Page 126 of Break Me

“Not any longer.”

Chuckling, I tipped my head over my shoulder. Mikhail had every intention of being involved in the meeting. Kazimir, Vissarian, and Sasha would wait in case anyone dared try to attack while we were engaged in our conversation.

After motioning for Mario and one of his top soldiers to come into the room with us, Mikhail closed the door and we waited for a few seconds. Liam was uncomfortable as hell, but he tried to act as if our unannounced visit wasn’t bothering him in the least.

“What do you want, Alexsey?” Liam asked as a start to our conversation.

“It’s my understanding that you misappropriated funds earmarked for Halle and her daughter. Did you take the money and perhaps use it to fund your gambling habit?”

At least he had the good graces to appear uncomfortable, but he didn’t answer right away.

I wasn’t in the mood to deal with bullshit. “If I need to ask you again, you won’t like how I do it.”

“Answer the question, Liam. There’s no reason to lie any longer. You’ve done the damage. There is no coming back from what you did.” Halle was as emotionless as I’d seen her, yet I could feel the hum of electricity just below the surface.

She could easily fly off the deep end.

Not that I would blame or stop her.

“Fine. I took the money.” His statement was simple and honest, but I had a sense there was more to the story.

“Two million goes a long way toward paying off debt and from what I’ve heard, you weren’t in the hole that much with the Papadakis brothers, so that led me to the conjecture that you were using the money as collateral.”

“To purchase drugs,” Halle added. I had to give the girl credit. Even in the face of what she was dealing with, she hadn’t lost her spunk.

I’d simply need to temper that a little.

Regular spankings would help.

“Well, Liam? The lady deserves an answer. Am I to assume you’re working with the Greeks against us and perhaps in conjunction with your old buddies the O’Shaughnessy clan who has been itching to control this town for years? Your father and Tristen O’Shaughnessy went to school together. They palled around together.”

He appeared even more nervous, but I’d be damned if he didn’t act as if he had plans on stonewalling us. I reacted without thinking about the fact Halle was still in the room, ripping out my weapon and pointing it directly at his head.

“Alexsey. Don’t.” Halle placed her hand on my arm. “Don’t hurt him. I’d be happy to.”

“Talk, Liam. I don’t like to disappoint my lady.”

The twitch in the corner of his right eye meant I was getting to him. “You’ve got it all wrong. My father and Tristen had a falling out years ago. Right about the time they wanted to destroy what we’d built here in Las Vegas.”

Now we were getting somewhere.

“Go on,” Mikhail directed.

Liam flicked him a quick look. “I don’t know all the particulars, but Sean did.”

“Meaning what?” Halle pressed.

“Meaning Sean had been groomed to take over for our father.”

“Groomed. To take over. You mean as some crime syndicate leader.” She took a step closer to him, her entire body tensing.

“Yes. Then suddenly Sean didn’t want anything to do with the family because of you.” I’d expected to see a hateful glare, but I was wrong. There was something more along the lines of jealousy. “He wanted a family, a normal life.”

“But something happened, didn’t it?” she asked.

He closed his eyes briefly. “My gambling habit interfered. Papadakis was breathing down our necks. Tristen was trying to drag me into an alliance and I couldn’t take it any longer.”

“You lost yourself in gambling.” My words were also said with no emotion.