Where the Rain Gets In (13 page)

Katie started the engine and pulled
away, without turning to look behind her.

“The point is,” she said, “it’s what I
choose to do.”

Katie thought they’d have little
difficulty with their act of not getting on too well together.

“Those cactuses are crazy,” said Bruno,
looking at the strange plants that were scattered across the desert. They
passed by the occasional billboard, and huge boulders of rock that looked as
though they’d been thrown from the sky.

“Cacti,” said Katie. “The plural of
cactus is cacti.”

She drove on for a while, and turned to
look at Bruno.

“Why do you do that?” she asked. “You
know the plural of cactus is cacti, but you have to say it wrong – just to be
some, I don’t know, like there was some value in appearing more stupid than you
really are.”

Bruno did his finger with the hat thing
again.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Why do you
have to correct me? Just to be some, I don’t know, like it makes you somehow
better than me?”

Bruno slid down into his seat and pushed
the hat back down over his face.

“Suarro,” he said from beneath the hat.
“That’s what they’re called – they’re suarro cacti.”

Katie drove the rest of the journey in
silence.

The noise in the casino was so
overpowering that Katie didn’t believe the owners of the MGM Grand were aware
of everything that went on in their hotel, but Mike assured her that they were.

“Don’t be distracted by the gaming
machines,” he’d told her.

Katie understood what Mike meant once
she and Bruno reached the quieter area of the card tables. It was hard to stay
focussed when Katie knew that every move she made was watched and recorded from
above. Okay, so they couldn’t keep track of every player all the time, but they
could focus in on whomever they liked. The glass ceiling concealed a series of
walkways that ran above the casino; security watchers looked down on the
tables, and a series of cameras fed back to the main observation room deep
within the hotel. Mike had told Katie repeatedly not to look up at the ceiling,
however tempted she might be. And what did Katie do when she first walked in
the room? Looked up at the ceiling, of course.

Bruno, to be fair, played his part to
perfection – a loud, ignorant first-timer, kicking up a fuss about losing what
for this casino was a pathetically small amount of money. His behaviour made it
easier for Katie to play her role. She didn’t know how much of the antipathy
she felt was towards Bruno, or the character he had become. The longer the day
went on, the more repugnant Bruno was to Katie.

By early evening, Katie had had enough.
She hated the unreal world of the casino. She hated the oxygen she knew they
pumped into the room to stop her feeling tired. She hated the complimentary
food and drinks; she didn’t want to be spoilt while the casino took her money.
This wasn’t the America that Katie longed to see, and she hated Mike for
bringing her here.

Katie looked over to where a crowd had
gathered around Mike’s table. She knew what this meant: Mike’s winnings were
large enough to attract the attention of players from surrounding tables. It
wouldn’t be long before the watchers above alerted the security on the floor of
the casino; Mike’s time was almost up.

Katie stepped up behind Bruno and tugged
at his sleeve. He shrugged her off in a temper.

“We have to go,” said Katie.

“I’m not leaving till I win my money
back,” Bruno shouted.

“You can’t win your money back, you
idiot,” said Katie. “You’ve no chips left to place another bet.”

The players at Bruno’s table looked away
in embarrassment. Katie tugged again at Bruno’s sleeve. Bruno lashed out
drunkenly behind him, and his arm caught the tray of a passing waitress,
sending drinks across the floor and splashing the woman sat next to him.

“Oh, fucking hell, I’m sorry,” said
Bruno, and he reached for a paper napkin. The woman stepped away, and put up
her hands in front of Bruno.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” she said.

Katie walked away in disgust. She saw a
security guard hold his hand to his ear, and knew he was receiving instructions
from above. A man who could only have been a pit boss walked purposefully
towards Mike’s table. Katie moved quickly across to intercept him; she could
see he was oblivious to anything else that might be happening on the gambling
floor.

“Excuse me,” said Katie, and stood in
the man’s way. “Could you help me please?  My husband – he’s . . . I need
to get him away from the tables and back to our room. I’m worried he might harm
someone if I don’t get him out of here.”

The pit boss listened to his earpiece as
Katie spoke. He was torn between the disturbance Bruno was creating and the
growing crowd at Mike’s table.

“Please,” said Katie.

The pit boss couldn’t simply ignore Katie;
she was creating something of a stir herself. The players at Bruno’s table
watched her asking for help; passers-by wondered just what a woman like Katie
was doing with an oaf such as Bruno.

“I can’t actually stop a guest from
playing at the tables, ma’am,” said the pit boss.

“Oh, for God’s sake, man,” snapped
Katie, and she walked back to Bruno. A huge round of applause went up from the
watching crowd over at Mike’s table. Bruno had his back to Katie.

“Either you come back to our room now,”
said Katie, “or you’ll be sleeping alone tonight.”

There were a few laughs around the
table. They wanted Bruno to be gone, but they were beginning to enjoy the show.

“Aw honey,” said Bruno. He spoke in a
Texan drawl.

“Don’t you ‘Aw honey’ me!” said Katie.
“It’s your choice.”

Katie turned and walked away. She heard
the laughter at the table as Bruno scrambled to catch up with her.

“My hat,” he cried, and ran back, but
Katie carried on walking. She could see Mike over to her left. He’d left the
blackjack tables, but he didn’t seem to be leaving the gambling floor. Players
were congratulating him, and Mike was making a big show of carrying all his
chips – but he was lingering over by the roulette tables.

I don’t believe it, thought Katie.

She realised what Mike was about to do.
She stopped and watched as Mike dropped his winning chips on to a roulette
table. Mike’s usual trick – whenever he did this – was to place them all on
red, but Katie knew he could quite as easily bet everything on a single number.

