Coffee. He needed more coffee.
As he walked over to the coffee machine in his office, his thoughts turned to Dana over and over again. Why the fascination for this particular woman?
Why not? There were plenty of reasons to like her.
She was smart and successful. He knew because he’d Googled her and found her professional bio listed on the local tourism board website. Dana was responsible for bringing thousands of convention delegates to Vegas every year. She’d won awards for her work. Her resume, listed on LinkedIn, read like a dream.
If they’d met in different circumstances, he would have offered her a job.
She obviously had a good heart. After all, here she was at Vice, trying to make her divorced sister feel better. He could tell family meant something to her. That, in turn, meant something to him.
And, as his cock reminded him on a regular basis, her body was a temptation he couldn’t ignore.
Any man with half a brain would be interested in Dana for any of those reasons. For Alex though, it was something about her eyes. There was a sadness there, one she was trying hard to keep hidden, and it tugged at him. It compelled him to fix it for her, to fix everything for her.
Whatever the reason, he was spending way too much time thinking about her. He couldn’t afford to spend time wondering about the woes of strangers, not even the beautiful ones with sad eyes.
He certainly had a shit ton of work to get through before tonight’s party.
He wanted Dana to come. He hadn’t just been flirting for kicks with her yesterday. He’d been testing the waters and her reactions led him to believe she might be receptive to more than just flirting. She’d had plenty of opportunities to tell him to take a hike but she hadn’t. Every lick of her lips and each halted breath convinced him she was just as interested in him as he was in her.
It wasn’t enough living off memories of having her in that tacky bathroom.
He wanted to get her into his bed.
Tonight, at the party, he would leave her in no doubt as to his feelings.
Shaking his head, Alex clicked on a folder icon on his screen and tried to get something accomplished. It was only then he noticed the small pile of mail left behind by his assistant. He flipped quickly through the letters. One caught his attention because there was no return address. It was in a plain envelope, his name printed on the front on a label. Figuring it was a piece of junk mail he could dismiss easily enough, he opened it.
Inside was a single sheet of standard paper with one word printed on it.
MURDERER
He reread the letter although he didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if the foul message might change, and the last time he checked, he had 20/20 vision. He hadn’t read it wrong.
Bile crept into Alex’s throat but he swallowed it.
He checked out the envelope again but nothing gave him any indication as to the sender. There wasn’t even a stamp.
Someone had hand delivered it.
A familiar image sprang to mind, one Alex had wrestled with in his nightmares for months. Shannon, prostrate at the pool’s edge, her hair caked in blood.
No.
The letter was some sort of cruel prank. Everyone knew his history, and the Deans hadn’t stopped talking about the circumstances surrounding their daughter’s death. They insisted on dredging up bad memories, turning a harsh light on his failing relationship with Shannon.
Thanks to them and their misguided sense of blame, others had jumped on the bandwagon.
He would have to check with his assistant. Maybe he would remember if someone had dropped the letter off.
Who would send him something like this?
Someone lashing out over some petty jealousy, perhaps. Liam had told Alex that when he opened the casinos, a lot of people had resented his success. That’s all this was, someone trying to make him feel unsettled because he was the new kid on the block.
He knew for a fact others had wanted to buy the casinos from Liam, but his friend hadn’t entertained those offers. In fact, he’d snubbed them. He could see how some might resent Alex for swooping in and taking the reins.
Unfortunately for them, he didn’t appreciate pranks, especially not ones that took so little thought. If someone out there wanted to intimidate him, he should have tried harder.
