Quinn managed to laugh softly at that. That hulk of a guy had a gambling addiction? Steroids, sure. But gambling?
"Then maybe he's at the tables," he suggested.
Her eyes widened slightly, and she took off. He had to move swiftly to keep up with her. The woman was hell on heels.
They moved past the flanks of slot machines—everything from one-cent to ten-dollar bets. Quinn had never gambled much in his life. He didn't see the thrill in it. He'd always gotten his excitement by chasing danger. Shoving money into electronic devices or onto green felt tables seemed rather anticlimactic to him.
Lenny wasn't too hard to spot. He was hunched over a blackjack table on the opposite side of the floor,
with the ever-present, ratty-looking poetry notebook at his side.
"Hit me," he told the dealer as they approached.
"Hit you?" Janie repeated. "I'd say that would be a pretty good start. What the hell are you doing?"
He craned his neck to look at her, and his eyes did a bugging-out thing that Quinn swore he'd only seen before in Bugs Bunny cartoons.
"Janie, that dress…" he managed, then grabbed the drink next to his notebook and downed it in one gulp.
She chewed her bottom lip. "Maybe it was a bad idea."
Quinn raised an eyebrow at her.
"Janie, I'm glad you're here," Lenny said. "I'm winning. My unlucky streak must be over finally. After all, it has been seven years."
"Lenny broke an enchanted mirror seven years ago," she told Quinn. "They say it's bad luck to break any mirror, but that isn't really true. However, enchanted mirrors owned by vain witches are a different story."
"Vain witches?"
"Don't get me started." She turned back to Lenny. "Come on. We have to leave. We're going to locate my sister Angela tonight before the Boss wants to see us."
"Good luck," he said. "Barkley did say he had a line on her. He was pretty excited about it. I think he's got a bit of a psychic sweet spot for your sister."
"Good luck? No. We need your help."
He shook his head. "You'll be fine without me. Besides, lucky streak? Hello? I can't leave the table. I don't know how long this is going to last."
"Where's Barkley right now?" Quinn asked.
Lenny didn't look up, but he fished into his pocket for a key card. "Here. He's upstairs in the room."
"You're sharing a room?"
"Do you know how expensive this place is? Besides, I didn't even know if we were going to stay very long. I left him up there with some room service and a pay-per-view."
"He didn't feel like gambling, too?"
"Yeah," he said distractedly. "Something like that."
Janie snatched the card out of his hand and started walking away without even waiting for Quinn. "I'll talk to you later, Lenny."
"Wish me luck."
She wished him something under her breath that Quinn didn't quite catch, but it sure as hell wasn't luck.
Janie slid the card into the lock and opened the door on the fifth floor. The lights were off. The only light in the dark room came from the television screen, which, while on mute, was prominently displaying a porno movie.
She shook her head. Men. Were they all the same?
She glanced over her shoulder. Quinn was right behind her and he raised his eyebrow. He nodded at the TV.
"Seen that one already," he said and then actually grinned. "It was very well acted."
Yup. All the same.
He brushed past her and walked into the small room that contained two double beds, the decor again all in shades of red. Adequate, but not quite the luxury of Quinn's VIP suite, that was for sure.
"Barkley?" he called. "You in here?"
"Don't you think it's strange that Lenny would just leave him up here?"
"Maybe he's not feeling so hot."
The door to the bathroom nudged open then, and a big black wolf padded into the room. It walked over to one of the beds, hopped up on it, sat down, scratched behind its floppy ear with its left hind leg, turned around three times, and lay down.
And whined.
"You are kidding me," Janie said.
"I don't think they allow pets here." Quinn peered closer at the wolf. "Having a bit of a problem maintaining human form, are you?"
Barkley whined again. Then his tongue rolled out of his mouth and he panted.
Janie shook her head and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Since the sinking was on par with theTitanic , it was a little hard to ignore. Finding her sister so easily had sounded too good to be true. Turns out it was. "Well, I guess that settles it. I'm going to try to make contact with my
Boss right now. I want to get this over with as soon as possible."
"Janie—"
She held up a hand. "Just forget it, Quinn. I gave you a chance. One chance. And since that chance is currently covered in fur, our deal is null and void. You're going to have to give me that stone."
He turned toward the wolf again. "Lenny tells us that you might know where Angela is. Is that true?"
Barkley sat up and woofed.
"Is that supposed to be a yes?" Janie asked.