Page 40 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

Bella rolled her eyes. “That was a threat.”

“You think so?”

“Of course it was. He’s not going to come right out and offer to break your legs. He probably figured you had a camera in your office.Doyou have a camera in your office?”

“Not in my office, but there are cameras in public areas of the hotel. He would have passed one. You don’t think…?”

“How long do you keep the footage?”

“A month, I think?”

“And how long ago did Jimmy last come here? If he’s going around harming the women in your life, it would be good to know what he looks like so I can get out of the way.”

Cole’s emotions warred within him. Bella admitting that she was in his life and not a fleeting hookup made his heart swell, but the thought of an enemy of his harming her left him cold. Jimmy had visited a month ago, give or take. Fuck. He should have thought about this sooner.

“I can give you a piggyback to the security centre?”

The look she gave him was scathing.

“I can walk.”

CHAPTER 14

JEZEBEL

Echo had already accessed the Galaxy’s camera network, of course, but picking Jimmy out of the crowd had proven difficult when we didn’t have an exact date for the visit. Plus footage was missing. There were cameras in the lobby, for example—Tulsa had scouted the place—but the recordings from those cameras weren’t stored with the recordings from the gambling areas. We couldn’t discount the possibility of another closed system whose data we hadn’t yet obtained.

“This is Clyde.” Cole introduced me to a balding man in his mid-forties. “Clyde, this is my girl— My friend Bella.”

Fuck, had he been about to say “girlfriend”? If my leg hadn’t been broken, I would have run screaming from the building. He was a nice guy, but relationships weren’t my jam, not anymore. At least he’d corrected himself.

I shook hands with Clyde. “Good to meet you.”

“We’re looking for any footage you might have of a guy who came to see me in Uncle Mike’s office a few weeks ago,” Cole said.

“Is this something to do with the incident tonight?”

“It seems unlikely, but he didn’t have an appointment, and we want to cover all bases.”

“What date? You know we only keep footage for thirty days.”

“It was a Thursday. Chet Mason plays piano in the main bar on Thursdays, and right after the guy left, Chet showed up to complain the piano was out of tune.”

“So twenty-nine days ago?” Clyde asked.

“I think so. Five weeks feels too long ago, and three weeks doesn’t feel long enough.”

“I’ll see what we have.”

“Maybe coming in through the lobby?” I suggested.

Clyde’s face morphed into a faint grimace. “We can try.”

“We don’t have full coverage in the lobby,” Cole explained.

Well, that would explain why Echo hadn’t been able to find half the files. I adopted my best confused expression.

“I thought casinos had cameras everywhere?”

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