Connor

 

I was startled when I saw Princess trying to cuddle with me. I had figured she would be scared around me after how hard I’d fucked her, but I guess that wasn’t the case. In fact, she seemed to want to be even closer to me. What the hell? Not that I was complaining. Her hair sure smelled nice right beneath my nose.

 

I let her rest like that. I figured that she’d been through a lot. Just as much as I had been, these past several days. Both of us needed to let loose. Relax a little bit.

 

Just then, the doorbell rang.

 

Speak of the devil.

 

It was Joey, coming to see what I was up to. He seemed surprised to see Princess there, but knew better than to say anything about it. He knew that my sex life was my business, and mine alone.

 

“Hey, Connor!” he declared, as if everything was normal. “After all that craziness at the Minghelli estate, I figured it was time for us to have a little fun. What do you think?”

 

Princess stirred, extracting herself from my arm while I grinned back at him.

 

“Sure thing,” I said. “The casino?”

 

I knew it was a favorite of Joey’s, especially after a dangerous experience.

 

“Hell, yeah!” he agreed.

 

I got up, went to the closet to get my favorite leather jacket, and then returned to the couch for Princess. I noticed that while I was changing she’d had the decency to bring the dishes to the sink.

 

“Good girl,” I muttered. Then, to Joey, I said, “All right, Joe. I can meet you there. I just gotta bring Princess back to the compound—”

 

“Aw, come on,” he complained. “That’s miles out of our way. I know! Why don’t we bring her with us? It could be good to have a little arm candy there. Maybe she could snag us a few free drinks!”

 

I glanced at Princess. Even in the hodgepodge outfit she had pieced together from the whores’ clothes at the compound, she looked amazing.

 

“All right,” I said. “But we both have to keep an eye on her. This one has a knack for getting into trouble.”

 

She chuckled. This made me feel good, that she was able to laugh at herself and what had happened. “Don’t worry. I’ll behave!” she declared. “Besides, I love gambling!”

 

That didn’t surprise me. Princess had demonstrated her ample skill with money. It was only fitting that this would carry over into gambling.

 

“All right!” said Joey. “Let’s go!”

 

Together, we headed outside. Joey had parked his motorcycle right next to mine, and he mounted first, leading the way. Feeling energized, I leapt onto mine in a flash, and felt Princess mount the bike behind me with a really sexy amount of grace.

 

I revved the engine, and we were off!

 

The casino wasn’t far. In fact, it was right near the bay, very close to the Berth of Venus. I wondered how that would make Princess feel. Would she be sad? Relieved? I couldn’t be sure. Sometimes, she seemed more mysterious to me than any other human being I’d ever met. She was definitely excited to go to the casino. I could tell by the way she whooped with excitement on every turn of the bike.

 

At last, we arrived. In typical casino fashion, the parking lot and buildings were enormous and confusing. They wanted people so drunk and baffled that they had no choice but to return to the casino rather than finding their cars. Joey and I, however, had been there plenty of times, and knew all the tricks for finding close parking spaces and an easy way in.

 

We marched inside. It was an Indian casino, so it was done up to look like fake tribal lands, including a magnificent waterfall fountain at least thirty feet high right at the atrium, decorated with fake rocks and trees. Hundreds of people milled around it, often stopping to toss in a coin and make a wish. I studied them, loving the feeling of measured chaos I always sensed in a casino. There was heartbreak and rapture. Despair and hope. Riches and debt. Drunk people. High people. Smart people. Dumb people. You could find every kind of person there was at a casino, except the cautious.

 

And a Devil’s Wing was never cautious.

 

Not sure what Princess would prefer, I led our group first to the slot machines. I figured that they were easy to play and didn’t require that much skill. Princess seemed to notice, however, and raised an eyebrow at me.

 

“You’re a slot machine man?” she asked in disbelief. “I thought you’d be interested in something a little more aggressive than that.”

 

I cocked my eyebrow right back at are. “Like what?”

 

She nodded towards the back of the casino, where the private rooms were. “Like blackjack,” she said.

 

Joey’s eyes sparkled. He loved blackjack, even though he wasn’t really that good at it. “Come on, then!” he exclaimed. “As her majesty wishes!”

 

I rolled my eyes. Hey, if they wanted to lose money, that was their business. It occurred to me as we sat down, however, that Princess was unlikely to have any money at all. I leaned over to her and whispered, “Hey, Princess, what exactly did you plan to gamble with?”

 

She glared at me, completely unabashed. “Well, I was going to ask you for a loan of $100, with a promise that I will triple it before the end of the night.”

 

Joey heard and raised his eyebrows. “Triple?” he gasped. “Yeah, right.”

 

I scowled at her. “And what happens if you don’t make that money back?”

 

She shrugged and looked up at me with those piercing blue eyes. “Well, I’ll have to pay you back in kind, won’t I?”

