Derek and I went on one date. It didn’t work out. But we’re both adults and were able to stay friends. Thank God because his younger sister has been my best friend since we were in grade school.
“You wish.” She smiles brightly, showing me those teeth that took three years of braces to straighten. She hated every second of it. I remember her having to cut up everything she ate. It took forever for her to eat.
“Always,” I tease.
She laughs and turns to grab a frosted mug and pours me a Corona. Knowing what I like. She places it on the bar in front of me and then leans over on her forearms. “I’m slow. Fill me in on your day.”
“It started off with me getting in a fight with Ethan this morning. It didn’t get any better after that,” I state and take a drink.
“Girl, I don’t know why you don’t just beat him into submission. We both know that you could take him.”
I snort into my beer. “True, but I’m trying to teach him that violence is not the answer.”
Now she’s the one who snorts. “Since when? You beat the crap out of him when he got into your computer and stole your research paper and used it as his own.”
“That’s different,” I argue.
“How?”
I set my beer down. “Because Mr. Walden thought I had just freely given it to him, thinking he wouldn’t remember.” I sigh.
“Anything you need me to do?” Derek asks. “Want me to talk to him about something? Is it girls?”
I shake my head. “I found a key card of some sort from Kingdom at the shop today. I think it fell out of his jacket pocket.”
“What?” she asks. “How the hell would he get in there?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure what the hell he would be doing with that.”
Derek’s dark eyes look around before he leans forward and whispers, “Kingdom is bad fucking news, April.”
I wave him off. “It’s just a casino.”
“No. I hear shit in here. Kingdom is into some bad shit.”
I’ve lived in Vegas most of my life, but I know nothing about the casinos or nightlife. I have always lived in my own world. From the moment my mother opened Roses, I worked there with her. Before school. After school. Even after I turned twenty-one, I never ventured out onto the Strip. It’s just not my scene. “Like what?” I frown.
“Yeah? Like what?” she asks him.
“I hear that the guy, Bones, is in big with the mafia. Whatever they want, he gets them. Vice versa. And they bury bodies in the desert.”
“Mafia? Really?” I laugh. “Since when do you believe in that shit?” I know they exist. But in Vegas? They’re in places like New York, Chicago, and Italy. “And what could this Bones guy get them?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know exactly. I just know that anything goes there. I guess there’s some sort of black market that the guys run.”
“Illegally?”
He rolls his dark eyes. “That’s what black market stands for.”
I’m still not sure I believe it. But even if I did, I ask, “What would Ethan have to do with that?”
He shakes his head. “You need to find out. And better hope that it’s not too late to get him out of it.”
Alexa frowns. “He’s a teenage boy. Maybe some friends of his had a party there or something.” She shrugs. “Kids do it all the time.”
“Or it’s something much worse,” Derek argues.
I sigh and tip back my beer as he goes to help a man who just walked up to the bar.
My brother better not be into some shady shit, or I will beat him so badly he won’t be able to sit down for a week. He forgets that I can knock his ass out. I’ve done it before. Many, many years ago. But a woman doesn’t forget how to fight. It’s like sex. Another thing I haven’t done in a while. When your body is put in that situation, it just knows what to do. Instincts take over. And cravings need to be satiated.
“What are you going to do?” Alexa asks me.
I shrug. “Not sure just yet.”
“Well …” She slaps the bar top. “How about we go out tomorrow night?”
“How is that going to help me?” I arch a brow.
“It won’t, but you need to have some fun and let loose. When was the last time you went out and had some fun?”
I sigh. “I don’t know.”
“Exactly. I have this girlfriend who’s having a party. I actually have a night off. It’ll be fun.”
“Girlfriend, huh? Have something to tell me?”
She laughs. “Trust me, April, if I was trading teams, you’d be the first one to know.” She winks at me, and I throw my head back laughing.
CHAPTER SIX
GRAVE
I LOOK OUT the oval window in my brother’s private jet. All I see are clouds, but it’s better than the judging looks he’s been giving me since he picked me up and dragged my ass onto his plane this morning.
“Here you go, Grave,” his flight attendant, Nicki, announces as she comes over to my seat. “Sure you don’t want anything, Bones?” she asks him.
He shakes his head once without even bothering to look up at her.
“Thank you,” I tell Nicki and throw it back. Setting it on the table between my brother and me, I notice his eyes on mine. Then they drop to the now empty glass. “If you didn’t want me to drink, then you shouldn’t keep your bar stocked,” I say matter-of-factly.
He runs a hand through his hair and looks away from me. He’s clearly still very pissed.
“Why are you fucking your best friend’s fiancée?” I come out and ask.
“What me and Emilee do does not concern you,” he snaps.
“My other question is why would Titan allow that?” I go on when he doesn’t say anything. “I mean, if I was engaged, I wouldn’t let you go anywhere near my pussy …”
“Enough!” he shouts.
I cross my arms over my chest and smirk at him.
“Again, what we do is none of your business,” he says in an annoyed tone.
My phone vibrates, and I look down at it to see a message from Lucy.
Lucy: I’m lonely. Come over and fuck me.
I type back a response.
Me: Can’t. Out of town.
It vibrates immediately with a sad face. I lock the screen and place it back down on the table.
“I want you to go to rehab,” Bones states.
I snort. “Stay out of my life, and I’ll stay out of yours.”
“Grave.” He sighs and looks at me. His dark blue eyes look exhausted. My brother runs too much and rarely sleeps. “I made Mom a promise.”
I throw my head back and laugh, my chest shaking. “And you’re deciding now that you want to honor it? She’s been dead for eight years, Dillan.”
“Goddammit, Grave,” he growls softly, shaking his head. “I’m trying here.”
“No, Dad is dead, so now you’re going to try to take over that role.” The truth is, he has always been more of a dad to me than our father ever was. And I owe him everything for that, but I can’t change who I am. I don’t want to change who I am.