“Why didn’t you tell me Dmitry wanted a sit-down?” Kelly asked me.
We were in the bathroom. Thankfully, the kids were dead to the world after having fallen asleep watching television for three hours. It was already nine in the morning but with the black-out-shades, one couldn’t tell.
“There was no opportunity to bring that up.” I crossed my arms, hanging on to my displeasure with Roth’s phone call.
“My sister is missing,” Kelly said. “What if Dmitry has information about her whereabouts?”
“Garrison already asked him and he had no clue. What does Roth want?”
“A face-to-face.”
I tried not to grind my teeth. My back molars had already taken a beating with the jaw clenching that man had given me with the way he’d been after my wife.
“Perhaps you should remind him that the LAPD and Vegas PD want him for questioning.”
“He said Dmitry couldn’t make it, but the message he has for me is time-sensitive.”
“Oh, he would just jump at the opportunity.”
“Levi,” Kelly snapped. “Now is not the time to get jealous. Alana and Ronan are missing. He has information on the op that killed Callum. Don’t we want closure on this?”
Tears glazed her eyes, and I felt like a fucking asshole.
I scraped a hand over my face. “Shit, you’re right. I was going to tell you today.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I was.” I honestly was. “I was going to call Garrison and check where he was with Dmitry first.”
She relaxed. “I believe you.”
“I don’t want you anywhere near Roth.”
This time it was she who crossed her arms. “I don’t think that’s your decision.”
“The fuck it isn’t. You’re my wife.”
“Yes. And I need you to do what you do best.”
I exhaled heavily. “And what is that?”
“Keep me safe. Have my back while allowing me to do what I need to get us closure.”
“Enjoy your stay, Mr. and Mrs. James.”
I grabbed the keycards from the check-in staff and turned to usher Kelly aside.
“Here.” I handed her one of them. “Remember to stay close to me.”
“Jeez, Levi, that’s the hundredth time you told me that.”
“This is no joke,” I warned on our way to the elevator banks. “I could call this whole thing off.”
She stuttered a few steps before glaring at me. “You wouldn’t do that. You’re just as eager to find out what the hell happened on that mission.”
“Test me. Just test me.” We waited for the car to arrive wrapped in a pissy mood. We’d been at each other’s throats since Tom called her. The person of interest in both the LA and Vegas PD cases contacted her instead of the cops.
Fortunately, Ronan surfaced from his break in Montauk. Alana was still missing, so Kelly knew I was all bark about calling it off.
All intel indicated Dmitry and Roth were allies and no imminent threat came from them, but it did nothing to lessen my annoyance with Roth who seemed to be handling the liaison between us and Dmitry.
“Relax,” Kelly said. “Between you, your team, and Uncle Cesar, I feel safe.”
I tightened my grip on her hand, letting her know I appreciated the sentiment, and partly to remind her not to talk about it until we got to our suite. The elevator arrived and took us to the penthouse.
The hotel’s security had done a sweep, and Kelso did the same prior to our arrival, double-checking behind the hotel’s team. Only a few people were in the loop with none of the feds or Vegas PD involved.
When we entered our room, I still ran through the usual security protocols. After I finished my review, I turned to Kelly.
“Any change in plans?”
Roth had been messaging her.
“The last instruction from him is still to be at the Lorian Casino at ten tonight.”
The message was sent when we first rolled into Vegas. The meet would occur in less than two hours.
“I’m sorry Kelso is going rogue again,” Kelly said. “I hope he doesn’t get suspended like last time.”
Despite my misgivings about getting a friend in trouble, I grinned. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But if Gabby is covering for him, that would mean she’ll get in trouble too.”
I put my hands on her shoulders to reassure her. Making her feel bad about it didn’t even cross my mind. I didn’t need to use guilt to have her back out. That wasn’t my style, and it had no place in the scheme of fixing our marriage. “Babe, one thing you need to know about our friends, they don’t have a problem battling through the bureaucracy and red tape to get things done. We need that intel from Dmitry, not only for this, but our detective duo hopes it will help their case in keeping Moscow White out of Los Angeles. And, beautiful, I’d want nothing more than to put the people who hurt our family behind bars.” If not six feet under.
