High Card: A Billionaire Shifter Novel (Lions of Las Vegas Book 1) (15 page)

I whirl at him, suddenly pissed. “Can you be straight with me for a single fucking second?”

“Can you?”

“What? Me? I…fine. But listen. I’m feeling at a bit of a disadvantage here, all right? You had photos of me. I
know
you have a file on me. Prolly know what month I was born in—”

“June.”

“—and my middle name—”

“Alexis.”

“—and a whole bunch of other waaay more embarrassing shit. So yeah. Excuse me if I’m a bit…edgy.”

“Bitchy?”

“
Edgy
.”
 

“Ask me then. I promise I’ll try and give you a straight answer.”

“Is this a one time thing? Like after one straight answer you revert back to spewing bullshit?”

“No.”

Landon looks at me in a way that makes me feel…close to him. Like I can trust him. Which is maddening, and sends all my grifter instincts on high alert. The dude’s playing me? Whatever. I don’t have time for this bullshit.

“Take me back to Vegas,” I say.

“I can’t do that, Summer.”

That really pisses me off. “What? I see. So now you’re
abducting
me. Fuck that. Take me
home
—” Before I even know what I’m doing I have Layla pointed at him. My shoulders tense. But I’m committed now, and to tell the truth it feels pretty good, having the gun pointed at him. Like it was supposed to be this way before I walked around the SUV and saw him sprawled on the ground. “Take me home, Landon, or I’ll blow your fucking head off.”

“At a hundred ten miles an hour?”

“No. First I’ll make you slow down.”

“Really?” He presses the pedal, shooting us forward. “And what if I don’t? You’re plan’s shit, Summer. If you even have a plan.”

He’s calling my bluff. I lick my lips. Disengage the safety. “I swear on my mother’s life I’ll kill you.”

“Even if it kills you?”

“Hell yes.”

“You always like this? Half-cocked?”

“Unlike you, Landon my love, I am
fully
cocked.”

Landon looks at me. His golden eyes are full of worry. But not for him. He’s worried about
me
. The smug prick. Like I need a rich boy’s sympathy.
 

“Why don’t you ask me that one question,” he says, very slowly.

“We’ve moved waay past that. Try and keep up. Shit. More brawn than brain. So much for having to be smart to be rich.”

“You want to know why I called you out into the middle of the desert.”

“No. I don’t give a shit. You’re taking me home. Now.”

Landon takes a long breath. “I want to offer you a job, Summer. A job I think you’ll be particularly well suited for.”

I hold Layla at his head for a long three seconds, just considering what it’d be like to kill him. I almost blab that Alfie hacked his casino’s security shit and I know about the death threat he received this morning, but I decide to play that card close. Then I lower the gun into my lap and say, “Shoot.”

I’LL ADMIT IT. I’m a bit nervous. I think a part of Summer really wants to shoot me. I glance at the gun. I could snatch it from her no problem. But that would get her riled. She’s got a temper, this one. Sexy, too, when she’s pissed. Eyebrows flaring. Chest heaving. Cheeks flushed. Like when I had her pinned against the truck—

Summer’s not one of those girls to get all worked up for no reason. I saw that right when I first met her. If she’s pissed, she means to do something about it. That’s good. I’m beginning to see how she’s survived as a grifter in Vegas for so long. She might have a chance.
 

“Well?” Summer says.

A wave of guilt washes over me. The wildwolves nearly killed us both. The deeper I bring her in, the less chance she gets out of this alive. In fact every second she spends with me puts her in more danger. I lost control. Freed my lion. The Wildblood Council sent the wildwolves on the hunt. They want me dead, and they’ll think nothing of offing a human girl who gets in the way. Not to mention what I want her to do is extremely dangerous.
 

“How much do you know about my family?”

“Only that your brother Blake’s a Grade A asshole.”

“He’s the reason I need your help.”

“Why?”

“Because I think he’s going to try and destroy…my business. The casino. Maybe even Blue Line.”

