Page 63 of Hidden Ties

“I caught someone cheating at one of the tables. I went down to the casino floor to make sure with my own eyes. Look.” Sal put a split screen of the two cameras in each of the elevators. When she hadn’t found Sal in his office, she had gone straight to the elevator. At the same moment that Valerie had entered one at the top floor of the Casino Hotel, Sal had entered one at the bottom after dealing with the situation, so they rode a different one side by side. Sal had only just returned to his office when Kent barged in a few minutes later.

“That’s why I couldn’t get on the elevator and had to wait so long. You both got in and must’ve done something to cause the elevator not to stop between floors.” Kent had still been staying in one of the hotel rooms for quite some time now.

“Yes, there’s a code. Fuck!” Sal cursed when he watched her try to search for him in the casino. Her search had abruptly stopped when a man came up from behind her. Sal zoomed in onthe man and was able to make out the outline of the concealed gun in his pocket as they walked through the Casino Hotel.

“That was Valerie’s boss at the Horseshoe, Edmond Roads,” Kent told him furiously as Sal clicked on another camera angle to watch them leave through the front doors.

As she left through the front doors, she bumped into a random man with a hoodie low over his face who was returning from his jog, before Sal switched to the street camera. Fear started to overtake him as he watched Valerie cross the street toward the Horseshoe with the armed man. Alone.

“How long ago was that?” All of Kent’s worry was quickly replaced by jumping into action. Both men pulled their eyes from the screens and guns from their backs as they headed for his office door and loaded the chambers.

“Five minutes ago,” Sal said, slipping his gun back into its place now that it was primed.

They exited his office and entered the surveillance room with multiple screens across the wall. The newest Caruso soldier would be lucky to see the morning sun.

“Alessio, why didn’t you tell me Valerie came here?”

The soldier didn’t even bother to move his eyes from the screen to talk to him. “I just assumed she had found you like she said you would after I told her you were checking out a problem on the casino floor.”

“You’re fired.” Sal’s voice held authority that made the soldier finally look at him. “Immediately upon my return. Clearly, you cannot be responsible for watching surveillance if you weren’t able to see that she didn’t.”

“We’re losing time,” Kent reminded him, and it took all of Sal’s control not to scatter the soldier’s brains all over the screens.

“Get a hold of Lucca and tell him to call in the cavalry to the Horseshoe across the street. If you manage to do that, I willspare your life. If you’re lucky at all … I won’t return,” he told the panic-stricken soldier, who went for his phone as they left the room to run toward the elevator.

They got on in a rush, and he saw Kent go for his phone. “Who are you calling?”

“Trying to call in more backup, but the elevator is disrupting my signal.” Kent cursed, pulling the phone from his ear before he apologized unremorsefully. “No offense, but I prefer mine.”

Sal stalked forward at the man, taking full offense. “No offense, but how the hell did you know Valerie was in trouble, anyway?”

“Does that really matter right now?” Kent asked seriously, highly aware of Sal’s distaste for him.

The elevator numbers slowly counting down took away his attention. “Try texting,” he told him, backing down, instinctively knowing they were running out of time. The Carusos were only the tip of the iceberg for the kind of connections Kent had. Despite how much Kent tried to hide from Sal, he did know his goings-on, but he was starting to feel like he was missing something.

While Sal still preferred his men to Kent’s, at this point, he’d take any backup he could get; he realized how late it was, so Lucca was probably sleeping and at home with his wife and newborn twins.

Taking out his own phone, he sent a mass text out in the same chat he had texted the guys in to come get their women the other day.

AT HORSESHOE. VALERIE’S IN TROUBLE

When he saw the loading bar slowly creep along to deliver the message, he put the phone back in his pocket, hoping it would send when he got off the elevator, ’cause once that elevator opened, they both shot out like hell was on their heels.

Sal thought he was going to be sick from the nerves racking his body. This was exactly why he hadn’t let himself get close to a woman—the fear of losing a woman he cared for would feel way too similar to losing his mother.

Sal had almost died after he lost his mom, practically starving himself to death. He had only let himself eat when the hunger pains had become too painful.

Watching his mother die in that way, and then proceeding to live on without her, was an indescribable pain he didn’t wish on his worst enemy. Anything and everything he did after her passing, he hated himself for it because his mother wasn’t alive and couldn’t.

If tonight wasn’t already eerie enough, it became only more so when he didn’t see not one made man as they made their way through the casino. The chances of that happening were like …

Once in a blue moon …

The thought made chills coat Sal’s body as they barged out of the casino doors, and Sal’s feet came to a sudden halt when he ominously looked up at the night sky.

“What’s wrong?” Kent asked, trying to see what had stopped him.

Sal’s chest felt heavy with more fear, understanding the sudden eerie feeling that had overtaken him. “It’s a full moon.”