Her birthday had been today, complete with a party. Friends, cake, presents, and games had littered her afternoon, and yet all she could think of was ...he box that now lay on her lap, the second difference. It was a standard brown cardboard box, labeled with the safe deposit box where she'd picked it up- by his orders- and the address and name of the sender. B. Hound. The fact that his last name really was Hound had amused her somewhat, but she couldn't help wondering what his first name was. She had humored them, and pretty much played the damsel in distress until it was time to put them to bed. She quickly broke out of their sloppy children’s knots and would scoop them up playfully and chase them off to bed, tucking them in, despite their pleas to stay up late and watch more television. Apparently there was a tv show they liked to watch that Mr. Kane had exposed them to against his better judgement and now regretted it. Riley somehow figured the show was the motivation for the. “$800 up, I was on a hot streak. I moved the reservations back 30 minutes so relax will be seated shortly.”Dinner was awesome and the company just made it that much better. We all drank a little and had the meal covered by the casino. We laughed and talked about what tomorrow might bring, but it was then that my wife informed me.“Why worry about tomorrow when we haven’t finished tonight yet. I will say that we hit the road shortly after breakfast tomorrow.”We finished dinner and headed up to. He stripped out of his jeans and t-shirt, undershorts too, and pulled on a pair of long-legged but loose fitting swim shorts. He grabbed a towel from his bathroom and turned for the door. Like Ashley's, his room had a sliding glass door that opened onto the backyard. He stopped before opening the door and looked in the direction of the pool. Ashley was still talking to someone but now he could see them too. He guessed it was the yard guys. There must have been some problem. He opened the door.