OLIVIA DECIDED TO try Dominic. She only reached his voicemail. She started to hang up but decided to leave a message. She walked over to the group of girls and handed Cammie back her phone. “I’ll check in with you ladies a little later. I have some business to take care of.”
“Good luck,” Cammie said smiling. She knew nothing of the dark side of the business she was involved in. Olivia wanted to send Cammie home to the protected world of her family but she knew better. Looking at Cammie she saw her sister. Ten years ago, the young and beautiful girl was still carefree and embraced every opportunity. Now Grace lay six feet under along with Gwen and Rebecca. How many more women were involved?
“Thanks, you too,” Olivia replied knowing the girl would need it.
She turned and walked into the lively casino. The bells and whistles of gaming machines along with the voices of the crowd created an excited rumble. The room was well ventilated but still smelled of smoke and whiskey. She wandered through the players until she found the table games. There it was, the roulette table. She stood frozen watching the movie play from her twisted memories. She saw her sister running the table. A broad man in a dark suit stood watching her with a brandy in his hand. He moved a giant stack of chips on to lucky seven. When all the bets were in her delicate hand spun the wheel. The little bouncing ball flung through the air, rolled and then bounced from one spot to the next. When it came to rest on seven the crowd gave a cheer. The man pulled Grace to him and kissed her hard on the mouth. To Olivia’s horror her sister had kissed him back.
“Grace.” The heavy British voice startled her. The broad man was standing behind her. She turned around to face the giant of a man. The Devil. “My darling,” he said taking her in his arms and kissed her deeply. Olivia sputtered shocked by the sudden taste of cigars and brandy. He set her down and stared at her quizzically. “Grace?” He stepped back staring at her searching for an answer. “You’re not her, are you? What’s going on here?”
Olivia’s heart stopped. How did he know from just one kiss? She looked up at him helplessly. “No, I’m not.”
“But you look . . . just like her,” he said softly and then pain and anger flashed across his face. His eyes darkened and he looked at her as if she had betrayed him in the most cruel way. “Who are you then and what are you doing here? Where is Grace?”
“My name is Olivia. Grace was my sister. She died and I am trying to piece together what happened to her.” She realized there was no point in lying now. If he knew her sister well enough to tell them apart by one kiss lying wasn’t going to help her. “I don’t want to cause any trouble. I’m just looking for answers.”
“She what?” He paled and took a step back. “Come with me.” He took her by the arm and half drug her to a private room off the side of the main casino floor. Once they were alone he asked again. “What happened to Grace?”
Olivia looked around. She was alone with the gorilla of a man. She swallowed hard. “Grace died, she was murdered.” As she spoke the color fully drained from his face and he slumped into a chair.
“When . . .” He was staring at the ceiling. “How?”
“Ten years ago,” Olivia blurted. “She was brutally murdered when we were in college. She’s been gone ten years.” How could he have loved her as much as he seemed to and not know.
“That’s impossible.” He cocked his head and looked at her as if she was either completely crazy or trying to pull something over on him. “Grace is mine. We have an arrangement of sorts but she went missing four months ago and I would give anything to get her back.”
“You are lying. I saw my sister’s body ten years ago. She was murdered,” Olivia cried and stepped back. “I still see it every time I close my eyes.” Olivia was shaking. He was lying. He had to be lying. There was some kind of mistake.
“I never knew Grace even had a sister let alone an identical twin. My God you could be the same girl. Your skin is clammy are you sure you are okay? Did you hit your head or something? Maybe I should call the doctor.” His brows knitted in concern. His look reminded her of Shaver’s when she was doing something foolish.
“I don’t need a doctor I need to find out what happened to my sister. I think she was involved with a group that transported high rollers here via charter plane.” Olivia was careful not to mention the drugs or the prostitution. If he was involved the last thing she wanted to do was to make him think he was under investigation.
“The Dolls,” he said laughing “I don’t think she’s been directly involved with them in years. That’s how I met your sister.” He sat back lit a cigar and motioned for her to have a seat. Olivia pulled up a chair. She knew better than to believe anything this man told her but maybe he would say something that could help her figure out what happened.
“I was thirty-one at the time,” he began, “and I had just taken over here at Harrah’s. The first time I saw Grace, she was operating the roulette table. I was compelled to play. Now as an owner I couldn’t keep anything I won, nor did I need to. I just wanted to be near her. The way she moved. Her subtle knowing smile.” He took a deep breath. “You are so much like her. Looking at you I can’t help feeling I am talking to her. She was the most beautiful girl that ever walked into my life. The sun shone for her alone. The moon worshiped her jealously. I fell hopelessly in love with her.”
