NEON LIGHTS FLICKERED inside the dark casino. The cold air was thick with cigarette smoke and the scent of sugary cocktails. Frank Sinatra blared from the loudspeakers.
So this is what hell looks like. Travis Cain automatically surveyed the room, although any sudden movement from the patrons was unlikely. Most of them were slumped in front of tables and slot machines, their expressions glazed over as they waited for something—anything—to happen. “There are other things I could be doing right now,” he muttered.
“True.” His friend Aaron nodded as he drank a fruity cocktail. “But how often do you get a chance to make money just by sitting around?”
Aaron made it sound so easy, but Travis was never good at sitting still. “Do you know what I could be doing right now? Wingsuit-flying over the Eiger.”
“As if you had enough cash to fly to Switzerland,” Aaron said as he motioned the blackjack dealer to hit him with another card.
“Surfing the big waves in Tasmania.” Travis smiled as he thought about the crystal-blue water.
“You’ve already done that.” Aaron sighed when he lost the hand. “You never repeat yourself.”
“I saw something about bungee jumping.” He’d jumped before, so it wasn’t that much of a challenge, but it was better than staying in the casino.
“Dude, this is Las Vegas. Why would you want to do that when everything you need comes directly to you? Entertainment,” he said as he placed another bet. “Cheap drinks. Spa services.”
The spa? Was he serious? Travis cast a glance at his friend’s hand and belatedly noticed the manicured fingers. He looked at Aaron with horror, noticing everything from his long blond hair and groomed beard. Aaron’s hands used to be caked in mud from digging up treasures. Now he was getting manicures? “What happened to you? Don’t you crave adventure?”
“I started craving comfort. It happened the moment we kayaked that waterfall.” Aaron closed his eyes and shuddered as he remembered that moment. “That was stupid.”
It was a miracle that they had survived. “You’ve gotten old. Cautious.” Travis made a face. “Married.”
“My priorities have changed and I decided what I really wanted in life,” Aaron corrected. “My dreams are bigger.”
Bigger? Travis wanted to scoff at that statement. His friend’s dreams had become safer. He now focused all his reckless energy on gambling. Unfortunately, Aaron turned out to be good at it.
“Wait until you get married,” Aaron said as he motioned for the blackjack dealer to give him another card, “and then you’ll know what I mean.”
“Never going to happen,” Travis said gruffly. Women only wanted one thing from him: a good story to tell their friends back home. He was the rebound sex or the vacation fling. Not that he had a problem with that.
Only the brave ones tried to make the affair go longer. He’d had a few serious relationships in the past and tried living in one place with one woman. Turned out he was horrible at it. No big surprise there.
His exes quickly realized he couldn’t be domesticated. He did try. They wanted him to bring excitement and adventure to their daily schedule, but at the same time they didn’t welcome chaos in their lives. His boundless energy was no longer attractive and his need to explore became less inspiring and more exasperating.
“Travis?” Aaron lightly punched him in the arm. “Are you listening to me?”
He hated sitting still. It gave you too much time to think about mistakes and regrets. Limitations and personal flaws. “No, but let me guess. You don’t trust hotel security.”
“After what happened in Rio? Hell, no,” Aaron said with feeling. “The thieves tore up my room and almost got the emerald. Good thing I had it on me that night.”
That was the problem with all his friends settling down, Travis thought as he took a drink from his beer bottle. He may be envious that they’d found someone to share their lives with, but settling down meant embracing the sameness. Same conversations. Same retelling of their adventures. His friends were content with that, but he wanted more stories to tell.
It was only a matter of time before Aaron launched into the story about the emerald that was tucked in Travis’s pocket. How he won it from an unscrupulous guy named Hoffmann in a game three years ago. Aaron had already reminisced about that moment when he called Travis for backup. Aaron was in Las Vegas on a poker-playing circuit with Hoffmann and some high rollers and he was using the emerald again as collateral. Unfortunately, the other players were not known to be law-abiding.
“And yet you still want to play poker with these guys,” Travis muttered. “If breaking and entering is part of their routine, something tells me cheating is going to be second nature to them.”
“There is no evidence that Hoffmann or anyone from the circuit was behind it.”
“Right,” Travis said sarcastically. “It’s only coincidental that a break-in happens when you enter a high-stakes poker game with these guys.”
“The only time that emerald is out of the vault is when I enter a high-stakes poker game. That emerald you’re keeping safe in your jacket is my collateral.”
“And your lucky charm,” Travis added. His friend’s superstitious nature brought them more problems than protection.
“That, too.” Aaron leaned back in his chair and had a faraway look in his eyes. “If I didn’t have that when we were chased out of that village on the Amazon River...”
Travis rolled his eyes. Why did his friend give all the credit to a rock? “I still would have saved you.”
“Yes, but would I still have all my limbs? We’ll never know.” Aaron straightened in his chair. “Anyway, I’ve had that emerald with me whenever it counted. I had it when I met Dana.”
“Had it when you married her,” Travis finished for his friend. “I’m surprised you didn’t add it to her engagement ring.”
“She said emerald engagement rings are bad luck.”
“Can’t have that.”
“Damn straight. But when I win this poker game, I’m going to buy her something nice. I saw this necklace in the window—”
Travis raised his beer bottle to his lips and paused when he saw a woman walk into the casino from the hotel lobby. She stood out from the crowd of T-shirts and jeans, wearing a skintight blue dress and platform heels. His gaze traveled lazily down her body. Travis did a double take when he saw what was in her hand. Instead of a designer purse or a weekend bag, she held a vintage mountaineering backpack. Only this backpack had never been used.
He slowly lowered his beer onto the table as his curiosity deepened. Travis glanced at her face and his heart gave a violent kick. She was a natural beauty. She didn’t need to highlight her wide brown eyes or her full pink lips with a heavy layer of makeup.
The woman reached up and flipped her hair back. The movement pulled at her dress, emphasizing her gentle curves and athletic build. His
