Page 56 of Dearly Betrayed

The gun goes off, noise cracking through the steady hum of the casino floor.

People are running, shouting, screaming, as my fists come down into the man’s face, pounding him without thinking.

I’m bloody, he’s bloody, and I’m in a blind rage, only barely conscious enough to rip the gun from his limp grasp and toss it aside.

I hit him, over and over, shouting in his face,you won’t hurt my wife, roaring it like a monster, all humanity lost, until I feel people grab me and drag me back. I struggle, but then I see the man’s body lying on the floor, his face broken in, his teeth gone, his mouth a cavity of blood, his nose cracked and wrecked, his eyes pulverized, his limbs twitching. Dead or about to be dead.

“She’s safe.” It’s Zach and his people. A swarm of them, mostly tending to the corpse I left on the floor, the rest pushing the crowds back, making sure nobody’s taking pictures, controlling the area. “We got her. She’s okay.”

“Where?” I snarl, looking around.

“Jayson, you’re a mess. We need to get you cleaned up.”

“Where the fuck is my wife?”

“Here. Over here.” Zach gestures toward the bar where Fallon’s standing off to the side, covered by three big thugs with weapons drawn, her hands covering her mouth, her eyes wide.

I go to her. I shove past the guards. She flinches back, but I don’t care about that. I grab her forearms, gripping them tight, my fingers leaving red prints on her pale skin.

“Are you okay?” I ask, holding tight. I shake her slightly, desperate. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she manages. “No, I’m okay. I’m fine.”

“Thank fucking god.”

“You’re covered in blood.”

I look down at myself. She’s right, I’m a mess. Zach was right too—I should probably get cleaned up. There are going to be cops, statements, a bunch of headaches.

But all I care about is her.

“What happened?” I ask, leaning closer to her. “Tell me who that was.”

“I don’t know,” she says, her voice quiet and choked with emotion. “I’m not—” She shakes her head, tears rolling down her face.

“What did he say?”

“My name. My old last name. Then he said he was sorry before he took the gun out.”

“Fuck,” I say softly.

“Jayson—he had an Irish accent. He was Irish.”

The horror of that settles into my stomach and I pull her against me, holding her tight, despite the blood and the crowd, despite everything, and she sobs into my shoulder.

Chapter26

Fallon

“How the fuck did this happen?” Jayson remains rigid at the back of Adler’s office. His voice rolls like thunder from the back of his throat. He’s in clean clothes, the blood freshly washed from his skin. I was there with him in the bathroom, and when he was finished, he cleaned me next.

I can still feel the blood that covered his clothes when he pulled me into that embrace.

“I don’t know.” Adler stands behind his desk, palms flat on top, leaning forward as he glares at the room. There are more men I’ve never seen gathered around. I wasn’t introduced to them, but I can guess who they are: capos, captains of the family, mafioso from the darker sides of the Costa organization. Hard men, angry men. “How did an armed man get into my casino?”

“Gun was hidden under his jacket,” Zach says. “Kept in a special holster. We didn’t pick it up.”

“Fuck.” Adler’s seething as he meets each of his men’s gaze. “Nobody overreacts. Understand me?”

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