Page 1 of Loving Lex

CHAPTER ONE

Lex

Ten days.

Ten godforsaken, eternal,heat-drenched, miserable, motherfucking days. I’d come to Las Vegas two weeks ago, determined to find out the truth about my stepbrother’s death, spent two days finding a place to live, two more days moving in, then hustled my ass to the one place I knew I’d find answers.

Cameo Gentlemen’s Club.

Or, more specifically, Gideon Kane.

I’d done my homework. I wasn’t stupid. Kane was at the helm of the biggest and most dangerous crime family in Vegas, who did their business out of Cameo, among other places—and my dead brother, Stone, had worked for him. My family was told it was a home invasion gone bad, but I didn’t buy it. No fucking burglar resorted to slitting a man’s throat. Not a man as big and badass as Stone. No fucking way. I smelled a rat, and from where I sat, his name was Gideon fucking Kane.

I was going to find out the truth if it killed me. My mother deserved that. My brother deserved that. Hell,Ideserved that. And, honestly, I didn’t give a flying fuck if Gideon Kane was the toughest motherfucker on the Vegas strip. If he’d murdered my brother, I’d make sure his ass paid, no two ways about it. I had nothing left to lose, and my brother deserved nothing less.

Still, after marching into Cameo a week and a half ago, asking to see him about a job so I could hopefully get into the organization that had been Stone’s demise and find out the truth, I hadn’t heard a peep. Nothing.

For ten damn days.

What an asshole.

I pounded out my frustration in the sorry excuse for a workout room at my apartment complex. It had a weight bench, a few free weights, a dated exercise bike, and a treadmill. I couldn’t complain too much, though. It was affordable, close to Cameo and the strip, and not a total dump. I’d certainly lived in worse.

I sat to start my bicep curls and glanced out the window just as my neighbor from down the hall pulled into her parking space and stepped out of the little red Mercedes that stuck out in this neighborhood like a sore thumb.

I couldn’t help staring at Duchess—or at least that’s what I’d named her in my head when I first spotted her a few days ago looking entirely too put together and perfect—as she grabbed a few bags from her back seat and made her way down the sidewalk with her eyes shaded behind huge pink sunglasses. I had no idea what her name was, or even what her voice sounded like, but the girl was something else. Sexy as hell, but also clearly untouchable. Tiny and compact, yet she still had a body for days. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’d wondered more than a few times how it would feel to fuck her into submission—because God knew a woman who looked like that? She had to be high-strung and high-maintenance.

My gaze stayed locked on her as she sauntered past, her short mahogany waves glistening in the sun, barely kissing her tanned shoulders. Like a glutton for punishment, I swiveled my head to watch the sway of her full hips and perfect ass, all wrapped up in tiny white shorts.

Fuuuuck.Duchess was delectable.

Once she was out of sight, I adjusted myself in my shorts and returned to my workout. Enough of that. I didn’t have time for distractions anyway.

I was just finishing up and cooling off when my cell phone rang from my bag. I pulled it out, not bothering to check the caller ID. “Yeah?”

“Mathison? How ya doin’, brother?”

“Lucky?”

“Yeah, man. Just checking in. How’s Vegas?”

“Good.” I yanked up my bag and headed out toward my apartment. “Slow.”

I’d met Lucas “Lucky” Moore in Marine boot camp, and he and I, as well as my other buddy, Finn, had become fast friends as we had each other’s backs during those weeks of torture at the hands of our asshole drill sergeant. We’d kept in touch as we moved on to our specialized training, though it was sometimes spotty after he went into Marine Recon, but we were still tight. He’d even come to visit after I was injured and stuck in the military hospital and then rehab for months, kicking me in the ass when I was feeling sorry for myself.

The helicopter I was on had been trying to lift off during a firefight when we were hit. Finn was aboard too, and got his arm mangled while I was thrown about fifty feet to the ground and suffered a head injury. Finn and I had both eventually been medically discharged with a big, fatthank you for your fucking servicefrom Uncle Sam and some physical and mental scars we’ll carry forever.

We both earned a lifelong friend in Lucky, however. He’s also one of the only people I’d come to trust in this world, so I’d told him about Stone’s death, my suspicions, and my need to go to Vegas. He and his teammates used their resources to help me look into the Kane organization and he warned me to be careful. I knew he was checking up on me now to make sure I wasn’t in pieces in the Nevada desert somewhere.

Lucky made thoughtful noises as I filled him in on my lack of progress and the wall I’d run into. “So, you gonna let it go then?” he asked.

“Hell, no.” I pivoted to make a quick detour to the mailboxes. “I’m not giving up that easily. I’ll go back to the club in a day or two if I have to. Try again. Maybe he didn’t get the message.”

“Oh, I’m sure he got the message. This is the fucking mafia we’re talking about, Lex.”

“Yeah, well, this is my brother we’re talking about,” I countered. “Ican’tjust let it go. I need to know what happened to him, man.”

“I understand that.” His voice dropped. “I do. Tell you what. Let us do a little bit more digging on our end while you wait. I’ll let you know if we find anything interesting.”

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