“Yes,” Naomi said. “I need to empty my safe deposit box.”
CHAPTER 21
Less than an hour later, Naomi walked into Casino Moda carrying a Las Vegas souvenir tote bag filled with eighty-seven-thousand dollars cash in large bills. Everything she had left from all of her repeated hits on Leo Slater’s casinos.
Asher had been calling her repeatedly since she left Michael’s house, but she had yet to speak to him. She felt awful for silencing her phone, but she knew what he would say if she told him she was heading in to give Slater what he demanded. Or, part of it, at any rate. She hoped the money she had to give him would appease him enough to back off and not hurt anyone else close to her.
If she had to work the rest of days to earn back the remainder of what she owed him, she was fully prepared do it. She just wanted him out of her life now and forever.
She just wanted to be able to grieve for Michael and bring home Tyler and Penny and the rest of the kids and never let them go.
Those plans bolstered her as she marched through the casino toward the glass central elevator that would take her to the executive offices on the top floor. Her finger only trembled a little as she pushed the button on the panel and waited for the car.
Someone was on the way down.
As the lift descended smoothly to the lobby level, she found herself staring into the face of a man she’d never seen before. A dark-haired man with arresting silver eyes who she would never mistake for human.
The massive Breed male who stepped out of the car stood easily as tall as Asher, and was built just as solidly beneath the crisp white button-down shirt and graphite-colored dress slacks that strained over his muscled physique. In the open V of his shirt collar an elaborate tangle ofdermaglyphscurled and twisted onto his neck.
Every instinct in her body told her this was not only a Breed male, but the trained assassin Asher had warned her was on Slater’s payroll.
Cain.
Those shrewd silver predator’s eyes glanced down at the bag in her hands then back up at her in glowering suspicion. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“I need to see Slater.” She tried to step around him, but he was too enormous. His body blocked the elevator doors, which had slid closed on a whisper behind him.
“Like hell you do. What’s in the bag?”
She knew the only thing she should be feeling under this menacing male’s gaze was fear for her life, but she was still too numb and in shock from Michael’s death to feel anything but fury now that she was staring up at one of the men likely responsible for taking his life.
“I’m sure you know why I’m here. To deliver your boss what he’s demanded. His blood money.”
Cain shook his head, his scowl deepening. “I can’t let you do that.”
“What are you going to do?” She scoffed. “Kill me right here in the lobby of the casino? Or take me somewhere and string me up to make it look like I killed myself the way you and the other thugs working for Slater did to my friend?”
The vampire’s lips pressed flat on a low snarl. “I had nothing to do with that. In fact, I just heard about it from some of the men on the security team.”
She glared at him, bitterness in her voice. “Like I’m going to believe you? I’m sure Slater and the rest of you thugs have been up there patting yourselves on the backs for killing a man who had little chance of defending himself.”
A tendon jumped in Cain’s tense, beard-shadowed cheek. “You couldn’t be more wrong, at least as far as I’m concerned. And on the occasions that I have killed someone, I’ve never needed an excuse or a reason to make it look like something else.”
She swallowed, seeing a glimpse of the coldness that lived inside him. “I’m sure you must sleep like a baby knowing you have such high standards. Now, get out of my way and let me pass.”
“Naomi.” His hand clamped around her wrist like a band of iron. His face darkened, even while his irises lit with amber flecks of irritation. “If you go up there, Slater will never let you leave. At least, not while you’re still breathing.”
She tried to wrench loose, but there was no breaking his hold. From his expression, that kind of strength came easily, without even a thought.
“Cut your losses and leave town as soon as possible,” he told her. “There are plenty of places you can go. As a Breedmate, you’ll find safe shelter in any of the Breed communities around this country or any other. Go there. Stay away from Las Vegas.”
Strange how different this advice sounded coming from someone other than Asher. In the beginning, he’d insisted on nothing less than her getting the hell out of town and staying gone. As much as she’d balked at the idea then, the thought of being driven away from her city and her life here was something she’d never consider now.
Especially if Cain were suggesting she should leave Asher behind too.
She glanced down, realizing only now that Cain had a black leather duffel bag at his feet. “Where are you going?”
He grunted. “I don’t know. Anywhere but here. I’ve spent too much time working for slime like Slater. I’m done.”
