Chapter 4: The Roof

The security office at The Chisholm was in the basement, behind a steel door with no sign on it.

I found it by following a guard on his smoke break and walking in behind him while he held the door.

He saw the ring on my thumb and went to smoke somewhere else.

The door clanged shut.

Bram didn't turn around.

"You're not supposed to be down here," he said.

"Your brother said the same thing about the boardroom."

"Ewan says that about every room."

He was facing a wall of screens.

The casino floor in forty small pieces, and the rooftop, empty in the late sun.

The north rail.

I made myself look at it.

"Fenn told me somebody erased the roof camera," I said.

"Fenn talks when he's nervous."

"Fenn's careful with me. You haven't looked at me once."

He turned his chair around.

He sat like a man who expected to have to stand up fast.

And he looked at me, straight on, with nothing arranged in front of it.

"Okay," he said. "I'm looking."

My face went hot.

"You kissed me."

"Yes."

"On the roof. At the north rail. At about twenty past twelve."

"Twelve twenty-six." He didn't blink. "I checked."

"And then?"

He was quiet for a second.

"And then you said, 'Marry me. Tonight.'"

I'd remembered saying it.

But hearing it in his rough voice, in this cold basement, made me want to sink through the floor.

"And you said, 'Not like this,'" I said.

"Yeah."

"And you walked away."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

He stood up, and he was so big the room got smaller.

"Because three hours before, a guy in a navy suit dumped you in front of the whole bar. I watched it on that screen."

He said it flatly.

"He called you Roz like it was a chore. You had mascara on your chin."

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