Lucky (24 page)

Witness?
Nick shuddered. He didn’t like the cold tone of her voice, nor the fact that not once since she’d entered had she even tried to smile. Speechless, he waited for her to make the first move. She’d called the party. Let her make the play.

A swift prayer went up as she grasped the edges of the sable. She lifted her chin defiantly as the fur slid into a sensuous heap at her feet.

The air came out of Nick’s lungs all at once. As if he’d been hit in the belly with a bone-jarring thud. The impact of Lucky unveiled was more than he’d been prepared to face. She was magnificent…and she knew it.

Manny stared at the back of the dress and knew that the front must be even that much more spectacular. From the shock on Nicky’s face, he decided he’d been right.

And then Lucky saw the watch, lying in the middle of the desk like a taunt, reminding her that but for it, her life would not be in shambles. She looked at it briefly and then back up at Nick.

Carefully measuring each step, she started toward him,
aware that with every motion of her body, the overhead lights in his office caught and threw back a reflection on the beads of her dress. It was as near to being publicly naked as she would ever want to be.

Nick shook. If someone had yelled fire, he would have been unable to run. Every movement of that lithe, sensuous body beneath the go-to-hell dress was as familiar to him as his own. It clung to her figure with every breath that she took, every step that she made.

“Nick…it’s been a long time.”

He shuddered, then blinked, swallowing several times before he trusted himself to talk.

“You have only yourself to thank for that.” The moment he said it, he wished he had not. It was, however, too late to take back the anger he hadn’t known was there.

Lucky bowed her head in agreement, and then she looked back up. Another few steps brought her within inches of the desk.

“There,” Nick said, pointing toward the watch. “Take it…with my blessing. It never belonged to us anyway.”

Pain shuttered the expression in her eyes. Nick saw her mouth twist in a grimace of defeat. It was then that the fear began.

“I can’t,” Lucky said.

“What the hell do you mean, ‘you can’t’? If you aren’t going to take it, then why did you want me to bring it?”

“Luck can’t be given, Nick. You either have it, or you don’t. The watch means nothing, unless it comes back the way it was lost.”

Nerves shot warning signals throughout his body as
Nick stared from the woman to the watch and back again. None of this was making much sense.

“Why are you here, baby? Unless you just came to see me bleed. If you did, you’re too damned late. I’m already dead, my body just doesn’t know it.”

Tears shot to her eyes, making green puddles across the surface before sliding down the centers of her cheeks.

“Oh, hell,” Nick said, wanting desperately to hold her. “I’m sorry for airing dirty laundry. Get on with it, lady. Finish what you came to say and do.”

“I will play you for the watch. One hand. One winner. For all time.”

This time Nick literally staggered beneath the impact of her words. “You? The woman who never bets? You’re willing to give up a principle like that for that goddamned watch?”

“I made a promise,” Lucky said through tears. “I don’t break my word.”

“Tell it to someone who believes,” Nick said. “You told me you loved me. Make me believe that’s still true.”

Lucky swayed, and the lights caught in the glass beads like pinpoints of fire.

“Will you play?” she asked, and closed her eyes, waiting for his answer.

Nick wanted to shake her. Instead, he heard himself ask, “So we play this game of twenty-one. If you win…you get the watch. We both understand that. But what, pretty baby, do I get if you lose?”

Lucky opened her eyes. At that moment, Nick could swear he saw straight into her soul.

“Me. You get me, Nick. For as long as you like. Under any conditions you name.”

So great was his anger that she would sell her body for a watch that for a moment he could not speak. He leaned forward, bracing himself against the desk that was between them. Finally, his words came out in an angry rush.

“Manny…bring me the cards!”

T
he loudest sounds in the room were the sounds of their breathing and the sharp, distinctive slap of cards being shuffled. And beneath it all, the muted, repetitive tick of the watch.

Nick burned. From the inside out. With rage. With pain. Furious for Lucky, at Lucky. And at the same time, he had never loved or respected her more for the sacrifice she was willing to make in the name of honor.

