“A girl, huh?” Gio grinned at me before he ripped into his burger.
“News travels fast.”
“The grand poobah told me.”
That was Gio’s thing with Kitty. He came up with “grandmotherly” names to call her because he said calling her Kitty was just as ridiculous.
“It’s true, though? A girl?”
I nodded. “A girl.”
We ate the rest of our food in companionable silence, but I could feel Gio’s energy had shifted. He was more mellow, and not just because he’d eaten red meat. He was pleased by the news.
Thirty minutes later, Sam walked in alone. He fixed his suit. “She’ll be here soon.”
For more privacy, Umberto, Gio, and I decided to wait in the room she rented from Vinny. We passed a line of slot machines that Vinny decided to add to his establishment to get more revenue going during the day. The men’s arms were constantly in movement—either hitting the button, scooping or adding coins, or reaching for a beer or drink the girls refilled without them asking.
Long beads that served as a privacy screen covered the door. We each had to move them to the side for clearance. An old, worn-out poker table sat in the center of the room, and Umberto and Gio took seats at it. Before I did, I studied the wood-paneled walls. They had knife marks gouged in them.
“I’ve seen her throw them,” Gio said. “She’s fucking precise.” Then a shit-eating grin came to his face when an unforgettable song started to play. “This one is dedicated to you,Mr. Big Stuff.”
It was the song by the same name, the same one Leonora had her girls sing to me the night I came to see her at work—before we were married. When she was in her “I hate you, but I love you, Tullio Bigatti” era.
The beads barely rattled as a slight form slipped through them. Shu Sun, known as Jade, was petite and slim. Her long, straight black hair was pulled over one shoulder, hitting her waist. She wore dark sunglasses. I knew she would throughout the meeting. She wore a leather jacket, black leggings, and fire-red heels. Her long nails matched.
She took a seat before any of us could get up. She faced me. “He’ll be here.”
“I appreciate,” I said. She had known what I wanted, a meeting with Jin, and had already set it up.
“I like Leo,” she said in answer. She opened one of her pockets and set her cellphone down on the table.
Yeah, and it might make things awkward between them if her man tried to stick a knife in my back to retaliate.
Twenty minutes later, Jin walked in. He was alone on the inside, but I was almost certain he had some of his men outside. He was slim but had muscle where it counted, and tats from his neck down. Two scars, old slashes, ran down his left cheek. His black hair was done in an undercut, and he wore similar clothes to Jade, except he wore motorcycle riding boots.
He took the seat across from me, removed his dark sunglasses, and set them on the table. His dark eyes were no nonsense. “I know you didn’t do it,” he said.
I nodded. “We had no reason to.”
“A copycat,” Gio said. “From what happened in New York a while back.”
“Word on the street is that someone tried to buy a shit-load of explosives not long ago—car bombs,” Jin said.
I was pleased the meeting was going this way—two different organizations attempting to squeeze out whoever was trying to cause a war for no good fucking reason.
I nodded. I’d gotten that information too. “Wasn’t successful.”
“Not that time, but money doesn’t always say no.”
“Agreed,” I said.
He pulled out his phone, the screen lit, and a second or two later, he slid it toward me. A grainy picture had been pulled up. Gio and Umberto both leaned in, on either side of me, to see it.
“Outside of Koi?” I nodded to the phone. Koi was his restaurant, and it was one of the most popular along the strip.
“No. My personal club.”
I looked up and locked eyes with him.
