Seven of Spades2: Trick Roller

Dominique threw the tennis ball to the other side surrounded by the iron fence, and the ball drew a neat arc.Fan Gumei chased after excitedly, kicking the grass into the air.A few seconds after the ball hit the ground, she picked it up in one gulp and ran back to him bouncing.Instead of throwing the ball at his feet, Gouzi sat down and waited for him to reach for it.

"Girl," he waved his hand back and forth with the ball, "do you want this?"

Fan Gumei pricked up her ears, her eyes focused on every tiny movement.Her whole body was tense, and she was half lying down, every muscle was ready to jump up.

He faked several times, but she was too clever to fall for it.When he finally threw the ball, she jumped out with a whoosh.

He smiled as she ran away.When the weather is cold, he will take her for a long-distance run, but he can't do that in midsummer.He himself would still run outside in the early morning or at night, and even at that time, he didn't dare to take her with him for fear that she would overheat.Playing in the park near the apartment is a very safe alternative.

As twilight fell, it was time to end the play with the rebel girl-he planned to meet Aubrey in an hour, so that he could continue to monitor Rhodes.He put the dog leash on Fan Gumei's collar, and took her leisurely back to the pickup truck. Then he took out the foldable dog bowl beside the car and poured some water into it.

The rebellious girl gurgled halfway through her drink, her body froze suddenly, she raised her head, and the water dripped down her mouth.She stared intently across the parking lot, her ears pushed forward.

She wasn't physically aggressive, just curious, so Dominic wasn't too nervous.He looked in the same direction, trying to figure out what it was that caught her attention.There were people playing with their kids and dogs, people running despite the heat, and a group of teenagers on skateboards—nothing special for a Thursday evening at a community park.

But the anti-bone girl didn't relax; she stood like a statue, only her eyes were still rolling.Dominique had never seen her act like this.She is a well-trained personal guard dog. If he is in danger, she will give him a clear warning.Now, she's sending no warning signs.What exactly is going on?

He also trusted his instincts, and he was not aware of the danger at all.But he started to feel a little nervous.

Fan Gumei exhaled suddenly and went back to drink her water, as if nothing had happened.Dominic looked around one last time, then stooped to pick up the bowl and said, "Okay, let's go home."

He pulled into the parking lot outside the apartment building and saw his neighbor, Mrs. Muñoz, dealing with her three runaways while trying to get some big bags of new groceries out of the trunk. Be in a hurry.He wrapped the anti-bone girl's dog leash around his wrist a few times, jumped out of the pickup truck, and hurried over.The dog followed closely behind Dominic, and the children surrounded her, and she was happy to be pampered by them.

"I'll get it for you," he said.

"Oh, dear[1], thank you." Mrs. Munoz handed him the shopping bag and breathed a sigh of relief. "What a nice fellow."

She clapped her hands hard, and blasted the children through the gate of the apartment building that was connected to the chain-link fence.Just as Dominic raised his heels, he stopped immediately—the anti-bone girl turned around suddenly, staring across the street, as if she was in the park just now, with a stiff posture and concentrated attention.

As before, Dominique couldn't figure out what she was staring at, and this time, he was even more disturbed.

"What is it, rebellious girl?" he asked.

She whimpered softly from her throat, took a few steps back, and then took a few steps forward.She looked up at Dominic, wagged her tail hesitantly, and looked across the street with an expression that could only be described as "confused".

"What's the matter?" cried Mrs. Muñoz from the door.

"Nothing," said Dominique, "someone's got a new dog or something."

He smacked his lips, and lightly tugged on Fan Gumei's dog leash.If she sensed a real threat, she wouldn't rest until he signaled it.But now she turned and trotted beside him into the building, looking back only once.

He went upstairs with Mrs. Muñoz's shopping bag, delivered it to her apartment, and went back to his own room to feed the rebellious girl dinner. He had a quick meal himself, but he couldn't let it go.It would have been nice to have the Rebel Girl with him tonight; he had always been used to having a Rebel Girl by his side as a bounty hunter, and given her uncharacteristic behavior, he hadn't the slightest reluctance to leave her alone.But he couldn't explain that to Aubrey. She might not welcome the rebellious girl and think she was a kind of interference.

For the first two nights, Dominic worked as a bartender at the Devil Ray, and Aubrey continued to monitor Rhodes, but Rhodes went straight home after get off work.But tonight he told his wife he was going to work overtime, and Dominique and Aubrey were meeting in the parking lot outside Rhodes's workplace when he got into his car.

"Did he save the bad things until you came?" Aubrey said with a smile as he started the car.

"I'm lucky," Dominique said.

