Page 32 of Dirty Little Sins

"C'mon. I want to show you more." He grabbed my hand and led me to the other side of the patio and the blue glowing pool. It was both gorgeous and inviting, but it was the view beyond that made me sigh.

The entire Vegas strip in the distance made up his spectacular view. I could even just make out the giant S on The Sinclair. "We are closer to the hotel than I thought."

He came up behind me and I felt his body heat moments before he stroked his hand down my arm. "I like my privacy, but I also like to feel the energy of the strip. It's one of the reasons why I split my time between here and there. The gym where I train is near the strip. I spend a lot of hours there."

"You mean this giant of a house doesn't come with a gym?"

"Of course it does. A fully equipped gym, a boxing ring, a basketball court, driving range and of course the pool and hot tub."

"Of course," I mumbled. I had a feeling there wasn't a detail this place didn't provide. I'd gotten a glimpse of Vincent's luxurious life in the suite at The Sinclair, but I'd never imagined this kind of wealth.

Everywhere I turned the dollar signs stacked up and I had an itch to go online and google the net worth of championship boxers. I'd had no idea it included all of this.

A thought popped into my head and I blurted out a question before I could stop myself. "What's your family like?"

The loose grip he had on my arm tightened noticeably. It didn't hurt, but it certainly got my attention.

"My family?" His voice had turned low and quiet. Almost deadly. Or maybe cold.

I considered turning to face him, but decided against it. I didn't want to make this anymore intimate than it already was.

"Probably not as exciting as you are thinking. Me, my mother and my stepfather immigrated to this country when I was very young. I'm not sure why they chose Vegas of all places, but its where we settled after a few other short-term places. I didn't speak English back then so my mother home schooled me until I learned."

I tried to imagine a young Vincent running the streets of Vegas, unable to communicate with any other children. It sounded lonely. But none of that explained this overabundance of wealth.

"And your stepdad? What did he do?"

Vincent's muscles stiffened again and I had a feeling whatever the rest of the story was, it wasn't good.

Instead of answering me, he turned me around in his arms and tilted my chin up with one finger until our gazes met.

"Why the sudden interest in my family?" Suspicion filled his eyes and that only confirmed that what was in his past definitely wasn't all good.

I shrugged. "Just trying to get a better idea of who you are."

"Who I am has nothing to do with my family. By the time I was fifteen I was on my own and by seventeen professionally fighting. Everything you see in and around me was built by and for me. I literally and figuratively fought my way to the top."

I'm not sure I could agree that his family had nothing to do with who he was, but it was clear that this self-made man had a chip on his shoulder about the past. Unless... "What about your real father? Where does he fit into the story?"

Vincent's eyes shuttered and the muscle in his jaw ticked several times. "He doesn't. I went thirty-five years not knowing who he was and that was fine with me. I didn't need anyone to interfere with my plans."

My mind reeled at the information and the anger filled delivery. Clearly there was some baggage. Not that I couldn't relate. We all had our growing pains and the subsequent secr—.

"Wait. I thought you were thirty-six."

"I am." His eyes narrowed as if to communicate to me that he didn't want to keep going. Something I couldn't help but ignore.

"So you found out who your father is this year?"

Chapter Thirteen

VINCENT

Fuck. I hadn't counted on Zia grilling me about my past. Or her figuring out that I'd just met my biological father. I definitely didn't want her to know yet who he actually was. She was still too skittish.

Finding out that I belonged to the infamous Russo family wasn't going to convince her to get more involved with me. She'd run and run fast.

"I did. Curiosity got the better of me and I hired a private investigator to locate him. Needless to say, that reunion turned into a nightmare before it even got started. Turns out he wanted nothing more to do with my mother before I was born and even less to do with me now."

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