‘Hello Mister,’ said one. ‘Look what Lua the cat dragged in,’ said another. Guy felt his cheeks redden. Lua hissed at them and pulled Guy into...the parlor and shut the door. She beckoned him to sit in a chair. Lua rummaged through a cabinet. ‘You know, you have good head for your shoulders.’ Guy wasn’t sure how the compliment was meant. Or for that matter, to where it was directed. ‘Those girls very, very good making men nervous. You must have lots of girls when little boy. Seem so calm around. "It doesn't cover all our bets by a long shot but I'll throw in."We stopped at a pancake house for grub, filled the diesel tanks and headed south on 93. The traffic evened out to a nice steady 85. It was less than 400 desert miles to Sin City. We bought more silver from a coin dealer, more bullets (lots more bullets) from a gun shop, a twenty foot long box trailer, a chain hoist from a big hardware store and some how-to books from a bookstore. I managed to talk a bank manager into letting me. The cars had been part of a corporate executive lease return that my friend had purchased at a deep discount from the wholesale Kelly Bluebook price.I ended up paying three thousand in cash for the two cars, in addition to trading him a nearly new living, dining, and bedroom set of furniture that I'd picked up fairly cheaply at a bankruptcy auction down in Palm Springs. The furniture looked brand new, and probably cost at least fifteen thousand when first purchased. I'd paid a little more than. We were holding up the growing line of arriving guests, though one slashing look back had people swallowing their tongues."Come," he said, his voice a clear, beautiful note that could draw in the unsuspecting, which was the point. Tonight, he was a predator. I took my place behind his right shoulder, hands on the sheathed sixteen-inch blades the hung from a leather belt slung low on my hips, my face closed as I played my role as his bodyguard.Two huge men in black tuxedos waited at the doors,.