Page 61 of Vegas Daddies

But what about Alice?

We can save her.

But that won’t get the Bratva off her tail forever.

Peter squeezes my hand and looks up at me. So much for Mr. Perfect. Standing in front of me right now, snot-nosed, tearstained eyes and a guilty conscience, is a man with one big fat juicy secret.

Now we have that in common.

“Do you think you can help me take them down?” he asks.

“The Bratva?”

Peter nods.

“One thing at a time,” I say. “Let’s focus on the present situation.”

“Okay.”

I head to the door and wrap my hand around the handle, unsure if I’m doing so to open the thing, or to anchor myself on something for a moment. The ground beneath my feet feels different.

“Oh, and Law?”

I spin back around.

“Please don’t tell Al.”

15

MATCH

“Is this a joke?”

“I fucking wish,” Lifesaver says on the phone. “There’s no time to talk. When Brander has traced the number, call me back. We’ll pounce at sundown.”

I slam my phone on the pool table and perch on the edge of it. “Did you hear that?”

Brander turns my way. “Fucked up, but I’m not surprised. It’s always those you least expect. The ones with all the power.”

“Can we keep that from Alice? That her father killed her mother?”

Brander shrugs, attention focused on his phone screen as he scrolls down a page and inputs some numbers.

“All those years…” I continue.

“It’ll break her heart.”

“Don’t you think it?—?”

“No.”

Nothing puts a stop to conversation quite like Brander’s nos.

I slide off the pool table and take a swig of beer. It’s cheap stuff that doesn’t go down well, but my taste buds crave something alcoholic, and the half-full beer I abandoned two hours ago is the only thing available.

Peter the murderer.I wonder how that will go down in the papers if it ever gets out?

He probably speaks kinder words to dog shit on the bottom of his shoe than he did to us last night in the hospital. That daggered look he flashed Brander and me in the hospital told us all we needed to know about Lifesaver’s supposed “best friend”—that he’s an immoral son of a bitch. No better than the Venom Vultures.

---