"I just want to get through tonight," she murmurs. "The money. The payout. Then I’ll be gone. Out of your hotel, out of the city. Out of the whole of Nevada." She tries to laugh, but it comes out weak. Forced. "I don’t want to make trouble for anyone. I just want to live me life in peace."
My jaw tightens at the idea of her leaving. I force myself to breathe slowly. Controlled. She thinks she has to explain herself. She thinks she has to justify her existence to me like she is an inconvenience.
She shifts her weight, uneasy. The robe slips a little off her shoulder and she pulls it up quickly, like the touch of air on her skin suddenly feels too intimate. She looks away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear to give her hands something to do.
"Please," she whispers. "I can’t let him find me."
I study her carefully. The tension in her posture. The defensive way she holds her arms. The subtle tremor in her voice when she speaks. She is guarding something. Something sharp and dangerous. Something that makes her talk like someone is right behind her even when she is alone in a locked suite with me.
"I just have a couple of questions." I hate myself for having to ask, because I know the answers already. The thing that livesinside me, knows she is innocent in whatever scheme her ex was running.
Jasmine sighs heavily, like she can barely cope with the weight of everything she is carrying. She slumps into the sofa behind her and twists her hands together on her knee before looking at me and nodding.
"Is your boyfriend Matthew Kane?" I ask, voice flat and cold. Trying to make this business, when my entire body is screaming that it’s anything but.
"Yes," she says before adding, "Well, he is my ex boyfriend now."
"Did you steal money from him?"
She lets out a huff and her brows flicker.
"No, but that’s what he accused me of when his boss wanted to know where the money went. He wanted me to go along with it, said they’d go easier on me. But I refused."
"And he beat you." It’s not a question. Her head drops forward and I swear to god I could break in half right here. Half of me wants to comfort her, protect her. The other half wants to rip the world apart.
Without thinking, I drop to my knees in front of her and lift her chin with my finger. One hand resting possessively beside her.
"You will receive every cent you won," I tell her. "Your payout will not be affected by your association with him."
The truth is the winnings were ready immediately. I just knew if I let her have them straight away she would have run, and she so clearly needed rest.
"But of all the casinos in Las Vegas, you walked into mine. That means something to me. What he did to you, means something to me. And I need you to understand that."
She frowns, shakes her head slightly. I drop my finger from her chin. I’m desperate to touch her face but I don’t want to scare her.
"My family, we are Bratva. And we don’t stand for harming women. We might move in the… grayer areas of the world, but that is one thing we never do. And the moment you walked in here with your bruises and what I feel may have been your last twenty dollars, you became mine to protect."
Her lips part slightly and I’m close enough to see the way they flush slightly darker. She rolls them over her tongue, moistening them slowly and the sight sends a jolt straight to my cock. I have to take a deep breath through my nose and slowly exhale to get myself in check.
"But I’m nothing to you," she says, pulling my gaze back up to meet hers. Her eyes are brown with tiny green flecks in them that I one-hundred-percent know would look glorious in the sunshine.
I want to see her in the sunshine.
Fuck. This is getting out of control.
"Jasmine…" How do I tell her without scaring her? She is going to think I’m some creeper guy who does this to all the single women who walk into his hotel. "I need you to understand that when I say this, I’ve never said it before. Not to anyone."
I wait for her to nod, then continue. "When you walked in, I was looking at the monitors. I don’t even usually monitor the entrance but something made me look. And it was you. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I understand it. I don’t. And I don’t expect anything from you. But I couldn’t do what I’m going to do without you knowing."
"What are you going to do?" she asks.
"I’m going to kill Matthew Kane, and then I’m going to make him an example of what happens if anyone comes near you ever again."
She blinks quickly, too quickly, and her gaze sharpens to flint. "Kill him," she repeats. "You can’t be serious."
"In this city right now, it’s you or him. He has made it that way by putting a price on your head. In the three hours you’ve been here, we’ve already intercepted two members of his gang."
She swallows hard, her breath leaving her in a whoosh as she stands up suddenly, ready to flee. She tries to side step around me, but I catch her around her hips, not wanting to go near her waist incase I catch the bruise. She tenses, holding herself perfectly still, but she doesn’t pull away.
