Now she’s the one who snorts. “Since when? You beat the crap out of him when he got into your computer and stole your research paper and used it as his own.”
“That’s different,” I argue.
“How?”
I set my beer down. “Because Mr. Walden thought I had just freely given it to him, thinking he wouldn’t remember.” I sigh.
“Anything you need me to do?” Derek asks. “Want me to talk to him about something? Is it girls?”
I shake my head. “I found a key card of some sort from Kingdom at the shop today. I think it fell out of his jacket pocket.”
“What?” she asks. “How the hell would he get in there?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure what the hell he would be doing with that.”
Derek’s dark eyes look around before he leans forward and whispers, “Kingdom is bad fucking news, April.”
I wave him off. “It’s just a casino.”
“No. I hear shit in here. Kingdom is into some bad shit.”
I’ve lived in Vegas most of my life, but I know nothing about the casinos or nightlife. I have always lived in my own world. From the moment my mother opened Roses, I worked there with her. Before school. After school. Even after I turned twenty-one, I never ventured out onto the Strip. It’s just not my scene. “Like what?” I frown.
“Yeah? Like what?” she asks him.
“I hear that the guy, Bones, is in big with the mafia. