Page 92 of Bad Medicine

“Oh, goodie,” Mia deadpanned, leveling a glare at Sway. “I wonder where you could have gotten that idea?”

“Sorry, Mia,” he said sheepishly.

“What were you doing, Lucky?” I asked, turning to look at her accusingly.

“Hey,” she said flatly. “You asked me to watch them. You never said anything about making them behave. If you wanted intervention, you should have said so.”

I just stared at her; she was so literal sometimes.

“It’s alright,” Mia said calmly. “No harm done, right?”

“Come on, kid,” Sway said, gesturing back over to the couches. “Come sit over here and I’ll introduce you to Anime.”

Well, that couldn’t be too bad, could it?

“Alright.” I turned to Mia, wanting to kiss her, but not sure how she wanted to handle things with Jasper. I guessed that was maybe something we should have talked about earlier. “I’m headin’ out. You’ll be alright here?”

Mia glanced over to the couch where Sway and Jasper were seated, heads together, as they stared at something on his phone involving a lot of flashing lights.

“Yeah,” she said with a soft smile. “We’re gonna be fine.”

I stared at her, this woman who meant so much to me in such a short time, and nodded.

“Good. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Turning, I exited the room and darted up the stairs. Benny was picking me up outside The Shed shortly, so I could get my car from where I’d left it at Mia’s place.

While I waited, I pulled out my phone, making my first call of the day.

“Lexi? Hey. I need you to find Amber for me. Now.”

Chapter forty-two

Rocco

I’dalwayslovedthehunt.

It was something I’d done since I was a kid, testing myself, seeing how close I could get, how much I could take from someone before they figured out I was there.

I didn’t need to steal anymore, but I still played the game, even if it was just with myself.

I would insert myself amongst average people, watching as they went about their business, completely unaware that a bad man walked among them. Someone who was more than capable of doing very bad things, things they would likely never imagine in their wildest dreams.

I guessed you could say I had always enjoyed people watching. I liked observing society; from the high rollers in the VIP areas of our clubs and casino, to the poor suckers plugging their last dollar into a slot machine, people were some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet.

It intrigued me, watching, calculating, anticipating what someone would do. Learning them. Trying to determine their moves before they even knew what they would do next.

See, people were nothing if not predictable.

We were creatures of habit, most of us, anyway. We were happy to exist in our little bubbles, doing the same thing, driving the same roads, cooking the same meals, day in and day out, like mindless lemmings, until we died.

It was pathetic as fuck.

But in this instance, it was exactly what I fucking needed.

Which was how I found myself standing outside the salon inside Caesars Palace, waiting for one of the most predictable people I’d ever known to emerge.

When she did, she flounced right by me, nose stuck in her phone, probably posting selfies of her new, eight-hundred-dollar dye job, completely oblivious to the world around her.