Olivia closed her eyes. She recalled his voice. She could see the roulette wheel spin and hear her sister’s laughter. For a brief moment Olivia had a memory of working the table. She remembered calling that all bets were in and spinning the wheel. That was so long ago. She shook her head. Was she just imagining that?
“Night after night I came to watch her work. The magical way she pulled every player at her table under her spell has never been matched. They were drawn back no matter how much they lost. Like moths to her flame she was the most addictive drug. Over time my jealousy became a monster that I could not control. I didn’t want her out on the floor for all to see. I wanted her to be only mine, to love only me. I begged her to love me. I took her around the world. I gave her a thousand sunrises and a thousand sunsets. She was a perfect light and all the darkness wrapped up in one.” He closed his eyes and tilted his head up as if he could still feel the warm light of her presence on his face. When he opened his eyes Olivia could see him fighting back tears. “No matter how I tried to keep her she was a flame that I couldn’t hold onto. She could never be happy with just one man, one life.”
Olivia smiled. “That’s Grace. She was always the center of every room without even trying. I was more than happy to admire her from my quiet place in her shadow.”
He looked her up and down. “You don’t look like a shadow now. You look as vibrant and beautiful as your sister. I believe I bought her those shoes and that purse. When I first met her.” He swallowed and tears filled his eyes. “God it’s been forever ago but I cherish every moment like it was yesterday.”
“Ten years ago.” Olivia finished accusingly. “Did you know she was still in college then? She was just a girl.”
“She was. But she already ruled the world. That first year she was still in college going back and forth to campus. She drove me mad. I hated not seeing her, not knowing what she was up to. Who she was with. Then that boy came here after her and I nearly lost my mind.” Anger flashed like wildfire in his dark eyes. “There have been other men who came and went over the years but that boy was so fucking determined to take her back home. He stormed in here all junior detective, ranting accusations.”
“That was ten years ago?” Olivia sat up suddenly interested. “Maybe a college boyfriend sick with jealousy?” She didn’t believe for one minute that her sister had been hiding here all these years. She had seen her body with her own eyes. It had fucking haunted her for a decade. She knew every intimate detail by broken heart. But if this boy came here looking for her. Maybe he was involved with her death or at least knew something about it.
“He was desperate. Stormed through the casino looking for her. You had to admire his passion misplaced as it was. But the green-eyed monster in me could not tolerate him for a minute. I threw him out and banned him from the casino for life.” His eyes flew open wide. ““Fuck. He was here.” He stood up and walked over to the phone on the wall like he was going to put out a fire. He jerked the phone off its cradle. “Get Mickey on the phone. Now,” he growled.
“When was he here? Who? The boy?” Olivia asked puzzled.
“He’s not a boy anymore,” Luca said darkly. “He was here maybe six months ago. Maybe a little more. When he tried to get in it triggered the lifetime ban and security alerted me.”
Luca began to talk to someone on the phone. If she could get a name of the young suitor Olivia could track him down. That is if Luca didn’t get to him first. She suspected Luca had a very dark side. You don’t get a nickname like the Devil without some element of evil. She could see how her sister had been mad for him. He was broad and tall but not obese. Grace never could resist a bad boy but this was a very bad man. Olivia imagined her sister would have been as in love with him as he was with her. What had happened? Had he become so jealous he killed her with those massive hands? Or had her young lover desperate and crazy knowing he was losing her to this man taken drastic measures to keep her for himself, in death if not in life.
“Thank you,” he said and hung up. “I’ve got it. Let’s see if you can recognize the fucker. Maybe you have seen him before.” He pulled up a screen on the wall with the push of a button and then used a control panel to pop the images onto the screen. At first Olivia sat speechless then she struggled to find air. She felt like she had been thrown into outer space. Airless and weightless her head began to spin. It couldn’t be. This was some kind of sick joke.
“You are a sick bastard,” she spat. “This isn’t funny. I don’t know what kind of sick fucking game you are playing. Did you kill her and now what, you’re going to toy with me like a cat with a mouse?”
“What the hell are you talking about? You don’t know anything about me. I love your sister and I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.” His voice boomed through the room. “We need to talk to this guy.” He waved his hand toward the screen. There on the wall were two drivers licenses one from 2006 one from 2016 both belonged to Dominic Kain. Olivia slumped back into the chair. All the love she had felt in her life, all the hope she had finally begun to feel again hung in catastrophic destruction on the wall. Dominic was in love with her sister.