As hard and as long as he looked at the beautiful woman before him, the memory of Cradle Creek kept superimposing itself over her face.

Unspeakable poverty.

The years of disdain under which they’d lived.

Outcasts within a town of outcasts.

The strength of character it would have taken to overcome such odds was impossible to measure. He felt humble before her, and yet could not reveal what he knew.

Because he’d seen her beginnings, he knew all too well how viciously she would resent any show of charity from him.

Lucky’s emotions ran from complete joy at being in Nick’s presence to unbelievable heartbreak every time she looked into his eyes. There was so much resentment and anger on his face that she believed it impossible to remove. It told her in a way he could never have voiced that what she was doing was right. At least one good thing would come out of this: Johnny might get back the “Houston Luck.” That he had no need of it no longer mattered. In Lucky’s eyes, it was the principle that counted.

“
Querida
…do you wish to cut?”

Lucky’s fingers shook as she lifted some cards from the stack and set them facedown upon the desk.

Manny quickly restacked them and then stood with cards in hand, waiting for a sign.

Nick’s mouth was a grim line of defeat. Either way he looked at it, he was going to come out the loser. If he won, it would be like getting Lucky back by default, not by her choice. If he lost, she took the watch and he still lost her. The only thing that could possibly get him out of this dilemma was dropping dead, and that was not an option he was ready to consider.

Lucky looked up only once. The pain in his eyes was too much to bear. She turned away and whispered, “Deal the cards, Manny. Only two to each of us. Let’s get this over with.”

Even Manny was overwhelmed by the moment at hand. In spite of the winter chill outside, beads of sweat
lined themselves across his forehead and above his upper lip, clinging to the dark, thin mustache.

One card to each player was dealt facedown. Slap! Slap! Lucky closed her eyes, trying to imagine what cards lay hidden simply by the sound. It was a fanciful thought that had no foundation.

The second card was dealt to each faceup. Slap! Slap! Lucky opened her eyes and looked. Her heart surged. Once in fear. Once in jubilation. Her card was a queen of diamonds. Nick’s card was a king of hearts. They each counted the same. It told her nothing.

Her fingers shook as she slowly lifted the corner of her hole card and then quickly turned it over, revealing a king of clubs. Out of a possible twenty-one, she had twenty! The only thing that would beat it was blackjack.

Nick’s pulse was running ragged. He wondered how long a body could take such punishment and still exist. His eyes narrowed as he slowly lifted the edge of his own hole card and looked to see what fate had dealt him.

A low, painful groan slid from between his lips as he let the edge of the card go flat, unrevealed.

“No…dammit, no,” he muttered, and bowed his head in defeat.

Lucky’s eyes filled with tears. She’d never seen a man in so much pain. For the first time since this had all begun, she regretted the notion of winning back the watch with every ounce of her being. Seeing the man she loved in this much distress was more than she was prepared to face.

“Nick…?”

He lifted his head. Tears shimmered across his eyes, but
there was a small smile upon his lips. He lifted the watch from the desk and dropped it into her outstretched hand.

“I guess this was your lucky day, baby. Merry Christmas,” he whispered.

Lucky’s mouth went slack. “I won?”

The watch felt lighter in her palm than she’d expected. This tiny thing was the cause of so much pain? It didn’t seem as plausible as it had moments ago.

“You won. You’ll always be a winner, baby. With a name like Lucky, you couldn’t lose.”

His voice was deep, but his pain seemed deeper. Desperate for her to get out of the room before he lost control, he leaned forward, planting his hands upon the desk. In doing so, he covered the cards that he’d been dealt.

It looked accidental, but to Manny, it was so obvious. Something told him this wasn’t over yet. And when he saw the panic in Nick’s eyes, he jumped forward to assist her exit.

“
Querida
, your coat.” He lifted it from the floor and held it toward her.

She draped it over her arm, so anxious to escape the tension within the room that she didn’t consider what an impact her dress might make on the floor below.

“You might want to consider putting it on, baby. If you don’t, I’ll guarantee that you and that dress will start a riot,” Nick said.

