But Jack shook his head, grasped my shoulders and then answered in a firm voice. “No. Trust me, Aerin. The safest and best option for us in all of this is to get to safety first if Allegra and her outfit turn out to be dangerous. That’s the plan we’ve worked out with the time we had. Again, right now, our best move is to find out the answer to that first question: Is she friend? Or foe? Then we plan our moves after we get our answer.”

“But,” I started to protest but paused when I saw Jack straighten up imperceptibly.

Soon, a group of about five dark-suited, tall, muscular men surrounded us. Three were standing directly behind us, while two had walked in front of us, across the low barrier of the wall that separated the café from the walkway skimming around the café, and bordered the rest of that side of the casino.

“Excuse me, miss,” one of them said. “We got a message from the front desk of this hotel that you were looking for Madame Allegra?”

What? I looked at the one who spoke in surprise. “I didn’t leave a message like that anywhere …”

He ignored me and spoke softly into the mike and earpiece clipped to an ear.

Jack stood up from his stool and gave me a quick smile as he offered his hand to help me stand from the bar stool. The three men behind us seemed to tense a little when Jack stood. I saw that Jack was a little taller and had broader shoulders than most of them. He also had an easy but coiled manner about him – as if he could spring at any moment. Two of the men stepped a little closer to Jack after half a beat.

“Lead the way gentlemen,” he said coolly, and then eyed the two who dared to step closer.   After another beat, they backed away imperceptibly. I gripped the offered hand nervously and didn’t let it go as we walked out of the café, escorted by the five men. Unlike Jack, I couldn’t take any of them in a fight. Jules! Where are you when I need you?!

Our group wound its way quickly across the busy casino, as Jack and I followed in the wake of two of the men who walked ahead of us. It was as if the two were subtly paving our group’s way through the crowd, acting like the sharp end of a convoy, parting the sea of people in an efficient, practiced manner. Some people were whispering to each other as we walked past, and I overheard an elderly woman observe to her husband loudly, “she must be some kind of celebrity or something.” One of the guards behind us blocked the camera-phone of someone in the crowd who could have attempted to snap a picture of us.