Page 33 of Burn the World Down

But the woman tonight, she hadn’t been sweet. She’d had a core of toughness inside and been running on grief and fumes.

I let my hand drift over the glossy leaves of an orchid, trying to clear my head. Trying to get Georgie out of it.

I’d spent years imagining her happy, healthy, smiling.

Yet, that wasn’t reality. She was stuck in pain and darkness. She’d been hurt, was too thin, wasn’t sleeping.

She deserved so much more. She deserved someone to take care of her and be her shield.

With a growl, I kicked the workbench, setting empty pots shaking. Dragging in a breath, I tried to find some calm.

Being calm right now was fucking impossible.

I didn’t stop to think. Whirling, I strode out and headed toward the casino.

Now, I was worried about her. If she went after Snyder and his men again…

She had no one.

No, that wasn’t true. She had me.

I had all the skills needed to help her, protect her, keep her safe.

I needed to find her.

It only took me a few minutes to get to the security room. As I shouldered through the door, I barely paid any attention to the wall of the screens and the men and women manning them.

One of the team looked up from the screens. “Hey, Nash. Late for you to be here.”

I lifted my chin. “I have some things I need to check, Michelle.” My gaze flicked to the busy screens. “Everything okay?”

She gave me a faint smile. “It’s been a quiet night so far. We’ve only had one card counter, a couple of college kids trying to use tech to cheat, four drunken fights, one handbag snatcher, and one flasher. The night’s still got a bit of time to throw us a challenge.”

I nodded. “I’ll be in the office, if you need me.”

I opened the door to the small office I sometimes used. I dropped down in the seat behind the desk and touched the mouse to wake the computer. After entering my password, I quickly tapped on the keyboard to access the casino’s facial recognition system.

All the casinos used them. It helped weed out the cheats, the criminals, and the troublemakers.

I inputted Georgie’s photo. The one of her from my wallet. It was true her face had changed as she’d matured into a woman, but the key characteristics were the same.

I rubbed my thumb over the photo. That carefree smile was long gone.

Who the fuck was Dean Snyder?

I thought of the man hurting her, abusing Viv, and it left me enraged. While the facial recognition worked, I looked up Snyder.

He looked like a smarmy bastard. Handsome, entitled. There were lots of pictures of him at Vegas parties and events, and several with Viv by his side. She looked a little like Georgie, but her hair was curlier and her body curvier.

Fuck. At first, Viv looked pretty and vibrant, dressed up in short, glittering dresses. But the later photos showed her thinner, strung out, her eyes haunted.

Nothing overt popped about Snyder. His nightclub looked legal. At least, at first glance. The guy had a little power and money, and I suspected he used it to manipulate women.

Okay, now I felt compelled to deal with him.

The computer beeped.

There were no hits on Georgie in any of the casinos.