Page 72

Twin tears escaped her eyes. “It’s gorgeous, Zak.”

“Prudence Mary-Elizabeth Turner, will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

I wanted to shout our engagement from the rooftops, Pru wanted to throw a party to make the announcement. Since she rarely did anything for herself, I agreed. Unfortunately, the city was braced for the effects of a hurricane, so the party would have to wait a little while. With only a few hours left before the storm hit, I’d gone to The Four Kings to finish up last-minute preparations. Very few rooms were occupied since most guests fled town rather than rode out hurricanes. I’d gone back to my office to grab my keys when Mak sent a text in our group chat with one word. Basement. I was confused. The two assholes, Danilova and Sorokino, had been permanently dealt with, so why did he want us to meet him there? Whatever the reason, it had to be important. Mak wouldn’t have asked otherwise.

More often than not, I used the outside entrance. Seeing as I was already inside the resort, I left my office, veering to the left toward a private elevator I rarely used. When the doors slid open on the bottom floor, I cursed under my breath. Beyond the doorway to the basement, Mak was pacing back and forth. He didn’t pace. He said he felt exposed when his back was turned, like it was giving the enemy an opportunity to attack his blind side. Dimi and Kas were on my side on the threshold, both of them tense. As I approached, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Brian Turnball, the casino manager, struggled to remain upright in the corner since his wrists were handcuffed to his ankles.

I cursed again, and asked, “Should we go in?”

Kas spoke first. “Not sure if that’s a good idea.”

“We’re a little afraid, truth be told,” Dimi added.

Shaking my head, I took a step forward. “Mak, you good?”

The man in question spun on his heels. “How long have you all been there?”

I cleared my throat. “Long enough. What’s going on here?”

His missed-matched eyes shifted to Brian then back to me. He cracked his knuckles one at a time before he said, “Caught our thief.”

You could’ve heard a pin drop. The assumption from the beginning had been that Brian was involved, we just didn’t know to what extent. The thefts had been too clean, too precise for there not to be an inside player. Mak obviously discovered the pieces we had missed. The part that didn’t make sense was what we walked in on. Something caused the reaction we witnessed, something of a more personal nature.

“Alright,” I said as the three of us cautiously stepped inside his playground. “So why are we here instead of the police station?”

“Because it’s not just about the money any more, Zak.”

“Stop being cryptic, brother. What the fuck has you so rattled?”

The second the words were out of my mouth, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The girl. The one he’d slept with when he was drugged. But what did she have to do with my casino manager and a fuck-ton of missing money? I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

“Remember when you asked me to crosscheck the members of that security association with our staff members who were working the same weekend the hundred grand went missing?” I nodded, and he continued. “It turns out, the vice president of the association is our boy Brian’s uncle. And the girl he met at Quantum was the uncle’s daughter…his own cousin.”

“Okay,” Kas drew out the word. “Still doesn’t answer why he isn’t in police custody.”

“I want to know why the hell she looked so scared and how she ended up in my bed.”

“Ah, fuck.” Dimi scrubbed a hand down his face.

But Mak wasn’t done. “This piece of shit is going to tell me exactly what I want to know. One way or another.”

“Should we stop him?” Kas muttered.

I shrugged. “It’s your funeral.”

None of us moved to put an end to the interrogation, though interrogation wasn’t the right word. Extraction may have been better since Brian had fewer teeth than he started with. He was quick to admit he’d stolen the money, but when it came to the girl, he held out much longer than any of us expected. In the end, he broke. They always did under Mak’s persuasive touch.

Her name was Selena, and she was nineteen. She was also the one who drugged the woman in Quantum, though it hadn’t been her choice. Her father controlled every aspect of her life including forcing her to play a starring role in his elaborate schemes. After he found a wealthy target in a bar, she roofied them and got them to follow her to a hotel room where her father would rob them blind. The night she met with Brian, she asked him to help her get away. He refused, then told her to go sit at the bar for her father’s instructions. What no one knew was the rules had changed. Selena’s father had sold her virginity to the highest bidder, so he slipped the drug in her drink and sent her to Mak, who he mistook for the buyer. By the time Brian got done talking, all four of us wanted to rip his dick off and feed it to him.

“Where is she now?” Mak growled.

“I don’t know, I swear. My uncle flipped his shit the next morning when he found out she slept with the wrong guy. Said she cost him a million bucks, and she’d have to work it off on her back. I knocked him out to help her escape. That’s when she showed me your card. I took her to the airport, gave her fifteen thousand bucks, and told her to get the hell out of town.”

“What about your uncle?” I asked. “Where can we find him?”

“He bolted. Haven’t seen or heard from him in over a month.”