I turned my attention to the boat to hide my smile. The image of Ivy on stage singing “Round Midnight” flitted through me and was gone. Kisten’s attention followed mine to the boat. It was one of those remade riverboats, two stories tall and almost entirely enclosed. “I’ll take you home if you want,” he said.

Shaking my head, I tightened the tie on his coat, and the scent of leather puffed up. “No, I want to see how you pay for a dinner cruise on an iced-over river with only sixty dollars.”

“This isn’t dinner. This is the entertainment.” He went to toss his hair artfully aside, then stopped mid-movement.

The lights in my head started to go on. “It’s a gambling boat,” I said. “That’s not fair. Piscary owns all the gambling boats. You won’t have to pay for a thing.”

“It’s not Piscary’s boat.” Kisten got out of the car and came around to my side. Looking good in his wool coat, he opened my door and waited for me to get out.

“Oh,” I said, more lights turning on. “We’re here checking out the competition?”

“Something like that.” He bent to look at me. “Coming? Or are we going to leave?”

If he wasn’t going to get his chips for free, it would be legal under our arrangement. And I’d never gambled before. It might be fun. Accepting his hand, I let him help me out of the car.

His pace was rapid as we hustled to the railed gangplank. A man in a parka and gloves waited at the foot of the ramp, and as Kisten talked with him, I glanced at the boat’s water-line. Rows of bubbles kept the riverboat from becoming iced in. It was probably more expensive than taking the boat out for the winter, but city regulations stipulated you could only gamble on the river. And even though the boat was tied to the dock, it was on the water.

After speaking into a radio, the big man let us pass. Kisten put a hand on the small of my back and pushed me forward. “Thanks for letting me borrow your coat,” I said as my boots clattered up and we found ourselves on the covered walk-way. Tonight’s snow made a white icing, and I brushed it off the railing to make slushy clumps in the open water.

“My pleasure,” he said, pointing to a half wood, half glass door. There was an etched intertwined pair of capital S’s on it, and I shuddered when a shimmer of ley line force passed through me when Kisten opened the door and we crossed the threshold. It was probably the casino’s antitampering charm, and it gave me the willies, like I was breathing air coated in oil.