Prologue
ROMAN
According to legend, along with songs, movies, and pop culture, the mob runs Vegas.
That’s fucking bullshit.
Because my three brothers and I are the kings of Sin City.
Each of us has our specialty. Our niche, if you will.
Call us the Mafia, organized crime, or whatever label helps you sleep at night. It doesn’t fucking matter.
We run this town. Nothing happens that we don’t know about. Politicians? In our pocket. Police? Under our thumbs.
We own this city.
And we always will.
Nothing will ever derail our power.
One
LULU
“I’m going to be late for class,” I announce as I walk into the kitchen, where I’ve been summoned to have breakfast with my father.
I have no interest in sitting anywhere near that man.Ever.I can’t stand him.
He doesn’t particularly like me, either, and he doesn’t pull any punches with that. Literally. I still have bruises on my back from the last time Igot in his way.
I’d like to avoid him as much as possible.
So why does he want to enjoy a meal with me now?
“Sit,” he says, pointing at the seat across from him, where eggs, potatoes, bacon, and toast are already piled up just the way I like them, thanks to Iris, our housekeeper and cook. She’s bustling about the kitchen, pretending not to listen. “You’re not going to class today.”
I don’t trust this man, and I never cross him.
So I sit.
Dad’s dressed in his black suit, the way he is every day. I’ve never seen him out of a suit in my life. Not once.
And the handgun on the table to his right is completely normal too. He doesn’t know it, but I learned to shoot a gun just like it. Just in case. Because in this world I’m from, you never know when you’ll need to protect yourself.
Or from whom.
“It’s a nice morning,” I say, trying to fill the quiet until he decides to tell me what’s happening.
I donotwant to miss class today. Dad thinks that I’m in college to get a business degree.
I’m not.
For the first year, I was enrolled in a culinary program. The second year, I learned massage therapy. My third year, I studied goldsmithing. I have a thing for sparklies.
And this year? I decided to submerge myself in all things alcohol.
Because why not?
