Page 1 of Blind Luck

CHAPTER 1

ERIN

“Vegas? We’re going to Vegas? Yeehaw! I always wanted to go to Vegas.” I mean, I’d seen pictures—the fountains at the Bellagio, the mini Eiffel Tower, the gondolas at the Venetian, Fremont Street, the STRAT Tower… “Can we visit the Grand Canyon?”

“We’ll be working,” Ari said. “This isn’t a vacation.”

“But it’sVegas.”

“It’s work.” My brother backed up Ari. Mybrother. I still had to pinch myself that we were both here in California. After circumstances forced us apart when I was twelve—and by “circumstances,” I meant the cult we’d grown up in—I thought I’d never be a part of his life again. Kai had been kicked out of the Promised Land while I stayed long enough to get married off to an old pervert, and it had taken me another three and a half years after Kai left to escape. “I didn’t know you wanted to see Las Vegas. If you’d told me, I would’ve taken you.”

“I want to see the whole world, and you did take me to Australia, Hawaii, Brazil, and Mexico. Plus we literally got back from Indonesia two days ago.”

Next month, Kai would be flying to South Africa as partof his duties on the World Surf Tour, and I had an open invitation to join him. The past nine months had been wild. Ari’s boyfriend, Zach, was a surfer too—the raddest surfer ever, although I’d never say that in front of my brother, who happened to be Zach’s bestie.

After we reconnected, and also after I lost my job, Kai had offered to pay me to be his assistant, but that was just out of guilt because he didn’t really need an assistant. He already had one, kind of. Zach’s sister, Maya, did stuff for both of them. And since Maya and my brother obviously liked each other—like,likeliked—I didn’t want to get in the way.

I did want to smush their faces together and tell them to stop dilly-dallying around, but Ari said that Maya was a little fragile at the moment and we should give them both time.

So, I’d accepted Kai’s offer of a place to stay—which was the first time in my life I hadn’t been blessed with at least one weird roommate—and I let him pay for my flights to wherever, but I was supporting myself by working for Ari. She’d been a private investigator in Las Vegas for years, and she still had one big client there, but she mostly took cases in California now. I carried out surveillance, answered the phone when she was busy, and helped with background checks.

The best part of the job? We based ourselves out of Zach’s oceanfront villa, so I could go surfing on my lunch breaks.

“I didn’t get to spend much time with you in Indonesia,” Kai said. He’d come over to talk to Zach about surfboard wax, which was good because he’d given me a ride. My driving lessons were going…not well.

“If you really want to take me on a vacay, I’m not gonna turn that down. Maybe we could all go together? You, me, Ari and Zach, Haven, Maya.”

Ari gave me a look. Was my matchmaking too obvious? Oops. Haven was Ari’s daughter, nine years old and super cute. Ari’s grandma looked after her while we worked, or sometimes Zach did the honours. Two weeks ago, she’d asked if she could call him “Dad,” and he’d cried.

“How about we just focus on this job for the moment?” Ari suggested.

“Sure, sure. So, what are we doing in Vegas?”

“Looking for a possible loan shark.”

“What, like he’s disappeared?”

“More like he hasn’t revealed himself.”

“Huh?”

Ari added chocolate sprinkles to the foam on her cappuccino and took a seat at the breakfast counter.

“Ever hear of the Galaxy Hotel and Casino?” she asked.

“Nope.”

“Well, you’re lucky—it’s a real dive. Anyhow, the owner died recently, and his nephew inherited the place. A month ago, a man calling himself Jimmy showed up there, claimed he lent money to the hotel, and told Cole Gallagher—the new owner—it was time to pay up. Cole figured it was a scam because there’s no record of any loan where they’re not already in dialogue with the counterparty, and he shrugged the whole incident off.”

“How did this Jimmy guy expect Cole to settle the loan if he doesn’t know who to pay?”

“Apparently, he left a piece of paper with the address of a Bitcoin wallet.”

“Like one of those scam emails, but in person?”

“Exactly. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about Bitcoin, but Alexa offered to help with that side of things.”

“Alexa? You mean weird computer girl?”

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