Page 33 of Conning the Billionaire
As Kylie was lying on her face with her arms and legs dangling off the sides of the bed, her phone rang.
Please not Salvatore, please not Salvatore, ran through her head in the instant it took her to turn her hand over to look at the screen, but it was a video call with three feminine names on the screen.
Kylie thumbed the phone to accept the call. “You guys would not believe the last twenty-four hours I had.”
Priyanka squinted at her through the screen. “Those were some nice earrings he bought you. You didn’t put out, did you?”
Kylie groaned. “It was more like I got some.”
All three of the others rolled their eyes.
Rita muttered, “Bad precedent.”
“Oh, the precedent is worse than you think. That asshole tried to swindle me, and he damn near succeeded. I had to call the Gecko to get me out of trouble with the Borgata.”
Kylie told them the whole story to many groans, gasps, and horrified grimaces.
Rita’s mouth was hanging open. “You slept with him and stayed the night. I can’t believe we didn’t teach you better.”
Alma asked, “How much do you think you’ll get for those earrings?”
Priyanka was shaking her head. “I don’t like this. We might be on somebody’s radar. This seems like a warning from the Borgata.”
An icy wave drove through Kylie all the way to her spine. “It couldn’t have been that.”
Rita was chewing on her lower lip. “That makes as much sense as anything else.”
“They wouldn’t have gone to that much trouble for small-time operators like us,” Kylie said. “Security would have thrown me out with a few bruises and a warning. That guy was not hotel security.”
Priyanka was twirling her hair around her finger as she looked upward. “It was a pretty elaborate scheme.”
Kylie shook her head. “We know most of the security guys because we watch out for them before we run a scene, and he wasn’t anybody I’d ever seen.” Although, Kylie hadn’t noticed him in the steakhouse the day before, either. Maybe her powers of observation weren’t as keen as she’d thought. “And all the hotels have connections to Salvatore Grande, anyway. After one phone call to him, I was released ten minutes later. And the driver’s license they’d mocked up would’ve been better. The Borgata could’ve gotten my real license from the MVC.”
They would’ve found her real name if they had gotten her real license.
But if they’d found out her real name and their goal was to scare her off, they definitely would have used it, and they hadn’t. They didn’t know who she was.
Kylie said, “I think it was just a scam, and he was just a scammer. I have half a mind to call the guy and tell him off.”
Rita perked up. “I thought you said you didn’t know his name.”
“I don’t, but the manager at the Borgata rattled off the phone number that the room’s access code had been sent to. It has a four-one-five area code, which is California.”
Alma was shaking her head. “You should not call him. If you do, he’ll have your phone number. If he tries to contact you in any way, block him. This guy is nothing but danger.”
Rita was nodding. “Do not engage. This guy is a scam artist of another level. Even with you knowing all the tactics, he almost took you for, how much?”
“Eighty thousand dollars.”
Rita grabbed her chest. Alma’s eyes bugged out like she might puke.
All the girls were shaking their heads.
Priyanka said, “This is scary. That guy is a real criminal. You need to hit the mattress. And for the love of Mother Mary, don’t contact him. And if you see him somewhere, run the other way.”
“Seriously, you need to move on,” Rita told her. “You need to put this guy out of your mind and keep your head down. If this was a warning shot, we’ll all avoid the Borgata for a while. Maybe three or four months. But no matter what, don’t call that number, and stay the hell away from him if you see him. You can’t trust a con artist.”
Kylie laid low for a week.
