“And when should I come and help?”

Maria didn’t answer. She was looking Lara up and down. “You know, it’s a good thing that you didn’t like that gown. You’ve made a complete mess of it.” She switched to another subject. “Did you give Tanner a hard time? He thought he might get by with minimum punishment because you trust him. Was he right?”

Lara’s lips tightened. “Yes, but he’ll think long and hard before he pulls that bullshit again.”

“Don’t be too hard on him. He couldn’t have stopped me.” She paused. “And we both know that being able to trust someone like that is a rare and precious gift.” She pressed the accelerator. “I’ll talk to you later.” She looked back over her shoulder as she started down the mountain. “It’s almost over, Lara. Just a little longer…”

By the time Lara had walked down to the casino, both Maria and Rennell had taken off in their separate vehicles. But Tanner turned away from talking to Mallory and said, “Maria said she’d filled you in and you were going to give me a problem about this. Don’t do it. You’ve already gone through your particular hell there. I know you want to help, but it’s something Rennell and I have to do by ourselves.”

“Maria will be there.”

“She’s in agony because she doesn’t want Rennell to be alone out there when he sees Sandrino. She’s actually feeling maternal toward him, which is fairly incredible considering their combustible relationship.” He made a face. “It must run in the family.” Then his phone rang, and he glanced at the ID. “Kaskov. I just talked to him fifteen minutes ago and gave him a progress report.” He answered and then was silent for the next few minutes. “Yes, I hear you. Yes, I owe you. Yes, I know we should get her out. I was already planning on doing it. I didn’t need you to tell me.” He cut the connection and turned back to Lara. “You heard it. Wasn’t I meek? I wanted to break his neck. But the bastard was right. Not only smoothing the way with the Albanians, but sending us extra men and explosives. We do owe him.”

“Yes, we do. What does he want?”

“You and Maria out of Las Vegas, away from any possible investigation. Those documents I gave you wouldn’t hold up under close inspection, and we don’t have time to bribe someone at Immigration or Justice to get sets that would. If they checked with Interpol, they’d bring up Volkov’s and your father’s records, which could cause you problems.”

“And Maria was saying it was almost over,” she said wryly.

“It is. There’s nothing that we can’t handle. All it takes is a little time and more than a little money. There are good people we can tap to help us. But we don’t have that time. So I’m sending you out of here right away to New York with Mallory, where I have the contacts to make it happen.”