Katie dropped any pretence of storming
out the casino. She couldn’t see the roulette table for the crowd that had once
again gathered around Mike. She stood still and waited. The pit boss and
security guard were over to Katie’s right; they could do nothing now that Mike’s
success had become such a public floorshow. There was a hush amongst the crowd,
and Katie guessed they’d spun the wheel.

Bruno came up behind Katie, and tried to
usher her towards the exit. She refused to budge.

“We have to get out of here,” Bruno said
quietly.

He grabbed Katie’s arm, but she shook
him off. Katie had to wait to see the outcome of Mike’s play.

“Katie,” said Bruno.

Another cheer went up around Mike, and
the noise released the tension in the room. Katie and Bruno walked off the
floor and up to their room.

As Bruno shut the hotel bedroom door,
Katie knew this wasn’t going to go well. She could see that Bruno was still
high, and when Bruno was high, bad things happened around him.

“Oh yes!” said Bruno. He dramatically
rested the back of his head against the door. “We did it! We fucking did it,
man!”

This was always going to be the
difficult moment in Mike’s plan – when Katie was left alone with Bruno in
private. She knew what Bruno’s mind would turn to; he never stopped thinking
about it anyway, so why should he stop now? He was too high to expect anything
else.

“You mean Mike did it,” she said.

“Mike did it, you did it – we all did
it. We’re a fucking team,” said Bruno, “that’s what we are.”

Some team, thought Katie.

“Well, it’s done now,” she said. “Mike
proved it could be done.”

“You were fucking great, Katie,” said
Bruno. “They didn’t have a clue, did they?”

“And do you think they bug the hotel
rooms?” asked Katie.

“What?”

“Do you think they record the
conversations of their guests? Or watch their reaction on closed circuit TV?”

“What do you mean?” asked Bruno.

“I mean,” said Katie, “ that you and I
have just lost a fair bit of money down there – and we come back here and
celebrate?”

“I dunno,” said Bruno and then “No-o.
They can’t do that. Do you think? No, they’d have laws.”

“I’d say they could do whatever they
like,” said Katie, “so long as nobody finds out. They’ve just been taken for a
lot of money; my guess is they’d like to know how.”

“They can’t arrest you for counting
cards,” said Bruno.

“But they don’t like it,” said Katie,
“and they don’t believe it can be done.”

“But it’s going to be Mike they’re
watching, and he’s left the hotel.”

“We hope,” said Katie.

“We know,” said Bruno. “We watched him
leave. Come on, Katie, loosen up – we’ve done it.”

He threw his ridiculous ten-gallon hat
across the room and strode over to Katie. He reached for her right hand and,
although she stepped back, he pulled her towards the bedroom.

Katie resisted as the panic hit her
inside. She knew this scene; she knew the inevitability of this scene, but had
completely underestimated the strength of Bruno’s presumption.

“What are you doing?” she asked. She
tried desperately to keep her voice at a level pitch.

“Come on,” said Bruno again, “you can
drop the act now – we’ve done it. All we have to do now is get the hell out of
Dodge – by which I mean we check the fuck out of this grotesque hotel – and
fuck off back to Manchester. Nice Guy Mike isn’t going to stick one over on us,
certainly not on me and he’s too smitten to cheat on you. So I say we go in
there – ” Bruno indicated the bedroom with a nod of his head – “and we fuck
each other’s brains out like I’ve wanted to ever since we first met.”

Bruno pulled Katie towards him and put
his arms around her waist. He still held her right hand and this forced Katie’s
arm up behind her back.

Katie prayed the panic wasn’t written on
her face. How had this happened so quickly? Less than ten seconds to lose a
lifetime of control? Was that all it took?

Katie tried moving her arm and felt the
strength in Bruno’s grip. Would he really force her against her will? Katie
doubted it, though if Bruno knew their happy threesome was at an end, then why
not – nothing to lose at the last chance saloon? Katie looked into Bruno’s eyes
but she saw no clues – he was high. Of course he was high; Bruno was always
high. He was high on the drink and the oxygen downstairs, high on the
performance of the past few hours – although it couldn’t have taken much for
Bruno to act the loud-mouthed buffoon. He was high on the money – Bruno was
just plain high, and nothing Katie could say would reach him.

“You’ve been fucking asking for it for
years,” said Bruno, “hiding behind Mike all that time. But you’re not with
Mike, are you? So why not?”

“I haven’t – ” began Katie, but she
stopped and closed her eyes. Katie’s own act from downstairs – the frosty bitch
partner – gave her a few seconds’ grace at most.

Please let me get out of this, she
thought.

Was it so wrong not to be with someone? To
never have sex?

There was safety at first in all their
friends at college, but as the numbers had dwindled it became harder for Katie
to hide. So she used Mike, who was too sweet either to notice or to complain.
Katie used Mike to pass for normal – to pass for what the likes of Bruno would
consider normal.

Katie let her head drop to Bruno’s
chest, and let her body relax into his arms.

“Bruno,” she said, “I’ve thought of this
too, believe me. How many times are we alone and away from Mike? Just this one
time – and you’re right about Mike; I’m not with him at all.”

“I knew it!” said Bruno. He released his
grip on Katie and paced across the room. Bruno let Katie go without a second
thought, because he knew he could grab her again whenever he liked.

Katie took her opportunity.

“Believe me, Bruno,” she said. “I’ve
thought about this – about us – and I want it the same as you. But not here,
not while we’re still in this hotel; not while we’re still in the game.”

“Where then?” asked Bruno. “And when?”

“The desert,” said Katie. “I had this
idea – we meet Mike now to say goodbye, and then we drive back to Phoenix. I
was going to suggest we pull over from the highway, out in the desert, under
the stars – away from all this. Out there with just the two of us – that’s how
I’d pictured it. Maybe I was just being silly,” she added.