Deadly Embrace Jackie Collins (the reader ebook .TXT) 📖

moment they landed, Tina was in heaven. ‘Oh, my God! Oh my God!’ she said, hyperventilating. ‘Can we go see Elvis?’

‘We’ll never get tickets,’ Max said, always the pessimist.

‘I can arrange it,’ Michael said. ‘I got connections here.’ He was boasting, but why the hell not? If Tina was hot to see Elvis, that’s exactly what she would do.

He wondered if Manny Spiven was still round. Then, for some unknown reason, he began thinking about the blonde. What was her name? Dani. Yeah. Dani.

That was a long time ago. A one-night stand. Why was he thinking about her? He wondered if she was still in the chorus line at the Estradido.

No, she was probably long gone, married and living in Omaha with three kids and a fat husband.

‘I want to see everything,’ Tina enthused, as the airport cab drove them into town. ‘I want to go to every hotel, every casino. I want to drive up and down the Strip. This is so exciting! You have no idea.’

Vito Giovanni had arranged for them to have their rooms comped at the Estradido Hotel. He’d got them the best, for which Michael was grateful. It helped that he’d recommended a market buy to Vito–a stock that had doubled over a three-week period.

‘Where’d you learn about this shit?’ Vito had asked.

He’d shrugged. ‘Just lucky, I guess.’

‘I want you t’do more for me.’

‘Fine with me.’

Karl Edgington’s picks were always right on the money, and over the last few years he’d been making himself a small fortune. He didn’t have to work for anyone any more, he was his own boss–with the help of Karl who, according to Warner Carlysle, was due to be released any day now.

‘There’s a Jacuzzi in the living room,’ Tina giggled to Michael, when they all met downstairs for a drink after checking into the hotel. ‘Can you believe it?’ she said, wide-eyed. ‘In the living room. Max is the happiest man around!’

‘I am?’ Max said, sounding surprised.

‘Yes,’ Tina said, ‘’cause you can take a bath and watch TV at the same time.’

‘Maybe I’ll take a bath with you,’ Max said slyly.

‘Don’t be disgusting,’ she snapped.

‘Did you notice the mirrors on the ceiling above the bed?’ Max asked, giving Michael a quick nudge.

‘Guess I missed that.’

‘Take a look. Sexy, if you ask me.’

It seemed that lately Max found everything sexy. He was definitely experiencing the married-man itch.

‘Tomorrow I’ll score tickets for Elvis,’ Michael said.

‘If you take me to see Elvis, I’ll love you forever!’ Tina swooned.

‘How about me?’ Max asked.

‘Oh, you. You’re my husband, I’ll always love you.’

‘Tonight I thought we’d have dinner at the hotel,’ Michael decided. ‘We can see the show, then take a look around.’

‘I don’t want to have dinner here,’ Tina said petulantly. ‘Can’t we go to the Sands, or the Desert Inn, or the Magiriano? My girlfriend stayed at the Magiriano, and she says it’s the best. Apparently there’s an amazing show.’

‘Whatever you want. I’ll arrange it.’

Tina nodded enthusiastically.

‘Two nights in Vegas an’ you’ll be screamin’ to go home,’ Michael said, laughing at Tina’s genuine excitement.

‘As long as I get to hit the tables,’ Max said.

‘You’d better remember what happened last time,’ Michael reminded him.

‘That was a long time ago,’ Max said cockily. ‘I know what I’m doin’ now.’

‘He’s got a hundred dollars to play with, and that’s it,’ Tina said, in true wifely fashion.

‘Yes, honey,’ Max said, the five hundred dollars he’d managed to smuggle from home itching to leave his pocket.

Before they went upstairs, Tina decided she should play the slots. She hit a lucky streak, and after forty-five minutes and two jackpots, she came away with fifteen hundred dollars.

‘Oh…my…God!’ she exclaimed. ‘This is the most fabulous place on earth! I wish we could come here every weekend.’

‘Well, we can’t,’ Max said, surly because he’d already blown a hundred. ‘Lend me some of your money–I wanna play.’

‘No, it’s mine. You go play with your hundred dollars.’

‘Selfish,’ he muttered.

‘I’m not,’ she countered. ‘I won it, and I’m spending it on the kids.’

‘Yeah, that’s right–spoil ’em.’

‘You two gonna fight?’ Michael said. ‘I thought we came here to relax.’

‘We did,’ Tina said, shooting Max a baleful look.

‘Okay,’ Michael said. ‘So I’ll make reservations for dinner and the show at the Magiriano. We should leave here in an hour. Maybe you wanna go upstairs an’ shower.’

‘Why?’ Max joked. ‘Do I smell?’

‘Get outta here,’ Michael responded.

Tina and Max took the elevator to their room, still arguing, while Michael made his way to the main show room. There was nobody round, so he went backstage. A stage manager informed him the girls hadn’t checked in yet.

‘I was, uh…looking for Dani. Is she still working here?’

‘We don’t have a Dani,’ the stage manager said.

‘How about Angela?’

‘We got two Angelas.’

‘What time do they usually come in?’

‘You a relative?’

‘Yes.’

‘The girls are here by five.’

‘Thanks,’ he said, hoping that one of the Angelas could fill him in on Dani.

Why was he looking for her anyway?

No reason. Anything to pass the time.

Angela was not the Angela he’d had in mind. Nor was the second Angela–a faded brunette who tried to persuade him to come back after the show, promising she’d show him the sights.

‘Sorry,’ he said.

‘So am I!’ she said, with a jaunty wink.

Is that all women saw, his good looks? When he was younger and hoping to get laid every five minutes it had worked for him. Now, at almost thirty, with everything he’d experienced, one-night stands were a thing of the past. He craved love and companionship, a woman who excited him and kept him alert. A woman like Beth.

Only problem, women like Beth did not exist.

When Tina arrived downstairs she was all dressed up for her big night out in Vegas. Short black cocktail dress, three-inch heels, rhinestone jewellery and teased hair.

‘How about my wife?’ Max boasted. ‘Ain’t she somethin’?’

‘She sure is,’ Michael agreed.

‘And I am escorted by the two handsomest men in Vegas,’ Tina said, preening as they made their way through the casino to the front of the hotel