Page 82 of Dangerous Deceit

“No one,” I say. I get up and offer my hand. “Thanks for meeting with me on such short notice.” We part ways, but then I spin around. “Oh, one more thing—” I wait until he’s completely turned toward me. “Make it worth my while not to tell the rest of the investors about your high stakes poker games. I want your company to succeed, but I can’t do that if I’m not happy.”

He gawks at me, and I walk out of the building, smoothing my suit jacket. I’ve got to get this itch out of my body before I do something stupid, like fuck Vi again. I’m losing my fucking mind.

I call Dice. “Send me an address,” I say. “I feel like enforcing today.”

As soon as I hang up, my phone vibrates. I race between the cars, the itch building like hives. I need to kill and get this out of my system. Someone needs to die, and apparently, it’s not going to be the startup CEO.Or Vi.

So I end up outside of this middle-class rental in Henderson. A single-story with a bright green plastic lawn. I scan the doorway as I reread the information Dice sent:Single man. Owes money to our casino. Tried to pilfer his gun.

He’s armed, then.

I crack my neck, sliding my gloves over my hands and grabbing my own gun. This should be simple. An easy kill.

But god, I want him to feel everything. My frustration. My rage. My fucking desperation.

A man with silver cropped hair opens the door. He’s my height, but softer than me. He opens his mouth to greet me, but I punch him back into the house, kicking the door closed behind us. He grabs for his gun, and I shoot his hand. He wails.

“You yakuza sonofabitch!” he shouts.

I smack the back of the gun into his face and blood oozes from his bottom lip, his cheeks jiggling. He cracks his neck, renewed with vigor. He punches me, and I let him, only so that I can jab him deep in the stomach. He whimpers, and I take his gun, shoving it to his face. I want him dead right fucking now.

“You don’t fuck with the Endo-kai,” I warn.

I shoot him in the forehead, his body slumping down before me. The blood oozes on the hardwood, and I let the silence rock through me. I kick the corpse until he’s on his back, then I send a quick mass text to our cleanup crew, then another to Dice, thanking him for letting me take his job.

Be there soon,Dice texts.

My head aches. Why is he coming? Does he think I need a babysitter right now?

Dice arrives, his body taking up the whole hallway, and nods at me. I acknowledge him with a dip of my chin. Usually, I’d slap him on the back and brag about the whole experience. Even if he’s silent as a ghost, I can typically get a playful grunt out of him, but I don’t have the energy for that.

I rub my forehead. This corpse—whoever he was—was always going to die. Vi should be just like him.

But she’s still alive.

The cleanup crew arrives—thewakashudo as they’re told without question, even if it means cleaning up a bloody mess. You get good at cleaning blood out of carpets before you make it to enforcing.

Ronin, with an unlit cigarette between his lips, enters the house, taking his position beside Dice. I hold in a scowl. Dice and Ronin are inseparable lately. Ronin should be on his hands and knees, removing bloodstains like the rest of thewakashu,but instead, he’s watching over the new recruits. Knowing Tomo, he probably can’t stand to give his biological son the typical starter work.

I hate Ronin for being here.

Dice opens his mouth, but before he says a word, I curse under my breath. If he’s talking, that means it’s bad.

Shit.I’vegot it bad.

“She’s causing problems,” Dice says. He doesn’t need to include my wife’s name; we both know who we’re talking about. I don’t nod. I don’t smile. I don’t do anything. I stand there like an idiot. My wife is a lie wrapped up in a come-covered dress, and here I am, killing another man because I can’t kill her.

Why can’t I kill her?

“You want a tail on her?” Dice whispers so Ronin can’t hear. But it’s more than that. His quiet voice means he won’t tell Niko, Cherry, or even Tomo what’s going on. He knows I’m in too deep with the Petruses and struggling to crawl my way out. Internally,I’m relieved Dice respects me and my life that much, but my vision tunnels.

Tailing her.That would mean if she showed her betrayal in front of him,Dicewould be the one to kill her. Not me.

Why did Vi have to go after our guns? What client is stupid enough to try to infiltrate a gun smuggling operation?

“No,” I say. I slap my hand on Dice’s back like everything is fine. Because it is fine. Vi is simply my legal wife. We may have a legal contract in place, but I can easily get rid of her. If I can fuck her in the desert, I can sure as hell let her corpse turn to leather under the sun.

Dice nods at me. Then Ronin joins us.

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