“What was your business, exactly?”
“Illegal gambling.”
I turned to look at his profile, as much as I could anyway, with my right arm chained to the door. “Explain this to me. I get why that’d be a thing in a city like San Francisco, where legal gambling isn’t an option. But why would anyone seek out illegal gambling in Las Vegas?”
“People flock to Vegas to gamble, legal or otherwise, so it’s the perfect location. There are a lot of reasons why they might choose my high-stakes poker games versus gambling in a state-regulated casino. For example, maybe they’ve been banned from the legal venues. Maybe they have no interest in informing the IRS about their winnings. Maybe they prefer to remain incognito and are uncomfortable with the high level of surveillance at the legal joints. Or maybe they just like the speakeasy ambience of my establishment.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s definitely the last thing, and not that they’re all a bunch of tax-dodging criminals.”
Fortunately, he grinned at that instead of taking it as an insult. “Those things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can be a tax-dodging criminalandenjoy the ambience.”
“True enough. So, how’d you end up in the illegal gambling biz?”
“It’s a long story. How’d you end up as a thief?”
“It’s a short story,” I said. “It’s just been Ma and me since I was eight years old, and what was I going to do at that age, get a job? Instead, I developed my skills as a shoplifter and a pickpocket. Later, I moved up to small-scale burglary.”
“Burglary? Is that what you call it when you let some guy take you home and fuck you, followed by stealing from him? Because it almost seems like a form of prostitution, except that your mark doesn’t realize he’s paying for you until after the fact.”
I sighed and muttered, “Go ahead, get the insults out of your system. I know you’re angry.”
“Damn right I am! Not that you give a shit, but do you know what it felt like to realize the only reason you’d come home with me was to rip me off?”
“No, it wasn’t! I let you take me home because I was attracted to you, and I wanted us to have sex. But then I saw that mahogany chest sitting out in your bedroom and just had to look inside. Curiosity got the better of me. I would have left it at that, if it wasn’t for the Rolex.”
When he didn’t say anything, I pressed ahead with, “I never planned to steal from you. Didn’t you wonder why I left all the other stuff in that box? I knew what it was worth, but I didn’t take it. I just took the watch on impulse, because it was so special. I planned to enjoy it for a while, and then I was going to sell it. That money could’ve made a real difference, for both my mom and me. But I regretted taking it and decided to give it back. I know that sounds like total bullshit, but it’s the truth.”
“I want to believe taking the watch was an impulsive decision,” he said, as he pulled up to a stoplight. “I’d also like to believe we fucked because you wanted to, not because it was part of a scheme to get into my home and steal from me. The problem is, you totally destroyed my trust in you, Jack. Because of that, you’re right—it does sound like bullshit. In fact, every word out of your mouth sounds like a lie.”
It shouldn’t have mattered that he thought I was a liar. I’d learned a long time ago to brush off other people’s opinions of me.
Except it did matter…a lot. Hearing him say that cut like a knife, and I was desperate to make him believe me. How could I though, after I’d shown him he couldn’t trust me? Was there any chance of coming back from that?
I found myself saying, “I promise I’ll never tell you another lie, Adriano. You don’t have to believe that. In fact, I know you won’t. But it’s all I can think of to make this up to you.”
“You want to make it up to me? Give me the watch.”
“I will. I meant it when I said that had been my plan, even before you found me. It’s currently in the possession of a punk who lives in my building.” No fucking way was I going to admit that punk was about eleven years old. Talk about humiliating. “He’s been wearing it to show off, and it should be relatively easy to get it back from him, once my ankle fully heals and I can chase him down. I hurt it when I was running from you, and I’ve been pretty incapacitated ever since.” I pushed the blanket aside and hiked up my pant leg, so he could see the compression bandage I was wearing.
“The only part I can believe is that you hurt your ankle, because there’s proof.”
“Fine, but that was all true.”
He glanced at me and said, “If you’re suddenly committed to the truth, then tell me—what’s your real name?”
Damn it. I hadn’t fully thought through my honesty pledge, but I owed him that much. I sighed and admitted, “It’s Jackson Granger. Nobody knows that, except for my mother and my best friend. My birth name was Jackson Caldicott, but after my mom left my dad she changed it to her maiden name.”
“Are you still in touch with your dad?”
“No, because he’s an evil fucker. To escape from him, my mom picked me up after school one day and just kept driving. She didn’t even pack a bag, because she was terrified about what he might do if he found out she was leaving.
“Her plan was to drive to California from Virginia, but we only made it as far as Kansas before the thug my father hired caught up to us. After he slapped my mom around, he confiscated the car, all her cash and credit cards, and her wedding ring. Then he left us where he found us, because my dad didn’t want either of us back. He just wanted the stuff he’d paid for, out of spite. He was a multimillionaire, by the way, so it’s not like he needed those things.”
I pulled the blanket up to my chin and turned away from Adriano. Why had I told him that? Every word was true, but I wasn’t in the habit of spilling my guts to people.
“I’m sorry. That’s truly awful.” After a moment, he added, “I bet that’s why you target men you perceive as wealthy, because they remind you of your father.”
“That’s great, please psychoanalyze me some more.” Not that he was wrong.