I gave her a nudge toward our bedroom. “Go freshen up. I’ll bring the suitcase to the bedroom, and let the guys know we’re here.”
“I’ll call Nana and Gramps before I shower and check on the girls. Let them know we’ve arrived.”
She disappeared into the bedroom while I called Bristow.
“Yeah.”
“Any update?”
“Nope. No sign of Roth or Dmitry. No sign of Ford or Stepanov’s men that we have on file. Nadia hooked me up with several surveillance videos running the new facial recognition software and still nada.”
“I don’t know why Dmitry couldn’t just agree to meet with me or Garrison.”
“Uh, maybe because Dmitry knows you’re pissed at Roth for getting Kelly involved, and they’re partners in whatever shit this is all about.”
“I hate getting Kelly into the middle of it and Roth is leading this meeting while he’s wanted by the LA and Vegas PD.”
“Just keep your cool,” Bristow reminded me.
“I’ll try,” I grunted, trying not to froth at the mouth with the situation.
After I ended the call with him, I brought our things into the bedroom, setting the suitcase on the luggage rack and hanging up the garment bags. The bathroom door was closed. I smirked and glanced at the king-sized bed and remembered the night we’d broken hers.
I adjusted the thickening erection behind my jeans and sat on the side of the bed, kicking off my boots, settling against the headboard and brooding over the closed bathroom door.
I couldn’t wait to sink into my wife again. The frustration of the past few days with our arguments led to disgruntled pecks on the mouth. I wanted to grab her and kiss her hard. Our girls being constantly attached to us was the only reason that prevented me from flinging their mother over my shoulder, marching into the bedroom, dropping her on the bed, and fucking her raw.
Shit, that image wasn’t helping. I checked my watch. And there wasn’t any time either. Kelly was hungry, and I knew a hangry Kelly wasn’t conducive to the kind of fucking I envisioned.
The water turned off, so I pulled the shirt over my head in preparation to take my turn in the bathroom. I forced myself to get up from the bed because it only gave me an uncomfortable stirring in my groin. I was dragging down the zipper of my jeans when Kelly stepped out in a billow of steam with nothing but a towel wrapped around her chest, her wet hair in a twist.
My saliva dried up, and when all the blood rushed south of the border, I got lightheaded. “Sure hope you left some hot water for me.”
She paused just inside the bedroom, her eyes darting from me to the suitcase and back to me again, or more specifically to my cock that was pushing past the waistband of my boxer briefs.
“We don’t have time,” she mumbled.
I choked a laugh and advanced on her. “Don’t you think I know that?” I was barely hanging on to my self-control, but fuck it, I needed to feel those naked tits against my chest.
“Levi,” she warned in a breathless voice.
I hauled her against me and stripped away the towel. Fuck, her tits felt good. I crushed her mouth in a fierce, bruising kiss before breaking away. “I’ve been wanting to do that for the past three days.”
Her eyes flashed. “You annoyed me.”
“Yeah, well you annoyed me too. Doesn’t mean you should change to those little pecks and act like you hadn’t been creaming over my tongue a week ago.”
She stared at my chest and huffed. “It’s just … never mind.”
“What? I wanna know.”
“We’re late.” She glared at me.
I raised a brow. “We can be later.”
“All right. What I really wanted to do was bite your lip and shut you up because you tried to keep me out of a solution when it was me that Dmitry specifically asked for.”
“Really? And that’s a surprise when you know I’d lose my shit if he touches a hair on your head?” I stepped back from her and folded my arms over my chest. Her nipples were pouty and begging to be sucked. “Also, you know there are other ways to shut me up.”
She gave another irritated exhalation, covering her breasts with her arms. “Go! You’ll be needing that cold shower.”
“Oh, my cold-hearted queen,” I murmured, walking past her and glancing down at my erection. Yeah, my balls needed a deep freeze.
