Luck of the Dragon (Entangled Covet) Read Online Free PDF Page A

tank.
    “Are you kidding me?” Luciana raised her voice above polite levels. “This must be some type of labor law violation. I’m trying to pee. You’re giving me stage-fright!”
    “Labor law? You said that you wouldn’t do the job for any price.”
    “Look, I can appreciate your loyalty to Mr. Gerald, but this is ridiculous. If you don’t leave this instant, I’m going to make a huge scene. Before I’m done, all those women out there will be afraid to use your bathrooms ever again. No pee, no players.”
    She could almost hear Jane’s mind calculating the cost-benefit ratio.
    “Then I’ll go to the press about harassment!”
    “Okay,” Jane said. “Hurry up. I’ll be right outside the door.”
    The door closed, and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Standing, she pulled off the back of the fancy toilet and tied the hose and plastic-covered keycard to the arm float. She tested it to make sure it wouldn’t interfere with flushing, then replaced the porcelain top and sat down.
    Done. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her vision fogged. She was getting too old for this crap. “Joey better be grateful. He better never, ever gamble again in his whole freaking life,” she whispered.
    But even as she mouthed the words, she knew it would take a miracle for Joey to be, A. grateful, or B. done with the lure of an easy buck. She sighed, suddenly so tired she could have curled up on the tiled bathroom floor. How could Joey, at age thirty, not know what everyone who grew up in Vegas knew by the time they were ten?
    There was no easy buck.
    There was no free lunch.
    There was no such thing as luck. Hard work—that was the only thing anyone could really depend on.
    The door opened and hard shoes clacked over the tiles before a fist pounded on her door.
    “Get out of there right now,” Alec’s voice thundered. “Or I’m coming in.”
    …
    After asking Security to take Lucy to his office, Alec went to the observation room to watch the hellion on camera. The surveillance room had the highest level of technological equipment available, providing constant video feed for every corner of the casino, save for the hotel rooms and toilets. Some things you just didn’t need to see.
    Alec stood next to Darius and watched Luciana pace his office. He was unsettled, not sure what to do with the woman. She attacked the floor of his office with short steps. Every turn or so, she pitched sideways and had to throw her arms out for balance. Unless he missed his guess, she wasn’t used to covering ground in such high-heeled shoes.
    “Bring up her face,” he told Darius.
    The camera zoomed in on Luciana’s tense face, and he saw that she chewed her bottom lip again, and tucked and re-tucked her red hair behind her ears. Alone, she didn’t bother with the bluster she had affected in the exhibit. Her shoulders hunched, and she jerked across the floor with graceless strides. Her hips marched forward with militant precision: back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He felt sorry for her, caged up and cornered, all her feisty bravado banked behind whatever had motivated her to steal his keycard.
    “Face recognition doesn’t show any criminal hits on her,” Darius said. “In fact, she has top security clearance at some of the best museums in the world.”
    “Go ahead and remove access to the vault and dragon areas from my keycard,” Alec said to his lieutenant.
    “What about the gem exhibit?”
    “Leave it, for now.”
    “Yes, Jer’ol.” Darius typed on a keyboard next to them, altering the security clearance of his stolen card with a few finger strokes.
    “Coward!” Luciana stopped pacing suddenly. “I know you’re watching me!” She faced the camera and shook her fist at the ceiling. “Quit playing games with me.”
    A smile stretched Alec’s face, and a tingle of pleasure tightened the back of his neck. He rubbed it with his thumb and forefinger.
    “She’s got a redhead’s temper,” Darius