 

Joey laughed and clapped her on the back. “Come on, Connor,” he needled. “Give her a shot. I like what this bitch is thinking.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “Fine! Triple it, Princess. Let’s see your stuff.”

 

I reached into my jacket for my wallet and pulled out several twenty dollar bills. Princess grinned greedily at the sight of them and snatched them from my hands. I expected her to sit right down at a table, but she didn’t. Instead, she gazed around the room, sizing up the different gamblers and dealers there.

 

“We want that one,” she said at last, pointing to a table in the far corner of the room. Her choice worried me. Grouped around that table were a large assortment of rich businessmen. I could tell by their expensive, hand-tailored suits. They looked way too wealthy to be dealing with the likes of Princess. Still, she seemed so sure of herself that I allowed her to go and sit down among them. Joey joined a lower stakes table nearby, while I decided simply to watch.

 

Let’s see those moneymaking skills prove themselves here, I thought.

 

Ten minutes later, she had turned my one hundred dollars into three hundred. I expected her to stand up and brag but she didn’t. She kept playing, her brow furrowed in thought even as her tits jutted out sexily. With some surprise, I noticed that many of the men sitting around that table were paying just as much attention to her as they were their own cards. She bit her lip, and I swore half of them sighed with longing. I suspected her strategy and found myself smiling.

 

Not long after that, Joey appeared by my side. His thumbs were sticking out of his pockets and he had an expression on his face that I knew meant that he had lost.

 

“You all right there, Joey?” I asked him.

 

He chuckled. “I’ll be all right,” he said. “How’s Princess?”

 

I nodded towards her blackjack table. Judging by the collective groan of the men seated there and her winning smile, she had just won another couple hundred dollars.

 

“Kicking ass,” I said.

 

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” said Joey. “How did a whore learn to be so smart? It’s funny. If I didn’t know any better, I would say Princess is the real Farrah Michaels. Minghelli obviously wasn’t too impressed with the girl we rescued from his estate.”

 

I opened my mouth, unsure of how to respond. Should I tell Joey about my suspicions? It seemed a little too soon for that. I didn’t want to look like an idiot.

 

Princess rescued me from a response, for a second later she was up from her table and walking over.

 

“Here’s your threehundred,” she boasted, eyes gleaming. “And two … three … four hundred for me!”

 

“Why did you stop?” asked Joey. “By the looks of it, you could have cleaned those guys right up.”

 

Grinning, she pocketed the money. “You never stay at one table too long,” she said. “After a while, people start to figure out your tricks, or at least that you’re tricking them. People are most vulnerable when they think they are safe.”

 

Joey and I gasped. We had heard that same quote before, plenty of times. It was something Sam Michaels used to say before dangerous ventures. Smitty had inherited it, and now almost every one of the Devil’s Wings took it to heart. ‘People are most vulnerable when they think they are safe.

 

Joey leaned in close to me. “Where did she hear that?” he whispered. “She sounds like a Devil’s Wing, man!”

 

I silenced him with a look and waited for Princess to disappear at another table. After she settled in, I pulled Joey aside.

 

“Look, Joey,” I whispered to him urgently. “I hadn’t mentioned this before, because I wasn’t sure, but there’s something very strange going on with Princess.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean that Farrah Michaels—at least, the woman who calls herself Farrah Michaels. The one we rescued from Minghelli—I don’t think she is who she says she is. I think her name is Honi, though I don’t know why she’s lying.”

 

Joey nodded. “I can see that. She certainly hasn’t acted the way we’d expected the real Farrah Michaels to act. But what does this have to do with Princess?”

 

I’d felt it growing in my mind for some time. A realization that part of me wanted to fight, or prove wasn’t true, because I didn’t want a believe it. And yet another part of me, after everything that had happened, longed for it to be true.

 

“Joey … I think that Princess might be the real Farrah Michaels.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous!” he snapped.

 

“I think I’m right. Listen ...” I told him about all the strange little details. Things Princess knew how to do, like launder money and ride a motorcycle. Even her martial arts. And then were all those strange slips. Calling Venus Michaels “Aunt” and things like that. At first, Joey looked skeptical, like I was raising some harebrained scheme. But after several minutes of my talking, I saw that disbelief melt away, to be replaced by wonder.

 

“Maybe …” he muttered, “but if it’s true, why would she be lying? Why would she rather us think of her as a whore?”

 

“I don’t know. I think it has to do with Honi. Something is going on between those two. And I intend to find out what.”

 

“How?”

 

I frowned, crossing my arms as I gazed at Princess. “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But it starts with me keeping a very close eye on her.”

 

And I definitely planned to do that. I saw the way her thighs and calves flexed. I saw the way she intentionally lifted her breasts to distract the dealer and other card players. I saw her biting her lip and tucking that golden hair behind her ears.

 

Yes, I thought. I am going to be keeping a very close eye on you.