Free Ray Hoy - Jack Frost 01 - The Vegas Factor by Ray Hoy

over. Any minute now, the telephone will ring.
    The thought had no sooner entered his mind than the phone did ring. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Hello?”
    There was a pause. Then Harry Varchetta’s nasal voice crackled in his ear. “What the hell are you doing there ?”
    For a moment, Benny was at a loss for words. “Why, I’m sitting here waiting for you to call, waiting for you to tell me I can come up and watch, like you said.”
    Varchetta’s voice cracked. “What the hell do you mean, you’re waiting for me to call! Where’s Felicia?”
    Benny felt the coldness creep into his stomach. He didn’t want to say anything to upset his boss, but he was confused. His brow furrowed as he concentrated. “I don’t know what you mean, Boss.”
    “Goddamnit, Benny! That’s clear enough! Where’s Felicia? You were supposed to deliver her up here after she finished her act in the lounge! I just called down there. Alex said you two left together thirty minutes ago!”
    Benny felt the sickness spreading in his stomach. Oh shit, now I’m in for it. He tried to reconstruct the whole thing in his mind. Varchetta’s voice screamed in his ear. “You sonofabitch, are you there? Did you fall asleep, you moron!”
    Benny’s eyes narrowed and he scowled at the phone, something he would have never done if he were facing his boss in person. He mouthed an obscenity, his face sullen. “I dunno where she is,” he finally said.
    Fear flooded through Benny as Varchetta quietly said, “You-don’t-know-where-she-is?”  
    Benny flinched and held the receiver away from his head as his boss screamed in his ear. “ You don’t know where she is ? You were supposed to walk her right to the door! Dammit, Benny, what happened !”
    Benny got off the bed, the skin magazine spilling to the floor. He stood there, frozen in place, the receiver to his ear. “We got off the elevator on your floor, boss. She told me that I could go back down to my room and wait for your phone call, that she could make it to your apartment okay by herself.” Then, like a child with a secret too big to keep to himself, he said, “She even gave me a kiss on the cheek and thanked me for seeing her home, and for saving her from that big guy in the lounge.” He stood there, grinning at the memory.
    The grin disappeared at the sound of the sharp inhalation of breath at the other end of the telephone. There was a moment’s hesitation, then: “Big guy? Big guy ? Benny, you’re one dumb bastard! You’ll pay for this, I promise you that! Now get your ass up here—and it won’t be to watch no screwin’ match!”  
    The phone slammed down in Benny’s ear. He placed the phone back on the cradle and stuck his hands in his pockets. He didn’t want to go up there and have to listen to what his boss was going to call him. But that didn’t bother him as much as the fact that now he wouldn’t be able to watch.

Chapter 15

    I shifted in my seat, trying to stretch aching muscles as I watched for deer and cattle over the Jag’s long sloping hood. This was “open range” country, where Nevada cattle were free to roam wherever they pleased.
    I was suddenly aware that Felicia was studying me.  
    “Well, you’re awake,” I said.
    “Have been for quite a while.”  
    “You want to ask me something?”
    “You’re pretty tuned in to people, aren’t you.”  
    It wasn’t a question.  
    Without waiting for my reply, she went on. “Jack, what do you actually do for a living? I asked Jilly, but he said he really didn’t know. How can that be, you being his best friend and all?”
    “I’m … retired.”
    “Retired? I don’t think I believe you.”  
    “Oh yeah? Well I am.”
    “Retired from what? Football?”
    I hesitated too long. “Yeah, football.”
    “I heard you were really bad at it.”
    “Bad at what?”
    “Lying. You’re bad at lying. ”
    “Whoever said that is a liar.”
    She laughed. “Jilly said that, and you know he’s no liar.