Kelly
Lorian was one of the lowest stakes casinos in Las Vegas, which also made it the most crowded. Levi said he wasn’t surprised Tom chose this spot because of the variety of guests who came in—from sneakered, Hawaiian-shirt wearing retirees to starry-eyed honeymooners to people in suits and fancy clothes warming up their gambling hands for the night. No one looked out of place.
The casino floor was vast, but the crowd was so crushing this Saturday night, I could sense Levi wanting to leave the second we crossed the threshold. He communicated with the rest of the team using a collar-mic. Kelso was around somewhere, but I hadn’t spotted him. Most of the crowd flocked to the slot machines, roulette, and craps table.
We tried our luck with roulette and Texas Hold’em. Finally, we settled on the Blackjack table. Levi seemed to do well, squaring off against the dealer. It helped that the other players around the table were not idiots.
As Levi’s chips piled higher, we started getting more involved in the game. My husband had just scored Blackjack and was done with the round. The remaining players started calling me Lady Luck. On my left, a man in a cowboy hat who’d been winning around fifty percent of his hands glanced at me. “What do you think, Lady Luck?” He showed me his cards of double eights. The dealer was showing a seven.
“Split it,” I told him. That was the only logical play, but apparently me giving the blessing seemed to be the superstition at the table.
“Sounds good.”
He won both hands. Everyone started cheering around me.
Every time the dealer shuffled his cards, I checked my phone. Nothing from Tom.
“Think our friend isn’t coming,” Levi murmured. Our success in the card game seemed to have loosened our anxiety about the meet. Gambling did that—gave you the high of winning and desperation for more.
Gramps had explained why loansharking was a lucrative part of mob business. The collections made from high-stakes gambling loans were crazy.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
By the time I had the urge to pee, I realized an hour had gone by. “I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
“I’ll come with. You want to play slots afterward?”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. How long are we going to wait?”
Before my husband could answer, the dealer asked, “Leaving already?”
“Yeah.” Levi grinned. “Leave while you’re ahead.”
“That’s smart,” Cowboy man said. “Thanks for the wins, lady.”
Now that I was a few steps away, I could study the guy instead of talking to his hat. He had a dark full beard, but I still couldn’t quite see his eyes.
Levi felt me hesitate. Cowboy man was still grinning at us before he tipped his hat and turned back to the table.
My husband ushered me toward the hallway leading to the restrooms. “Bristow,” he said. “Any update on cowboy guy from our table? An associate of Dmitry, Ford, or Stepanov?” His hand tightened on my arm and I glanced up at him.
“What?” I asked.
“What? … Fuck!” Levi growled before pushing me toward the ladies’ room. “Go. Kelso has eyes on Roth”
“Well, I really need to pee.” I hurried into the ladies’ room. Women at the sink glanced up and scowled at my husband who retreated immediately.
“Sir, you’re not allowed in here,” a restroom attendant barked at Levi.
“I’ll be right outside,” he muttered.
Shaking my head, I told the women, “Sorry, he’s overprotective.”
“If my man was that hot, I’d have him follow me everywhere,” one of them quipped.
Several women giggled.
The ladies’ room was huge and was divided into two sections with attendants milling around, making sure guests had everything they needed. A half-wall of sinks in the middle divided the two areas. I found an empty cubicle on the other side of the door from where I entered. As I took care of my needs, the cacophony of chatter was everywhere—women complained or swooned over their men, excited patrons talked about the shows they’d seen while others planned what club to hit later.
After I was done, I exited and went to the sink to wash my hands. When I looked up at the mirror, I was startled to see a large woman behind me dressed in an attendant’s uniform. Her hair was in a braid and she was wearing dark square-rimmed glasses. Even with lipstick and garish foundation, she had distinctly masculine features. But since it was Vegas, nothing surprised me. He could be a drag queen or she could be a transgender or she could be a woman who just looked more masculine.
I smiled in the mirror and froze when the attendant came closer.
There was something oddly familiar about that face. Goosebumps dotted my skin when I looked around and realized I was alone in the area with her.
The attendant stared into the mirror and our gazes locked while recognition jolted my heart.
“Hi, Ki,” he said.
“Callum?”
