“What of it?” I say.
“It’s…” he begins, then pauses. “You know it’s illegal, right?”
I shrug. There are those in my family who do this all the time. I know because I watched them do it.
“How long have I worked for you now?” It’s a rhetorical question. We both know it’s been six years. “In all that time, you haven’t put a foot wrong, Dario.”
“What’s your point, Mateo,” I ask.
“The hotel, the home you’ve built for yourself…it’s all above board,” he says. He’s beginning to piss me the fuck off. I know what I’ve built up. The empire that has nothing to do with the family that birthed me. I didn’t do any of it for them. I broke free and came clean for me…and Daniele. But none of this has any bearing on what’s happened today.
“Is there a point to this?” I repeat. He runs a hand through his hair and heaves a breath.
“I just don’t want you getting in trouble, that’s all,” he says.
I narrow my eyes at him. “I know what I’m doing,” I snap.
“Remember your place.”
Chapter 7
Nikki Love
“Your father did what?!” Andy shrieks.
“Shhh!” I try to quiet her. I look around the crowded waiting room and put a hand on her arm. Thankfully, we’re between patients, and Andy is ending her shift. I tug her into the small admin room behind the nurse’s station and close the door.
“Let me get this clear,” she says when we know it’s safe to talk. “Your father lost you in a poker game. To the same guy you had hot sex with this week…and you have to pay him back?” Even as she says it, I know how insane it sounds. “You realize this is next-level insane, right?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“And now he wants you to work in his casino?”
“Seems that way, yes,” I reply.
“Bullshit,” she scoffs. “He’s totally going to fuck you again.”
“Andy!”
“What? Don’t you want to?” she asks.
I shake my head. Everything about this has changed now. It’s one thing having sex with a hot stranger, but this…? No. This is fucking weird. The man’s clearly an arrogant bastard. Too much money and no morals. Who else would gamble for a human life? Not to mention cheat on his wife.Pig.
“Well, I think you should,” she says. Of course, she does. Andy’s mad.
“And why do you think that?”
“Well, for a start, think of the fortune you’d save in beaver bashers,” she says.
“What?” I frown.
“You know…wangdoodles?”
I shake my head, perplexed.
“Robococks? Battery boys?” she continues.
Dear God…