“This has to be wrong. Please.” She tried to fight the tears but couldn’t fight them another fucking minute. Suddenly Olivia flashed back to the fight with her sister.
THEY WERE IN Grace’s hotel room. Olivia had come to Vegas to bail Grace out of jail for suspected prostitution and possession of drug paraphernalia. Grace didn’t want their mother to know. Once they got back to the hotel. Olivia saw Grace working the roulette table and kissing Luca.
“You are in way over your head,” Olivia yelled at her twin. “That man is twice your age and now you’re doing drugs. What the hell Grace? What has gotten into you?”
“Oh go back to your preppy little school and stick your nose back in a fucking book,” Grace spat and poured herself an obscene amount of Grey Goose. She hardly bothered with the pretense of cran. “You don’t get to come down here to my life and fucking judge me.”
“What about school?” Olivia shot back. “What about your dreams? You are going to get kicked out if you don’t get back on track.”
Grace laughed wildly. “Shows how fucking attentive you are. I already did. They fucking kicked me out last month.”
Olivia couldn’t believe her ears. “What? Why? What happened, Grace.” Olivia tried to reach out and put her hand on her twin’s shoulder but Grace pushed her away.
“You are a fucking joke, Liv. What do you think I got kicked out for, drinking, drugs, you name it. You weren’t exactly a princess yourself last summer.”
“That was summer break and no one got arrested. Besides we were drinking and waiting tables not doing drugs,” Olivia shot back
“Speak for yourself, cupcake. I learned a great deal about the business last summer. I’m a lot fucking smarter than that school gives me credit for. Well, fuck them I have my own business and I’m doing just fine.” She sneered and waved her hands around the suite.
“So dealing drugs and being some guys whore is your idea of—” Olivia felt the crack of Grace’s hand on her face before she could even finish her words. Hot tears stung her eyes and she stepped back.
“You’ve always been jealous of me,” Grace yelled coming toward her. “Always. Every party every fucking boy. They were all about me not you. Hell you wouldn’t have even been invited if it wasn’t for me.”
“You’re nothing but a selfish bitch.” Olivia stood her ground. “You lied to Mom. You lied to me. All you care about is your own fucking happiness. That’s all you’ve ever cared about.”
Grace lunged at Olivia and began trying to choke her. Their arms being the same length Olivia reached up and grabbed Grace by the throat also. The two girls fought until Grace tripped over the edge of the glass coffee table and they fell into it sending glass shards everywhere.
“Get out!” Grace screamed before Olivia could collect herself. “Get the fuck out of my life!”
Olivia was stunned. Grace was bleeding, she had hit the table first. Grace pushed Olivia off onto the floor.
“Grace, you’re hurt,” Olivia started.
“I said get the fuck out.” Grace stood up, stumbled then made it to the door. Holding on for support she opened it for Olivia. “Go, Liv, and don’t come back.”
Olivia made it to the elevator and then collapsed back against the wall. In a heap of tears she slid to the floor and waited for it to open. Her heart broke like a supernova, a great star shattering in one final titanic explosion sending millions of fragments out into space.
“OLIVIA . . . OLIVIA . . .” Luca stood over her. He held a damp cloth to her forehead. “Come on, sweet girl.”
Slowly Olivia got her bearings. What the hell? She looked around the room confused at first. Luca knelt beside her. He had laid her down on the couch. Gently he wiped her forehead with a cool cloth.
“I was here,” she whispered.
“When? Just rest.” He soothed and smoothed her hair.
“Ten years ago. The day Grace died. I bailed her out of jail and we had a fight in her room and she threw me out. I was here.”
“Olivia, Grace didn’t die that day. I promise you,” Luca insisted
Olivia pulled away. Luca, we had her funeral. She was buried. She died.”
“Where is she buried?” he asked shaking his head as if she had lost her mind.
“She’s . . . I . . .” Olivia searched her consciousness for an answer. “I . . . don’t . . .” Why the hell couldn’t she think where the fuck her sister was buried. What the hell was going on? Olivia began to breathe hard. Not now. She didn’t have time for this now.
“Olivia let’s call that doctor, shall we,” he offered, sympathy filling his eyes.
“Wait no. I’m not lying. I have a sister. Her name was Grace. She died ten years ago.” Olivia started to rock back and forth.
“My darling. It’s going to be okay.