Page 50 of Vicious Little Games

“Great job, sweetheart,” Daddy says when he wraps his arms around me in a hug. “I’m so damn proud of you. I had no idea you’re an amazing shot.”

“Congrats, Cass,” Vanessa says as she hugs me as well.

“Yeah, congrats,” Cole offers. “I thought I had this one in the bag and you made a fool of me.”

“It’s not that hard to do,” I remark with a grin. He not so subtly rubs his middle finger over his temple.

“From now on, I want you both to keep a gun on you at all times unless you’re sleeping, and have one close by even then, like maybe under the mattress?” Dante tells us, giving Vanessa a wink. “Titus can help you purchase a good, comfortable holster.”

“You kept a gun under your mattress?” I ask my stepmother when I realize that’s obviously what my father was referring to.

“Not just any gun, a loaded and cocked gun with the serial number scratched off,” my father answers for her.

“That’s bad ass, Mom,” Cole says. “How did I not know that you were armed?”

The petite woman shrugs. “You didn’t need to know about it. But of course I would do anything to protect you, sweetie.” She wraps her arm around his back to give him a side hug. “And don’t think I didn’t notice that you’ve been walking around with a gun shoved down the back of your pants. Get a holster, honey, before you blow your ass off.”

Cole laughs and tells her, “I know not to keep a bullet in the chamber.”

“Yes, well, accidents happen. I want you and Cass to be safe. Don’t get trigger-happy in the penthouse, please.”

“I second that,” Dante says. “Don’t shoot any unsuspecting guards doing their jobs by patrolling the house either.”

I glare at Cole when he opens his mouth, warning him not to make any snide comments about me taking down the guards right now.

“Well, we better get home,” Vanessa says. “Cass has a date tonight!”

“I do?” I ask in surprise, looking between her and my father.

“I reluctantly agreed to let a man who passed all my background checks take you out,” Daddy says.

“Are you excited?” Vanessa looks like she’s about to burst from excitement.

“Sure,” I agree, even if that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I don’t want to have to go on a blind date with a random guy my father and her picked for me, but it’s a necessity. So, I’ll suck it up, get ready, and give it a try.

And I will not even glance in Cole’s direction to see his reaction to the news of my first date.

16

Cass

Theodore Russo, II, prefers to be called Theo. He’s twenty-five years old, the son of Theodore Russo senior, a man who owns a bunch of retail stores, including the luxury outlets in Vegas.

“I know, I know. Luxury outlets sounds like an oxymoron, right?” he says directly to my breasts while we eat our dinner in an upscale restaurant surrounded by guards at every nearby table. “But it’s a string of luxury brands sold at discounted prices because of irregularities that occur during manufacturing. Most of the time you can’t even tell. It’s just small things, like the lining in a purse is inside out or some shit. Nothing major, but the items sell for a fraction of the original price.”

“Sounds…great,” I tell him, unsure what else there is to be said. “And, um, you work for your father?”

“I’m the head of the maintenance division,” he says proudly, again, to my chest. “We handle anything from changing a lightbulb for the merchants or repairing the air conditioning. That’s mostly what we do, change out AC units when they clap out.”

“And you enjoy that, repairing things?”

“Oh, yeah. I couldn’t just sit at a desk all day. I would go crazy,” he says with a smile when he finally lifts his gaze to my face. “What about you? What do you do?” And then a second later he’s right back to gawking at my boobs.

My forest green, knee length sleeveless dress isn’t even revealing tonight, but my pushup bra is apparently doing its job well.

“Oh, I don’t do much, really. I spend a few hours training most days, a variety of martial arts.”

Not that I’ve done that recently.

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