Page 47 of Vegas Daddies

This raises Brander’s head.

Mine too.

“What?” Alice and I end up saying simultaneously.

“There’s no solution, nothing we can do to make it better.” Lifesaver turns to Alice. “And I’d be lying if I said I wish I could reverse the past.”

She furrows her dark brows. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean,” he says, “is that I really like you, and all things considered, if it’s what you want too, I want us to keep seeing each other.” He lifts his head to include Brander and me. “All of us.”

Like he has much choice. Our names stapled to her ass cheek lock us in for life.

I nod.

Brander does the same.

Alice’s eyes flit between all three of us. Sitting on her hands with her body folded up into a ball makes her look even more innocent than before. A girl with a very overprotective father is who we’re dealing with now—not just a beautiful bachelorette abandoned on her special night. This complicates matters. Extremely.

“It’s interlinked, then. Isn’t it?” Alice looks to me for an answer. “It’s no coincidence I was attacked last night. They’re trying to get to my father?”

“We can’t be certain,” I say. “There’s no concrete evidence, but yes, it appears so.”

Alice shuts her eyes and sighs. The heat of everything has blushed her cheeks. Turned her lips red. She rolls her short-sleeve scrub T-shirt up to her shoulders, desperate for more air. The nurse look suits her. The deep blue complements her olive skin tone and blonde hair wonderfully. Static and undone, cascading around her shoulders, it still looks perfect. She tucks strands behind her ear to expose two silver studs thatwouldmatch the diamond wedding ring on her fingerifshe was wearing it.

“Did you tell your father about your breakup?”

“Nope,” she says. “With the new campaign and everything, he’s too busy. I will, though.” She winces. “We should probably steer clear about us, though. Daddy will flip.”

“We need to tell him what the Bratva are planning,” I say.

“What? And triple his stress even more?” Lifesaver says. “No. We can sort it out without him knowing.”

“And just how do you plan to ‘sort it out’?” Brander joins the conversation.

“I dunno. Something tells me it’ll involve a hot iron rod and a few borrowed Takeshis.”

I frown. “The Russians outnumber us by hundreds.”

“I know,” Lifesaver says. “But it won’t be our first Bratva…dual.”

“No, but there’s potential for it to be our last,” I say.

“We can’t rush into this. We need an action plan.” Brander crosses his arms.

“Yeah, but you can’t move like slugs either.” Alice nibbles her fingernail, anxious eyes flicking between us all. The fear between her brows suggests she’s betting on us with fucking oxygen to eliminate the Russians before they eliminate her father. “I can’t see him die.” Her jaw begins to wobble, and a tear slips from the corner of her eye. “I can’t lose both my parents.”

Seeing her upset makes my heart clench more than I’d like to admit, to be honest. Her effect on me is strengthening. This isexactlywhy we shouldn’t have tattooed our names to her ass cheek and slurred our vows in the presence of…someone who I at leastthinkwas a vicar.

But forgetthosevows. I made one to myself shortly after initiation to never put myself out for a girl. To never step foot into danger and risk my life for hers.

And this isn’t even to saveAlice.

It’s to get her dumb-ass father out of the gutter he crawled himself into.

It’s not our fault Peter is a people-pleasing addict who can’t help but open his mouth to promise his subjects the entire world and more. He needs to learn how to shut it, for the sake of himself, his daughter, and his fucking three sons-in-law that he doesn’t even know about.

Maybe the Russians don’t even need to get involved. Maybe he’ll fall unconscious and die all by himself if we break this shocking news to him.

---