Page 61 of High Roller

I toss her on the bed and bend to undo the cuffs on my ankles. The fact that she got them on me without waking me up is a testament to how tired I am and how much I’ve been pushing myself lately. I have to do better at getting rest if I’m going to make it out of this with everyone I care about alive.

“Gracie, go call Matteo or Owen and ask them to get the warehouse ready for a guest.”

She stares at me and shakes her head. “No. I won’t do that. I know what you do with people at the warehouse, and I won’t participate.”

On the one hand, I’m pissed that she’s not listening to me. But I’m also proud of her for standing her ground.

“Butterfly, listen to me. We’re not going to kill her. You have my word.”

Lili’s face turns white at the mention of her potential demise, and I don’t blame her.

“I’ll call Matteo,” I say, kissing Gracie’s forehead. We haven’t seen each other since our trip to the mob museum that ended badly, and I’m still not sure how she feels about me. But her shoulders relax when I kiss her, so I take that as a good sign.

“Stay here and make sure she doesn’t get out. While you’re in here, go through all the cabinets and pack up anything that can be used as a weapon or a restraint.”

I grab one of the sets of cuffs and pick up Lili’s wrists. “I’ll just put these on her so she can’t give you any trouble.”

When she’s secured to the bed, I step out. Do I really want to put her in a cell in the warehouse? Moving her poses more risks than leaving her put.

Still, I call Matteo and tell him what happened.

And the bastard laughs at me.

“She tied you to a chair?” he manages to ask between gasping laughs.

“It’s not funny, you bastard. She was trying to talk Grace into letting her go when I woke up.”

“You’ve got to get more sleep, man.”

I want to reach through the phone and strangle him, but I keep my temper at a simmering level instead of letting it boil over. “Just fucking tell me what you want me to do.”

“You’re right about moving her. It’s too risky. We’ll just have to keep an eye on her. We can put a camera in the room too. Maybe she’ll accidentally say something to Gracie when they’re alone.”

We don’t put cameras in the suites because of what takes place in them, but we do have a sound system that acts like a smart speaker to listen for safewords and assault happening. It’s never been needed, but it’s still good to have the technology.

When I end the call with Matteo, I stalk down the hall to the suite and find Grace packing up the equipment like I instructed.

“Thank you, Grace. Take the box to my office, and then you can open the shop as usual.” She’s silent as she obeys, and I can tell she’s still mad at me. That’s a problem for later. Right now, I have to deal with a brat of a hostage.

“Was that fun for you?” I snap when I’m alone with Lili.

She smirks from her spot tied to the bed. “Kind of. Poor Grace almost had a heart attack when she walked in. She thought for sure you would kill us both.”

“Why would I kill her? She didn’t do anything.”

“Why were you here, Victor? It was a shock to wake up and find you sleeping in a chair next to my bed.”

I drag a hand through my hair, unsure of what to tell her. I can’t exactly say, “Your husband is a bigger cheater than you thought and has some interesting kinks, and I felt sorry for you.”

Instead, I drop back into the chair and look at her. “Phineas is finally looking for you. He figured out where you stayed on the Strip and showed up there last night, causing a scene.”

“That’s only the beginning. If he suspects any of you are involved, he’ll pull out all the stops to get me back. Last night I decided I want to try and help you. This morning when I woke up and found you sitting here, I snapped.”

I clear my throat, ignoring the fact that she just told me she wants to help us. That can be discussed later. “We found out some… interesting things about him.”

“You mean his penchant for paying women to dominate him? Yeah. I found out about that too. It was just too embarrassing to tell you about, so I stuck with telling you about my best friend. That part is true, by the way.”

“Do you happen to know who he hired?”

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