Udal looked around. There was no one in the Hole who looked like she might be a high-powered attorney. He felt a tap to his arm.

"By any chance are you Peter Udal?"

"I am. And of course you are. . ."

"Elizabeth Fox. This is my associate, Ted Robinson. He goes where I go. Please don't let it become a problem."

Udal sucked in his breath when he looked up at the striking woman standing next to him. Her hair looked like spun silver. He wilted a little when he stared at her mouth. But it was her outfit that really drew his eye. The vision in front of him was wearing painted-on red leather pants with matching vest, and he knew in his gut there was nothing under the vest but her. She was wearing what his oldest daughter would call slut shoes, outrageous heels with a few tiny straps across the toes. He almost felt sorry for Cosmo Cricket.

Udal looked up at Ted and made an instant decision. "I won't let it be a problem. Follow me, and we can get down to business."

"Are we going to eat?" Ted asked.

"Of course. The menu is limited, but once you eat here, you'll go out of your way to come back again and again."

"Works for me," Ted said as he sat down on one of the lopsided chairs. He wagged back and forth before he reached for a wad of napkins to put under the legs.

They ordered stew all around. "The pie comes with the stew even if you don't want it, so don't make a fuss. The hot bread is to die for. I always take a batch of everything home when I manage to come here to eat. My wife loves it.

"Since this is my gig, I guess I should get right down to business and since, as you say, time is money. Here's my deal, but before I get to that, I want to assure you I have the full cooperation of every casino in this town. We want to engage the services of the vigilantes and are prepared to pay them a billion dollars. That's with a b. I'm not going to beat around the bush here. We need to take out, I think that's the phrase that's used these days, the security team that manages the Babylon. We're losing billions, so agreeing to pay the women that much will save us in the end. No killing, that's an absolute. No way, no how. We just want Hank Owens and his inner ring to disappear off the face of the earth so we can get back down to business. And, of course, whatever your fee is."

Ted was busy clicking away on his BlackBerry as he mumbled and muttered to himself. Holy fucking shit, a billion dollars. The guy rattled off the number like he was agreeing to pay a fiver at Starbucks.