Page 30 of The Don's Hacker

Evie's sudden high fever scared the hell out of me, but after a trip to the pediatrician and another day off of work, I felt okay leaving her with my mom again. My mom has been supportive and encouraging regarding my new job, even though I still haven't told her all the details.

I certainly haven't told her that I just so happen to be working for Evelyn's father, a casino owner and a mafioso with a reputation for being both calculative and dangerous.

When I was first pregnant, limping around with a giant cast on my broken leg as I moved things into the new apartment, she had tiptoed around the question of who the father was. When she finally asked me outright, I'd said it was just a one-night stand, and there was no chance of the father ever being in the picture. Not even slightly.

Which is still true. Still, I wondered, as I slept tucked against Domenic's side a couple of nights ago, what he might think of Evie.

She's put on weight finally. When she was born, she was so small that it terrified me. Now she has the most adorable little belly poking out of her frilly clothes. Her dark hair curls around her head, and she observes the world like she's trying to solve an endless puzzle. She's so serious for such an innocent, young age. She's obsessed with my jewelry and toddles all over the apartment, silently looking for me when I'm not there, and she absolutely hates anything apple flavored.

In short, Evelyn is everything to me.

So while I might have wondered how Domenic might have looked at his little daughter if he knew the truth, I still don't trust him. He has money and influence and everything else I don't have. Any court in the world would give him custody of my little angel in a heartbeat, and then I'd be broken all over again like I was in that parking garage the day after my life changed forever.

Speaking of parking garages, I'm still on edge whenever I walk into the one connected to the Golden Flame Casino. As I walk through it now, toward the very end where my car is parked, I try not to jump at every shadow or look obsessively for the security cameras to ensure I'm in full view of the security room.

It's late after another long day of running through numbers and testing ways of stopping hackers in the casino's systems. I'm more than ready to get home, bathe Evelyn, feed her dinner, eat whatever is lying around, and then tuck her in to cuddle and sleep for the night.

I wonder if my mom has been following all the doctor's suggestions for Evie after her fever. She's supposed to be staying very hydrated, and although she's finally gaining weight, she needs to be eating more.

The pediatrician brought up her not talking again. It really is something I'm worried about. Maybe I should—

Abruptly, the lights all around flicker, and I go still. I faintly hear an alarm in the distance, as if I'm hearing it from inside the main area of the casino.

Is something going wrong? Some kind of hazard? Domenic is still in there. He was just talking to Big Luck and headed toward the security room when I'd quickly ducked out so I wouldn't have to face him after our impassioned night a couple days ago.

If something is wrong with security, I need to get in and find out what it is.

But before I can take more than a few rushed steps back toward the door that will take me down to the security hall, a thick, meaty hand grasps around my arm and yanks it so hard I shriek in pain.

The brute knocks me off balance. Out of pure instinct, when I hit the ground, I roll away from my attacker and scramble to hide behind one of the vehicles nearby. I peek around it and see Roulette lumbering towards me with a grin on his big potato face.

Shit.

"Come on out, Loren," someone else sings, and I flinch again because I recognize this voice, too.

She goes by Twilight to Wild Seven, but she'd once confessed to me that her name is really Chloe. She likes knives. Like, a lot. I've seen her carve people up, and she's tattooed all over with the damn things. I've never seen hernotcarrying a small arsenal of freaky-ass, custom-made pocketknives. Not to mention, she's a coding mastermind, a real boon to the Wild Seven's trademark black hat shenanigans.

"We never pinned you as a traitor, but Ace isreallypissed with you now that we know you work here of all places," she croons.

He knows I'm working here? I try to swallow back my terror, but all I can focus on is the alarms going off somewhere in the distance. Roulette starts to round the car that I'm cowering behind. I make a mad dash for another one, desperate to get away from them and into the casino to see what's going on. They wouldn't dare attack me in there with the chance of others seeing and IDing them.

But just as I close in on the door leading down toward the security hall, a blow to my side sends me falling, skidding across concrete that rips at my exposed arms and legs while the air is knocked from my lungs. I hit the side of my head and am vaguely aware of blood creeping down my face, but I'm already lunging away from Roulette when he swings for me again.

I can see Chloe now, grinning as she sidles around a car to get a better look at me. She laughs.

"God, you're more pathetic than ever. To go from being such a badass slot hacker tothis?Honey, you picked the wrong side. I can't believe you're working in fuckingsecurity," her voice turns into a snarl. "How much have you told them about us, huh?"

"Nothing!" I snap, throwing one of my high heels at Roulette to buy some time as I scramble to my feet. "I haven't said anything, and I swear I won't. I already told Ace I wouldn't. I'm not trying to get in your way. I just—"

Roulette is faster than he looks, and his thick hands wrap around my arm. I gasp and scramble, desperate to get him off of me before he can snap my bone like a twig again.

But then I hear the door behind me burst open, and a deafening gunshot splits the parking garage. I scream. Roulette staggers and drops my arm, grabbing at his massive bleeding shoulder and snarling at none other than Domenic Caputo.

Domenic turns his pistol on Chloe next, but she has the good sense to duck behind cars and slink away as fast as possible. Roulette is thicker in the head and takes his time backing away, hissing something in Russian that I don't understand.

Big Luck also comes running out the parking garage door, which seems to convince Roulette to get out of there before he's recognized. The dim, flickering lights have been giving both him and Chloe some cover from the security cameras, but if Luck or Domenic get close, those members of the Wild Seven could be identified.

One moment I'm watching Big Luck chase after Roulette, and the next, I'm being scooped up and carried swiftly back into the casino. I gaze up at Domenic in a daze as he marches inside, arms flexing around me as his jaw clenches. His face looks like an invitation for death itself.

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