Page 16 of Pearl (Royal Harlots MC, Phoenix, Az. #1)

Carver

R enzo and Matteo Larussio, two of the most notorious of the Larussio cousins. Everyone who knows their name knows the reputation. The hothead gatekeepers to the heads of the entire Larussio crime family. The capos, the ones no one in their right mind wants to meet in a dark fucking alley.

Yet, the two of them walk toward me across the tiled casino floor of The Larussio in their fancy Italian shoes and black suits as though they were the most dignified of businessmen.

Renzo extends a hand. “Carver, meet my cousin, Matteo.” He looks around the reception area of the largest resort hotel and casino in Vegas, which is filling up with visitors who are anxious to get checked in and have a little fun.

He gestures down the hall. “Let’s find somewhere to talk.”

I follow him, while Matteo walks beside me until we reach a set of elevators off the beaten path.

Once inside, he swipes his finger across the digital security screen, and the elevator car begins to move downward.

“We’ll have more privacy.” Renzo doesn’t give me any other explanation and for one second, I think the absolute fucking worst. What if inadvertently I’ve gotten on the wrong side of the Larussios?

But there are people, a lot of fucking people milling around when we walk into the club.

A woman in five-inch red stick heels, a brief swatch of red material covering her snatch, and a couple red feathering pasties glued to her nips walks over to us.

“Usual?” she asks Renzo and then looks to Matteo.

They both nod. “What can I get you, handsome?” she asks me.

“Coke.”

She laughs. “I get it, handsome. Gotta have your wits about you around these two.”

Renzo gives her a smirk and walks with us to the far round table in the back corner, away from the dancers’ stage and out of the line of traffic as people move through the club.

Matteo taps the back of a chair and as soon as I sit down, they take seats across from me.

Clearly old mafia myths have some ring of truth to them because every now and then their eyes scan across the room, looking from their view to the door.

Probably exactly why they put my back to the door and not theirs.

They like to see trouble coming, well fucking so do I, and this seating arrangement doesn’t sit well with me at all.

In the joint, I would have never allowed it, most times even now in fact, but this isn’t my club, and I know a thing or two about fucking respect. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not hyper alert to the dangers around me, even in a seemingly innocent place like this.

Because nowhere the Larussios go is innocent or not well thought out in advance. I’d put money on that.

Renzo doesn’t say a word for a minute watching a couple’s exchange on the other side of the room giving me a chance to look around the place.

It’s not that I haven’t heard about the lower level of The Larussio, but it’s pretty fucking classy, that’s for damn sure.

Makes me wonder what they’re charging for a night in one of those BDSM rooms that are the talk of the town.

The newest BDSM club in town with the best amenities and a client list that sounds like they’ll have to expand sooner than they thought to keep up to demand, at least that’s the word on the street.

Pretty fucking fancy for a crime family, but that’s what I hear about mob-run empires these days.

The leaders can be as dirty as you think but look as clean as the most polished entertainer in the world.

Money fucking talks and the Larussios, they fucking own Sin City now.

The Desert Riders would do well to stay in their own territory.

Renzo isn’t known for wasting or mincing words and he doesn’t do it now.

“We asked you here because we have a proposition for you. You’ve been working for us indirectly for quite some time.

Nothing but good things are said about you, and you deliver, every single time. We want you on our team, permanently.”

I exhale a breath. What the fuck does that even mean. I don’t fucking ask. I’ll let them lay all their cards on the table, because it could be good or bad for me, depending on the job they’re looking for me to take.

Renzo pushes back from his chair. “This strip, and this vast desert, it now belongs to us. We take care of the casino owners, the small mom and pop restaurants who only months ago were getting shafted by the rivals. The powerful, the big money men who run things, they now come to us for supplies, equipment, and fun. We are expanding plain and simple.”

“Capone and Ryker speak highly of you. I personally saw how you handled yourself earlier in the week. The Desert Riders have intercepted multiple of our shipments. They work for our rivals and are trying to traffic women right under our noses.” Matteo grunts.

“They fucking think we don’t know exactly what they’re doing?

Soon, they’re going to wish they had left town when they had a chance.

The Larussios do not tolerate trafficking of women. ”

He gestures around. “Every fucking woman in this club, upstairs, downstairs, no matter the job, she’s here because she wants to be and she gets paid, fucking great I might add. Our employees are an extension of us, like family.”

That’s something I can fucking respect, especially after helping Pearl and her crew help those women. “I can respect the hell out of that.”

Renzo nods. “I knew you were the one when I saw you defend the woman against bikers who could have killed you on the spot. It showed a lot of integrity and guts to do that.”

My eyes narrow. “You saw that? I didn’t see you that day.”

He laughs. “You see me when I intend for you to see me, capisce? I let you see me with Capone and Ryker.”

I nod. It’s fucking hard not to like this guy, no matter that he has a reputation of someone I shouldn’t want to know. “I don’t take kindly to innocent women being mishandled, and especially my own.”

Renzo sits back in his chair. “We can talk more, work out details, and of course payment, but at the end of the day, you now work for us.”

Yeah, I don’t tell him this, but we’ve got a whole hell of a lot more talking to do before I agree to work for anyone.

