Page 94 of Can't Win 'Em All
“Well, before that moment, I didn’t realize you could be mine.”
She frowned. “I don’t know what that means.”
“It never occurred to me that I could have you, Ruby. I thought … well, I’m not entirely certain what I thought. I guess it’s fair to say that I believed you were out of my reach, though.”
“Why would you think that?”
“It was just something that was ingrained in me. I always found you attractive. Being with you, though, was not something I believed could happen.”
“And what happened in that moment?”
“Well, for starters, I wanted to be the one to handle your horniness.”
“Geez.”
“It was more than that, though. I wanted to be the one to cuddle you at night too, and the one to have dinner with you and talk about my day. I wanted to hear how your day went, and what your dreams for the future were. It was just hearing that you were horny that sent me on my way.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that. Was it because I said I didn’t remember the orgasms?”
“No, that just made me angry. Those were good orgasms.”
She laughed. “Your ego is unbelievable sometimes.”
“It is.”
“Just so I’m clear, though, you don’t want to have sex with me? It’s because I’m fat, isn’t it?”
“You’re not fat and I’m going to spank you if you say that again. As for the sex, I want it like you wouldn’t believe. I’m not doing it until you’re sure about us, though.”
She frowned. “What if it takes me a year to be sure about us?”
“Then I guess I have a rough year ahead of me.”
Her expression was hard to read. “I need to think about this,” she said finally. “Your refusal to have sex with me just makes me want to have it more.”
I snickered. “Well, I’m going to stonewall you until your heart catches up with your girl parts.” I tapped the folder to get her to focus on it. We both needed a distraction. Even though I was convinced I was doing the right thing, I wasn’t certain that turning her down was in my wheelhouse. I wasn’t good at saying no to her as it was, and that was something she had likely already figured out herself. “What’s your father’s relationship with Chet Haskins? Does he even have one?”
“He does. I don’t know if I would call them friends, but I do know that he used to participate in a weekly card game with Chet and a few other hotel owners in the area. They smoked cigars, drank until they passed out, and there were rumors that they had prostitutes there for these events.”
“Really?” I rubbed Ruby’s shoulders as I thought about it. “I’ve heard stories about those card games. Supposedly—and this is just a rumor, I have no proof of it—Chet used the prostitutes to get a leg up on various casino and hotel owners so he could blackmail them.”
“Like … he brought in the prostitutes to trap them?”
“Yes.” Rex bobbed his head. “Why would your father bother with a prostitute when he had any number of women throwing themselves at him because of who he was, though?”
“Because prostitutes keep things on the down-low naturally. Why put in the effort to wine and dine a mistress when he could get sex—and of the professional variety—from someone he didn’t have to bother with after the fact?”
“That does sound like something your father would do.”
“Oh, it totally does,” she agreed. “How does it all come together, though? Like … if Haskins was blackmailing Dad—and I can totally see that happening—why is he pushing for the amphitheater so hard now?”
Things were already coming together for me. “Because the rumor is that Haskins was being paid off by seven or eight people. He kept his place on the Strip because it allowed him to remain in power, even though nobody looked at his place and thought ‘power player.’
“A couple of the guys who were rumored to be paying Haskins have died,” I continued, rattling off a few names. “They’re gone. That means his payouts have likely been dwindling.”
“And my father doesn’t have the money to pay him off now,” Ruby guessed.
“Right.” I bobbed my head. “Your father doesn’t have the money, but Haskins still has leverage over him.”
