Romance in Vegas - Showgirl! (4 page)

As she changed in the bathroom this time, and
appraised herself in the full-length mirror, she thought she looked
like a fractured model one would see on a service station wall. She
shook her hair out a bit and put on some lipstick.

Soon, Nat was knocking on the door. "Ready
anytime, Dani."

Slowly, she walked into the living room. They
weren't talking this time, though. Both just watched her.

Then Nat stood. "Sensational. Knock dead
breasts, long legs up to her underarms. Now walk to me," he said,
before he ran a hand through his curly hair.

She did as instructed.

"Okay," he began, "your ass should be tucked
in and your chest thrust out." He demonstrated, making her
smile.

He continued. "When you walk, you want to
glide." He went into a walk then and she laughed. "Perfect
posture," he came back and repositioned her slightly, and his hands
were warm and efficient. "Tilt your chin up. When we take stills,
that's still pictures, put all your weight on your back leg,
usually the left, and on the right foot angle it and just put your
weight on the big toe."

She found she was talking to herself now,
trying to follow his directions, and hardly realized anyone else
was in the room.

However, when she looked up, Scaletti was a
few feet in front of her. "Now, walk to me," he said, "and smile.
Have some confidence."

Walking towards him, as instructed, she
smiled broadly and his eyes registered surprise.

"My God, Nat, she's got a beautiful, sexy
smile," he said enthusiastically.

Then he walked over to Nat and ignored her as
they talked about her training.

"She's a natural," Nat assured him.

They went on discussing her as principle
dancer, while she felt like someone had let the air out of her
lungs.

She stood with her back to the wall now.

Nat went out the door with a wave.

But before Al departed, he strolled up,
leaned one hand on the wall by her head, with the other holding his
suit jacket, and stood so close to her she felt the thrumming
muscular vitality flowing from his body, and smelled the liquor and
mint on his breath.

His greyish-blue steely eyes searched her
face, flitting from her eyes to her lips. He said softly, "Don't
lie to me." His lips moved closer and almost touched hers. "Ever.
Understand?"

She nodded, while her eyes grew hazy looking
into his. And her breath escaped in a long sigh after he left.

Chapter 4

On Scaletti's return to the penthouse, and as
he found himself idly daydreaming about Dani's full, sensual lips,
Lefty and Teeny sat patiently waiting for him. He ushered them into
the den. Both declined a drink, and they sat in front of him on the
large sofa while he sat in his favorite chair. The one Dani had
claimed the other night. The one she'd looked so sensational
sitting on.

"So," he said finally, "what's the word?"

"Not pretty," Lefty said.

Scaletti smiled slightly. "I suspected as
much, although I'm getting to be a better liar than she is. I told
her something about her taking ballet classes when she was younger.
Just to see what she'd say."

Teeny continued the story. "Must have been
before she was ten years old then. That's when the parents died.
Auto crash."

Al nodded. "No life insurance or other
relatives to take her in?"

Lefty snorted. "Nah, she was in foster homes
up until she aged out at eighteen."

"This year," Al said thoughtfully. "And
where, what city is she from then?"

"Buffalo, New York," Teeny said, "my contact
there said she was bounced around to about ten foster homes, then
she got pinched for shoplifting...I'll just have you guess for
what."

"Lingerie?" Al asked, as he thought of the
black, sexy number she'd just worn.

"No boss," the man continued, "peanut butter
for Christ sakes. Said she was hungry. They expunged it from her
record last year."

Al frowned at that. "How the hell did she get
here in Vegas?"

Lefty took over the story. "Down at Motel
Ten, the guy tells me she came here with a loser, Thomas Kinder. A
real gambler card shark type. Had pinches for cocaine in New York.
Brought another woman into the picture, then all three of them left
the motel high and dry. Guy tells me they owed a week room fees, so
I sent someone over there to pay. Said the other woman and Kinder
left before our girl did."

With a face showing his displeasure, Al
asked, "Lawsuits, tickets, that sort of thing?"

