Page 1 of King of Ruin

CHAPTER ONE

Roman

The bladesof the helicopter are still whirring over my head as I exit the chopper at the top of Kincaid Tower. My cousin Luke is just behind me.

What a fucking day.

From our vantage point, I can see all the lights of Vegas spread out before us. The city glitzes and shimmers like the grand illusion that it is. Meant to be an oasis, it’s just as lethal as the desert beyond.

I’d hoped to get back sooner.

But we’d had Nia and Jake to see off on their trip to the Keys, and then there had been the car to deal with….

It takes a bit of time to dispose of a burnt-out wreck with bullet holes.

And of course, there was the body…

I scrub a hand through my hair as Luke pushes a button on his phone, unlocking the rooftop door to the private elevator.

“I got seven calls while we were in flight,” he growls out as the door opens and we step into the elevator.

“Any of them the police?” I ask, my eyes closing as I lean against the wall, exhaustion pulling at my limbs.

“No. Just the fucking building inspector, the lead architect, and the foreman of the construction crew. Fuck me. Somethings royally fucked up, I’m sure.”

The moment the doors slide open to the conference room, he’s got his phone to his ear, snarling words I only half listen to as I pour myself a glass of scotch from the bar at the far end of the room.

In theory, my brothers, my cousin Luke, my uncle Jake, and I are the five owners of a successful real estate enterprise.

But we are also the five fingers of a fist, punching at anyone who gets in our way.

And no one gets to where we are without getting his hands dirty.

I take a large swallow of the drink and then another, I don’t love these days. The days where I’m not in the boardroom but fighting off the Italian Mafia as they try to take what is ours with guns instead of corporate mergers.

But either way, we do what we have to do to stay on top.

My phone rings, my brother Mason’s name popping up on the screen. I take another swallow and pick up. “Mason.”

“What the fuck happened today?”

“Toni’s dead, Jake is wounded, and Nia is on the war path.” And then I finish the glass and pour another.

“Toni’s dead?”

“Yeah. Tweedledee and Tweedledum Vendetti were with him, though, and they both got away.”

“Vigo and Vincent are problems we’re going to need to solve soon. Tell me about Nia.”

“I think the Vendetti twins are going to be the much easier discussion.”

Mason sighs. “Tell me about Nia anyway.”

“Our new aunt,” I say with a snort because, while Jake is pushing forty, Nia is younger than all of us. Why he’d want a woman like that, a woman who actually calls him Daddy, is beyond me. “Would like some recompense from Gris Smith. In her words, she’s paid a hefty price to become part of this family. And Jake just had to kill her father to keep her, and us, safe. But she feels that Gris has been all gain and no pain after the way he set her up and it’s time he put his skin on the line too. She’s not wrong.”

Mason grunts. “Should have seen that one coming.”

And that’s why Mason is our fearless leader. He rarely misses a move and blames himself when he does. “Her exact words to Gris’s brother, Tris, were, and I’m quoting, ‘I’m a Mafia princess who is now a queen of Vegas. You didn’t think what your brother did was going to go unpunished?’”

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