I stepped out of the line, but I didn’t want to go back to my room. There was a bench by the wall. Maybe I’d wait for a few minutes. The club might be so boring my friends would pour out and we’d go do something fun, something we could all enjoy.
I’d just wait for a few minutes.
Gideon
For fuck’s sake, she was still there.
I glared at the screen on my desk. I could scroll through any part of Silver any minute I wanted. I could go back three months, or I could watch live like it was my very own streaming show. Rarely did I need to. Butwhen the reservation system had sent a flag to my office weeks ago, I’d made sure I was ready.
That fucking family.
I had put the goddamn Baileys into the system. If they used a credit card or tried to reserve a room, I’d put a stop to it. On a whim, I had added the Kerrigan sisters too. Were the Baileys trying to get dirt on me?
There were no secrets. I’d worked fucking hard to get this corner office and an entire casino of staff under me.
Like my grandfather had said,What a man owns defines him.
I didn’t own the place, but I ran it. I controlled it. I grew rich from it. Rich enough to buy anything I wanted—only to have my father ensure I didn’t have a say about the one property that mattered to me.
Goddamnhim.
You need to make this yours. A man is nothing without his legacy.My grandfather’s words had been running nonstop through my head since Dad had called to tell me he was selling.
I squeezed a fist as I watched the woman on the edge of my screen. The image was slightly grainy. She had one leg crossed over the other and was scrolling through her phone.
She hadn’t been allowed into Glitter.
What had she been thinking? Couldn’t she tell she was way out of her league? The girl wasn’t showing more than an inch of skin at her collar line. Her bare neck wasn’t enough to gain entrance into the club.
Glitter’s manager was relentless about his “standards,” and I’d had more than one argument with theboard about that jackass, but Glitter’s bottom line spoke louder than me.
I studied my screen. I didn’t know Autumn Kerrigan personally. I knew she taught third grade at the lone elementary school in Bourbon Canyon. I knew she and her sisters had been adopted after their parents had died in a nasty wreck. And I knew that she was staying in room 1405, ten floors below my own suite.
She must’ve known that she wasn’t getting inside.
Her friends had ditched her?
A tingle of dismay crossed through me. I didn’t like her, but getting ditched hit a sore spot with me. Who needed enemies when you had friends like that?
Autumn was buried in her phone, hunched over the device like she was trying to disappear in a casino full of cameras that caught every angle.
I’d seen all those angles.
Ever since she’d checked in. I’d seen the way she’d tapped her foot while waiting for her card to run. How she’d laughed with her head back and that wavy hair falling down her back. How she’d held the door for all her friends to enter the public restrooms first, like a damn gentleman. She’d shown them more consideration taking a piss than they had for her a half hour ago.
My phone buzzed. I didn’t bother to check it.
Taya was at the club and wanted me to join her. We’d have our own private booth. As the brains behind the casino’s financials, she’d want to talk shop. Then she’d want more. I hadn’t succumbed in a while.
A part of me was... restless. Taya and I worked together, and occasionally, we fucked. She looked good on my arm, and she liked how my name opened doors for her.
I glanced at the screen.I’m waiting.
She didn’t like to wait.
I had told her we could talk over the plans to restructure the parking garage and renovate several rooms into luxury suites. Rich people didn’t want to park with the masses.
I clicked out of the surveillance system and left my office. In the elevator, I snapped my suit coat straight and buttoned one button.
