“Maybe you can inherit his casino when he’s gone,” Grayson suggested.“I can think of worse ways to expand the business.”
“Dammit, none of this is funny.You realize that, right?”One by one, I turned my stony glare on them, watching their shit-eating grins dissolve into something distinctly guilty.“Obviously, I’m getting it annulled as soon as possible.It was a stupid, drunken mistake encouraged by one of my so-called friends,” I added, glaring at Aiden.At least he had the decency to look embarrassed, for once, rather than wearing his smug expression.
“Yeah, that’s kind of shitty,” Grayson agreed.
“I’m telling you, I tried like hell to convince him not to do it.You might not remember now, but you will,” Aiden promised.
“Oh wait.”Sebastian rapped his knuckles against the table before pointing a finger at me.“He did.He kept saying something about regretting it in the morning, but I didn’t know what he meant.I figured you wanted to keep partying, and he was trying to talk sense into you.How could I have known?”
The thing was, I vaguely remembered that too.I also remembered telling Aiden he could go fuck himself if he thought he was going to stop me.“Those lemon drop shots are fucking deadly,” I announced, elbows on the table, my head in my hands.“There’s a reason I stay away from sugary drinks.”
“You were doing lemon drops?You don’t deserve a quick annulment when you brought the whole thing on yourself,” Sebastian decided with a chuckle before getting serious.“Listen, things could be a lot worse.So you got drunk and made a mistake.It’s easily undone.Happens all the time.”
“It’s kind of what the city is known for,” Grayson agreed.“What happens in Sin City stays in Sin City.”
“Sure, and the problem with that is we live here,” I reminded them with a wry chuckle, lifting my head to look around the table.“We can’t escape the mistakes we make here.”
“You couldn’t escape having gotten married here no matter where you flew home to later,” Aiden pointed out.When the three of us stared at him, he shrugged.“What?It’s the truth.”
Squaring my shoulders, I muttered.“I’ll get it taken care of.”
“What I need to know is…” The lifting of Sebastian’s eyebrows told me what was coming before he asked, “Did you consummate your union?”
I didn’t have it in me to come up with a sarcastic reply.“I’m fairly sure we didn’t, no.”
A chorus of unhappy groans rose from the table before Aiden snickered.“Wow.What a waste.She was hot too.Those legs?”He grimaced like he was in pain.
Something flared up in me, potent enough to make strangling him look like an even better idea.“Watch it,” I warned in a flat voice.“That’s my wife you’re talking about.”Their laughter told me they took it as a joke, but I’d never been more serious.He didn’t have the right to talk about her that way.
Nova Mancini.I wasn’t supposed to believe she picked me out on purpose?But no, I had picked her, hadn’t I?All right then, there was no doubt in my mind she had jumped at the opportunity to head to the chapel once she knew who she was drinking with last night.I must have said my name, or someone must have told her who she was hanging out with.
Riccardo Mancini.My father-in-law.He had a reputation around town for skirting the rules whenever he could get away with it.The sort of man people referred to in hushed voices, a member of the so-called old-school crew who used to run this town.His father had rubbed elbows with all of the big names back in the day—Frank, Dean, Sammy, not to mention the men whose job it was to silence anyone who made waves.
Was I honestly supposed to believe it was an accident, his daughter marrying a rival casino owner?Was this his play at taking what was mine since my father had never sold out the few times Riccardo had suggested an early retirement?
I would annul the marriage immediately.
No one took what was mine.
A satisfied, almost eager smile tipped the corners of my mouth as I raised the mug to it.
Mancini wasn’t the only one whose family had a long history around here.I had learned a thing or two myself.
4
NOVA
What did I expect when returning to my new apartment after almost fleeing that hotel room?Armed men waiting for me outside the highrise?Maybe somebody sitting in the overstuffed armchair positioned in the corner, surrounded by over-stuffed bookshelves?My cozy little reading nook invaded by a menacing thug.
There was no sign of anyone.A lot had changed in a mere twelve hours.I’m not just talking wedding bells either.
Was I so naïve?Of course, I didn’t know then what I knew now, sliding out of my red heels and leaving them by the front door rather than picking them up.The mere act of bending to pick something up off the floor was more than I could fathom—like a Herculean task.
Instead of picking up after myself, I walked barefoot through the apartment.It still smelled like fresh paint and sawdust after minor renovations Dad had seen to.“As if I would let my baby girl live in an apartment with old, faded paint and outdated cabinets.”In fact, he had been dead set on it.Yet another thoughtful little gift to me.
The sense of warmth and ownership I had enjoyed in the handful of days since my return now tasted bitter.Dried up like the desert that surrounded this town for miles in every direction.Las Vegas was a city that had insisted on being built, twisting the laws of nature and forcing them to comply.Now, millions of guests every year enjoyed all of life’s pleasures, from the crudest to the most distinguished, in what once was a barren wasteland.
It was that mythology that got me interested in business years earlier.I had learned a lot at my father’s knee, so to speak, but settling in and digging deep into what made the city thrive was what had taken me across the Atlantic Ocean.I needed to know everything there was to know about running a business from the ground up.I wasn’t about to let anyone accuse me of being a nepo baby whose daddy handed her the keys to the kingdom without any qualifications to her name.And since I was an only child, with no brother for Dad to groom as his replacement, it only made sense for me to be the heir apparent.
