Chapter Ten
The newly built Lavette Spa and Casino had every state-of-the-art comfort possible in a hotel, from a health club and Olympic-sized pool to steam baths and tanning beds. Grand chandeliers, their sparkling crystals glittering like stars, lined the gold-crested ceilings. Lights sparkled over the floor, dancing on the ornate Italianate marble like tiny fairies.
Costumed dancers and uniformed staff assimilated in the building like fine-tuned entities, there to smile and serve. Claudia couldn’t muster much of a smile to greet them in return and kept her eyes on the valet’s back as he pushed their meager luggage toward the hotel’s elevator.
“Would the lady like me to arrange a spa treatment for her?” the valet asked, his tone even and polite.
“No,” Claudia said, even as James ans
