Coming out of the brilliant Nevada sunshine, Mary tucked her dark glasses in her purse. Eyes adjusting to the interior of the bar, she spotted her customers. As Nancy had said, the guys were big.
Not just big, she decided as they waved her toward their table. These were former football players, and they'd kept their bodies strong. She could smell the shoulder holsters and automatics hidden beneath their silk suits. Bodyguards. Expensive bodyguards.
"Mary?" asked the one with the brown, wavy hair.
"Nancy sent me," she confirmed.
"Pleased to meet you," said the crew-cut blond. "I'm Al. My partner's Roy."
Neither man tried to take her hand or kiss her fingers. A john would have. Nancy hadn't lied, then. These guys were just the hired help.
She slid onto a chair across from them. "I understand you need me all day tomorrow."
"That's right," Al said.
Mary was impressed. That meant they'd paid Nancy's fee. Nancy didn't rent her girls cheaply. Few could afford more than an hour.
"This is for you," Al continued, surreptitiously pushing forward an envelope.
Mary glanced inside. Her eyes bulged. "That's a hell of a tip," she said.
"There's more if you do a good job."
She raised one of her perfect eyebrows. "Now wait a minute. Just what am I getting into?"
"Didn't Nancy explain?"
"Some. Your boss is ... eccentric."
Roy raised a beefy hand. "It's not the way you think. He just likes to be--whaddya call it?--elaborate with his fantasies. His wife's a battle axe. Keeps him under her thumb. He doesn't get many chances to relax and have fun, you know what I mean?"
"So when an opportunity comes along," added Al, "he makes the most of it. With his money, he can pretend he's Julius Caesar, or some Pharaoh of the Nile, or Rudolph Valentino."
"Tomorrow, he's gonna be Nevada Joe," Roy said.
"Nevada Joe?" Mary asked. "That old Wild West gunslinger that lived around here a hundred years ago?"
"That's him," they said simultaneously.
"And what am I, then?"
"You're going to be his favorite saloon girl."
Suddenly Mary burst into laughter so loud the bartender frowned at her. "Okay, guys," she said. "It's your nickel. What time do you want me tomorrow?"
)
