Page 88 of Casino King

With one last look at Tessa on the small screen, I slide his phone back to him and keep my eyes guarded and on his. He can’t beat me.

Leo’s hand drums on the table, his signal for me to hold my tongue. “We don’t involve innocent women in our business,” he informs Lin and Sun.

“Well, we do. And we have yours. Now, are you ready to discuss the terms of a new agreement so you can have her back?”

I’m not negotiating with this piece of shit and Leo knows that. It takes everything in me to keep my face neutral and not show the fury I’m feeling on the inside.

Drumming his fingers on the table for a few beats, Leo looks between the men sitting in front of us, and then flashes them a predatory grin that’s all teeth.

I know what he’s about to do, and while every cell in my body is telling me to strangle these fuckers, I know I can’t go against Leo. I trust my brother.

He’s been drumming his fingers on the table in what anyone would think is a nervous habit, or something he does while thinking, but Leo is too controlled for that, and he doesn’t do anything without reason.

“Oh, there’s a new agreement. But there’ll be no discussion.” Their confused looks disappear when Leo makes a fist and knocks on the table once.

Shots ring out from the shadows, and the two bodyguards fall to the cement in dull thuds while Lin and Sun slump back in their chairs. Blood flows down from the bullet holes in their heads, but I’m tempted to take my gun out and put a few more rounds in them.

The soldiers we had hiding in the shadows emerge with their rifles at their sides, and my chair scrapes the cement as I push away from the table. Taking the phone from Sun’s hand, I open the message again with Tessa’s picture, and my hand grips the phone so hard I feel it on the verge of cracking under the pressure.

“Alec. Focus,” Leo commands, gripping my shoulder. “She needs you.”

Looking at him, I see both the brother who’d do anything for me and the boss who doesn’t let anyone manipulate us.

“We’ll have Stefano trace where the number is located and we’ll go get her. Give it a little bit, then text the guy who sent it and tell him the deal has been made and to have her ready for transport.”

Stefano may be one of Leo’s captains, but he’s also the family’s best hacker and tracker who I know will find Tessa in no time. After all, he found out it was me who was responsible for her brother’s death after six years and with us not leaving a single trace.

Giving him a curt nod, I wait while Leo calls Stefano and I pull out my phone, dialing Tito. I pace the area in front of me while the dead bodies are dragged over to the metal drums in the corner and dumped inside. Lye is poured inside with them, and the smell burns my nose from here, which I use to keep control over the anger threatening to break me.

“Boss,” Tito answers.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!” I yell, my voice echoing around the empty space, his voice my tipping point. “You had one fucking job. You already know what happened to the last man who failed.”

“She slipped out the other side of the theater after the show, and by the time I found out where she went on the security footage, it was too late. They took her.”

“How?” I growl, shoving my hand in my hair.

“Two girls from the show took her dancing at Royals, and about a half hour later, the external cameras caught them walking her half-unconscious out the back door. They handed her over to two men who shoved her in the trunk of their car and handed the girls an envelope of cash. They must have been paid to drug her.”

They’re fucking done.

I don’t hurt women, but I’ll do any and everything to destroy them so they live a miserable existence and think about what they did every second of what’s left of their lives.

“I’ll deal with you later. Just go meet Vinny in the basement.” Hanging up, I want to fucking hurt someone. I want to kill. I want to maim. I want to feel and see the life drain from the men who took my woman.

“She’s in an abandoned building outside of AC,” Leo tells me. “Let’s go.”

Heading towards the car, I turn to the men sealing the barrels. “When you finish here, follow behind us where you’ll have more cleanup to do.”

“Got it.” They nod.

The drums will be sunk to the bottom of the Hudson off the port’s docks, never to be seen or found. It’s why we wanted to meet at this location.

Once in the car, Alfie peels off and heads straight for Manhattan. The top of Leo’s building has a helicopter pad where our chopper will be waiting. It’s over two hours by car, even when breaking every law, but only about forty-five if we fly.

“What’s up, Alec?” Vinny says when I call.

“Get to the basement. We’re on our way back. The Triads took Tessa and she’s being held in an abandoned building on the outskirts of town.”

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