Page 34 of Loving Lex

Lex:I’ll meet u out front by security.

Me:OK on my way.

I rose on wobbling legs and made my way down the hall and out into the lobby as fast as I could. I walked toward the front and found his concerned face over the crowd. His friend was hovering close by, his wife nowhere to be seen.

As I neared them, Lex rushed me. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I—”

“You don’t look okay. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” His arctic eyes raked my face. “What’s wrong? Is some asshole bothering you upstairs?”

I swallowed. “No.”

“Then what?”

I took his hand and tugged him to a corner, indicating for his friend to follow, who must have sensed the question in my eyes.

He gestured toward the dark doors of Sizzle. “Grace is having dessert and watching the show,” he said. “Sweets aren’t really my thing. I’ll be joining her later for something a little more my speed.” He tipped his head toward one of the dance stages, where our dancer was decked out in little more than body glitter, a feather boa around her neck.

I nodded, not quite sure what to make of that, but I figured to each their own. I turned back to Lex’s concerned face. “I overheard something. About your brother.”

His eyes grew round. “What?”

“Daisy, the waitress, either dated him or had a crush on him, I’m not sure... either way, she made a comment about him.” My words fell off as I gauged how to tell him.

Lex tipped up my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “What did she say, Shay?”

“She said...” I licked my suddenly dry lips. “She said something about him not being alive because he didn’t play by Kane’s rules.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lex

Shay’s words circledmy brain for the rest of the night. I couldn’t focus on anything else. It confirmed my biggest suspicion, even though it didn’t compute with everything I was coming to learn about the organization I worked for.

Sure, I’d been warned that they wouldn’t think twice about putting me down if I crossed certain lines—I’m sure Stone had, too—and I had no trouble believing they’d done it before. But so messy? Covering it up as a robbery gone bad? Something about that just didn’t make sense.

I knew JD was the head of security and Mr. Kane’s enforcer. I’d heard rumblings of how he could make men disappear quietly, never to be seen again, but not before they took a trip down to his “office” in the basement of Kane Enterprises. I could only imagine what kind of mafia torture shit he kept down there. Point was, being able to torture people and make them disappear into the Nevada desert didn’t equal slicing my brother’s throat and dumping him in his apartment. Not JD’s style.

The Kanes always made their point or hid all the evidence. Nothing in between.

When my shift was over, I was surprised to find Lucky and Grace waiting for me outside the security booth.

“Hey,” I said. “You didn’t have to stick around. I know it’s late.”

“It’s fine,” he said as they began to walk with me. “So, we’ve been talking.”

I glanced over. “Oh?”

“I told Grace what Shay overheard about your brother tonight.”

I swallowed and nodded as we approached the employee area where we always met up. “Yeah?”

They paused and I stopped to face them. He dropped his voice. “That’s some seriously fucked-up shit, man.”

“I know—”

“So, if you’re cool with it, we may hang around Vegas for a bit longer. See if we can help.”

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