Chapter Seven

 

 

“Come inside.” Gabe motioned toward a chair.

“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice, man. I know you’re busy.” Brett said as he sat down in a seat across from the desk.

“It’s not a problem. It sounded pretty important on the phone. What’s up?”

“It’s about one of your workers. Specifically, a cocktail waitress.”

“Hmm… okay. Did she do something wrong?”

“Not exactly. Well not her anyway.”

“I’m afraid you lost me.” Gabe replied.

“Remember that girl I dated in high school?”

Looking up at the ceiling Gabe nodded his head. “I think so. Lacey, right?”

“No, Tracy.”

“Right. Tracy.”

“Yeah, well she works for you now.”

“You’re kidding. Where at?”

“Not kidding, in fact she works here in Vegas at Elite.”

“Wow. Small world, huh? So, who is she? Tracy who?”

“Beaumont.”

“Just a sec.” Gabe began typing on his keyboard and scrolling through files when he responded, “Here she is. Tracy Beaumont. She’s been working here almost a year.”

“Really? What else does it say?”

“Nothing much. Typical resume. Came to town as an entertainer. Lost her job, needed work. From what I can tell looking at her personnel file she doesn’t call in sick, doesn’t show up late, works overtime when asked and has never had a customer complaint. Seems pretty decent if you ask me.”

“An entertainer? What kind?”

Gabe smirked. “Not that kind of an entertainer. She was a singer. Says here she was singing back up for The Enticement over at Caesar’s until their show got cancelled last year. It’s kind of funny really.”

“What’s that?”

“Well she comes to town to work at Caesar’s and so do you. Two cute little peas in a pod.”

“Careful, Gabe. I may be younger than you but I can still kick your ass.”

“You wish. I seem to recall many a times you cried uncle when me and Jason had you pinned down on the ground.”

“Yeah, well what do you expect? Two against one isn’t exactly fair.”

“Alright.” Gabe held up his hands in surrender. “I’ll let you win this one. So, your ex-girlfriend is working for me. What did you need to see me about?”

“Her schedule.”

Gabe quirked a brow up. “Come again?”

“I want to know when her next night off is.”

“Because?”

“I want to talk to her.”

“So call her, man.”

“She won’t return my phone calls.”

Gabe grinned. “Oh yeah. Sounds like she’s not interested then man.”

“She is interested.”

Shaking his head, Gabe leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk and lacing his fingers together. “I hate to tell you this, cousin, but women who are interested usually call back.”

“You don’t understand. It’s a sticky situation.”

“I got time.”

“You really going to make me go through all of this?”

Gabe just smiled in answer.

“Fine. We dated for three years in high school. Then on the night of the senior prom she caught me with her best friend.”

“Dude, this is about high school? I think –.”

“Do you want to hear the story or not?”

“Fine. Continue.”

“She never talked to me after that night. Not for fifteen years. Then last week the night you and I were supposed to meet I ran into her. Seeing her after all these years was…” Brett stopped himself when he felt he was going off the tracks. “Anyway, we had dinner this weekend and we…”

“What? Did you sleep with her?”

“A gentlemen never talks.”

“Great. I’ll remember that next time I see one.”

“Anyway,” Brett gave him a glare, “then this guy shows up at her place and she not only kicks him out, but she kicks me out as well. It was obvious this guy cheated on her from what he was saying. And I can’t help but wonder if things had gone differently had he not shown up. And since she’s not returning my phone calls, I figured…” he raised a brow at his cousin.

“What? You think you’d just walk in here, use our family connection to get personal information on one of my employees so you could unfuck a fucked-up situation that you created fifteen years ago?”

Shrugging, he replied. “Pretty much.”

Gabe looked at him for a long while. “What’s your plan?”

“Not sure yet. But I need to start somewhere.”

“And that’s finding out when she is off?” He held up his hands, “Okay, okay. I’ll do it. But, when I die I want you to give one teary ass eulogy about how fucking amazing I am.”

“I’ll consider it.” Brett teased.

Gabe printed out a sheet of paper and handed it to Brett. “Here, this has her schedule for the next two weeks. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I don’t.”

Brett left his cousin’s office feeling more unsure about things than he ever had before. He had no clue what he was doing. No idea what his plan would be. But, he had to try. For the first time in fifteen years he felt something that went deeper than sex.

He was still in love with her.

The big question was, could she love him again.