Although his expression was solemn, there was a smile in his voice. And because it was there, it made her pain all the greater. There was no humor in her heart this night. She’d won the prize and lost her man.

Lucky shuddered.
Ah, Nick…if only you’d had the luck
of the draw then the choice would have been out of my hands. I wouldn’t have made you cry, and you wouldn’t be going home alone.

Manny held the fur open, and Lucky walked in. One arm, then the other slid against the sleek satin lining. But there was no joy in the richness of the fabric against her skin. She would have traded it all for Nick’s embrace.

At the door, she turned and held out her arms as if to say, “see me.” She was covered from ankle to neck in sable. Tears ran unheeded down her face as, one last time, she imprinted his face upon her memory.

“Are you satisfied?” she asked, referring to the fact that she was no longer uncovered, then bit her lip to stop its tremble.

“How can I be satisfied with any of this blessed mess?”

Lucky straightened her shoulders and tilted her chin in a defiant gesture.

Nick started toward her across the room, and each time he took a step, Lucky retreated in kind. Aching for her, wishing he knew how to make this better, he had to admit that now was not the time.

“No,” she muttered. “No more.”

“Adiós, querida,”
Manny whispered.

A second later, she was gone.

“Jesus Christ.”

Nick stuffed his hands in his pockets and stalked to the window overlooking the street below. Only after he saw her getting into a cab did he relax. Only then did he breathe a quiet sigh of relief.

“Nicky! What have you done?”

Nick turned. Manny had discovered his deception. The
hole card he had not revealed now lay faceup beside its mate. The ace of spades. He’d won after all.

“You had twenty-one, Nicky. Blackjack! Why did you lie?”

“Do you think I want her that way? Besides, you forget. I saw Cradle Creek. I know how she grew up. Giving back a woman’s pride is a small price to pay for love.”

Manny bowed his head and walked away. A few minutes later, Nick was on the phone.

“It’s over,” he said. “Yes. I saw her get into the cab myself. All I ask is that if she leaves, tell me when.”

Then he laughed. But it was bitter. “Oh, hell. I don’t need to know where she’ll be going. I already know that. All I need to know is when she decides to make her move.”

He grimaced at something that was said to him. “I’m going to need more than luck,” he said. And then he ended the conversation abruptly. “Thanks, lady. Merry Christmas to you too. You’re one of a kind, Lucille LaMont, and that’s a fact.”

The line went dead. He hung up, and then swiveled his chair so that he could see out the window, up into the dark, moonless sky. Pain etched deep lines of regret at the sides of his mouth. He felt weightless…rootless. Without Lucky, he had no anchor.

“Merry Christmas, my Lucky Lady. I hope this settles your ghosts, once and for all.”

Within the hour he was on his way home, an empty, lonely man.

Days later, far down in the city, horns were blaring, bells were ringing, and people’s shouts echoed in the streets.

But Lucky Houston was as far removed from the revelry of New Year’s Eve as she was from Cradle Creek. The last thing she felt like doing was celebrating. In just two days, she would be on a plane back to Tennessee.

“Queenie…where are you?” she whispered, and pressed her hands flat against the windows. “I don’t know if I can make this trip alone.”

But tonight there would be no miracles for Johnny Houston’s baby girl. What she had to do, she would do alone. And when it was over, where did she go with the rest of her life?

Working in Club 52 was no longer possible. She could not face a job that put her in constant contact with Nick. She wasn’t strong enough to ignore her own emotions for the sake of a paycheck. Yet leaving Vegas seemed impossible. She needed to know that even if Nick was no longer a part of her life, at least she was still a part of his. There were plenty of other casinos who could always use a dealer. When she got back from Tennessee she would do what she must and find work elsewhere.

“Happy New Year, Nick, wherever you are. Even though it no longer matters, know that you are loved.”

Her quiet vow burned in her heart. How could she profess to love a man that she’d destroyed? How could she have been so wrong, trying to make things right?

“Ah well,” Lucky muttered, and turned away from the window. “What’s done is done. First Cradle Creek, then the rest of my life, whatever the hell that may be.”

