Page 3 of Savage Revenge (Savage Sins #1)

Cash

NUMBNESS IS MY NEW NORMAL

No matter how bitter I make my espresso, it still tastes like nothing. Just heat and emptiness. I take another sip, hoping the scalding liquid might shock something back to life. Pain. Anger. Anything . But it doesn’t do any of those things. It does nothing except sear the inside of my mouth.

I don’t flinch. Don’t curse. Don’t even feel it.

Because I’m fucking numb.

As I stare at the sparkling blue water of my in-ground pool, I see nothing.

Hear nothing. Not the wild animals howling in the desert. Or the fountain that’s sending a waterfall cascading into a lower pond.

People say losing a parent is one of the hardest things you can go through. What they don’t tell you is that it feels like my organs are being carved out with a dull knife. Because the one person who has always had my back is suddenly gone, and I don’t know how to cope.

My dad wasn’t just my father. He was our anchor. The glue. The crown of our empire and the one who held this family together, even after my mom died.

Our attorney gave me the papers this morning that made me CEO of Savage Entertainment, with the four of us having equal shares in the company.

Xander was named as COO, Kian as CFO, and Beckett as CSO.

It wasn’t a surprise. These roles were pretty much ours already.

My father had been getting close to retirement and was only a few months from handing me the reins.

I was thrilled to take over my dad’s spot so he could retire after working his ass off for so many years.

He could go fishing like he always wanted to.

Although I still don’t know where the hell he was planning to do that around here.

Whenever I asked, he’d smile and say it didn’t matter.

The only thing that mattered was that he was going to have fun and live his life to the fullest because my mother had made him promise to do that when he turned seventy.

She made him agree not to work a day after his seventieth birthday. And he was going to uphold that.

Until someone took that opportunity away from him.

The city lights glitter in the distance as a cool breeze floats through my backyard, making the pool ripple slightly under the moonlight.

It’s breathtaking, even from here. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, there’s still something special about the glow of The Strip.

It’s home. Where we’ve spent most of our lives, learning the ins and outs of the world of gambling and business.

Casinos, hotels, strip clubs, and restaurants.

We have it all. Savage Entertainment is the biggest holder of businesses in Las Vegas.

And for that reason alone, we’ve always had a target on our backs. Only now, someone has gone too far.

My fingers tighten around the espresso cup as my heart pounds harder and my throat starts to tighten. It isn’t until I hear the sound of my cup cracking that I hurl it to the ground, finding small comfort in the mug smashing into a million little pieces.

What the fuck am I doing out here? Wasting time when I should be searching for my dad’s murderer. That’s what. They should already be dead by now, yet we’ve been letting them walk free for days. Probably thinking they got away with it.

How the fuck is it that there are millions of cameras along Las Vegas Boulevard and we can’t identify a single thing about the person?

I pull my phone out and send a message to my brothers.

Cash: Meet me at Dad’s house.

Then I stride into my house, ignoring the shards of ceramic scattered all over the ground, and grab my keys and wallet. We’ve wasted enough time wallowing.

All I know is someone out there did this.

Someone who knew my dad.

And I’m going to destroy their entire life, just like they did ours.

“What are we doing here?” Kian asks as we stand in the courtyard outside our father’s mansion.

None of us have gone inside since he died. And the thought of going in there right now to the dark, empty rooms makes me want to vomit. The police didn’t find anything out of place in his house when they searched it, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t miss something.

“We need to discover who did it. Whoever it was, Dad had to know them. Let’s do a sweep of his computer and phone, and we might find something that will give us answers.

We have a lot of enemies in this city, but most of them don’t have the balls to actually kill someone.

” I slowly climb the steps and take a deep breath as I enter the door code.

Beckett follows me, his jaw clenched. “Let’s find this bastard. The sooner, the better. They don’t deserve to breathe for another day.”

