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She bolted to her feet

“That elevator only works with a key card You’re not going anywhere” He raised his glass to her “Sure you don’t want a drink?”

“Give ”

“About what?”

“A way out of this”

“Um,” he said “There isn’t a way out The police will be here in a few minutes”

“Then I have a few minutes to think”

“See, there you go, being all s like a quantum physicist I tend to think more like a criminal”

He shrugged To his credit, he didn’t gloat He didn’t seee or money He was about respect

She furrowed her brow This was getting somewhere

His casino was his life It was his baby A billionaire like him didn’t need to oversee the day-to-day operations of a company He could easily hire so around European ski slopes or whatever Ahe wanted And what he wanted was to run this casino

And to be respected No, not quite It wasn’t about his ego It was about the casino being respected Why? Because without that respect, the business suffered So it was all about the business success And her scam had put that all at risk

There it was The answer

“I have a proposal,” she said

“Pardon?”