Page 80 of Vegas Daddies

More specifically, the one strewn across the bar, the one who Brander scalded with his iron rod.

Feet planted firmly on the ground, he stares up at me from his seat looking like a fucking wreck. A burn mark stripes diagonally across his face. Now, he’s without a bottom lip and a smile.

Although I doubt he had the latter to begin with.

I gesture him into a private room and close the door behind us.

I may not have the gun now, but a surgical knife should do the trick.

Andlose me my job.

“Your friend has terrible resuscitation technique, by the way,” I tell him.

“Shut the fuck up,” he spits. The thick Russian accent cuts through the air.

“I will not.” I sit back in my doctor’s chair because there’s no need to stress. I have the advantage here. This ismyhospital andmyplace of work. Security is a button away, but I keep my handson my lap. “The burn looks angry.” I narrow my eyes and lean forward to inspect further. Red boils protrude from the surface of his skin. Popping them would be fun. “I can prescribe you silver sulfadiazine cream.”

“I want no cream.”

Anxiety creeps into my nervous system, souring the aftertaste of the coffee I just drank. He could ruin my career. Tell everyone that it wasmethat fried his skin.

He knows better than to run his mouth, though.

Both of us keep our sins close to our chest. Exposing mine would release his out into the air too.

I fold my arms over my chest. “What do you want, then?”

“Keep away from us.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s an order. Peter might be a childhood friend, but he wants our legacy gone.”

“Doesn’t sound like a me problem.”

“Oh, it will be.”

I narrow my eyes. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“How many years did it take you to get where you are today? All the studying? The exams? Thetime.I would hate to see it all go to waste.”

I knit my lips together and wait for him to finish his fucking riddle.

“You will tread with caution,” he continues, “or you will see your career crash and burn.” The ugly bastard rises from his seat and tenses his muscles. He should consider the sulfadiazine. It’s challenging to take him seriously with the scalded face. “Don’t get in our way.”

The door bangs shut behind him.

I slip out my phone, some of the tension alleviating when I see a message from Alice on my lock screen. She’s still safely at Brander’s, thank God. After last night she decided to crash at his house for a few days.

Alice: the thought of looking daddy in the eye sickens me.

I bite my lip. If I could medicate her issues away, I’d do so in a heartbeat. Last night after our activities in the shower, she had curled up into a ball in Brander’s bed and cried. Each whimper felt like a stab in the chest. Made me want to ride over to Peter’s and place a Takeshi in his. Fathers shouldn’t make their daughters cry.

I roll back my head and bask in the peace and quiet before I’m called again.

I don’t know where I stand with the guy anymore. He was my first friend that, once upon a time, had my back in a classroom of peers that didn’t. He stuck up for me and didn’t give a fuck about what anyone had to say about it.

Back then he was a Good Samaritan.

---