Page 61 of Sin City Obsession

Her brow pinched. “And when will be? I have to somehow pull myself together and get back out to that old set, because both my targets are still alive and functioning. If you weren’tinfatuated with me, you would be able to admit that was a pretty big fuck-up.”

He made a point of slackening his expression into an imitation of innocence. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Your job is done. All wrapped up with a bow.” He waited for her confusion to morph into surprise, then promptly threw her off again as he scooped up her phone. “Also, dinner’s on its way, and your mom called. She wouldn’t tell me what about, so I’m assuming it wasn’t anything critical.”

Her gaze dropped to the phone but it took her several seconds to physically reclaim the device. “My mom called.”

“Probably what woke you up.”

She took a deep breath, held it, and blew it out with a frustrated groan. “Shit, I’m so sorry. You really didn’t have to ans—”

Rocco cut her off with a heavy, lingering kiss. “No more of that. I don’t want or need your apologies. None of what I’ve done for you today was a hardship, okay?”

Alessa rolled her lips between her teeth for a beat, then released them and rewarded him with a soft, genuine smile. Her eyes sparkled but he suspected that was much from the sheen of all the tears she’d cried. Then she eased off his lap, her thumb moving over her phone. “I’ll just call Mom back real quick, that way I can use dinner as an excuse if she tries dragging it out.”

He smiled back. “Go right ahead.” She hadn’t asked what they might have talked about, or lectured him for speaking to her mother.

Even better, she didn’t leave the room as she lifted the phone to her ear.

For as humiliated with herself as Alessa was over the way she’d botched nearly everything on Tuesday, she found what she kept replaying in her mind was not the chaotic memory from the morning’s panicked spiral, but rather something her mother had said later that evening.

“Who was that man with the good Italian name and the strong voice? He spoke like he was fond of you….”

Alessa swore her mother was becoming more meddlesome with age.

She pushed the thought from her head and stepped from the SUV, joining Rocco’s side in the private underground lot of Cavallo’s Casino & Hotel. Emanuele, Ignazio, and Marzio flanked them. All four men were dressed in some variation of a crisp, classic black suit. She was off-duty, there as Rocco’s partner—lover, guest, whatever word best applied—and so she wore a just-modest-enough cute-casual summer dress. It was more accommodating to the heat, but she felt out of place, when she would normally be dressed in a suit similar to the rest of the security ensemble.

They were in the elevator and stepping out again on the ground floor in barely a minute. It was a pit-stop, but anecessary one. This was the first day the casino was allowed to re-open to the public, after rounds of thorough inspections from multiple agencies and an expensive, detailed cleaning. The cleaning, of course, was not so unfamiliar in their line of work. But it was atypical to have to order it on a property publicly associated with the family name.

It was early enough that the morning light wasn’t terribly bright out yet, and the summer heat wasn’t as oppressive as Alessa had already learned it would come to be. But still, to step into the casino and see it so barren was … jarring. Even for her.

The machines, tables, and chairs were all in place. A few were brand-new, ordered and expedited. There were a handful of employees quietly moving about, settling into their stations at poker tables or behind the partitioned cash-exchange bar. Beefy security in unmistakable attire stood at the perimeter.

But the tell-tale indicators of a casino were nearly all absent.

There was no cloying stench of tobacco smoke, or any other type of smoke. The slot machines were silent—no mechanicalka-thunk, no shrill bells or chimes, no clanking coins dropping into the little bowls at the bottom. The roulette and poker tables were full of empty spaces where customers should be. No dice rolled, no cards shuffled, no people hollered, no chips clacked.

She hadn’t spent any significant time in the casino prior, but the absence of everything felt so verywrongthat it filled her quickly with anger.

Rocco laced his fingers with hers and she was genuinely not sure if he was reading her mind or feeling the same thing andseeking her own reassurance. In case it was the latter, Alessa gave his hand a squeeze.

One of the men in a labeled security vest stepped up and inclined his head. “Everything’s in order, sir.”

Rocco nodded. “Good.”

The security man spun on his heel and strode swiftly back toward his post.

Rocco tilted his head. “Marzio, Ignazio, keep watch on the hall. We want to show confidence when we reopen, and this will only take a minute.”

The brothers stepped back without argument.

Rocco looked over at her and lowered his voice. “Would you rather wait inside?”

Alessa shook her head. She hadn’t figured out what they were yet, or what she wanted long-term, but she knew in the short-term, she wanted to stay close to him.

He didn’t question her decision before striding forward, keeping her at his side. They stepped through the main doors with Emanuele’s presence like a cloak over their backs.

Alessa had a lot of mixed emotions about the crowd of people holding recording devices that had gathered just beyond the sidewalk. She knew Cavallo’s Casino & Hotel had announced their intended re-opening previously, and even promised to hold a small press conference for the occasion. So she knew the crowd was expected. She just was not used to beingseenin these situations. And there was not a single doubt she was going to be seen, noticed, and probably made an issue of.

Rocco Cavallo II was not a nobody in Las Vegas, after all. And he was not known for making random public appearances with a woman on his arm.

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