arguing. Apparently the book wasn't clear on this one. The dealer gave me a ten of diamonds. Damn! Busted again.
I didn't know exactly how much I had because I was having a hard time adding up all the different colored chips, but I knew I didn't have a lot. One more hand, maybe.
When the new game started I pushed a couple chips into my ring. The dealer gave me a nine of spades and a three of clubs. I bit into my lower lip, unsure what to do, and I felt a hand settle on my shoulder. I turned and looked. It was the guy in black.
'I'm going to help you,' he said.
There was a lot of noise behind me. I heard Lula let out a shriek and the guy in black gasped in surprise, jerked away from me, and went over backward. Everyone at the table stood and gawked, including me.
Lula and the guy in black were on the floor. Lula was ass up, on top of the guy in black. You could hardly see him under the pink spandex. He was squashed spread eagle under Lula so that only his hands and feet stuck out. Connie was standing on one of his hands.
'Don't freakin' move,' Connie yelled at the poor smushed guy in black.
From what I could see there wasn't much chance of him moving. I wasn't even sure he was still breathing.
Uniformed and plainclothes security instantly appeared and wrestled Lula off the guy in black.
'He was going for a gun,' Lula said. 'He's a killer.'
The guy in black didn't move. He was still on his back, gasping for air. 'I have identification in my inside jacket pocket,' he said. 'And I think I have a broken back.'
'Can you move your toes?' one of the security guards asked him.
'Yeah.'
'How about your fingers?'
He wiggled the fingers on one hand. Connie was still standing on the other hand.
'Ow,' the guy in black said to Connie.
Connie stepped off his hand. 'Sorry,' she said.
One of the plainclothes men lifted the identification. 'Erik Salvatora. Looks like he's a rent-a-cop.'
'I'm a licensed private investigator and a security specialist,' Salvatora said. 'I'm employed by RangeMan LLC and I was asked to protect Ms. Plum while she's in town. God only knows why when she's got Big Bertha and the Bonecrusher with her.'
He was Ranger's man. RangeMan was Ranger's corporate name.
'Hey,' Lula said. 'Watch who you're calling Big Bertha. Nobody tolerates that political incorrectness anymore, you little candy ass.'
'This was a terrible misunderstanding,' I told everyone. 'My friends and I didn't realize he was assigned to guard me. My usual bodyguard missed his flight.'
Now they were all wondering who the hell I was that I needed a bodyguard. And that was fine by me because I wanted this to go away. We were all carrying guns, probably illegally. I had no idea what the gun laws were in Nevada.
'I thought he was going for a gun,' Lula said.
Erik struggled to get up. 'I was going for my wallet. I was going to buy her some chips. I was supposed to keep my distance, but I couldn't stand watching her play anymore. She's the worst blackjack player I've ever seen.'
'Really sorry,' I said. 'Can we take you to a hospital or something?'
'No! I'll be okay. Probably just a slipped disc and possibly a broken bone or two in my hand.'
'Don't worry about six o'clock,' I called after him. 'I might not be going to the airport.'
He looked at me blank faced. As if taking me to the airport was too terrible to contemplate right now. 'Okay,' he said. And he limped away.
'Sorry,' I said to the security people. 'I guess we'll be going now, too.'
'We'll see you out,' one of the uniforms said.
We were escorted out of Caesars, the doors closed behind us, and we stood blinking in the sun, waiting for our eyes to adjust to daylight.
'That was sort of embarrassing,' Lula said.