I can’t tell her what I really suspect is that Blake’s gunning to take over as alpha of the Stone Pride. Which means he needs to take
me
down. Destroy me completely and utterly. Wincing, I rub my hand across my shoulder. The stinging, burning sensation from my healed-over wounds is finally starting to fade. If I’d had the strength to call my lion I could’ve fought the wildwolves off.
 

But in my human form? No way.

Then that sound. The high-pitched keening noise. It stabbed into my mind like a poisoned blade. It almost seemed like it was emanating from Summer.

But that’s not possible.

“So?” I say. “You interested?”

Summer brushes her hair behind her ears, folds her arms and flashes me a stubborn glare. “You’re a big boy. Handle your own family drama.”

I crack a smile. Man. Girl’s as cold as ice. I hope she relaxes when I get her to the desert retreat. “I can handle Blake. But as you like to remind me, I’m new at the casino business…and new to Vegas. I could use a local to help me—”

“Get the lay of the land?”

“Yeah. I got…a disturbing message.”

Summer sits up. “What’d it say?”

I pause, wondering how much truth to tell her. “That I’m a dead man.”

“No shit?”
 

“No shit.” My animal’s growling. She’s a fine actress. But I’m scenting something’s not quite right. She knows more than she’s letting on, and that suddenly makes me wonder if I’m making a colossal mistake. Is she in with whoever’s scheming to bring me down? Was she planted at my casino so I’d find her, bring her into my confidence?
 

“Must happen all the time for a billionaire. Extortion. Kidnapping. Don’t you have, like, bodyguards?”

“No.”

“Well that’s dumb.”

“Haven’t needed them. Blue Line’s a fuel cell company. Based in Belgium. Not really death-threat material.”

“In Vegas even a parking spot’s death threat material. With so much money sloshing around…puts people on edge.”

“I gathered that.”

Summer taps her palm with her index finger, just like she did when waiting for her roulette roll to come through. She’s considering—

“So you want the local down-on-her-luck grifter to sniff out the source of the threat?”

“I want you to
confirm
the source.”

“That’s all? Who do you think sent it?”

“Don Luca Abatelli.”

Summer takes a quick breath. “If that’s true, you might as well sell the casino and scoot on back to Europe. You’re fucked.”

“Why?”

“Il Potere? The Power? It’s all there in the name, Landon. The most powerful crime family in Vegas, if not the western US. They don’t make threats. They make
promises
.”

I think about how best to break it that I know she’s involved with Vito. Finally I say, “I know you can get inside the family.”

Summer digs her nails into her thighs, then says, “You mean you know Vito gets inside me.”

“I know you two are…acquainted, yes.”

“So that’s why you chose me.” A cynical laugh fills my ears. “Makes sense now. Good. You have leverage on someone vulnerable with a connection you can use to your advantage, so you blackmail her into helping you. You might do all right in this town after all, Landon.”

“Not blackmail. Employment.”

Summer laughs. “Fine. Whatever you need to tell yourself. I hate that you know so much about me and I don’t know fuck all about you.”

“It has to be this way.”
 

“Sure it does. Because it benefits you.”

I want to tell her the truth. I’m thinking about the Council and the wildwolves sent to kill me and how much of the Wildblood world Summer just saw. I don’t think she suspects…yet. But she knows something’s not right. She saw me get mauled, and now here I am. Healed.
 

Plus…if she
did
make that wailing sound—

That thought doesn’t even merit completion.
 

She’s a human. That’s all she’ll ever be. But I remember the wildwolves dropping like stones. It’s almost like she was in their minds, goring them from the inside, and there’s only one explanation—

I wipe the rain from my eyes.
 

The road’s gaining elevation.
 

We’re not far.

The Wildblood world has remained secret for thousands of years. The Council exists to make sure it stays secret. Their laws are sacrosanct. The Council is everything we are. We cull Wildbloods who can’t integrate with the human world. The sick-minded and plain bloodthirsty. The ones who lose control. But the knife cuts both ways. Humans who are exposed to a Wildblood’s true nature are also hunted down and murdered.

There’s safety in secrecy.
 

