Page 36 of Devil of Vegas

“No, I came alone.”

“Brave,” he chuckles. “Or maybe stupid.”

“I guess we’ll see which,” I say. “Take me to Angelo.”

“Did you bring what he asked for?” his thug asks.

“Yeah, and I’m not showing you anything. No offense, but I don’t deal with lackeys. Take me to Angelonow.”

The Barone thug turns and motions for me to follow. We walk through the empty club with scant gambling machines tucked into corners. The place isn’t even trying that hard to look like a proper club. Angelo has a long way to go before he opens anything that even comes close to my casino empire. His forte lies in other pursuits, which I have no desire to dabble in.

I follow the goon down a staircase at the back of the building that leads down into the basement. The footsteps of the other men follow close behind me. When we reach the basement, several of Angelo’s men and I stand in the narrow hallway lined with doors. I’m guessing that this is where Angelo keeps some of the women that he traffics, stored before they get shipped off.Islais in one of these rooms.

“Where’s Angelo?” I demand to know before taking a step further.

“He had some business to attend to,” the guard in front of me says. “He asked us to take yourpaymentin his absence in exchange for the woman.”

Like hell he did. Their intentions are clear—take whatever of value they think I’ve brought with me, rough me up or kill me, and then sweep Isla off into a life of forced prostitution. They thought they’d get the jump on me, but they were wrong.

I pull two fully loaded guns out of my jacket with each hand and open fire. They must think very little of me because they didn’t even bother to search me. They must have thought that because I’m the Don, I don’t need to know how to shoot. One thing that I learned from a very young age was how to have impeccable aimso that Inevermiss. I’ve dropped them all before any of them could get a shot in. Have I started a war with the Barone’s crew? Probably. I don’t give a fuck. All I need is proof of life, to get Isla back in my arms and get her out of here, and then I’m going to take whatever I want.

I open door after door, lining the hallway. All of them are empty until I reach the last one. As soon as I throw the door open, I see Isla sitting there, tied to a chair and shaking like a leaf.

“Oh my God,Vincent,” she cries when she sees me. “I heard the noise in the hallway and thought that you were that monster, Angelo, coming back for me.”

I run toward her, dropping onto my knees, and put my hands on the sides of her face before kissing her forehead. She flinches when I touch her, and the sight of a growing deep purple bruise on her cheekbone makes me seethe with anger.Thank Godshe’s alive. But God help the man who touched her and caused her injury. I take a moment to kiss the wound gently, marking her as mine and vowing to repay the swollen, temporary imperfection on her perfect face with violence against her attackers tenfold.

“Iama monster,” I tell her. “But even monsters protect what’stheirs.”

Just as I untie her, she screams. “Vincent, watch out!”

I turn quickly to see another one of Angelo’s men in the doorway. He draws his gun, and I lunge at him to knock it out of his hand before he can shoot. Then, pulling on all the rage and fury brewing inside me over seeing Isla bound, bruised, and sobbing in fear—I punch the man on the side of the skull with all the force I can put behind my punches. When he crumbles to the ground, unconscious and clearly beaten, I still don’t stop. I continuepunching him until my knuckles are bloody and bruised, and his head is a pulp. Angelo Barone needs to know that none of his men here survived this. I want him to know that I killed this man with my bare hands, and I want it to be a lesson for him to remember before heeverthinks about taking something from me again.

Angelo told me once that he was going to take everything from me, and I want him to know that he was wrong.Iam theDevil of Vegas,and he is no match for me.

“I’ve got you now,” I say as I get back to Isla and untie her with bloodied hands. “You’re safe.”

CHAPTER 17

ISLA

Ihad the horrific experience of being kidnapped and hurt by Angelo Barone, but it’s not my first trauma. And so, after a few days of recovering, I’m ready to move on from it. ButVincentis not.

I know I’m in love with him, and I know that my heart chose to stay with him, although it’s feeling a lot less like Ieverhad any choice in the matter. But I can’t spend my whole life feeling trapped and imprisoned. Ineedsome freedom. I can’t just give up everything about my life that made me who I am.

“Vincent,” I say to him over coffee as we sit together in the early morning. “I want to dance again. I want to go to the theatre. I had the horrific experience of being kidnapped and hurt by Angelo Barone, but it’s not my first trauma.”

“You can train here.”

“No,” I shake my head as I look around the house. “I can’t. I need the studio, and the stage in the theatre, and the creaking of the old wooden floorboards beneath my feet. Don’t you understand? Dancing isn’t just a good pair of pointe shoes and a barre—it’s afeeling,and I need to get that feeling back in order to continue my training. I’ve grown stiff and sore and unhappy.”

Vincent looks at me and frowns. I truly believe that he doesn’t want to see me unhappy, even if he’s the one causing it.

“Isla, you were just kidnapped, and you haven’t even had time to process that fully yet.”

“Dancing helps me process it. It’s the one thing that helps me mentallyandphysically. I need to dance, Vincent. Please let me go back to the studio and the stage.”

“No. I won’t allow it,” he says definitively. “I almost lost you once, and I will not risk that again. Angelo is still out there in the wings waiting, and he’s angrier than ever now. He’ll come after you again because he knows it’s his best way to come afterme.”

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