Page 96 of Diamonds

Which means Bill died to give me this information.

And if Rouge is involved…

Holy fuck.

Rouge Montrose killed my father.

And if she killed the former Mayor of Chicago, she won’t hesitate to kill his only son.

Or worse, his only son’s girlfriend.

Alissa.Sweet Alissa.

I can’t take her back into Aces.Not right now.

And I can’t take her to my place, or her place.

Everyone who gets into Aces has to show ID.So they have our addresses.

Rouge doesn’t know that we witnessed Bill’s murder, but she could still be after us.When we don’t return to the club, that’ll send up a red flag.

We pull out of the alley onto a busy street.Cars rush past.

We’re safe for now.

Alissa bursts into tears and throws her arms around me.“Maddox!I thought we were going to die.”

I hold her tight.“I won’t letanythinghappen to you, Alissa.No one’s going to harm a hair on your beautiful head as long as I’m around.”

She looks up.“What about when you’re not around?”

“Don’t worry about that.”I squeeze her body against mine.“I’m not letting you out of my sight until we figure out what the hell is going on.”I point to a building.“That’s the garage where the Rolls is parked.We’re going to get to the car, and then I’m going to take us somewhere safe.”

“Where?”she asks.

“I’ll figure that out on the way.Right now I just want to get us the fuck out of here.Away from Aces, from Rouge, from her Kings.Because the file that the King mentioned?I think he was talking about my dad’s file.The one that was buried, that shows that his death wasn’t a heart attack.”I swallow.“I think Rouge might have been behind it all.”

She drops her jaw.“So it’s all connected.”

I nod.“This must be why my dad left me the membership.He must have known that his number was up soon, so he made arrangements for me to inherit his place at Aces.Rouge must have figured out that I had no idea about any intentions he might have had, so she let me come to the club, plied me with as many gin and tonics as I could handle.Kept me clueless, except for?—”

I shut my mouth.Except for that night when she showed me a hint of her true colors.

But she made me take those damned shrooms, so I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t.

It was a test.To see if I would freak out when she handed me the glass of blood.Maybe she was hoping to make me one of her Kings.

The King of Diamonds.

It’s all connected.Shit.

She made me take the shrooms because if Ididfreak out, she could easily explain it away as a hallucination.

Which is exactly what happened.

Fuck.

And I kept returning for years.