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I forced my breaths to even, clenching and unclenching my hands over and over until I found some semblance of composure. More and more, I was losing control, and that was a feeling I simply could not afford. The Golden Halcyon was my biggest casino in Covale City, and with it down, I was losing millions in revenue a week. The curse was nothing to scoff at, a fact I’d known from the moment Jesse’s great-grandfather had uttered it, all those years ago.
Maybe it had just been weird timing. Nothing else had happened.
Petyr cleared his throat lightly to remind me that he was still standing there, and I glowered at him.
“What else?”
He blinked again. “What else what?”
“What else did she look like?”
He paled more. “Uh…”
“You’re sure she wasn’t hurt?”
“Not from what I could see.”
I nodded slowly, a fusion of emotions rocking through me. If she wasn’t hurt, that wasn’t what was keeping her away from me. She had stayed away of her own accord. She really wasn’t coming back.
“What should I do now?” he asked, his words squeaking slightly.
I realized he was concerned I was going to ask him to go and get her.
“Nothing,” I growled. “Get out.”
He almost ran out of the office, and I turned toward the window, staring out at the darkening night. It was upon us again. These days without Bianca, I couldn’t take it anymore.
But what was I supposed to do about it?
I snatched my keys from the table and stalked toward the outer office, determined to leave the casino for the night. I couldn’t do anything more that night, yet the thought of returning to my empty house filled me with dread as well.
I’d ridden my motorcycle in, my subconscious not-so-subtly telling me what I had fully known I was planning on doing, anyway. Regardless of what information Petyr had returned with, I wanted to see Bianca for myself. I shouldn’t have sent a boy to do a man’s errand in the first place.
Before I could wait for the voice of sense to filter into my skull, I made my way to the main floor and found myself on the hard, leather seat of my bike, zooming toward the unmanned wall which separated Covale City from Forny and beyond.
I lessened the pressure of my foot on the gas as I entered the black, crumpled countryside, half-built over the years on the other end of my empire. The air smelled different here, staler and rank with sewage.
Jesse has let this all go to shit,I thought angrily.
Like his great-grandfather, he had no business sense, only one of greed. He wanted fortune and lusted for anything that moved, but unlike Gabriel, he had no actual way of maintaining it. Gabriel had had me, at least. Jesse had no one.
Or had Gabriel ever had business sense? I had been much younger then, too. Perhaps I had been misled by Gabriel’s charisma as well. It was harder to remember now, with all the years that had passed.
The crumbling compound was upon me, and I killed the lights, dropping my feet to the ground to walk the motorcycle toward the low wall of the area. A low din of voices met my ears, but no one was wiser about my arrival. Jesse’s guards were half drunk on whatever crappy moonshine they bootlegged amongst themselves. No doubt, half of it tainted with poison that would ensure they didn’t wake until high noon.
Dismounting the bike, I crept to the wall, peeking over with relative ease. I was tall enough to gaze into the spattering of ill-kempt units. My nose crinkled at the stench radiating from within.
“He’s such a lucky prick,” I heard someone mumble sloppily. “Sisters! And not just sisters—twins!”
“They’re pretty, too,” another one agreed.
My eyes fixated on the half-conscious guards sprawled on the ground, a bottle spilling between them as they babbled.
“I wouldn’t mind the quiet one. I don’t like the mouthy one,” the first kid blubbered. “She’s gonna be trouble for Jesse.”
“He’ll tame her soon enough,” the other laughed, taking a swig of the oversized jug.
I began to hyperventilate. They were talking about Bianca and her sister.