She crawled into her bed alone and tried to rest. But pride was a cold bedfellow, and dawn was breaking on the horizon before her eyes finally closed in sleep.

“Here,” Lucky said, handing Fluffy an envelope. “This is my January rent. I’ll be gone at least two, maybe three days. But when I come back, I’m going job hunting again. Maybe this time I’ll have better luck.”

Her smile never made it to her eyes. Fluffy glared down at the envelope and back up at the girl, thinking of the stupidity of youth.

“I don’t want your check,” Fluffy said. “Not anymore.”

Lucky’s stomach turned. The last thing she needed was to lose the friendship of this woman too. Her eyes grew round as she tried to find a way to speak past her shock.

“Before you get yourself all worked up,” Fluffy continued, “you should know the reason why I won’t take your money. You don’t need to pay for something you already own.”

Lucky dropped into a chair with an expression on her face that could only be described as stunned.

“What are you saying?”

Lucille LaMont was a bonafide hussy and had taken great pride in that fact for all of her eighty-four years. But right at this moment, she would have given a year of her life for the right to call this child her own. What she’d done was impulsive, but in her opinion, it was right. She’d lived her whole life on the edge and chose to go out the same way.

“I’m saying that it’s yours. The whole thing. My worldly possessions. All my worldly goods. The loot.” She shrugged and then grinned. “How many ways are there to say that I made you my sole heir?”

“Oh…my…God.”

“Pooh. God had little to do with it,” Fluffy said. “In fact, I suspect he frowned on how I came by most of it too. However, while I haven’t exactly mended my ways, I have been too old for years now to cause any trouble. I consider that fact my redemption. And, since I can’t take it with me, I’m giving it to you.”

Lucky was in tears. Fluffy tried desperately not to submit to the same condition, but it was no use. Seconds later they were in each other’s arms.

“I never had a child. It is my one true regret,” Fluffy said. “You’re about the age a grandchild of mine should have been. Since you seem to have lost your family, and I never had one to lose, I think we should join forces…don’t you?”

Lucky continued to sob. Her cheek was soft against Fluffy’s own. The tremors in her shoulders seemed too powerful for the young woman to withstand.

“You’ve had it tough, haven’t you, girl?” Fluffy said.

Lucky nodded.

“So have I, honey. So have I. I think that’s why you stole my heart. We’re two of a kind. Survivors who are able to thumb their noses at people who don’t understand.”

Lucky smiled through tears. “I don’t understand you, Fluffy LaMont, but I do love you, and that’s a fact.”

Fluffy grinned, arching her painted eyebrows in a perfect Garbo imitation. “That’s enough for me. Unlike Garbo…I don’t
vant
to be alone. Not anymore. For as long as I’m here, we’ll be the best of friends. And when I’m gone, it’s all yours.”

Lucky wrapped her arms around the old woman’s
neck. “Don’t talk about leaving me,” she whispered. “Everyone I love keeps leaving me.”

Fluffy stilled. “Not everyone, my darling. There’s one who did not leave you. It was you who pushed him away.”

Lucky turned away. “That will be my greatest regret,” she said. “If I could do it over, I would try to find some other way to fix things. But it’s too late. Now I have to live with what I’ve done.”

Fluffy’s heart leaped in her breast.
Thank God
, she thought. At least she knew that what she’d done would not make Lucky angry. And she hoped it would fix this mess entirely.

“Life will show you the way,” Fluffy said mysteriously. “Now. You’d best hurry or you’re going to miss your plane. Go! Call your cab! Get yourself on the way to Tennessee so you can hurry back. When you get back, I’ll cook.”

That alone brought a smile to Lucky’s face.

With a swift kiss and a hug, the two women parted. A short time later, Fluffy was alone to live with the guilt of knowing that she’d divulged all of Lucky’s plans to a gambling man.

“Oh, lord,” she said, as she pulled her cat into her lap and started to stroke his thick black fur. “Lucifer, you old twit. Purr for me. Make me believe that I’ve at least done one thing right today.”