Page 113 of Vegas Daddies

“You can’t love three men at once, all twice your age. They’re using you.”

“You don’t understand.”

When a twenty-something-year-old daughter tells their father that theydon’t understand,it sounds pathetic, but it’s the only thing I’ve got.

No word in the English language—hell,anylanguage, I don’t think—can accurately describe how I feel toward Brander, Match, and Lifesaver.

Words simply don’t cut it.

It’s clear that I’ve inherited the people-pleasing gene from my father. Staring at his disappointed eyes makes me want to make things right again. My eyes crave his smile, and my skin tingles for his arms—I want them wrapped around me as we both reach agreement, but something has changed since meeting the boys. Somehow, I’ve developed an inner voice.

Daddy’s voice will often ring in my eardrums, reminding me what’sbestto do, though not necessarily what’sright.Like at work when the floor manager told me to refrain from telling a patient’s family they were dying because there’d already been too much “emotional baggage” that day.“Smile, listen and keep the peace,”is something Daddy always tells me to do to avoid conflict and get through life, so I obeyed the floor manager and left it at that.

The patient died a day later and the family didn’t get to say goodbye.

Since meeting the boys, I’ve learned that life is fickle. If the barrier to death can open at any given moment, what’s the point in listening and pleasing?

I don’t want to go back to how it was before.

My heart beat steadily before meeting the boys. A month ago, adrenaline included road rage and going to the store three minutes before closing to see if I could check off my entire grocery list in time.

Now I finally understand what it feels like to live life in the fast lane every single day. To do what Tammy has been doing her whole life. It’s not a personality trait to play it safe. It’s a state of mind, and the boys have introduced me to that.

Driving down open desert roads fizzes excitement through my bones. It’s like life on steroids every day, and don’t even get me started on the sex.

An orgasm a day keeps the boredom away.

I head toward the door. “You don’t have to understand.”

“What?” Daddy says.

“I’m having this baby, and I’m staying with Lifesaver, Match, and Brander. Tonight, after we’ve executed this plan, I think it’s best if the two of us go our separate ways.”

26

LIFESAVER

Alice slumpsfurther into Brander’s couch, eyes vacant. A hand smooths over her belly. The gesture should fill me with joy, but it doesn’t. Not yet. First on the agenda is murdering Vlad. How the fuck we’re gonna send a mafia boss to his grave, I’ll never know.

But Levi seems to know all the answers.

“Alrighty,” he says through the computer screen. A pixelated image comes into view.

I dunno why this has to be a fucking video call.

His voice alone gets under my skin.

The plan is to do a live stream so we know the plan of attack, but so far Levi is the only person in the room. A lamp, standing on a wooden table, shines warm light out into the room, elongating Levi’s lanky figure into something monster-like.

“Why would Vlad hire a scrawny sewage rat like him?” I mumble to Brander. “He might know how to hold a weapon and throw a punch, but he doesn’t look like he can defend himself.”

Brander narrows his eyes. “Who said anything about hiring? This is revenge, isn’t it? He’s been tasked to kidnap Alice and aid in Peter’s assassination to right a wrong.” He shuffles his body my way, angled away from the computer screen, and drops his voice. “What if he was already in the syndicatebeforehe fucked the wife?”

I frown. Return to the computer screen to see Levi typing away on his device. Guns might be what Vlad put in his hand, but if he were to choose a weapon, I think intel core would be more his forte, not ammunition.

“Okay, I’m gonna mute you and turn off the screen. Vlad’s on his way.”

Silence stretches through Brander’s living room until finally, somebody says, “Okay.”

---