“Shit.” I walk over to the bucket of champagne on the table. Obviously Emmanuel was planning to come back here tonight.
“What was that?” he asks.
“I stubbed my toe,” I lie.
“Evie, what’s going on? Come on! Why won’t this thing move faster.” He sounds like he’s hitting a door.
“I’m okay, E. It’s not me,” I whisper as I walk into the bathroom and find a hand towel.
“I’m almost there.”
I can hear the sound of the elevator opening. When I make it back out to the living room, I pick up some ice and wrap it in the towel. Just as I’m handing it to Paz, the door bangs open, hitting the wall with a loud thud. Paz jumps up, shoving me behind him.
Emmanuel runs into the suite with his gun raised. “What the fuck?” he grunts, his voice calm when he turns to me. “Evie, come here.”
I step around Paz. “You need to sit down. Put some ice on your face. And both of you need to lower your damn guns.”
“Evie, come here,” Emmanuel repeats, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.
I walk over to him. I have no idea what’s happening, but Paz is his most trusted man, so why is his being here sending Emmanuel into a frenzy?
Chapter Forty
Ireach for Evie and shove her behind me. “Where the fuck have you been?” I ask Paz. No one has seen him for days.
“I got picked up.” Paz drops his gun onto the table. I don’t lower mine. Not even when he falls back onto the sofa with a pained grunt.
“Picked up by who?” I press him.
“Feds,”he says.
“Did you talk to them?”
“Does it look like I fucking talked? I am not a goddamn rat,” he says that last part in Spanish.
“Why’d you come here?”
“Followed your GPS location to the casino,” he says. “Figured you’d eventually show up to your usual room.”
“The police did that to you? They’re not allowed to touch you. You need a doctor.” Evie steps in front of me.
I lower my gun but I don’t let go of it. “Evie, can you go into the bedroom? Call Charlotte and have Louie send his doc up.” I need to get her as far away from Paz as I can right now.
It’s not that I don’t trust him, but I didn’t get as far as I have by letting my guard down. I’m not going to start now.
“Sure. Here, wait.” She digs around in her purse. “It’s not much but it’s all I have,” she says, handing Paz a small packet of Tylenol. I don’t have it in me to tell her that’s not going to help him.
“Thanks.” Paz accepts the pills from her.
I watch as she walks into the bedroom. Then I sit on the coffee table, moving Paz’s gun out of reach. He doesn’t miss the action.
“If you’re going to kill me, do it. I didn’t fucking talk, jefe,” he says.
“What’d they say to you?” I ask him.
“They were talking about things they shouldn’t know. About drops, about Giuliani.” Paz nods towards the bedroom. “And they mentioned Evie.”
“What the fuck would they want with her?” I grunt. I know Evie said an agent talked to her, but I figured they’d seen her with me and took a shot.
