I nodded, confirming her identity. He wasn’t asking questions he didn’t already know the answers to. He was fishing for something, but I wasn’t sure what.
“The boss’s daughter.” He cocked his head, studying me. “Seems to me I heard a rumor that one of the Morelli girls was soon to be married to Antonio Arias.”
“You were misinformed,” I gritted out and clenched my fists. “There were discussions, but no confirmation that the marriage would take place.”
“Is that right?” He grinned.
“What’s your game, Alek?” I grew tired of whatever he was searching for. I wanted him to get to the point.
“No game. Just gathering intel.” He shrugged.
“You don’t need intel on the Morellis. It’s a different world down here.”
He laughed. “You’re not wrong about that. It is a different world, but knowledge is power, and men like us can never have enough power.”
“I think that depends on the man and what he intends to do with that power,” I said flatly. “Bianca, you can come out,” I called out to her, still not taking my eyes off Alek.
I felt Bianca come up beside me. She carried my clothes in her arms. Her body pressed against my arm as she slipped herfree hand into mine. I could feel her body trembling in fear. She was smart; Alek was definitely someone to fear.
Alek noticed her fear and sent her a smile. It surprised me that he gave her that small gesture of kindness as he was a hard, cold man, and lethal as hell. “You’ve nothing to fear, Bianca Morelli. You’re safe here.”
I could feel Bianca’s hand relax in mine, and I heard her small sigh of relief before she whispered her thanks to the hitman. It was laughable, thanking a hitman for keeping you safe seemed a little crazy, but Alek wasn’t one for bullshit. If he were here for a purpose other than to bring me back to his boss, he would have gotten to the point by now.
“Let’s go.” He rose from his perch on the couch. We followed him out of the dressing room. As we passed the counter with the cash register and the associate, Alek nodded toward us. “Whatever they need, they get on the house. Send the receipts to me, and I’ll get them taken care of.”
“Yes, sir.” The man’s voice quivered in fear as he readily agreed with Alek.
We followed him as he led us back out through the main casino floor. “What’s going on?” Bianca whispered only loud enough that I could hear over the sounds of the slot machines and laughter.
“I don’t know, but stay close to me at all times. Follow my lead, and we’ll be okay. If Alek wanted to hurt us, we’d be dead already.”
“Is that supposed to comfort me?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm, and I could all but hear her eyes roll. If we weren’t on our way to see Alek’s boss, I would have laughed. Instead, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close. She was carrying my clothes; I would have taken them from her, except I wanted to leave my hands free in case I needed to protect her.
“No, my presence is what’s supposed to comfort you,” I whispered back. “You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Alek took us down a short hall to a door that had a keypad. He gave me and Bianca pointed looks that saidglance away, which we did. We heard a series of beeps before he opened the door. The door led to a foyer of sorts. There was a bench and a private elevator.
We watched Alek as he scanned a badge and then placed his palm on a small screen on the wall. The elevator doors opened once his identity was confirmed through the system.
On the elevator, he leaned forward to a retinal scanner before he was able to hit the third level.
“You have enough layers of security?” I joked at the excessiveness, but I had to admit the setup they had was pretty cool.
“We have an expert who designed the system. This is the only elevator in the building that leads to the third floor besides the freight elevator, and the freight elevator has even more security on it.
“You’re joking?”
Alek raised his brow, “No. I’m not.”
***
Egor Kozlov was standing at the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the casino floor below. The one-way glass spanned the full length of the office; he could look down on his guests to keep an eye on things, but they couldn’t tell they were being watched, probably by more than just Kozlov himself.
He didn’t turn around to talk to me, but I knew he was speaking to me when he asked, “Did you think we wouldn’t know you were here, even if you used a fake name to check in?”
“I knew,” I replied. “I expected you would be making contact sometime over the next few days while we were here.”
“If you didn’t want to be found out, you shouldn’t have spent the day at the poker table in front of the cameras.”
