style="font-size:15px;"> “It needs glamour.” Kenzie pointed at Nina. “It needs you.”
“Stop.” Nina held up her hand. “You don’t need to flatter me. I’m all in. You’re my best friend and I adore your grandmother. She knows there’s a winner beneath the stodgy façade of this casino. I have a ton of ideas.”
“I know you are creative, but Miss E. did tell you that New Year’s Eve is the deadline. She wants to have the grand reopening then.”
“I have her notes. Once we decide on a theme, I’ll have a whole campaign worked out and ready to implement in a couple days.”
“The theme is the problem. Miss E. is having a difficult time thinking about a theme that will attract the guests she wants to attract.”
“I have several concepts in mind that I think will fit her idea of elegant and classy along with fun, glamorous and sexy.” She dug her tablet out of the tote. A half-unwrapped ball of yarn, a knitting needle trapped inside it, came with it.
“What are you knitting?” Kenzie asked curiously.
“Still knitting booties for my friends’ babies.” Nina had started knitting as a way to keep her fingers busy while she thought, and found it relaxing.
She rerolled the ball of yarn and tucked it back in her tote bag. She tapped her tablet where she’d already put together a couple slide shows. Nina had put together other campaigns in a shorter time with less to work with. She’d never done a casino before, but the structure of a campaign was generally the same. She came up with the ideas and found people to help her implement them.
Nina turned her tablet computer to Kenzie so she could see some of her ideas. “Let’s take a look. Las Vegas offers luxury, glamour and cool at a number of different levels. Caesar’s Palace, Bellagio, Luxor and the MGM Grand offer luxury, high-end dining, entertainment and shopping. Circus Circus, Treasure Island and Excalibur offer family fun and activities. Hard Rock offers trendy with great headliners in the rock-and-roll arena. But what they all provide is different ways to play. People go to Las Vegas to eat too much, drink too much, shop too much, and basically they went everything at a too much level.” Nina tapped the tablet. “Reno doesn’t draw the same international crowd. It’s more difficult to get to. It has less variety than Vegas. But these are things that can work in your favor. If you give people what they need here, they won’t go elsewhere to experience it.”
“What will we offer?”
Nina thought for a moment. “Exclusivity. What Robert Redford did for Park City with the Sundance Festival, I’m going to do for Miss E., but with all-year-long activities.”
“You are ambitious, girl,” Kenzie said, her eyes wide with amazement.
“‘Ambition bites the nails of success,’ according to Bono.” Nina grinned. The bartender brought her another iced tea and a platter of fruit. She picked at the fruit. “You know, if we weren’t working, we’d be drinking mimosas.”
Kenzie joined Nina in laughter.
Nina’s gaze was caught by a man skirting the pool area. He wore khaki cargo pants, a white polo shirt and military boots. “Wow.” He was hot.
“Hey, that’s Scott.” Kenzie waved vigorously, catching his attention.
When she’d first met Kenzie, he’d been out saving the world and somehow in between they’d never been on the same schedule.
She waved again, and the man veered toward them.
Kenzie jumped off her stool and ran to him, enveloping him in a huge hug. “You’re back.” She dragged him to the bar.
Nina couldn’t stop staring. She was used to being around pretty, good-looking guys, but this one looked fabulous without all the effort.
“This is Nina,” Kenzie said. “Nina, this is Scott.”
“The famous Nina Torres.” Scott’s voice was deep and authoritative.
“That would be me.” Her heart skipped a beat as she slipped off the stool and gazed up at him. He was tall and broad shouldered. Nina, at five-seven, felt dwarfed by him.
“Nice to finally meet you.” He held out a hand and shook hers. “When you have a few moments, we need to talk.”
An electrical jolt radiated through her fingers at his touch. Breathless, she gazed at him unable to look away. He was, by far, the best looking of the Russell brothers, with his sharp-featured face, eyes the color of Baltic amber and close-cropped black hair. The fact that he obviously worked out was not lost on her as she tried not to stare at his muscles.
Kong suddenly barked. Nina turned around to soothe him.
Scott’s eyes narrowed. He stared at the dog. “What the hell kind of dog is that? It looks like a monkey.”
“That’s Kong. He’s an affenpinscher. It means monkey terrier.”
Scott gave the dog a strange look.
“Are you judging me by my dog?” Nina asked.
“No,” he replied.
“Liar.”
“I have this thing about little dogs.”
“He has the heart of a lion.” Nina picked him up out of her tote and petted him gently. Kong snuggled against her chest. “And he’s very loyal.”
Carl had chosen the breed because he felt its personality was similar to hers. His explanation had amused her. That was the man she’d fallen in love with. He’d been sincere, determined and romantic, traits that evaporated later in their marriage. She’d mourned the loss of that man. Fame had killed him and she had been partially responsible for the megalomaniac he’d turned into. His new fame revealed his demons.
“Have you come up with any plans for your media blitz?” Scott asked.
Nina grinned at his abrupt change in subject. “I have a few.” She wasn’t quite ready to reveal them. “I want to talk to Miss E. first.”
“Nothing that’s going to cause security nightmares, right?”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Nina teased. Kenzie turned away to hide her own grin. She’d always said Scott was the serious one and everyone delighted in tweaking him a little bit.
“I left it in Afghanistan.”
“Let’s schedule a meeting after I’ve talked to Miss E. Right now I want to look over the hotel and the casino and experience it in all its stages.”
“Experience away,” he said. “And don’t miss the magic show.”
Kenzie sighed. “I definitely have that on the agenda.”
Nina glanced at her friend. “That doesn’t sound too enthusiastic.”
“You haven’t met Marvin the Marvelous.” Scott laughed. He kissed his sister on the cheek. “I’ll catch you later. I’m still
