CASINO SHUFFLE (39 page)

“I would, yes.”

“As you wish,” said Antonio.
 
“If this is to be my last weekend, it might as well be remembered in an adventurous spirit.”
 
He sighed and then set to work on focusing his attention to the day’s duties.
 
“I believe I’ll check on Max and call the hospital from his suite.
 
Would you care to join me?”

Mark shook his head.
 
“I gotta go finish my report and explain everything to the boss.
 
I might include that part about the shoes.”
 
He looked around.
 
“Got any of those apple fritters today?”

“I’ll have some sent over to your office.”
 
Antonio’s phone buzzed and he answered.
 
“Hello Sonny.
 
Thank you for attending the morning operational meeting for me.”

“Stay in the butler pantry.”

Antonio paused.
 
“I was just about to go check on Max.”

“That would be a very bad idea.”

Antonio put the call on speaker so that Mark might hear.
 
“Where are you, Sonny?
 
I’m here with Mark.”

“I’m down the hall hiding behind a decorative floor vase.
 
Hi Mark.”

“Hi Sonny.”

Antonio asked, “And whom are you hiding from, Sonny?”

“Brandon, who is standing outside Max’s door holding a gun.”

Mark said, “Glad I came in,” and lifted his hand to speak into his cuff mic.

Chapter
Thirty-Three

Mark and Antonio were in the elevator landing area between the butler pantry and the exit doors to the Villa hallway.

Antonio was on the phone with Max.
 
“I was hoping you weren’t in your suite.”

“I wish I wasn’t.
 
He’s still banging on the door.”

“Yes, I can hear him.”

“He’s going to shoot me.”

“That’s highly unlikely.”

Mark said into his cuff mic.
 
“I want someone calling every one of these guests up here and telling them to stay in their rooms and do not come out.”

Antonio spoke into his BlackBerry, “Can you see him through the spyhole on the door?”

“I’m not going up to the door,” said Max.
 
“What if he shoots through it?”

“Tell him stay away from the door,” Mark said to Antonio, “he might shoot through it.”

Antonio changed tactics.
 
“Where are you located within the suite, Max?”

“I’m as far away as I can get from the door.
 
I’m on the balcony with the rest of my clothes.”

Antonio chose not to question him regarding his clothing relocation.
 
“Stay there; we have help on the way.”

Max asked, “Did you call some of your Navy Seal buddies?”

“We’ve contacted the State Police, I’ll call you when they arrive, and I am not affiliated with the Navy Seals.”

“Word travels fast,” said Mark.
 
Into his cuff mic he said, “Don’t use the camera in the corner to watch him, it looks straight down and I want to know where that gun is at all times.
 
Yes I
know
he’s still banging on the door I can hear him.”

From the hallway came the distant cry, “Come OUT I wanna see your FACE so I can bust a fuckin CAP into it!”

Mark grunted.
 
“That didn’t rhyme at all.”

Antonio crept forward and opened the door to the hallway just enough to peer through.
 
He could see
Brandon
at the far end of the hall: shirtless, black silk boxer shorts, pacing round and round in a tight circle.
 

Mark squeezed beside Antonio.
 
“Looks like a Taurus 45 ACP.
 
Pretty gun.
 
Think he can use it?”

“Well enough,” said Antonio, distracted by the finishing touches of a plan.
 
“Mark, call off the State Police.”

“What are you gonna do, jab him with a penlight?”

“I have an idea to bring this to a safe and profitable conclusion.”

“An idea that might save your job?”

“If all goes well.”

“I’m game.”
 
Mark immediately radioed Security Dispatch via his cuff mic.
 
“M1 to base.
 
I want all State Troopers to stand down.
 
Repeat.
 
All State Troopers stand down for the 10-21 in the Villas.”
 
A moment later he received confirmation in his earbud.
 
“Okay.
 
Now what?”

“Call the Fire Department on the reservation and get them ready to engage the emergency fire doors on this floor.”

Mark smiled.
 
“This is better than apple fritters.”
 
He used his BlackBerry to call the Chief Fire Marshall directly.
 
It took some convincing.
 
“I don’t want alarms, I don’t want emergency lights, I just want the doors activated
on command
.”
 
He listened.
 