They followed Ross to a noisy local bar in the city center.There were quite a lot of people inside, so it would not be a big problem for them to observe closely, so they chose a table in the corner and sat down, ordered two drinks to pretend.Ross wandered around the bar for a few minutes, typing on his mobile phone from time to time, and after greeting a pretty girl with brown hair, he found a table and sat down.

"Sometimes I wonder if Rhodes suspects that his wife has someone following him," Aubrey said.They stared at Ross as he flirted with the woman for a while. "I mean, I don't think he noticed us, but it's weird that he's been careful not to cross the line with these women in public."

Dominic shrugged. "Probably. Maybe it's because he's afraid of bumping into someone he and his wife both know. It's not just private detectives who use their mobile phones to take photos of cheating."

Dominic turned around in his chair, looking at the bar, an action he had done countless times throughout the night.It has become second nature for him to keep an eye on his surroundings, mark the location of exits, mentally map out escape routes, and be on the lookout for unusual activity or movement or anything else visible that is amiss.But tonight, the hairy feeling on the back of his neck made him look around more carefully.The worst part was that he couldn't be sure whether it was something he noticed subconsciously, or whether the abnormal behavior of the anti-bone girl made him needlessly suspicious.

"You're nervous," Aubrey said, narrowing his eyes. "Are you, uh... having a problem again?"

"Huh?" He snapped his attention back to her. "No, it has nothing to do with that. I just observe and observe."

At this moment, an amazingly glamorous young woman walked into the bar. She was a typical big blonde beauty, wearing a charming dress, which immediately attracted the attention of the audience.However, she ignored these longing eyes, her eyes flicked across the crowd, as if she was looking for someone specially.She saw Ross, locked on her target, and walked straight to his desk.He looked surprised, but he didn't seem at all annoyed by her approach.

"Are you saying he accidentally dated two girls at the same time?" Dominique asked.

"It's possible, or he wants to play 3P," Aubrey smiled narrowly. "If that's the case, I don't think he can play it."

It really is.After Ross introduced her opponent to the brown-haired beauty, she immediately became furious.Dominique and Aubrey watched this "battle for Rhodes' attention" with relish - the two women flirted with each other, swayed their heads, and smirked with difficulty.Rhodes was the only one enjoying it, and didn't seem to realize that these two ladies were on the brink, ready to leap over the table and tear each other apart.

"It's more fun than Animal Planet," Aubrey said.

The brunette was not bad at fighting, but in the end, it was the blond who gained the upper hand with her gallantry.The brown-haired beauty left angrily after the defeat, and the blonde bent down and sat on Ross's lap, playing with his tie and whispering in his ear, making his protests go away.

Dominic frowned, and said, "This woman gives me a very strange feeling. Ross is pretty, but she doesn't look so good, does she deserve such a fight?"

"Yeah, I understand what you mean. There are many handsome men here, but judging from her previous posture, it seems that she came here specially to find Ross."

"And it seems that her appearance was unexpected to him."

Within a few minutes, the blonde jumped off Ross' lap, coaxed him to stand up, and led him to the door.He staggered behind her, his bewildered, lustful expression resonating with Dominique.He can be sure that half of the time he looks like this in front of Levi.

He and Aubrey turned their backs as the two passed them, but there was no need to worry—Roz only had eyes for the girl.They followed the pair out the door, not far behind, and when Roz and the girl got an Uber, they followed them to a motel a few miles away.

"It's a really good place," said Aubrey, and she parked at a good angle to get a good view of the hotel's front entrance. "Are you ready?"

Dominic nodded, raised the camera, and lowered the window on the passenger side.The girl and Ross got off the Uber car holding hands, laughing and kissing me all the way to a room on the first floor, and Dominic took a series of photos during this period.

"No check-in," Aubrey said. "Does one of them already have a key?"

This question was quickly answered.The blonde girl took out the room card from her handbag and waved it teasingly in front of Ross; Ross said something, but it was too far away for them to hear.She smiled back, pushed him against the wall outside the room, and kissed him hard.

Dominique continued to take pictures, while Aubrey quietly let out a triumphant cheer from the sidelines.Roz and the girl parted for a moment to allow the latter to open the door, and before the door closed behind them, they kissed again.

Dominique puts his camera down and leans sideways so that he and Aubrey can review the picture he just snapped.He was in charge of the replay, and the photo clearly and neatly captured Roz's unfaithful hand stroking a woman who was clearly not his wife.His surroundings clearly revealed his intentions.Add to that the photo of Aubrey in a bar with a hidden camera in his handbag, and the cheating bastard is done.