Wildbloods learned that the hard way.

“We’ll have time,” I say, trying to sound like I believe it, “to get to know one another. Maybe you’ll trust me more then.”

“Would you like that?”

“I’d like to trust you more.”

I look at Summer. Her hair’s a mess, whipping around her face in the wind. Her tank-top’s torn and bloody. Her broken pinkie finger’s duct-taped to a Bic pen, for fuck sake. She’s completely different than any woman I’ve ever known. Rough. Capable. Confident. She’s got this sharp exterior…but I saw her break down. I don’t know what she is yet. How she killed the wildwolves.
 

But I know there’s a force drawing me to her.
 

When we kissed…my animal finally quieted. I’ve been fighting him my whole life. Keeping him caged inside, afraid he might bust free, like he did earlier today, and bring the Council’s hunters down on me.
 

Summer does something to him.
 

Settles him.

“Yeah,” I say, reaching across the console and putting my hand on Summer’s thigh, “I’d like to know you.”
 

She flinches slightly, but doesn’t pull away. I think about sliding my hand higher, caressing the warmth I felt between her legs when I had her pinned under me—

“That’s a problem, then,” Summer says. “Because what we have here are two exclusive propositions. One business, the other…something else entirely. It’s been my experience that only bad things happen when you confuse the two.”

“So we don’t confuse them. You’re my employee first.”

“I haven’t agreed to that yet. What if I want the other thing? The getting-to-know-one-another? What if I
only
want that?”

She’s asking if I’m only interested in her because I need her to do my dirty work. A fair question. But a difficult one.
 

“I don’t know,” I say, lamely. “Let me finish telling you about the job. Let me make you an
offer
.”

Not a flicker of interest on her face. I might as well be discussing the dinner special at Harvey’s.
 

Damn. The girl’s got a solid poker face.

“Are we clear on the nature of the job?” I ask.

Summer gives me a look like I’m talking down to her. “I dunno. Let’s see if the simpleton girl gets it. I spread my legs for Vito’s crooked little dick. Find out if he knows if his beloved uncle Luca sent the death threat, which he won’t. Vito’s small fish. All talk.”

“Let’s be optimists, and assume your contact within El Potere is more fruitful.”

“Fine. I uncover a big conspiracy to bring the pretty-boy billionaire down. So I insinuate myself in the scheme, get the gory details, report back to you and you take it from there.”

“Yes.”

“Groovy. Except, you know, for the whole infiltrating and betraying the mafioso part.”
 

“There’s something else,” I say, turning off the highway and onto a dirt road that leads to my off-grid retreat. “The opening night gala at Savannah’s is this Saturday. That’s in three days. I have a gut feeling…someone’s gunna try and sabotage that opening.”

The Rover bounces along another rutted road. I flick on the headlights. The night’s become cool. We arrive at a steel gate across the road. I hop out, undo the rusted padlock, swing the gate open. My nerves are still fried. Every night sound makes my animal pace and roar. I get back in, drive the truck past the gate, then lock it up behind us.
 

“I hope wherever you’re taking me has a shower,” Summer says when I’m back inside.

“It does. And a cowboy hot tub.”

“Wood fired?”

“Yeah. Traditional Japanese chofu stove. Pretty cool.”
 

We drive for few minutes while Summer considers. Then she says, “So let me get this straight. You think your asshole brother and the Abatelli crime family are conspiring to bring your casino down?”

“Not bring it down. But get it in Blake’s hands.”

“Why?”

“The casino is Blake’s baby. No way he’s going to stay happy with just fifteen percent. Blake always wants more of everything. It’s what makes him tick.”

“He must feel right at home in Vegas.” Summer checks her phone. There’s no reception, so she tosses it in her backpack. Then she says, “He must really hate you. Blake wants more of everything. But it’s you, his little brother, who has it all. Imagine the envy.”

“I won’t be made to feel ashamed of my success.”

“You shouldn’t. I’m thinking motive is all.”
 

“You want to know how much I’m offering?”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s not worth dying for.”