Page 7

The woman standing in the doorway of her father's office is quite something. Big eyes. Sweet face. Plush lips a man would never get tired of tasting. She's wearing sweatpants and a stained T-shirt, her hair piled on top of her head, and she … well, she’s fucking gorgeous.

Which is inconvenient, given I came here to put a bullet in her father's head.

I let my eyes linger on her big blue eyes.

"Dad, tell me what's going on," she pleads. And damn if I don’t like the sound of this beauty pleading.

Joseph Meadows looks at me with the desperate eyes of a man who knows exactly how this night was supposed to end.

"This is a private matter, sweetheart," he says. "Please. Just go back to your room."

But the woman doesn't move. Her eyes move between her father and me, and I watch her take in the scene and try to assess what is happening.

She steps further into the room and positions herself closer to her father. She's afraid, but she's not leaving, and I can’t help but admire how she holds back her fear.

Again, this is inconvenient.

Because now I have a witness.

And a witness is either collateral damage or leverage.

"Mr. Meadows," I say. "Introduce us."

Joseph swallows. "This is my daughter. Sunny. She has nothing to do with this. She doesn't know anything about any of this.”

"Sunny." I say her name slowly. "Your father has been stealing from me."

Her big eyes snap to mine. "Excuse me?"

"Over the past two months, your father has siphoned seven hundred thousand dollars from my casino's operating accounts into accounts that don't belong to me." I keep my voice even. "Money that doesn't belong to him. Money that belongs to me."

Joseph's face has drained to gray, and his hands are shaking. He can’t bring himself to look at his daughter because he’s ashamed. If there were an empathetic bone in my body, I’d feel sorry for him.

Unfortunately, for him, I’m not an empathetic kind of guy.

"Dad." Sunny's voice is softer. "Is this true?"

Joseph closes his eyes. "Sunny, please, go to your room, and let me handle this."

"Is it true?" she presses.

His eyes are watery when he opens them to look at her. "I was going to pay it all back."

I watch the hurt cross Sunny’s face. She looks tired. The kind of tired that burrows deep into your bones when the people you love keep letting you down.

She turns to me. "How much does he still owe you?"

"All of it. He gambled it, lost it."

She swallows. Behind those big eyes, she’s trying to figure out a way to make this better. "So what do you want?"

She's direct, and I like it. No tears, no begging, no attempt to negotiate. She gets straight to the point. She’s terrified, but she won't give me the satisfaction of seeing it.

This woman has spunk.

"I think you already know what I want, Miss Meadows."

Her brow creases. "We don’t have any money."