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"I had to zooured it would look weird if the three of us stepped out of a cloud in the middle of the casino oor"

"Just a tad," Shelby said, tugging on a locked door "Any brilliant ideas about how to get down frori in tatters at their feet She couldn't ith to help them now No way o this roof and no way back to Shoreline

"Never enius," Shelby called frohts, wrestling with a lock With a grunt, she pried it open, then lifted a hinged pane of glass She stuck her head through,for Luce and Miles to join her

Cautiously, Luce peered down through the open skylight into a large, opulent bathrooenerous-sized stalls on one side, a line of raised ilded mirror on the other A le wo into the mirror Luce could only see the top of her black bou ant hair, but her re ection showed a heavily s, and a French- an unnecessary coat of red lipstick

"As soon as Cleopatra's gone through that tube of lipstick, we'll just shimmy on down," Shelby whispered

Below them, Cleopatra stood up froether and wiped a stray red stain o her teeth Then she ht," Miles said "You want me to `shimmy' into a women's bathroom?"

Luce took one more look around the desolate roof There was really only one way in "If anyone sees you, just pretend you went in the wrong door"

"Or that you tereout in one of the stalls," Shelby added "What? It's Vegas"

"Let's just go" Miles was blushing as he lowered hih theHe extended his arh marble top of the vanity

"Help Luce down," Shelby called

Miles moved to lock the bathroom door, then raised his arms to catch Luce She tried to mimic his smooth technique, but her arht She couldn't see rip around her waist sooner than she'd expected

"You can let go," he said, and when she did, he lowered her gracefully to the oor His ngers spread out around her rib cage, just a thin black T-shirt away from her skin His arms were still around her when her feet touched the tile She was about to thank hiue-tied

She backed out of his grasp too quickly,over his feet Both of the eye contact by staring at the wall

That should not have happened Miles was just her friend

"Hello! Anyone going to helpfro irabbed her belt, easing her down by the waist He released Shelby a lot more quickly, Luce noticed, than he had releasedand roughly grabbed her belt, easing her down by the waist He released Shelby a lot more quickly, Luce noticed, than he had released her

Shelby bounded across the gold-tiled oor and unlocked the door "Co for?"

On the other side of the door, glamorously h heels, trays of cocktail shakers balanced in the crooks of their arms Men in expensive dark suits crowded around blackjack tables, where they whooped like teenage boys each ti and banging on an endless loop here It was hushed, and exclusive, and endlessly exciting--but it wasn't anything like the scene they had watched in the Announcer

A cocktail waitress approached them "May I help you?" She lowered her stainless steel tray to scrutinize the up three blini and handing one to the others "You guys thinking what I' downstairs"

When the elevator doors opened onto the bright and glaring lobby of the casino, Luce had to be pushed out by Miles She could tell they'd nally coht place The cocktail waitresses were older, tired, showing a lot less esh They didn't glide across the stained orange carpet; they thumped And the patrons lookedthe table in the glied, sad, wallet-e automatons All they had to do noas nd Vera

Shelby h a cramped maze of slotat the tiny ball as it spun in the wheel, past big, boxy games at which people blew on dice and threw them and then cheered at the outcoames with names like Pai Gow, until they came to a cluster of blackjack tables

Most of the dealers were ray-ical ape at any of theht not to: There, at the far back corner of the casino, was Vera

Her black hair ept up in a lopsided bun Her pale face looked thin and saggy Luce didn't feel the sa she'd felt when she looked at her previous life's parents in Shasta But then again, she still didn't knoho Vera was to her besides a tired,a deck of cards out for a half-asleep redheaded woman to cut Sloppily, the redhead picked up the deck in the