I’ve been a free agent, a lone wolf for far too fucking long to have someone looking over my shoulder calling the shots.

Especially if the job is in Vegas, because that’s not exactly where I’m trying to be.

At least not since Pearl. “What would I be doing, and where? My lady, she’s in Phoenix.

Right now, running product, I can be there at night and where I need to be during the day. ”

He nods. “The job may be a little different, and loyalty is critical. We think you’re running too solo right now. We’re offering protection.”

“Isn’t me running solo good for you? I’ve always been told it’s nice that no one can connect me to the biker groups or to you.”

Matteo’s dark eyes meet mine. “Maybe in the past it was good. We’ve known Capone for years but have come to trust both Ryker and Capone.

They speak highly of you. Times are changing though, and we want to offer you both the protection of the biker community and the family.

But it comes with a price. We expect complete loyalty.

No other jobs, no free agent running product or anything else for anyone else but us. We don’t share well.”

Now it’s my turn to be surprised. “It’s not what I thought this conversation was going to be about, but I’m honored.

I think the world of both Capone and Ryker.

I’ve known them a long time, and they’ve always given me plenty of work, respected my lifestyle and paid me well. Can’t ask for better than that.”

“Except for the offer that I’m making you now.”

The dude doesn’t let anything slide but he still hasn’t really come right out and said what the offer is, and I’ve heard how slick these guys can be.

I smile. “It’s a great offer, and like I said I’m honored.”

“But?”

Those intense dark eyes don’t miss a fucking thing.

“I just got in a relationship, something that I don’t usually do. A woman from Phoenix, and she’s not able to relocate.” I may not have asked her, but I know it just the same. She’s too invested.

The cocktail waitress comes back a few minutes later and whispers something in Renzo’s ear causing him to scowl.

He pulls his cell from his suit pocket and turns it on while she puts the tray down with three drinks.

“Thirty minutes without a fucking crisis?” he asks no one in particular as his phone comes to life and he hits a number.

“Excuse me a moment. It must be something important.”

“What’s so urgent?” he growls into the phone.

His jaw tightens and his eyes go dark. “Carver is with me now. I’ll let him now and text you with the plan. Be fucking ready.”

Renzo turns to me. “This happened sooner than we anticipated. That was Ryker. The Desert Riders want the women we had rescued from our rivals back. Unfortunately, they took your woman.”

My blood runs cold, and my chest tightens at the thought of her in the hands of the savage animals.

It takes effort to focus on what Renzo’s telling me.

“They’ve been working for our rivals in town for some time.

The ones running the girls.” He leans in close, his dark eyes hard and intense.

“Here’s what we’re going to fucking do. Capone, Ryker, and the Rivalry will go in after her. Pearl’s her name, right?”

I nod.

“We understood the Phoenix Crew helped you when you were transporting the girls rescued from the Riders the other night.”

Now all the pieces of the puzzle are starting to drop into place. Except Pearl is right in the middle of it all. “The Phoenix Crew gave Pearl and her ladies a place to lay low. The Desert Riders want Pearl to give up the girls? They want the women back?”

Matteo nods. “No fucking doubt about that. The Desert Riders and the Scorpions are forming some sort of alliance. We’re going to reach out to the Phoenix Crew to run interference if they get that far.

Capone and Ryker have been watching the Phoenix Crew for a while because the Royal Bastards are looking to expand too.

Our own Rivals are allies, and we’ll sanction the merger if the two groups consolidate. ”

My jaw tightens with angst. This is all fucking good and well, but I don’t fucking want to talk strategy, and territorial plans. I want to find Pearl right the hell now. “Do we know where they’re holding Pearl? How long they’ve fucking had her?”

“We know and it hasn’t been long. The girls’ lives depend on just how fucking much your girl can stand and for how long before she talks. It’s going to take time for the Rivals to get to Phoenix on bikes… He pauses a minute, and then looks at his cousin. “But there is another way.”

My mind is already automatically weighing all the options.

These men have power, and fuck waiting. They don’t want Pearl talking about the women they managed to rescue from their rivals, and I don’t want her hurt.

“I’ll make you a deal. You get me and a few of your men on a jet and get us there as fast as you fucking can, and I will work for you.

No questions asked. I’ll do whatever needs to be done. You have my word, but we go now.”

Renzo doesn’t fucking hesitate. He types out a message. “Get him to the airport,” he says to Matteo. “I’ll have Ryker and Capone meet you there. Wheels up in twenty minutes. An hour or so in the air. Less if the pilot wants a bonus.”

I’m already out of my seat and heading toward the door with Matteo right on my tail. “Door by the elevator,” he says. I open it and he almost bumps into me from behind. “The car will be waiting for us at the top of the steps, leads to the back door.”

“Got it.” He’s not wrong. The minute the Vegas sun hits us, a sleek black Cadillac pulls up.

Matteo grabs the back door open. “Get in.” He opens the front door and slides into the passenger seat and the driver peels back into the street before I’ve even shut my door.

And just like that, I’m working for the fucking mafia and on my way to kill the bastards who dared lay a hand on the woman who I now call mine.