19. Iris
IRIS
My sister was being super weird. First , she hadn’t told me she was coming to Vegas at all.
Then , she responded to my text all cryptically by telling me she had a surprise and to meet her at a hotel the next morning.
She had said her colleague would meet me in the lobby, so I figured this must be a work-related trip, but she didn’t give much more.
Anna was always sneaky like that. She only shared what she needed to.
I was coming off the overnight shift and had only gotten about four hours of sleep, but I was too excited to see my sister to care. Plus , I was nosy as hell, so I needed to know what this super-secret surprise was.
As I walked into the lobby area, I looked around for the man my sister had described who would be there to greet me. I’d asked her to send me a picture, but she’d told me she couldn’t. Just as I was about to text her that I was here, a man walked up to me and said hello.
“Hi, Iris . I’m Nolan ,” the man said, sticking his hand out to me.
He was tall, well over six feet. He had a slender, athletic build and was clean-shaven. Not exactly my type, but he had a very welcoming smile—which, at this moment, I needed since I had no idea what the hell was going on.
He looked like the man from Anna’s description and he knew my name, so I guessed this was him.
Though just because something felt off to me with how shady Anna was being, I also texted my other sister, Cora , to tell her I was going someplace slightly shady, and if I didn’t text her back in thirty minutes to call the cops.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Anna , but I’d watched too many true crime documentaries and knew what people were capable of.
“You do look like OG Mariah Carey ,” Nolan said to me with a smirk.
Obviously, my sister had told him that comparison. It had started as a joke because I was also bi-racial like Mariah Carey and had her curly brown hair from her early career days, but I was much shorter than Mariah Carey …by a lot.
“Mariah is like five foot nine,” I informed him. “ And I’m five foot four on a good day.”
“What are you on a bad day?” he inquired, his voice laced with humor.
“Five three and a half,” I told him and he gave me a big smile in response.
But yes, he was right. I had been told I looked like her on more than one occasion. I also had her curves—big hips and big boobs—but skinny arms, which I loved, because in Vegas you wear a lot of sleeveless shirts in order not to die of heat exhaustion.
Nolan looked up, and his smile disappeared before he turned back to me.
“ Do me a favor. I’m going to point to a statue behind you.
Pretend to look at it, but also look at the man in the navy shirt standing over by the check-in desk, and let me know if you know him.
He hasn’t taken his eyes off you since you got here.
Just wondering if it’s because he thinks you’re Mariah Carey or because you know him. ”
People may joke that I looked like Mariah , but I was also twenty years younger than her, so there was no way people actually thought I was her.
I also wore glasses most days, which Mariah did not.
But I did have a big butt and big boobs, and men liked to stare at those, so it was very possible this man at the counter was just staring at my jiggly bits.
Even though I had on a pair of very worn jeans and a loose-fitting blue T -shirt—not something I would consider sexy—that didn’t stop creepy men from looking.
He did as he said and pointed at something.
I pretended to look but also scanned the man by the counter.
He was definitely looking at me. More like staring.
He was quite handsome but also scary-looking.
He reminded me of Pedro Pascal —but grumpier—with his longer, wavy hair, short beard, and the broody look on his face.
I turned back to Nolan and told him I had never seen that man before.
“Well, he’s giving me the creeps, so let’s go upstairs and see your sister,” he said, turning us toward the elevators.
This Nolan guy seemed friendly, and he talked about my sister and how impressed he was that she won an Emmy at her TV station. He obviously knew her and continued to confirm my assumption that they worked together as he detailed the project she had worked on that earned her the Emmy .
“Anna said you work for the National Weather Service . That sounds cool,” he said while we rode the elevator up.
“It’s my dream job, actually,” I told him truthfully. “ I didn’t know I’d end up in the same city my sister used to live in, but I like it here, so I’m happy with the move.”
“I just moved here not that long ago, too. I’m from up north, so the desert heat took some getting used to,” he told me as we exited the elevator and walked down the hallway, presumably to Anna’s room.
He gave a weird knock with six raps in inconsistent beats and then used his key card to open the door and walked in first, which I appreciated because it allowed me the opportunity to bolt if I saw her tied to a chair or something.
As soon as the door opened, she was standing right there, smiling huge, and I barely made it through the door before she hugged me.
“I missed you so much, Sissy ,” she said in my ear as I hugged her back.
She took a step back, still smiling, and I finally turned to look at the room. That was when my smile dropped. There were five other people in the room, all with stoic faces staring at me.
I turned my head back to Anna quickly, my voice very serious. “ What’s going on?”
“Iris, I’d like you to meet Captain Kerrigan , head of the Las Vegas Police Department ,” my sister said to me. His face was firm and stern but kind. “ You’ve already met one of his officers, Nolan Banks .”
She pointed to the man beside me, who was giving me a small smile as if he hadn’t just lied by omission his way through our ride up the elevator, talking about “working” with my sister.
“The man to your left is Corey , and the woman beside him is Sara ,” my sister continued. “ They’re both federal agents. And the man to your right is my husband, Archer .”
Okay, there was a lot to take in there, but my brain focused on the last part. “ Your husband ?”
“Have a seat, Sissy , and I’ll explain,” Anna responded softly.
* * *
Well, this was not what I expected at all.
I went from thinking my sister was here on some work trip to cover a story for her TV station, to finding out my sister was married, a secret FBI agent, and had people wanting to murder her.
I still didn’t know all the details, since some of it, I was told, was confidential, but I knew enough to know that this was serious. I also found out that Nolan was going to be my new best friend for the next few days and follow me around my home and job.
They weren’t a hundred percent confident that this mafia family who wanted to kill my sister knew about me, but they weren’t taking any chances. I appreciated that.
I paused briefly to call Cora , who was having a mild panic attack since I hadn’t checked in with her. While I hadn’t given her any of the security details, I did fill her in on Anna being there and how I was so excited to see her that I had forgotten to text back.
After that call, I sat down with everyone in the room as we finalized my protection plans for the next few days.
I was told that Anna would be here for a few days until they caught the men who wanted to kill her and her new husband, who I learned was actually her ex-husband from a few years ago.
She hadn’t talked about it a lot, but when I started to glare daggers at the man, she asked me to give her time because both she and I didn’t know the whole story, though she knew now.
As much as I wanted to murder him in his sleep for what he did to my sister, I was learning that maybe she was right about not knowing all the details.
Especially since I had no idea my sister secretly worked for the FBI or that she was somehow the target of a mafia family.
Anna promised me that after all of this was over, she would come visit me and take some time off work so we could hang out.
“I’m holding you to that, Anna ,” I told her. “ And please be careful.”
“Pinky promise,” she responded before hugging me.
My new best friend, Nolan , and I headed out together so he could follow me back to my apartment to check the security there.
“Creepy McCreeperson is still here,” I informed Nolan as we walked out the front door of the hotel.
“I saw. You sure you don’t know him?” he asked me as he pulled his phone out.
“No disrespect, dude, because the vibe I’m getting off you is that guy is bad news, but he’s also like sex-on-a-stick hot,” I answered. “ So , I’d like to think I’d remember him.”
He turned to stare at me with an appalled look on his face. “ Did you just say sex on a stick?”
I nodded as he moved his phone to his ear and began talking to someone. “ He’s now chillin’ by the front door takin’ a smoke,” he said and then paused. “ Copy .”
He put his phone back in his pocket and then turned to me. “ I’ve got someone doing surveillance on him.”
“Well, then. Let’s go check out my house, brand-new bestie,” I told him, hearing his light chuckle as we made our way to my car.