She’s at a poker table, pouting because she just lost five thousand dollars.
“Well, poo,” she huffs and gives the man beside her a forlorn look. “I’m really bad at this, aren’t I?”
I ask the dealer to hit me and hold at nineteen.
“I’ve seen worse,” her companion says. “Let’s try this, shall we?”
His hand is on the small of her back and drifts down to her ass as he leans in to help her with her next hand.
My stomach twists.
He’s going to lose that hand. And I’m not talking about the cards.
I win at nineteen and rake in twenty grand in chips as the asshole laughs and nuzzles Nadia’s nose.
I sip my whiskey and act disinterested.
She loses again.
“That wasn’t quite as bad,” he tells her and moves in closer. “Now, for this hand, we’ll do things a little differently.”
I’m dealt a four of clubs and a queen of hearts. I tell the dealer to hit me and draw the six of diamonds.
I hold, and the dealer goes down the line of other players.
Nadia wins her hand and claps her hands joyfully, then kisses the man on the cheek.
That earns her ass a nice squeeze.
Fucking hell, how long do I have to watch this shit?
Finally, she whispers in his ear, and he rewards her with a wide smile and a nod of acceptance.
They leave the poker table.
I fold my cards, take my chips, and follow them.
“Are you on a good floor?” she asks, loud enough for me to hear her.
“The twelfth is nice and quiet,” he assures her as they get into an elevator.
I take a different one and count my lucky stars when I get off just after them and follow them down the hall. He opens their door, and I hurry up, then push my way inside before he can shut it behind them.
“Hey, what’s the big deal?”
“We could ask you the same thing,” Nadia says, not smiling and flirting now.
He tries to act as if he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but the longer we just stare at him, our weapons drawn, he loses the fight. He finally blows out a breath and holds up his hands in surrender.
“I guess you caught me.”
“You’ve been following us for days,” I reply. “And you’re not very good at it. Just like your associate in Paris. Who’s dead, by the way.”
He narrows his eyes and then shrugs a shoulder. “He was a shitty operative.”
“So are you.”
This gets his temper up. “No. I’m not.”
“We saw you,” I repeat. “And what was that show downstairs? Did you think you could just flirt with her, and she’d jump right into bed with you?”
“And why not?” he asks, his voice bold. “We’ve all heard the stories about Nadia Tarenkov, fucking anyone who offers.”
Without hesitation, I hit him across the face with the butt of my sidearm, drawing blood.
“Wait. Are you in love with her?” He laughs and doesn’t bother to wipe at the blood on his face. “That’s not even funny. It’s sad. Pathetic, really. She’ll just double-cross you, man. That’s what she does.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Nadia kicks over the desk chair and forces him down into it, and I pull the twine out of my pocket and secure his hands behind his back.
“Why are you following us?” Nadia asks him.
“I don’t have to tell you shit. Go ahead and kill me. You’re going to anyway.”
He’s not wrong.
“Rich has been dead for weeks. Why are you still doing his bidding?” I ask.
He scoffs. “You think this came from Richard? Come on, Carmine, you weren’t born last night. Pull your dick out of your brain and think about it. This comes from way higher up than Richard. That dude was a piece of shit. A total pussy.”
“You know, I don’t disagree with you,” Nadia says as she walks around him. “But I never understood why men like to compare weakness to female genitalia.”
She reaches down and grips his dick in a firm fist, making him yell in rage.
“When it’s your dick that’s so weak. So, the truth is, Richard was a dick.”
Then she looks up at me and laughs. “Dick is short for Richard.”
“Makes perfect sense, then,” I agree.
She lets him go and walks over to me, urging me to the side so she can speak to me privately.
“Could it be true that Richard was working for someone else?”
“It could be, but Shane dug around on him and didn’t find anything. He was going to keep delving into it in his free time. I’ll have to call him and see if he found anything new.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. Ah!”
The asshole has Nadia pinned to the wall, his hands around her neck in a flash. I have no idea how he got out of the restraints.
“Let her go.” I press the business end of my sidearm against the side of his head, but he doesn’t let up on his grip. Nadia’s face is already turning purple. “I said, fucking let her go.”
No response.
I glance at Nadia and see that she won’t last much longer.
So I squeeze the trigger and kill the son of a bitch.
“Jesus,” she wheezes as he slumps to the floor, and she can breathe again. “Fuck.”
“Hey, look at me.”
She does as I ask. Her eyes are red. Her throat will be bruised.
I aim and shoot him once again.
“He’s dead, Carmine.”
“I thought he’d let go when I had the gun to his head.”
“He was cocky and arrogant,” she says when she finally catches her breath. She pulls an unopened bottle of water out of the fridge, but I shake my head no.
“Don’t drink that. We don’t know that he didn’t poison everything in here.”
“You’re right. Christ.” She drops the bottle to the carpet. “Who’s going to clean up this mess?”
My smile is humorless as I pull my phone out of my pocket and tap a series of numbers, then send the text through.
“It’ll be handled.”
She just stares at me. “In France?”
“Anywhere.” My answer is simple. “Your family would do the same.”
She nods and pushes her hand through her hair. “You’re right. I’m just rattled. I’m not used to being choked out like that. I guess it’s safe to say that breathplay isn’t my jam.”
“No.” I lean in and press a kiss to her neck where the bruises are already starting to form. “We won’t be exploring that. There are too many other ways to bring pleasure. Let’s go.”
I don’t spare the goon on the floor a glance as I open the door and lead her out, keeping an eye on our surroundings in case there’s someone else lying in wait.
But as we leave the casino, we’re alone. Once in the car on the way to the hotel, she leans her head on my shoulder.
“We need to go home,” she murmurs.
“Agreed.” I kiss the top of her head. “Vacation is over. We’ll fly out tonight.”
“Good. Are we going to Seattle?”
“Yes. Unless there was somewhere else you wanted to go?”
“No, Seattle works. I’ll need to call my father when we land. I need to fill him in on what’s going on.”