No, they don’t. And soon, they won’t. They may have shot my father in the back so he couldn’t see it coming, but I’m going to make damn sure this motherfucker sees, feels, tastes, and hears me coming.

Because I’m not just going to hurt them.

I’m going to end them. The only difference is, I’m not a coward who shoots someone in the back, so they’re going to watch me pull the trigger.

Kian and Xander follow us into the house.

After I disarm the security alarm, the automatic lights turn on around us, illuminating the grand entrance.

Every inch of my dad’s house is pristine.

Gleaming marble and luxury artwork that most people could never afford.

But right now, it’s suffocating. I can feel him all around me, the scent of his cigars and spicy aftershave a permanent memory, and I fucking hate it.

I always teased him and told him he needed to up his cologne game.

He refused because my mom loved what he wore.

Now, I realize I would do anything to smell it on him again.

It was part of him, and now it’s an awful reminder that he’s not actually here.

We head to his office first and spread out, each of us looking through something.

Files, phones, laptops, calendars. Our dad was a workaholic, so he spent most of his time here when he was home.

There were times he’d call me at two in the morning, and he’d still be up working in here.

Jack Savage took immense pride in two things. His family. And his work.

It's too quiet. The air is too stale. Instead of being filled with the aroma of his never-ending espressos, it smells like a stranger’s office.

“We search everything,” I say as I walk behind the solid mahogany desk. “Drawers, files, phone, computers. All of it.”

“Does anyone else have an idea of who they think it might be?” Xander asks as he starts yanking drawers open.

Something prickles at the back of my neck as I open his laptop and turn it on. “I have an idea, but there’s a difference between being business enemies and murder. I want to be sure before I destroy his life.”

Beckett rubs his jaw, his eyes sunken like he still hasn’t rested since we buried our dad a week ago. “Kingston?”

I nod without looking up from the screen.

Thomas Kingston and my dad had been practically at war since I was born.

They hated each other. Thomas hated my dad because my mom chose him over Thomas, and my dad hated Thomas because he tried to come between my parents when they first started dating.

That’s when it all started, and it’s gotten worse ever since.

The two men would find anything they could to fuck with each other.

They would get into bidding wars over available casinos, and it burned Kingston that my father usually won.

Our footprint in this city is bigger than anyone else’s, and our pockets have always shown it, making it nearly impossible for other businesses to grow their own portfolios here unless they come from money.

Like the Carver family. But they’ve always been happy with the share of hotels and casinos they have so they aren’t even on our radar.

We spend the next hour going through everything we can with nothing catching our attention.

I meticulously read everything on the laptop, but other than the usual business emails, I don’t find anything concerning.

I’m still going to have a trusted IT expert download it to see if I’ve missed something.

I reach down and yank open one of the heavy desk drawers, my gaze snapping to it when I hear a rattle inside.

A phone.

Not his everyday phone that the police took from his body when he was shot. This one is older and shoved beneath a stack of envelopes.

As soon as I pick it up, the screen lights up. My jaw tightens as I press the home button and navigate toward the calls and messages. Only one name pops up in both.

Thomas Kingston.

“What the fuck?” I mutter.

My brothers crowd around me when I open one of the messages.

Thomas Kingston: Leave it alone or your days are numbered, Savage. This is my deal. Not yours.

The room goes still. We’re frozen like statues. We came here looking for something, but I wasn’t sure we’d find anything. Not this easily.

Finally, Beckett takes a breath. “What does that mean?”

I scroll up to the earlier messages, but they’ve been deleted. From both sides. The entire string except the last one.

Xander uses both hands to rub his tired face and longer-than-normal beard. Normally, it’s five o’clock shadow length, but like the rest of us, he’s been just existing this past week. “What deal is he talking about?”

Kian takes the phone from me to look at it closely. I push between them and walk over to the window before opening it and pulling out a cigarette. Just as I light it, Xander straightens. “The deal for The Sapphire. Dad and Kingston were bidders on it until…”