On the surface of it, The Other Cosmopolitan was just another glamorous Sin City establishment. Bejeweled walls sparkled, and cleverly lit square columns played video reels that made it look as if people danced inside them. On the far left, a raised dais held a glossy baby grand, which sang beautifully beneath the pianist’s dexterous fingers. On the right, the equally glossy bar currently served breakfast coffee and expensive pastries.
Beneath the glamorous surface package, the place was run and operated by the Tomitano crime family. Liam had spotted imprints of sidearms on at least six official security guards and as many unofficial ones, who found a reason to mill around him ever since Liam had stepped into the place. Whether he would be coming out of it alive remained to be seen.
Aiden and Nell, Trident’s genius hacker, had outdone themselves in following Lucius’s digital footprint on the dark web to discover the colonel’s monthly clockwork patronage of the place. Or specifically, of young Miss Stephanie Tomitano who, at the tender age of eleven, appeared unable to avoid social media.
Stopping just inside the door, Liam adjusted the French cuffs peeking out from beneath his jacket. Even this early in the morning, The Other Cosmopolitan maintained its formal dress code—which was why both Lucius and his illegitimate daughter appeared to be wearing their Sunday best as they shared their breakfast.
Liam’s stomach tightened. He was crossing the line coming here, and he knew it. But Lucius needed to be jerked up short for thinking he could pull Liam’s personal life into their business dispute.
“How many for breakfast today, sir?” A waiter appeared with the menu already in hand.
“Thank you, but my party is already here.” With a confident nod to the staff, Liam strode over to the table Lucius and his daughter currently occupied and settled into an empty chair. “A cappuccino for me, please,” he said over his shoulder to the tensely hovering waiter, while ignoring the several men in suits casually moving closer. Reaching into his inside jacket pocket, Liam pulled out a small wrapped box. “Lucius, I’m so sorry I’m late. But I swung by and picked up Stephanie’s birthday present like you asked. Did I get the right box?”
Translation: Yes, I’ve found your weakness. I know you have a daughter with the mob and the last thing you want is for anyone at Obsidian Ops to know about her. The mob on one side, and Obsidian Ops on the other. It’s a hard place to be. One wrong move, and I’ll blow your secret wide open.
On the other side of the table, the child’s innocent eyes opened in wide delight, her curled ponytails swinging over her ears.
Lucius’s eyes hardened to stone. Quickly opening the gift box, he pulled out the brand-new iPhone—still in its factory-sealed packaging—that Liam had put in there.
“Oh my God!” Stephanie squealed loudly enough to drown out the piano. “You got me an iPhone, Daddy? Really? Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“You can only keep it if you show me you can be responsible with it,” Lucius answered with only the slightest of hesitations. “Now, let me see you go sit at the bar and set it up with proper security settings while I have a small chat with Mr. Rowen.”
Stephanie grinned and skipped off with the iPhone. The men who had accidently surrounded the table took a step back with her. Lucius looked ready to throw thunderbolts from his eyes.
Liam could hardly blame him for that. He had, after all, pulled Lucius’s daughter into their turf war. But Lucius had gone after Jaz. That made them even.
“If you do anything to hurt her—” Lucius started to say.
Liam held up his palms. “Never. But I can’t speak for the company you keep and how they’d react to various facts coming out. On either side.” Taking a sip from the cappuccino the waiter unobtrusively placed at Liam’s elbow, he gestured with his chin to where Stephanie was cooing over her new toy.
“Have the phone checked. There’s nothing on it,” Liam continued. “Friendly word of advice, though. I know Obsidian Ops planted the explosives on my truck. Go near Jaz or anyone from my Denton Valley family again, and I will personally shove an M4 so far up your ass that you’ll be able to shoot it just by farting. And then I’ll send out a few press releases of my own. I imagine Obsidian Ops will be as happy to know your vulnerability as the Tomitano crime family will be upset over having their reputation sullied. I presume they don’t want it known that Stephanie’s sire is a mutt like you?”
“You are a suicidal idiot,” the head of Obsidian Ops’ East Coast operations hissed quietly. “One word from me and my friends over there will be carrying out your body.”
Liam smiled, showing his teeth. One of the security suits to his right looked to have a twitchy trigger finger, his hand hovering close to the bulge on the side of his jacket. Liam marked the man’s location while keeping his attention on Lucius. “Maybe. Or maybe they’ll decide you’re at more fault than I am. You know how these mob guys are.” He leaned back in his chair to give his adversary a bit of breathing room. “Listen, Lucius—you and I, we’re just business competitors. All I want is for us to keep business conflicts from becoming personal. The sooner we can agree on the rules of engagement, the sooner you can go back to enjoying breakfast with your daughter. A few more minutes and I imagine little Steph will discover the lack of parental controls on that thing and will be downloading TikTok.”
A vein on the side of Lucius’s temple pulsed, but the rest of his body stayed well controlled. “You have it all wrong, Rowen. I never went after that Keasley woman. Don’t get me wrong, the name does have a certain black spot in my heart, but I don’t mix business and pleasure, and I didn’t this time either.” He raised his hand to signal the waiter. “A whiskey sour for me and my friend, please, Alfonso.”
The waiter nodded.
The goons in suits retreated farther.
Liam leaned forward. “The explosion—”
“Oh, that was me,” Lucius agreed without a trace of shame. “But that was a simple publicity op against Trident Security’s reputation. No one was hurt. If I wanted your Jaz dead, she would have been.”
True. But there was more than just dead and alive to consider. “And if I’d been a second slower spotting the charge? Or she’d run ahead of me? You know she could have gotten hurt. And I’m telling you, she isn’t acceptable collateral damage. No one fucking is.”
Lucius sighed, and took a sip of the newly delivered whiskey. “Point made. And for what it’s worth, I agree that the way the Adventure World fiasco went down was less than ideal. My guy was a young, overeager operative. He should have waited to ignite the charge later, when you were alone, but he realized his detonator was spotted and panicked. He figured everyone was far enough away. To his credit, he was right.”
“You can then also credit him with my presence here,” Liam said.
Lucius’s hand tightened on his glass. “Oh, believe me, I will. Think about it logically. I need an actual domestic murder investigation hanging over me about as about as much as I need a prostate exam. But meanwhile, just as a show of good faith, I’ll make the rookie’s error up to you. Would you like the lunatic who actually wants your sidepiece in pieces? Because he’s still out there and not under my control.”