"No, boss. Nothing like that."

After fixing himself a drink, Al sat down
again. "She's a liar," he said softly. "So even if I'm interested
in her, how can I know if she's telling me the truth or not? She
lied about her whole upbringing."

"Boss," Lefty said patiently, "that's why you
have us. Besides, if you had a past like that, I doubt if you'd be
shouting it from the rooftops." Then he paused, before he said,
"It's like a protection for her. She's probably used it her whole
life to get by. If it worked for her once, she figures it would
work again. I can relate to that."

Al nodded. "A very good observation. So, on
to other areas. How is Antonio doing in Atlantic City?" Recently he
had moved his close friend Tony Barrelli to manage his other
casino.

"Looking good over there for now," Teeny
said. "The drop's right on, and growing. He's got some new
publicity goin' on to bring people in. Lots of comps for the high
rollers. The pilot's picking him up Saturday, so you can see him
then. He told me he's got the reports and all."

"Wonderful," Al said. His eyes took in the
expansive view from his penthouse windows, but he didn't see it. He
was having trouble keeping his mind on business. "She's absolutely
beautiful," he said softly, "in a way like Clarice but in a way
not. I loved her spirit, she was actually angry because I didn't
look up when she first came in the room. I could tell. And, the
more I find out about her, the thought of a relationship with her
scares the shit out of me."

His two friends rose, grinned at each other,
and left him alone with his daydreams.

At exactly four o'clock the next morning,
Friday, Al let himself into the surveillance room. The fifteen men
working there had been hand chosen by him. They had impeccable
records and knew the casino business inside and out. The problem
was now they couldn't spot who was skimming Winner Takes All for
the past week. The cage audit shortage was getting bigger and
bigger by the day, and they were more than nervous about it, as
they knew all of them could be easily replaced.

Les, Robert and Jerry had stations right next
to each other, with Robert being the overall supervisor. He thought
they could have been triplets, all with brown straight hair, brown
eyes and average looks. Nothing that would stand out about them, or
the other twelve in the dimly lit room. This, also, was planned by
him. Along with a separate dining room and lounge facilities. They
knew if they had contact with anyone from any casino, much less
Winner Takes All, they would be not only fired but blacklisted from
every casino in Vegas. And that's why they made the higher
salaries.

"Has it started yet?" he asked Robert. The
man was shocked to see him there, as he looked up from the many
monitors, but, Al thought, he should have expected it.

"Not yet. Maude is late again." The woman was
the oldest of the pull team and seemed to have trouble rolling out
of bed at three in the morning.

"I'll tell Kathy to write her up."

The woman appeared on screen a few minutes
later, and the pull began. The pull team had four casino workers
and audit had three with clipboards.

They all searched the monitors carefully for
slight of hand and missing boxes. Also, they checked out the armed
guards who accompanied all teams. And, the guards eyed everyone
from the customers, to the teams, and to any people wandering by
that early in the morning.

All of them remembered the armed hold-up at a
neighboring casino, which remained unsolved. The thieves had not
only made off with a trolley filled with pull boxes, worth several
hundred thousand dollars, but were still out there somewhere.
Possibly planning their next heist.

"Don't mention I'm here," Al said slowly,
"but call them and tell Michael to slow down. He's throwing chairs,
knocking them over and everything else. I don't like that. He's
going to hurt someone. Too much commotion. Also, have him drug
tested as soon as this is over. He looks like a crazy man out
there."

"Sure," Robert said, as he picked up the
phone.

They watched for an hour, but came up with
nothing. Next, they watched the soft count room images. Even with
close-ups, none of them could see anything.

Al ended up just rubbing his eyes in
frustration. "Keep me posted, Robert, and we'll see how much
today's deposit is off."

Before he left, he turned back to the
monitors for one last look. "Chi Mama," Jerry said, "get a load of
that." He zoomed the camera in for a better look.

The red hair looked familiar and Al walked
back over to see Dani, on the screen image, making her way towards
the front door of the casino dressed in a bright white skin hugging
sleeveless top, hip-hugger jeans and boots. Her sunglasses were
carelessly shoved up on her head to hold back her long red
hair.

