Page 74 of The Bratva King

“You did the right thing leaving when you did,” I tell her.

She begins stacking the puzzle pieces back into their tray. “Should I tell Miss Collins? It might be nothing. My father has made me paranoid.” She smiles, but we both know paranoia keeps people like us alive.

I look toward the hallway. I hear the faint nautical horn of Luke’s cartoon drifting from the far end of the house.

“No,” I say.

Kylie waits.

“She has enough on her plate,” I say. “I’ll handle it. From now on, don’t take him off the property without clearing it with me first. I’ll put a second body on you when you go out. Plain clothes. You won’t even know he’s there.”

She nods. She knows better than to ask questions I won’t answer.

“You can go home,” I tell her. “I’ll stay with him until his mother gets back.”

She collects her tote bag from the hook near the door. She stops before she leaves and looks at me.

“He’s a good kid,” she says. “Really good. I’m looking forward to working with him. He’s very smart.”

“Yes, he is.”

I pour myself a drink and consider what she told me. Nothing in my world is random.

The man at Gabby’s table today.

The signal she scratched into the felt with two fingers. I saw it before security alerted Joel. I’d been watching her table since she returned from her break.

She’d handled it. I’ll give her that.

Two incidents in one day.

I don’t believe in coincidence.

Joel questioned the man, and his story checked out. He was from New York, in town for a conference at the hotel. He doesn’t match the description Kylie gave. Two different men. No obvious connection.

The man at the park concerns me. Pasha warned me that bringing Gabby and Luke into my world was a risk. I’ll make sure there’s nothing for them to be afraid of.

My phone buzzes. It’s one of the guards at the new casino.

“Sokolov,” I answer.

“I thought you’d want to know. We just had a box truck, no company name or logo, try to make a delivery.”

“What do you mean?”

“Said he had a delivery but didn’t have paperwork. We’re not expecting anything. He said he must have had the wrong address and left.”

“Stay alert,” I tell him.

“Will do.”

I feel the pressure closing in. Too much to be a coincidence. They’re testing me. Looking for a weak spot.

They won’t find it.

I walk down the hallway toward the cinema room. The door is open a few inches. I push it wider and survey the scene.

Luke is on the center couch with his blanket folded across his lap and one of the new plush dinosaurs beside him. He’s watching the screen with the same grave attention he gives everything.