It didn’t seem to matter where you went in Vegas, you’d always hear the noise of the slots. Sadie glanced over to the center of the D-Gates concourse where a dozen or so diehards squeezed in some last-minute gambling. The rows of McCarran Airport slot machines were a sorry reminder of what she’d just left behind. And a reminder of how life could change in only a few hours—a lesson she should have learned after losing the Eagleton Prize. Maybe she wasn’t as smart as she thought she was after all. After Nick delivered his expulsion notice, it had taken less than a minute to decide to catch the first available flight back to Chicago. Cassie had argued with her for an hour, though, wanting to storm the casino security office and rip Buzz Carson a new one. While Sadie had thought earlier that she should at least give Carson a verbal dressing down, it hadn’t taken long to lose her appetite for what would surely be a useless confrontation. And after what Carson had done to her, and to Nick, she might be way too tempted to slug the bastard in the jaw.
