“What did I miss?” Ivan asked Ida in reference to the football game. The game had moved into the third quarter now.

Ida shook off his question. She answered, “I wasn’t really watching it.” She said, “But since you have everyone in here now, I’m getting ready to go. I have some other things I have to prepare for.” She handed him the cash box and the money bag.

Ivan didn’t like how that looked or felt. He asked her, “What’s wrong?” as if he didn’t know.

Ida refused to talk about it. “Nothing’s wrong, I just have some other things to do tonight.”

Ivan stared at her. “Are you sure?”

He was itching to get told off, but instead of taking the bait, Ida took a breath to compose herself. She wanted to remain civil.

She nodded and said, “Yeah, I’m sure. Let me just go ahead and go now.”

Ivan took a deep breath and looked away in frustration for a second and caught Christina eying them from across the room.

He turned back to Ida and nodded. “All right. I’ll call you when I get in tonight.”

When Ida left the lounge, no more than five minutes after Lucina had left him, Ivan felt alone in the crowd, and with a load of money in his hands.

Fuck it, let me go count up this loot, he told himself, moving toward Raymond at the bar.

As he made it through the crowd, he watched all of the girls to see how they were making out. They all looked to be enjoying themselves and working the crowd effectively. He could also see that Audrey was continuing to work her charm on Emilio. She made sure she passed him with every move she made inside the players’ VIP area. Then he watched Christina to see what she was up to. As he studied her from a distance, he noticed that she seemed distracted.

She knows I’m watching her, he told himself. And she knows that Ida is pissed at me. She’s smart like that.

“Hey, Raymond, can I use your back office for a minute?” he asked behind the bar area.

Raymond was working his ass off behind the bar, with boxes, bottles, and glasses everywhere. But he was pleased as hell to be doing so.

He looked up at Ivan while filling another drink order and noticed the metal cash box and money bag in his hands.

“Oh, sure, Ivan, one minute,” he said, finishing up the drink. He grinned and led Ivan back to his office. “You really did it tonight, man. I mean, really. This is gonna be a great deal for us.”

His wife was hard at work, filling drink orders with two other bartenders. Three waitresses and Lucina’s girls all worked the floor.

Ivan smiled at Raymond and said, “I’m just glad you decided to do it.”