Lady Boss Takes on Vegas Bullies! novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Dock

Reuben did not take my arm.

He did the same thing he had done on the first night.

He turned his shoulder toward the side door and waited for me to walk.

Six hundred people watched us go.

Someone near the back started to clap, slow and low, and then somebody hushed them.

I kept my chin up.

I kept it up all the way down the long marble side hall behind the ballroom.

Nobody followed us.

At the corner, Reuben took a right instead of the left that led to the lobby.

"Reuben, the police."

"Two patrolmen on a theft report," he said. "They're drinking coffee in the lobby. I told dispatch an hour ago I'd bring the suspect to them myself."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I didn't know what Finnegan would do to you in the hallway."

He pushed through a steel door and we were on the loading dock, in the cold bright air.

His truck sat in the first bay, a dusty black pickup with a Tucson Tigers sticker on the bumper.

"Get in."

"The patrolmen are right inside."

"Get in the truck, Birch. I have eight minutes before someone notices we aren't at the squad car."

I climbed in.

He shut the door and walked around, got in, and locked all four doors with a click.

He didn't start the engine.

The cab smelled like old coffee and pine.

For a moment we sat there, breathing.

"That woman," Reuben said. "Who is she?"

"You heard her."

"I heard a stranger announce she was Veronica Ellington. After two years of letters I know exactly what her office sounds like, and that was not it." He turned in his seat. "She didn't know the dealers' names. She called the head housekeeper 'my dear.' She shook the valet captain's hand and said, 'What a lovely job you do.' He's been fired three times."

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