The Watcher

 

POV: Eli

Eli was nursing a glass of scotch while perusing a new batch of contracts on his desk when his secure line rang. He checked the caller ID and grunted when he saw Pam's name.

There were only two reasons why Pam would call him at this hour. First, to ask him to go down to the casino floor to meet and greet a new whale, or to deal with a tedious business-related problem.

Eli despised both.

The sun hadn't set yet and he'd just met with her a couple of hours ago. What does she want now?

After a few more rings, he finally picked up. Pam could be very annoying if she wanted to be.

"What?" he growled at the receiver.

"Guess who I just saw at the Luxor," she asked in a sing-song voice.

Eli had no time to play the guessing game with Pam. He had a lot of work to do and if he were to acquire Fiordillatte by the end of the week, he needed to make a few calls to make sure he wasn't stepping on any toes.

In Vegas, everything, no matter how small or arbitrary, was connected to somebody. Although Eli could easily talk or buy his way out of anything, he didn't like the attention it might draw from the other bigwigs in town.

"I'm busy, Pam, so unless you're going to tell me something of importance—"

"Brigail Havens."

That got his undivided attention.

He put down his drink as he stood up. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was that he found so fascinating with that girl.

It could be her spunk. Pam was right. It wasn't every day he encountered a girl who wasn't attracted to him, be it for his good looks, his money, or his power. The perfect trifecta.

But somehow that Southern girl was immune to all of them. Or so she seemed.

Eli had thought it might be her tactic. Play hard-to-get. She was a good strategist in poker, after all. But when he went to see her earlier, Brigail was anything but happy with his presence.

All he saw were irritation and resentment, and he didn't think she was faking them. Nobody was that good an actress. He should know since he'd dated a lot of them.

However, he didn't need anyone poking at his unusual interest in her. Especially not Pam, who could use the girl as ammo to tease him.

"So?" Eli replied coolly, trying to silence the loud thumping inside him by the mere mention of her name.

"Oh. I thought you'd be interested to know of her whereabouts," Pam said, clearly taken aback by his cold demeanor.

When Pam saw Barry and Brigail at the Luxor, she could barely contain her giddiness as she dialed Eli's number.

"I'm not. What she does in her time is her own business. What you do with my time is my business, and frankly, you're wasting it," Eli said sharply.

He wanted to get off the phone so he could calmly leave his office and go for a little stroll. He was suddenly in the mood to see a pyramid.

"She's with Carrolton," Pam said curtly.

There was a long pause in the line and Pam started to wonder if the line was disconnected.

Eli was livid. The minute he heard the bastard's name, he felt his blood shot up along with his temper. He should have put a bullet between the bastard's eyes when he had the chance seven years ago.

He was thinking of ways to get rid of Barry when he caught himself again.

Why was he so crossed that Barry was out with the girl?

Eli came up blank.

Finally, The Ghost spoke again. "Way to bury the lead, Pam."

"I'm sorry. I thought the girl was more important to you than Barry, that's all."

"Do you still have people following Carrolton?" Eli asked.

"No. We pulled them out last year when you said he wasn't worth the trouble anymore," Pam replied nervously.

"Bring them back and put another surveillance team on the girl, too." With that, he hung up the phone.

He drummed his fingers on his desk as he debated whether to crash the party or hang back and wait for the report.

He couldn't decide, so he called for room service. He wanted a blonde.

If only he could get the one blonde he was craving for.