“Let’s call it a test.”
 
Pause.
 
“I owe you one, stand by.”
 
He muted the phone.
 
“His finger is on the button.
 
Now what?”

“Do you recall the story the undercover detectives told us about the team who was stealing cash-out slips from slot machines?”

“Yea.
 
The sister distracted the players while the brothers snatched the slips.”

“I am going to employ a similar method with
Brandon
.”

“No offense, but your tits aren’t that great.”

“When I give the signal tell your man to hit the button.”
 

Mark said, “You’re gonna get shot.
 
I’m coming with you.”

“I need you here on the phone.
 
We have to time this precisely.”

“What’s your blood type?
 
I’ll call ahead to the hospital.”

“Your confidence is invigorating.”
 
Antonio took a deep breath, tugged on his shirt cuffs, righted his cufflinks, and made a minute adjustment to his bowtie.

“You’re fidgeting.”

“It soothes my nerves.”

“Want
me
to go and
you
make the call?”

“It is my duty to attend to the needs of my guests.
 
In all scenarios.”

“Your duty stinks.”
 
Mark laughed.
 
“Hey did you hear how that came out?”

Antonio smiled.
 
“Thank you, I needed that.”
 
He opened the door and stepped into the hallway, allowing the door to come to rest slightly ajar so as not to impede Mark’s view.
 
“
Brandon
, if I may have a word?”

Brandon
swung around, brandishing his gun.
 
“Back the fuck up, tuxedo boy.”
 
He pointed the gun at the door of the corner Villa.
 
“I want this dude to step
out
and man
up.
 
I know
Shannon
spent the night in there – the EMTs told me!
 
With no clothes and eating chocolate!”

Antonio began to slowly walk down the hall.
 
“That is all true, however, she was quite alone.
 
The individual you currently have trapped inside the suite is a butler on my staff.”

“She did a
butler
?”

Antonio estimated the distance from himself to the nearest fire door, as well as
Brandon
’s approximate location to them.
 
He stopped in what he felt was his own safety zone, but needed to move
Brandon
further back.
 
“My butler escorted Miss Moon to the suite last evening.
 
This morning, when she was taken away by ambulance, the butler entered to begin making arrangements for a new guest checking in today.”

“He fuckin entered
my girlfriend
last night!”

“In point of fact, the butler is a woman.”

Brandon
lowered the gun.
 
“Huh?”

“The butler inside the suite is a woman.
 
If you hand over the weapon, I’ll phone her now to come to the door so that you might be introduced.”

Brandon
spat onto the floor.
 
“I ain’t falling for that.”
 
He raised the gun towards Antonio.
 
“Tell her to come out or I’ll shoot you right through that gay bowtie, what do you think of that plan?”

Antonio remained calm, but felt the tension of the young man rising exponentially.
 
“
Brandon
, do you recall in the limousine when I asked you to move on your seat, just a bit to the right?”

“Yea,” said
Brandon
, his free hand involuntarily going to his crotch.
 
“My nuts got crushed.”

“Perhaps now you might take two steps backwards, if you would be so kind.”

Brandon
took a firmer hold on his groin, scanning everywhere in the hall for imminent danger, and took two quick steps backwards.
 
“Am I safe?”

Antonio whipped the silk handkerchief from his pocket and waved it in the air.

Beyond the hallway door, Mark barked an order into his cell phone.

The result was immediate.
 

The metal fire doors inset into the walls at intervals along the hall each emitted a metallic clank as magnetic locks disengaged and motors swung them rapidly outward.
 
The exact height and width of each wall, their purpose was to quarantine fires that may happen in the rooms.
 
As the one before Antonio firmly came towards his own position, he stepped to the left in time to see the metal fire door behind
Brandon
hit his gun hand, knocking the weapon to the ground.
 
As the door edges met their seating locks on the opposite wall the magnets engaged and they were firmly in position.
 
Brandon
sequestered between his own doors, while Antonio separated within his own.

Antonio’s BlackBerry buzzed.
 
“Hello Mark.
 
Well done.”

“Where’s the gun, with him or you?”

“It’s entrapped with me.”

“Don’t touch it.
 
Now what’s the plan?”

“Actually I did not have time to strategize past this portion of the scenario.”