“Did you figure it out?”
“Well, first of all, I have no phone, the bad guys have it. Second, Eden would be on your side. Third, Toni is probably too busy getting the same lecture from David, and I can’t talk to my mom ’cause she would tell my dad.”
“I can give you my cell and you could call one of my sisters. They always bitch to one another when they’re pissed at me.”
She grinned and held out her hand. “I like that idea. Gimme.”
“Nope, we’re not done yet,” he said as he stepped into the room.
“Hey, you can’t put bait like that out there and then not deliver. That’s, that’s, well it’s not fair.”
“I think the word you want is cocktease.”
Samantha could feel her cheeks heating. “I would never say that.”
“You don’t swear, do you?” he asked as he crossed his arms.
“I did yesterday, I said ‘hell’. So yes, I do swear sometimes, but I really try not to. That’s what happens when you spend so much time with your grandparents growing up. So, can I have your cell phone, pretty please?” She cocked her head to the right. If flirting would help her cause, she was all for it. Plus, flirting with Ezio was fun, and maybe he would lighten up.
“Not until you tell me how you got out of the wig shop.”
“Oh, that was easy.” She relaxed and sat down on the end of the bed. “I talked the game-runner into laying out all the cash on the table so I could see it all at once. I told him I’d never seen that much money at one time.”
“And he went for that?” Ezio leaned against the wall next to her.
She gave a small smile and nodded.
“I forgot for a moment what you’d been wearing. Of course, he’d go for it. Fuck, I’d go for it with what you have on right now.”
“Bull hockey.”
He gave a loud laugh. “Tell me the rest.”
“Okay, so Carl, he was another man who worked for the game-runner, he stood behind him all through the game. When somebody, I can’t remember his name, wanted to leave, Carl showed his gun. That’s when I knew we were truly in trouble.”
“Honey, the word you’re looking for is fucked. You were well and truly fucked.”
Samantha rolled her eyes at him. “Do you want me to tell you or not?”
“Go on.”
“So, Carl was watching as the game-runner, I don’t know his name, spread out all the cash. I leaned down and started touching it and I might have cooed just a little bit.” She bit her lip, remembering how she behaved.
“Cooed?”
“Uhm, cooed and made little sounds.”
Ezio pushed away from the wall and walked closer to the bed. “Care to share with the class?”
“Huh?”
“Let me hear the sounds,” he prompted.
Once again, he was making her blush. How did he keep managing to do that? “Anyway,” she began. “I made some sounds that the men found distracting, and I leaned forward a lot.”
“And the men found that distracting as well,” Ezio surmised grimly.
“Well, that was the plan. So, I’m toying with the money, leaning over and cooing and oohing, then when I think their defenses are down, I scoop up the whole pile. Most of it I throw up high over my shoulder to the other gamblers, the rest I stuff into my purse.”
“Holy hell.”
“Then I duck down beneath the table. I had told Phil that when I did my distraction, he had to be ready and duck, but he wasn’t ready, and I had to grab him.”
“Of course, that dumbshit wasn’t ready. He’s so dumb he has to get naked to count to twenty-one.”
Samantha snorted. “Yeah, he would need to count his dick as well as his fingers and toes to get to twenty-one.” She turned bright red.
‘Dick’ was a swear word, right?
“That sure explains his level of intelligence when he’s drunk.” Samantha continued. “Anyway, everybody scrambled for the cash, so that was the distraction to go out the back.”
“I understand that, but why did everybody go out the front?” Ezio asked.
“Carl and Murray were waving their guns around. Somebody saw and yelled gun. That’s when the stampede started.”
Ezio’s eyes narrowed. “And when did one of them lay hands on you?”
“It was when I was trying to lead Greg and Phil to the back exits. One of them grabbed me by the wrists and pointed his gun at me.”
“Which one?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters.”
“Murray. Anyway, he was really angry, but I don’t think he was going to shoot me, I think he was just planning on taking me somewhere, that’s why he was yanking on my wrist so hard.”
“The bastard,” Ezio spit out. “So, what did you do?”
“Maybe Phil or Greg rescued me?” She grinned, trying to lighten the moment. Seriously, he needed to calm down.
“Yeah, and the moon is made of Swiss cheese. So, tell me how you got away.”
“I used the mace in my purse. I’d used it earlier at the table too, after I was done cooing, leaning, and toying.”
“Jesus, you’re a menace.”
“But it all worked out, you have to admit that.”
“No, I really don’t, Samantha. I really, really don’t. You can’t go to your apartment. Those men are still out to get you, and there were too many instances you could have ended up dead.”
She got up off the bed and stepped up to him and put her hand on his chest. “But I didn’t.”
“But you could have,” he breathed as he put his arm around her waist and cupped her cheek.
“But I’m here. Now. In your arms,” she whispered. “I’m safe.”
“Without a bra.”
“You noticed, huh?
