Opening up the email, it’s from my Queens app. It’s a date for tonight with the same guy I had last time.
I bite my bottom lip, looking it over. He wants to take me to dinner again. Same place. Same time. And wants to pay me five thousand dollars. He’s requesting I wear a red dress and my hair down. No limit on drinks this time. Maybe he realized I can handle my liquor.
I shouldn’t …
“What are you doing, sweetie?” My father enters my room.
I look up at him and sigh. “I just got a request for a date tonight.”
He frowns, confused.
“I’m a Queen,” I remind him. He knows what I’ve done ever since he decided to fake his death. Even though he won’t talk to me, I laid everything out to him on our flight back to Vegas from New York.
“How much?” he surprises me by asking.
“Five thousand,” I answer. “But I’m not going to do it.” I exit out of the app.
He runs a hand through his hair nervously.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Well …” He comes to sit down beside me. “I … just … It’s …”
“Just spit it out, Dad.” I say, tired of his rambling. We’re both adults here.
“I got myself into trouble, Emilee. And I need help getting out.”
“How much do you owe?” I ask, ducking my head. It can’t be easy for him to admit this.
“A million dollars.”
“What?” I gasp like I’m surprised. I just wanted to see if he would lie to me again.
“It wasn’t all my fault.” He gets defensive. “George made a deal. But my name was on that contract too. Now he’s skipped town, and I’m stuck with nothing.”
“Why didn’t they go after him? Why didn’t he fake his death?” I ask.
“Because he didn’t have the life insurance policies that I did. And it would look suspicious for him to get them, and he turn up dead. We needed to avoid any investigation.”
I nod in understanding.
“I had money hidden in the houses,” he says softly.
My chest tightens. “No?”
He nods once. “It was in the master suite. I had a hidden safe in the closet …”
“I didn’t know.” Tears prick my eyes. “Maybe it’s still there …”
“No. The night we returned from New York, I snuck off to the house once you went to sleep, and there was nothing left of it.”
I burned it all. In order to keep it from George, I destroyed something that my father needed. “How much?” I clear my throat.
“Five hundred thousand.”
My stomach knots. “I’m so sorry,” I cry.
“Hey.” He pulls me into his side. “You didn’t know. No one did. Not even your mother or George. It was my secret stash.” He kisses my forehead. “Don’t worry, sweetie. We’ll get through this. I’ll figure something out.” With that, he stands and exits my room.
I wipe my teary eyes and pick up my phone. I accept the date, knowing I have to help my father. Without knowing it, I’ve managed to ruin everything.
CHAPTER FORTY
TITAN
MY PHONE BEEPS, and I look at it. Emilee has accepted the date.
Of course she fucking has! She’s a Queen and bows to no one. Why would I be any different? She’s not going to consider how I feel about that right now. I allowed it because she really wasn’t doing it. Now things have changed. I could fire her, but that would show that I care, and my plan is to try my hardest not to give a fuck about what she does or who she sees.
“I told you what would happen if I saw you again,” I tell the kid, putting my phone away.
If she wants to do this, it’s her choice.
He spits blood onto the table that I have him seated at in the meat locker. “Fuck you, man.”
I busted his face up pretty good with the one hit to the poker table. Now he’s about to see what I can really do.
I punch him in the nose, knocking his head back. He cries out as blood goes flying from my skull ring making contact. “You know, I’m doing others a service by getting rid of you.”
His head falls forward, and he moans while the blood drips from his face.
I grip his hair and yank his head back. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
His eyes are barely open due to how swollen they are. “I was offered twenty grand just to kill you,” I tell him. “I said no, he’s young. He won’t come around here anymore. He won’t steal from us anymore. But lo and behold, here you are. And guess what?” I shake his head with my fist still in his hair. “I’m going to do it for free.” Then I slam his face into the table once again.
_______________
Exiting the room, I wipe my bloody hands off with a towel and enter the elevator. After scanning my card, I go up a level and step off. I walk over to Nigel’s desk in the corner. “I need a cleanup crew,” I tell him.