Fuck. A weapon. As soon as I bent down, I noticed Tony.
Dead in the bushes.
A moan caught my attention and I swung around with the weapon in both hands. Bernie was struggling to stand. “Shit, Bernie. Are you alright?”
“Someone clocked me, boss. But I shot one. There were three men and… I’m sorry, boss. I tried to stop them.” Blood was streaming down his face.
Horror and terror rushed through me. Fuck.
Lainey. Nina.
There was nothing I could do for him. I raced inside, taking the stairs two at a time. First I went to the room I’d shared with Lainey. There was no sign of her or anything amiss. Just the cold, stark emptiness that was already beginning to crowd into my heart.
Rage replaced everything else.
Spinning around, I threw myself up the stairs to the third floor. The door was open and as soon as I walked in, I knew exactly what had happened.
The bed was empty, signs of a struggle evident in small things. The easel kicked over. The teddy bear Nina couldn’t sleep without tossed to the floor.
Sheets tossed and pushed aside.
And a chair turned over.
A deep, icy chill tore through me. My actions perfunctory, I moved toward the easel, picking it up. As pages began to fall forward from the sketchbook with the help of gravity, I noticed the one my daughter had been working on that I’d seen earlier.
Only I hadn’t seen the note.
I lifted the sketchpad, gasping for air.
To my daddy.I love you. Happy birthday.
As the padslipped from my fingers, I slowly dropped to the floor.
And I screamed.
Las Vegas
Five days later…
“We needto keep this between us,” Mikhail said.
“Agreed,” Kazimir grumbled. “That doesn’t mean I like it.”
Alexsey huffed. “I spent some quality time with Liam and his men. Two of O’Shaughnessy’s sons were seen in Reno.”
“Are you saying the man who broke into the guest house was one of the sons?” Kazimir threw out.
“No confirmation either way.”
I lifted my head, trying to control my anger. The family meeting had been called after days had passed. That left our resorts and casinos in the hands of our highly paid managers. We were trying to pretend as if it was business as usual.
A necessary tactic since there were always sharks circling in the waters when a prominent crime syndicate family was in crisis mode.
“Did you contact the Costas?” my father piped in. I was surprised he was addressing them by their name since he’d been staunchly against the alliance.
Mikhail nodded. “They’re in the process of determining if the tip Liam received was credible.”
“You think maybe the sighting was meant to throw our scent.” Everything else had been a goddamn ruse. Why not this handy tip that had come out of nowhere? There was a distinct edge to my voice and Mikhail caught it.
