Page 87 of Casino King

“Let’s go,” Leo commands, stepping out of the car. We walk side-by-side into the warehouse with four of our men flanking us to the sides and behind. We agreed ahead of time that each of us would only have two family members and four guards.

The large bay door is open, and I take note of where the five men we have hiding in the shadows around the large space are, that again, have been here since yesterday. We don’t take chances when our enemies could be watching us at any time.

Leo and I sit in the chairs at the table that face the open door, staying silent as we wait. Ten minutes later, a car pulls up, and in walks Lin Chen and his brother Sun, with four men of their own.

I don’t like the looks on their faces. Almost like they don’t have a care in world.

They think they’re going to win this negotiation? They clearly don’t know who they’re dealing with.

This is either going to end in a deal where they stay to their territory in Chinatown, or end with them at the bottom of the Hudson.

Either way, I win.

I always win.

Approaching us, the Chen brothers look around the large space, definitely not seeing our men in hiding, and then settle on Leo and me with their little grins I want to fucking punch off their faces.

“Good evening,” Lin says, pulling the chair out and sitting across from Leo – a battle of bosses.

Leo just nods, and I stare down Sun as he takes the seat across from me.

“You know why we’re here,” Leo starts. “You’ve been running sex dens and gambling rings in my brother’s city. Every time he shuts you down, you just pop right back up. What makes you think you’re allowed to do that without his permission?” We learned this week that the places they’ve been holding their underground games were also where they operated their prostitution business and whore houses.

“I didn’t realize we needed your permission,” Lin says with a smirk, his eyes darting to mine. Fucking liar. “But even if we did, we would’ve been told no.” He shrugs.

“Yes, you would have,” Leo informs him. We agreed that he would do the talking so long as Lin, their head of the family, was doing the talking for them. “Alec runs the underground. He runs the entirety of Atlantic City. He has every casino and club in his pocket. You have nowhere to hide anymore. You have no claim in New Jersey. We do. And you’re being told, nicely I might add, to go back to your territory and stay there.”

“What if I were to say we have leverage that might make you reconsider?”

Ah, so that’s why they agreed to meet us here. They think they have the upper hand. But that’s utter bullshit. They have nothing we’d ever want.

“Such as?”

“You can keep your foothold of the city. We just want our own little corner for our businesses. I think that’s reasonable.”

“What leverage do you think you have?” Leo asks with a little more edge. We both know his request isn’t reasonable. It’s disrespectful.

Sun reaches for the inside pocket of his suit jacket and our guards take a step forward, but he only pulls out his phone.

“We were at The Broker’s party a few weeks ago,” he says as he unlocks his phone, and my jaw ticks as my chest tightens. “I saw you with a woman,” he directs at me. “And while I normally would have thought nothing of you taking an interest in a sexy little dancer like her, you seemed to pay her an extra amount of attention that looked like you knew her. Like you cared about her.”

“Who are you talking about?” I ask, tilting my head to the side, keeping my features stone cold. The blood in my veins turns to ice as my mind goes through a thousand different scenarios he could possibly lay out for me. But nothing prepares me for what I see when he slides the phone towards me.

Tessa.

She’s tied to a chair with her head yanked back by the dirty hands of a man whose face is cut off in the image. She’s wearing some tight little black dress that’s ripped at the neckline to expose her lacey black bra and her eye makeup is smudged like she was blindfolded. But her eyes themselves are hard and cold. Distant. Strong.

My woman is strong. She would never cower in the face of danger.

They’re the eyes she gave me when I shot Enzo. She was strong then, too.

An eerie sense of calm and clarity comes over me. “I don’t know why you thought she’d mean anything to me, but I don’t know who that is,” I say with practiced control.

I’ve never needed to restrain myself so fucking badly as I do now. Tessa’s life depends on it. I have to pretend like she’s nothing. Then I’ll put a bullet between his eyes and cut the hands off of everyone who dared touch her. I’ll kill his entire fucking family and burn his small little empire to the ground.

No one fucks with me or what’s mine.

“Are you sure?” he taunts. “Because if she means nothing to you, then I can give the word to my men that they can have a little fun with her. Out of respect, I told them she was off-limits, but I guess that doesn’t matter now.”

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