“But you should also be aware that Adrian is much the same way on a personal level.”
I gulped. What did this have to do with the Vale and Morril burgeoning rivalry?Everything. Everything and anything that can be used to break them has to do with it.
“Is this relevant to what I am working on, Leo, or is this just meant to be gossip?”
“Is it gossip if it is true? And remember, you said it yourself, you are far less likely to publish something if my name is not attached to it. I am not telling you what to publish. I am simply telling you what I know. Do with the information as you please.”
My bullshit radar began flashing alarms in my head. Leo wasn’t as graceful as Adrian or Cassius, but he wasn’t stupid. He had to know what he was saying next would never get published, not by theLas Vegas Times.
Unless he’s telling me this not for the sake of publication, but for something else…
“Adrian has not been, let’s say, very selective in who he has slept with,” he began. I bit my tongue. I had no idea how long this would go on, but if there was something that suggested an illegal deal or activity… well, it would qualify as news. “He has more than a few former employees who would speak about the kind of aggressive man that he is. Even other journalists?—”
“I am here to gather information about how the family operates, Leo, not how an individual man chooses to date,” I cut in. “If other journalists cannot respect reporter-subject boundaries, that is their problem. If you have something newsworthy you wish to tell me, then so be it.”
Leo paused, but there seemed to be a hint of gratification on the other end of the line. A slight “hmm” was all that I got, but it was enough to tell me that I’d reacted way more strongly than I’d meant to.
Which, in turn, made me concerned that my ability to keep those deep internal thoughts to myself might not be as well done as I had thought.
Or maybe Leo didn’t know but had only a suspicion.
Still, either way, every part of my rational brain was telling me to treat carefully.
“Just be careful, Delilah Reyes,” Leo said. “I know he has opened himself up to you as a source. Understand that he is not a reliable narrator, or at the very least he’s an incomplete one.”
“I will keep that in mind,” I said coldly.
Leo Morril had little else to say, hanging up a short while after. When he finally did, I found myself feeling an odd emotion.
Anger.
Even with incredibly inflammatory subjects—sex and drug trafficking in Las Vegas, women held against their will by biker clubs and other powerful people, wet blankets for government officials—I always kept a level head. My job was to present information objectively and clearly, which meant that even for things that everyone else would rightfully get riled up over, I had to keep a dispassionate head.
And here Leo was, spreading gossip about Adrian that got under my skin.
Why?
Well…
I knew why.
I didn’t want to admit why, but deep down, I knew why. I really did.
I just told myself to be careful, to respect the line between journalist and subject, and to recognize that both Adrian and Leo were likely seeing me as a pawn right now.
And that as their pawn, they would use me in whatever manner they saw fit to break the other.
CHAPTER 7
Adrian
Three full days passed, bringing us to Wednesday—the day when my focus would gradually shift from mundane matters with the business to the flashier events to come.
The truth about Vegas was that the city never slept. I never knew why New York City got that nickname when Vegas had nightclubs open until ten a.m. the next day. But there was a difference between Tuesday at four a.m. and Friday at four a.m. The former usually spoke of degeneracy and major questions; the latter spoke of being in the spotlight at the prime hour. So while others might have taken “industry nights” to go get wasted and hook up with whoever, I took those nights as a chance to get even more work done.
But now that it was Wednesday, my eyes began to shift to the weekend and what was to come.
And strangely, no matter how much I tried to focus elsewhere, they kept returning to one woman.
