Chapter 1
Ren walked through the doors of the Eclipse Grand Casino with his jaw clenched and his fists clenched in his coat pockets. The place reeked of money and corruption. Crimson velvet. Fake gold. The sweet smoke of expensive cigars curling through the air. He hated every inch of that place. He hated even more that his father had ordered him to come.
“Come on, move.” Andrew dug his fingers into Ren’s elbow, pushing him forward with a brutal familiarity that Ren knew all too well.
“I can walk on my own,” he protested.
“Then do it faster.”
Ren clenched his teeth, but obeyed. He always obeyed. Not out of fear—never out of fear—but because every battle he fought had to be worth it. And arguing with Andrew in the middle of the casino would bring him nothing but trouble.
The gaming tables passed him. Patches of light and sound. Fake laughter, clinking chips, shouts of victory. He recognized a few faces—ruined aristocrats, corrupt business owners, people who came here to win and lose fortunes as easily as they breathed. His father fit right in among them.
“Where is he?” Ren tossed the question over his shoulder without bothering to look at his brother.
“He’s not here.”
Ren stopped dead in his tracks. Andrew ran into him.
“What do you mean he’s not here? You told me…”
“I told you to come to the casino. I never mentioned Dad.”
A chill ran down his spine. Ren spun on his heels, facing Andrew with narrowed eyes.
“What the hell is going on?”
Andrew flashed that crooked smile that looked so much like his father’s, full of rotten secrets and broken promises.
“You’ll see.”
Ren resisted the urge to pull free as he seized his arm again with more force. That look was familiar to him. On his father’s face, he’d seen it every time he came home after losing everything. The same desperate, calculating look that preceded the apologies, the pleas, the deals that Ren always ended up paying for with his own body.
Dimitri Reznov.
The name hit him like a punch in the stomach. The last time had been only two months ago. An entire evening at a luxury restaurant accompanying the alpha while knowing how it would all end. Ren’s mind knew how to escape those encounters, to abandon his body until it was all over, but on that occasion it had been harder than usual. Dimitri had hinted that it wouldn’t be the last time they saw each other.
“If it’s Reznov again—”
“It’s not Reznov.”
That didn’t reassure him. On the contrary.
Andrew led him to the back of the casino, away from the main tables, through a carpeted hallway where the noise faded into a distant hum. Two security guards flanked a dark mahogany door. They asked no questions, just stepped aside.
“Go on.” Andrew released his arm and gestured toward the door with an almost courteous gesture. “They’re waiting for you inside.”
“Who?”
“The owner.”
Ren felt the air catch in his lungs. He had never met the owner of the Eclipse.
No one knew him well, according to the rumors. He was a powerful figure who pulled the strings from the shadows.
“Andrew…”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
