Page 80 of Once A Crime Lord

“And you need someone to take over?”

“It’s not that easy. The city is in turmoil, and the fuckers I’ve kept under lock and key are causing public shootings and kidnappings when they feel like it.”

Angel leaned back and rested his arms along the back of the couch. “I’ll do it.”

“Angel,” Raul said sharply.

“You have everything under control here,” Angel said. “Roque’s coming out of the joint soon and then what? I’ll be third in command, and with you two at the top, I’ll never see any action. What’s happening in Vegas sounds like my kind of party.”

Gavin considered Angel, who was several years younger than he was. The three Roman brothers had grown up in the family business as he had. Angel was the youngest and most reckless. He wasn’t sure what his cousin had been up to in the past decade, but if he would hand the city to someone, there was no one better than family.

“Roque will have my head if I let you go off to Vegas and become a crime lord on your own without backup,” Raul said.

“I’ll be there,” Gavin said, and his throat tightened. “I tried to hand the underworld over to Vinny, and they gunned him down. It won’t be easy. They’re like wild animals. One mistake and you’re dead.”

Angel’s eyes gleamed. “Now you’re trying to turn me on.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Angel smiled as innocently as a toddler. “You can’t stop me now that you’ve issued a challenge like that. When do we leave?”

“Whenever. My plane is on standby.”

“Your own plane. Fuck.” Angel strolled toward a phone in the corner of the room and spoke quickly in Italian.

“Can he handle it?” Gavin asked Raul in low tones.

“Yes,” Raul said succinctly. “I’m the accountant; Angel’s the enforcer. I keep the books clean, and Angel makes sure we don’t get fucked over. We had trouble when Roque went to prison, but Angel put a stop to that, and he was just out of high school. Don’t underestimate him. We haven’t had any trouble for a while now, and he’s getting restless. I have to drown him in women and find things to keep him busy. I was worried he would take off before Roque got out and try to take over another city.”

“Take over?” Walking into another crime lord’s territory was suicidal.

“Angel wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone if it meant having some action.” Raul sighed and drained his glass. “If we didn’t already have control of the largest city in the United States, Angel would have gone there and tried to conquer it.”

“Sounds like he needs a hobby,” he said mildly and wondered how his cousin would react to the mayhem going down in Sin City.

“People underestimate Angel because he’s young and too pretty for his own good. Your city sounds like Angel’s type of playground.”

Angel hung up the phone and settled on the couch with his legs crossed. “Viva Las Vegas. Fuck yes. This is turning out to be an interesting night.”

“I need to kill this fucker. He’s been playing me for years, and it’s going to stop. I have a family now, and I can’t put them at risk. Besides, I have enough on my plate with my partner wanting to expand Pyre Casinos.”

Angel shook his head. “I can’t imagine you married with a kid.”

“Believe it.”

“Family is everything. If you want out, you need someone to take over who knows how to run it and who won’t lose themselves in the filth.” Raul looked at Angel, who was grinning like a maniac. “Don’t think I’m not going to keep tabs on you.”

“You do that.” Angel got to his feet. “Gav, you have to say hi to Luci. She’ll kill you if she finds out you were here and didn’t see her.”

“I don’t want to wake her,” he said and glanced at his watch. It was three in the morning.

“Tonight’s family night so I came over. She was messing around in the kitchen an hour ago,” Raul said.

As they left the basement, he noticed the guards looked to Angel and not Raul for guidance. Raul had always been more reserved than Roque and Angel. He was the steadfast brother and the voice of reason. As Angel spoke to the guards in low tones, Gavin walked alongside Raul.

“How’s Roque doing?”

“He’s alive,” Raul said with a shrug. “He gets out of prison next year.”

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