"The key scene has been filmed." Aubrey leaned back in his chair contentedly. "We're just waiting now to get some pictures of him looking radiant afterwards so that our client can secure the upper hand in this divorce case."

Guessing there would be an hour or two of nothing to do, they relaxed and Aubrey began to tell the story of her flying leaves in Marrakech so dizzy that she lost her way.In less than 10 minutes, the door of Ross's room opened suddenly, startling them both.

The blond came out in a hurry, stuffing something into her little handbag, which was almost unbuttoned.As she passed the parking lot, she looked around, and Dominique and Aubrey instinctively clung to the back of the chair.The door to the hotel room was still ajar, and she had run away.

"Damn it, she's playing fairy dance!" Dominique said, grabbed the camera, and quickly pressed the shutter a few times.

"It's not easy to draw conclusions."

He pointed to the other side of the parking lot, and saw the blond unlock a black car, flashing its lights.Dominique said: "Could it be that she came out to buy condoms?"

The blond, on stilettos and with incredible agility, got in the car, started it, and sped out of the parking lot with the screech of the tires.Dominic reached out to open the door, but Aubrey grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "It will reveal your identity."

"Seriously? She probably drugged him and stabbed him - he's probably going to die now."

"Our first responsibility is the customer."

He shook his head dismissively. "Sorry, but my primary responsibility is fellow human beings."

Against her objections, he got out of the car and rushed to the room.The heavy door was about to close slowly, but Dominic stopped it at the last second when it was about to hit the door frame.He pushed open the door with his body, stooped, and glanced inside.

Roz was lying sprawled on the bed, unconscious, with his shoes off and his shirt ajar.The house appeared to be empty, but Dominique pulled out his gun and searched around, in case the blonde had an accomplice hiding and waiting.After confirming that no one was hiding in the bathroom, closet or under the bed, he walked over to Ross.

Rhodes was breathing normally and had a steady pulse, but Dominic tried his best to wake him up.A pair of red disposable plastic cups sit next to the TV, along with bottles of vodka and orange juice.It's not hard to deduce what's going on here.

"God," Dominic murmured.He rolled Roz into a lying-down position on his left side to help with recovery, and pulled out his phone.

Someone knocked on the door.He peeked out of the cat's eye and let Aubrey in.

"I thought you weren't interested in saving people," he said.

"I'm here to make sure you haven't done anything stupid." She nodded at the phone in his hand. "Call 911 or something."

"He was drugged—"

"Russo, is that a mistake, can't you use your brain for a minute or so? McBride assures clients of absolute secrecy. If we're here when the police come, our names will be on the record." On the record. We have to give a statement. Rhodes will find out our identity, and maybe even be exposed by the media. It will damage the company's reputation in the industry."

Dominic hesitated, and he looked back at Ross.No need to call for help.They could call 911 anonymously and leave before the police arrived—but leaving a drugged and unprotected man alone disgusted Dominic from the bottom of his heart.And it also means that the blonde who committed the crime will probably get away with it.There must be a plan.

"How about taking a step back?" he said. "My boyfriend is a detective with the Vegas Police Department. I called him and he took care of it while trying to keep our name and company out of the way."

"You think he'd like to do that?" Aubrey asked skeptically.

"For me, he is willing." Dominique said.

***

Levy whispered to the EMTs as they pushed the stretcher carrying Rhodes out of the room while Dominique watched.There were no sirens, no lights; Levi called an ambulance himself and arrived without a patrol officer.Most of the people who live in this motel will never know what happened that night.

Most of the time, Levi wore a well-tailored suit in front of people, but at this late hour, he was wearing something more casual—jeans, which Dominique had only seen him wear once or twice.The gun that is usually inserted in the shoulder holster was also inserted in the hip holster this time.

Dominique was mesmerized by the sight of the denim wrapping tightly around Levi's rounded buttocks and strong thighs, and didn't interrupt until the ambulance pulled away and Levi came back to him and Aubrey reverie.

"Roz will probably be fine," Levy said, "I'll call the patrol police as soon as you leave. The official statement will be, I received an anonymous tip, and I think it's fake, so I'll come to the scene to see for myself first." , and then called for support. I found a camera memory card next to the victim, but have no way of knowing who left it."

"Thank you." Dominic said, squeezing his shoulder.Aubrey also expressed his gratitude.

"It's easy. Can I see a picture of the woman who committed the crime?"

Dominique hands him the camera.After a few seconds, Levi opened his mouth wide.

"You're kidding me." He was so startled that his voice became weak.

"What's wrong?" Dominic asked.

Levi raised his head with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "I know her."

[1]? The original text is "mijo" in Spanish.