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“How so?”
He coughs and blood drips from his mouth. A sinister smile spreads across his face. “I’d hire thugs to do it.”
“Who did you take out?”
“Belyaev.” He takes a deep breath. “I hired an Irish soldier for the war, but Barone’s man wanted it done, something about no Russian dog was going to lay with a good Italian girl.” He coughs again. “Sokolov because he was getting too close to me. Killed him myself.” He laughs. “Wife was a hot piece of ass.”
The brigadier is pushed aside, and Mikhail is standing there. The camera goes black, and a gunshot rings out before the video ends. There's no proof of who shot him, but I know who did it.
“Your father was killed because of one of Barone’s men?” Gray says.
For years, I’ve heard the rumors about my father falling for an Italian woman, but I didn’t know if they were true. I try to focus on some of my last moments with him, but they are jumbled with the anger I feel.
“But which one?” I answer Gray.
“Take some time, brat, you’ll figure it out.”
“Okay.” We talk a bit more about the casino and then hang up.
I head downstairs to my bar, where I pour a generous glass of vodka before I step out the back. I opened all the sliders before I went up to my office. The cool November night invades the house. The pool is calm, with lights reflecting in it. I look out over the desert toward the Strip as I sip my drink. Memories flash through my mind of my father happy. A dark-haired, olive-skinned woman is in our kitchen. She was beautiful, younger than him, but not too young.
Seven
LYRIC
“Help. Get an ambulance,” I yell.
I can’t believe Ainsley verbally attacked Lennon. I agree we need to stop this. It’s gotten out of hand. Not only is the Triad now after Lennon because of Sparrow’s dead stepbrother, but the Italians and Irish mobs are after us now too. I didn’t want people to physically get hurt, especially my sisters.
The bathroom is flooded with people, and I look around when I don’t see Ainsley anymore. My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it.
“What happened?” an older woman asks, her eyes boring into mine.
“She collapsed. She was puking, and she collapsed.” I don’t give her the complete truth, but she stares at me, waiting for me to give her the full story. “My sister was arguing with her. She fainted.”
Scared, I hold Lennon in my lap against my body.
The paramedics arrive and try to clear the room. “We need everyone out so we can get to the patient,” one of them says, and I shake my head.
“She’s my sister,” I say, and all the eyes in the room turn to me. I know what this means. I’m willing to pay the penance for Lennon. I’d do it for Ainsley too.
I scoot back so the medics can work on her. When they say they have to transport her, I follow them out. The older woman from before grabs my arm.
“Don’t you run.”
“I won’t.”
I climb up into the ambulance along with Sparrow.
“I’m her sister too,” she says, and I nod at her. She and Lennon have some similar features, but she is petite compared to our average height.
“I know.”
“What were you arguing about?” she asks me as she takes my hand.
She’s too sweet and kind for this world. Tears prick the back of my eyes as emotion takes over.
“I didn’t want this. No one was supposed to get hurt,” I tell her. “I didn’t know Daron took a gun that night. I didn’t know your stepbrother was still after you,” I confess, and she squeezes my hand.
