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Page 3 of Guarding her Gangster Girl

The room goes silent. All eyes turn to me, Eva’s the most intense of all. “Dominika, isn’t it? Dominika Kusek?”

She knows very well who I am, but it pleases her to pretend she doesn’t. “Nik, ma’am, is what I prefer.”

“And what do you suggest instead, Dominika?”

There’s the slightest emphasis on my full name. But I keep going. “Meet with the widow today. But change the offer—see how much you can push them for. The Colombos won’t be in a place to bargain, not with the Family in disarray.”

Eva leans back, studying me, weighing my suggestion. Then, slowly, a smile spreads across her face. “Well, well. It seems our quiet Dominika has some bite after all.” She turns to Markov. “You heard her. Increase the offer. Let’s see how the Colombos handle a little—what do the Americans call it? Ah, yes.Hardball.”

As Markov hurries off, the others are looking at me differently now. With respect, yes, but also wariness. They’re not sure what to make of me yet. But I don’t care, if I’ve succeeded in showing the boss that I can be useful.

Eva smiles her cat-that-got-the-cream smile. “Well. Let’s see how things play out.” Her gaze returns to me as she stands, smoothing her suit jacket. The movement is graceful, controlled. She doesn’t need size or strength to lead. She has something much more important: power, and utter self-confidence. This is a woman who could rain down death on a whole city with a flicker of her eyelashes, and so in this moment, under her approval, I feel more alive than ever. “You’re proving to be a useful player in the Novak Consortium, Dominika. A fine replacement for your father Mikolaj, may he rest in peace. And I’m sure he does, thanks to you.”

The mention of my father strikes hard, though I don’t show it. For a moment, I’m back in our old training room, my father’s voice in my ears.In this world, you’re either predator or prey. And I didn’t raise you to be prey, child.

I give a nod of thanks to Eva. I do hope that my father can see me from wherever he is.

Eva turns her attention to the rest of the room. “I will meet those attending with me in the lobby at ten this evening, when we will drive over to the Golden Sands. The rest of you can enjoy yourselves in Sin City—but not too much.”

There are grins and chuckles of appreciation as the men stand to file out of the penthouse, but I wait until the room has emptied out. By then, Eva is heading toward her private rooms, shadowed by Leon, and I find myself hurrying after her. “Ms. Novak,” I call out, and she pauses in surprise, turns to stare at me. “I’d like to be at that meeting, if you’ll allow it.”

“Why?”

“I want to get a look at the Colombos,” I tell her truthfully. “I’m still learning, and?—”

She turns to keep walking. I fucked up by being late, I guess, even though I wasn’t. But as she reaches the door to her bedroom, she calls back over her shoulder, “Be in the lobby on time, Dominika.”

Grinning, I leave the penthouse and go back to my room to freshen up, looking over the Las Vegas Strip stretching out under my windows, a glittering snake as the sun goes down.

I don’t know that I like it here. This is a city built on dreams and desperation, where fortune lives side by side with failure. I don’t likeluck. The concept of it. I made myself, with my father’s help, and I will continue to control my destiny—as I proved just now.

I can step up and seize that golden ring: power, prestige, wealth. All the things my father worked for that he never realized.

And for some reason I think of the Colombo widow, suddenly thrust into a role she can’t be prepared for. Eva regards her as a pawn in someone else’s game, a non-consideration.

I wonder…who reallydidkill her husband?

Still, that’s not a question I need to worry about. The only question I need to ask is whether I’m ready for what comes next. And as I make my way down to the lobby twenty minutes before ten—I will never be caught coming last to a meeting again—I know the answer.

I wasbornready.

CHAPTER 3

Nik

The Golden SandsCasino is glamorous even by Vegas standards, although it contains the same slightly sickening sense of too-muchness that seeps into everything in this city. Crystal chandeliers are plentiful, along with the gilt edge on everything, and there’s a faint, discordant jingle of slot machines in the distance.

I don’t like it at all.

It’s a world away from the gritty warehouses and back alleys where I grew up in Philadelphia, but danger and misery lurks behind all the glitz, and that’s what I don’t like about it.

It’s dishonest.

The meeting room is thankfully more corporate in décor, darker in furnishings, with lights that are lower in intensity except for the downlights set over the long conference table, where the Consortium and I are sitting, arranged in two wings around Eva Novak at the foot of the table. My eyes have adjusted and I’m just starting to feel comfortable when the door opens again and a new burst of light floods into the room.

Not light, but a woman. A woman with a lot of shiny blonde hair and diamonds,hugediamonds flashing even in this dim light, diamonds clinging to a long, golden-tanned neck rising out of a body-hugging black dress—the color a nod to her recent widowhood, I assume.

She’s taller than I expected. Statuesque, even. Most women I tower over, and I think I’d still have a head over this one if she weren’t wearing those ludicrous heels—but she’s no pocket package, not like Eva. She has an air of youthful vitality despite her somber face.


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