Page 65

Unfortunately, I have a meeting in New York I need to get to.

“Wrong night because your mind is on a dark-haired baddie who counts cards?” He leans down to pick up Slappy’s glasses and cracks them in half. “What’d you end up doing with her?”

Franko is more than a mere security guard at the casino. He’s one of my closest men, and I trust him. He works strictly for me, not for the Lombardis, and I pay him well for it.

His grandparents owned a casino, and from his teens to his early twenties, he was their security guard until they sold the business.

“Do with who?” I grab a paper towel and wipe my face.

“Oh, come on. It was only hours ago. I doubt you forgot about her.”

I scratch my cheek. “She’s having my baby.”

“Do you mean currently pregnant with your baby, or you just want her to have your baby in the future?”

“Worry about yourself,” I tell him. “But make it clear to security that if they see her on the casino floor, they tell me. No one touches her, or they’re dead.”

“There’stalk about Cernach’s family in Ireland being angry over his death,” Antonio tells Damien and me.

Cernach Koglin was the Irish mob boss whose murder we staged to prevent Damien from marrying Pippa’s cousin, Riona. We thought we’d succeeded and that problem was over.

Seems we were wrong.

The last thing I want to deal with is more Irish assholes.

It’s almost five in the morning, and I haven’t had a wink of sleep. I hoped to make it home before Genesis woke up, to see her in my bed, but I doubt that’ll happen.

I stretch my neck and take a drink of water. “Tell them to take it up with Odhrán, the man who killed him.”

Riona murdered Odhrán, so he should no longer be a problem either. It was impressive. She’d played the image of the obedient mob princess so well that no one suspected a thingas she plotted her father’s murder. Now, she’s the boss of the family, the first woman to do it. So far, she’s still alive. I don’t know how long men will allow her to stay in charge though.

That further proves my belief that you can’t trust anyone.

“This had better not become a problem.” Antonio grits his teeth.

He didn’t want to kill Cernach, but he did it because my brother loved Pippa. Cernach would’ve never allowed them to be together.

Like so many bosses, Antonio thinks of the strength and safety of the family first. He grew up with a cruel father who put him through hell. But unlike me, he didn’t have a mother who tended to his wounds after. She gave no fucks if he or his brother showed up to dinner, beaten and bruised. When Antonio went to war with his uncle, his mother even sold him out.

He never wanted to be the boss. His brother, Vinny, was the oldest and set to take over. But Vinny was fucking stupid and wanted to be king of New York. He further lost his mind when his girlfriend, Natalia, left him. After Natalia got engaged to Cristian, he kidnapped her, and Cristian killed him for it.

I rest my elbows on the table. “I have another problem to add to the list.”

Antonio reclines in his chair and throws his head back. “What now?”

“Dima came to the casino.” I can’t stop myself from clenching my jaw at the memory of him touching Genesis.

“Please tell me it was only to gamble,” Damien says.

Still in a bad mood, I can’t stop myself from glaring at my brother. “If he wanted to gamble, I doubt our place is where he’d choose to go.”

The two nod in understanding.

“He’s watching you,” Antonio states, his tone flat.

“Yaroslav will keep him in line,” Damien says.

“Yaroslav is getting old,” I argue. “Dima knows he’ll be in charge soon.”