Page 41 of Devil of Vegas

“Who are all of these people?” she asks, sounding slightly nervous. “Are they all entangled with the mafia?”

“No, not all of them. Some are just wealthy socialites and influencers who enjoy spending their money at my casinos. I invited a moreselectcrowd to this event.” I reach out and grab two champagne glasses off the waitress’s tray as she walks past us. “Cheers. To new beginnings.”

Isla clinks her glass to mine and smiles as she touches the champagne flute to her lip. But just as I’m about to take a sip from my glass, chaos breaks loose.

“Get down!” Marco shouts. He seems to come out of nowhere, slamming his body into mine to push me out of the way of an incoming shot.

There, on the second level of my casino, a sniper fired his gun with me in the scope’s crosshairs. Marco must have spotted him just before the assassin pulled the trigger, and he threw his body in front of mine and took the hit. Isla screams as she watches Marco drop to the ground, and I reach to grab her and run.

“No! No!” she cries out as she wrestles against me. “Wecan’tjust leave him here!”

All around us, guests are scrambling to run out of the club or take cover behind the gambling machines. My men are already firing shots back towards the sniper, and several are taking to the stairs to apprehend him. I look up at the second floor but can’t see anyone there anymore.

“I need to get you out of here,” I say to her, even though it sickens me to leave Marco behind without tending to him. “I need to keep you safe, Isla.”

“No!” she screams defiantly as she drops to her knees and places her hands against Marco’s chest to slow the bleeding.

My experience tells me that a gunshot is fatal, and he won’t survive. But still, I can’t help sympathizing with Isla’s profound desire to stay with him in his last breaths. Marco sacrificed himself to protect us. It profoundly shifts my perception of what being a good man, even one inside the mafia, means.

“Alright,” I say as I kneel beside her and lift Marco’s head from the floor so that he doesn’t choke on the blood pooling in his throat.

I keep my eyes keenly focused on everything around us, to make sure that Isla is safe even amidst this chaos. Several of my men surround us, providing a barrier of protection, and the sniper is nowhere in sight. Hopefully, one of my men has already put a bullet through his head.

“Y-you need toleave,” Marco struggles to say. “Get out of here while you still can.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Isla says through her tears as she takes his hand. “We’re not leaving you, and you’re going to be fine.” She knows as well as I do that it’s a lie. There’s no chance that he’s going to survive this. But we’ll stay with him in his final moments because I owe him that much.

When Marco’s eyes fall open in a frozen stare, I know he’s gone, and that means it’s time for us to leave now, too.

“Come on,” I say as I pull Isla up to her feet and wrap my shoulder around her. “There’s nothing more we can do for him. It’s time to go.”

She nods, still sobbing, and takes my hand as we head for the door.

The next shot that I hear fired sounds like an echo coming from the back corner of the casino. I turn just in time to see the sniper in the shadows as my men pile on top of him. Only when I turn back around do I see his shot’s target.

Beside me, Isla’s mouth is open in a silent scream and the front of her dress is quickly pooling with blood. Her hands grasp the side of her torso where she was shot and her face freezes in a moment of sheer shock.

“No, no, no!” I howl at the top of my lungs. “Luciano! Alonzo! Help me!”

Instantly, Luc races around the corner and sees what has happened as I lift Isla into my arms.

“I’ll call an ambulance,” Gabriel says quickly.

“There’s no time for that,” Luc assesses. “My car is right out front.”

I run toward his car, cradling Isla gently in my arms. Luc speeds off toward the hospital, breaking every traffic law and running every red light. As soon as we get there, I push past the ER intake desk and demand to see a doctor. Isla’s eyes roll in her head as she loses consciousness.

There’s a flurry of activity. Doctors and nurses rush to take her from my arms and wheel her away. And no matter how much I try to assert myself, they refuse to let me into the operating room.

“You need to stay here and calm down,” Luc says in the waiting room as he puts his hand on my shoulder to still me. “Making a scene here will only interrupt what the doctors are doing to save her life. All we can do now iswait.”

I have never felt more powerless in my life, except for the moment when my sister was killed. It’s like reliving that tragedy and trauma all over again.

What good is being the most powerful, feared man in the city if I can’t protect and save the woman I love? What good is any of this for if my enemies are just going to take away the one thing that means the most to me and there’s nothing I can do to stop it? All the killing in the world means nothing if it’s done in vengeance after suffering an unspeakable loss.

Luc does his best to keep me calm, while terrifying thoughts of losing Isla race through my head and threaten to make me crumble for the first time in my life. I pace the waiting room like a caged animal, jumping at every sound of someone walking in or opening a door as I anxiously wait for news of Isla’s condition.

“It’s taking too long,” I say, frenzied and coming unhinged at the seams as I go to the hospital desk to demand an update.

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