Page 51 of Reluctant Surrender

Andrezj nodded along with my orders. “You got it.”

I glanced back at the room where Jared moaned softly.

“Bertonelli may want a word after he sees what we did to one of his men,” Andrezj commented.

“I think he’ll be more interested in what Jared has said and who he said it to. It might be in his best interest not to talk about any of us at all. Maybe make that clear to him on the way to the hospital.”

“I’ll be sure he gets the message.”

“I’m taking my wife out tonight,” I announced as soon as the decision popped into my head. “Unless the world is ending, I don’t want any calls.”

Maggie needed to be reminded that my entire life wasn’t violence. Only a portion of it was, and none of it would ever touch her. For fuck’s sake, I married her to keep her safe from exactly what she’d just witnessed.

“You’re going out?” Alex asked from the doorway. He looked to Andrezj with confusion. For the past months since I’d taken over from my cousin, I hadn’t left much time for fun. If I was out, I was making connections. If I was home, I was looking over figures or meeting with people to make things smoother.

But I had Maggie now, and she deserved more than just a workaholic for a husband. She had my name for safety, but there was more I could give her. More that I wanted to give her. I wouldn’t just put her on a shelf the way her father had. She would not be alone in my life.

“I am.” I waved a hand and hurried up the stairs.

Chapter 25

Maggie

“Acasino?” I looked out the passenger side window of his black Lexus as the Rivers Casino came into view.

“I thought you might like to play.” He turned into the valet line. “And here I know you won’t get into any trouble.”

“Why do you think that?” I grinned.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Please tell me I’m not going to have to save you from some loan shark in here.”

I laughed and touched his arm. “No, Lukas. I promise. I’ve never been here and I don’t know anyone that works here. We are perfectly safe from retribution from old targets.” I wasn’t actually a hundred percent confident about that, but I was fairly sure.

He rounded the front of the car and waved away the valet from opening my door for me so he could do it himself. Maybe he was trying to give me the impression that he was a gentleman at heart, and not the vicious creature I saw in his basement.

I shouldn’t have gone down there. I knew even as I stepped on the stairwell that I was going to regret it. And seeing that man, so injured, and Alex with the blood on his knuckles, I regretted even considering going down there.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know who Lukas was. I knew exactly what sort of man he was; I’d overheard him give accountings to my father of the jobs he and his cousin had done for him. Lukas wasn’t a gentle giant; he was vicious when he needed to be. But the past days had put up a screen, separating that part of him from the man I went to bed with every night.

“The poker games are this way.” Lukas slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him as he led me through the open casino floor.

“I can’t believe you want me to play poker.” I eyed the tables of blackjack as we passed them. If we had the time, I could probably make a good profit there. Counting cards wasn’t exactly hard for me, but in order to not get caught doing it in a place like this I’d have to play through at least a dozen or so rounds.

“No cheating.” He pinched my hip.

“Why’d you bring me then?” I asked.

“So we could get out of the house, and you could get away from those books.” He brought me down another hallway with a single door at the end.High Rollerwas embossed on the golden chestnut door.

“We’re playing in the high roller room?” I pulled away from him for a moment. “Lukas, those games require tens of thousands of dollars. I don’t have fifty grand to open a credit line with the cashier.”

“You don’t need to,” he smiled. “That’s what you have me for. Consider me your sugar daddy for the night.”

I laughed. “Never call yourself that again.”

“What? Sugar daddy?”

“Yes! I may let you spank me, but I’m never calling you Daddy.”

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