6.
 Oddly, when Allison Jane was snoring solidly, he lay awake and thought not about her but about the credit cards. It was good to scam them in Las Vegas. The cops would have a hell of a time tracing them around. They'd never find him. Something, that invisible but infallible alarm clock inside of him, told him it was time to get moving. He called the concierge and asked for a five a.m. wakeup. As he lay falling asleep, he forgot about Allison Jane. His thoughts wandered like a tumbleweed, rolling over the hills, the shadowy hills, under the stars, down to the, the...pool...and there was...not Marie Smith...but her daughter Linda Argento. Caramel eyes changed from anger to love, dazzling with a corner smile while her lips drew back and her teeth glittered. The tip of her tongue stabbed out like a pink secret, seducing him. Why? Because she was young, she was young, she was pure and angry and clean and firm and smart. She did right things. And he wished she would do right things with him, show him...
The phone warbled and Lou sat up. The concierge said: "Five a.m., Mr. Fortiano."
"Thank you."
"Honey," Allison Jane protested, stretching with a grotesque expression. Her eyes flicked open. He was getting dressed. "I gotta run, sweetheart. I have business. Want me to call you when I'm back?"
She smiled sweetly. "Sure. When will it be?"
"Soon." He knotted his tie, staring this way and that into the mirror.
"Baby?"
He turned. She had a handful of credit cards. "Don't be mad, darling. You're using two names, Freddie, and I'd like to know what I'm into here."
He evaluated coldly, a whole range of things from Is she a cop and should I run? to What's the dumb broad doing in my pants pocket? She was big and gentle. Sweet like a school kid in trouble. He relaxed. This all took a second, during which his fingers froze on the knot of his tie, and she backed away looking terrified. He could see her Adam's apple move as she swallowed, and her glance dim, flicker, look sideways as she realized she had just challenged someone very dangerous. Then his fingers started moving again, finishing the knot.
She let out a big breath. "I was scared by the look in your eyes for a second."
"Come here."
She stepped demurely by his side, looking down, hands folded in submission.
He hugged her close. "I think you're nice, so I'll tell you the truth. I got involved with the wrong people. These were bad people. I only found out later. They were Mafia. They had me over a barrel and I did what I had to do. "
She looked horrified. "Did you hurt someone?" Her gaze fled across his eyes.
"No. I just took some money and ran." He turned away and finished working on his tie, glad not to be looking in her eyes. The old man had it coming. Can't tell her that now. There was nothing in the papers afterward about him being dead anyway. I hit him pretty hard. He had my money, so I took his.
"You're scamming, Freddie?"
"We all have our secrets," he said. "Isn't that what you said last night? We all have our stories?"
"Yes, I said that."
"So is that it? You want to ditch me, go ahead. I wouldn't blame you."
"I'm not going to ditch you. What is your name?"
He thought for a second. Was that giving away the store? Then again, what did it matter? Lou Burns was nobody. "My real name is Lou, okay?" I can't believe I just told her my real name. Am I nuts?
Allison Jane rested her cheek on his shoulder. One hand crept tightly around his neck. The other settled gently between his shoulder blades, unable to settle there but polygraphing in a trembling tom-tom the tickertape of her thoughts. "You can come back to see me, Lou."
"I'd really like that," said, listening to himself carefully. He had no idea if he meant that. He said it again: "I'd really like that, Allison." Sounded true. A new thing. "I won't be gone long, sweetheart. I want to come back and see you in the revue, and then we'll take a nice weekend together, just you and me, get away from it all."
"I don't ask much, Lou." She held his head gently and whispered against his neck. "I don't ask anything at all, really. Just one thing. Be nice to me, that's all."
"I'm sure I can manage that," he said. He started laughing.
She pulled back, bemused. "What's that all about?"
"I just can't stop laughing," he cried. "I feel so relieved and happy inside, and I don't know why, but it must have something to do with you."
"Oh gee thanks," she said, pushing away, but he held on to her, and she stepped back into a tight embrace. He was laughing, holding her face in his palms. She put her palms on his face and started laughing too. "You were so funny last night," she said, "so funny. I just sort of fell in love with you right there."
"Me too," Lou said. There was no echo, no falseness. He wondered if he could believe himself.
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