"Un-zoom, Jerry," Al said, matter-of-factly.
"Show me the casino, outside view." He wondered why on God's green
earth she was up that early.

The sun was about to rise, dawn was breaking,
as a few late night players straggled out of the door along with
Dani. He watched her stand by the front fountains, take a deep
breath, twirl around then walk to the opposite fountain and do the
same thing.

He tried not to smile in appreciation at the
picture she made standing there.

A woman walked up to her then, and Dani
flashed her thousand watt smile. Al recognized her from somewhere
in the casino. "Who is that with her?" he asked Robert.

"Oh, that's Nola. She's a restroom
attendant."

"Okay, cameras back on regular duty, guys. I
know she's easy on the eyes, but off limits. Severely off limits.
Got it?"

They all agreed, and Scaletti left them to
gossip about the unusual behavior of their boss and the new stacked
redhead.

Dani hugged Nola. "It is so good to see you!"
she cried, "Wait until I tell you what happened."

They both sat next to the fountain. "Are you
the new red-haired dancer everyone is talking about?" Nola asked
her, grinning.

Dani laughed. "That would be me, complete
with a suite of my own and three squares a day."

"Oh, I am so heavenly glad for you sweetie.
You did good for yourself. A real success story."

"Well, I haven't danced yet, I'm still trying
to gear myself up for the rehearsal. I've heard they work you
pretty hard."

Nodding, Nola said, "I used to know a dancer
in there. We were really good friends for a few years. She told me
how hard it was for her at first, dancing in front of the audience
almost naked then dealing with some of the other dancers who were
jealous."

She continued, "The main thing I got from her
was this. When you're out there in front of the audience, they can
look all they want but they can't touch you. You can shimmy, shake,
even strip and with all the guards in this place, you are totally
safe. Like, there's a barrier there that you have to remember
about. Otherwise, you won't make it."

Dani grabbed her hands. "Thank you so much,
Nola. You have been such a friend to me. Please let me know if
there is anything I can do for you, okay?"

"You bet," Nola said as she stood, "good luck
sweetie. My thoughts are with you."

At nine o'clock, Lorali watched the new
redhead come backstage with Kim. She'd seen them talking and
laughing over breakfast in the dining room.

Principle dancer my ass, she thought. Damn
Scaletti anyway. She'd tried everything to get him to give her the
principle spot, but he just annoyingly treated her with polite
deference like he treated all the dancers. She'd even tried to
seduce him one time when they were alone backstage, but he wouldn't
have any of it. All she saw was a slight smile on his lips.

How she was dying to kiss those lips of his!
He was so maddeningly out of reach, when he should really be
catering to her and asking her out like most of the other men she
met. He was a tough one. Virile, smooth talking, well dressed, and
oh so handsome.

"Sweetie," she said, walking over as Kim
showed Dani her make-up area, "how do you say your last name?" She
tried to sound as pleasant as possible, as if she were just
inquiring for the hell of it.

Dani smiled. "It's spelled T-r-o-u-b-i-x, but
you say it more like trubee."

"Oh," Kim said to Lorali, "I thought you were
talking to me. Hard to know, when you call everyone sweetie. Mine's
Mangioni by the way."

"You 'connected' then?" Lorali asked
pleasantly.

"Not like you want to be,
darling
,"
Kim laughed.

And Lorali scowled, as she returned to her
area. But she wasn't about to give up yet on her plans to stop this
new woman dancer. She'd think of something.

After Dani had borrowed a leotard, a bit
snug, from Kim she went onstage with the rest of the women. They
stretched for what seemed like a long time then stopped for a
break. She saw Al Scaletti stroll in loosening his tie. He sat in
the second row and put his feet up on the seatback in front of
him.

A murmur started as the girls whispered to
one another.

"What is it?" she hissed to Kim.

"Scaletti. He looks us over to make sure no
one is gaining too much weight."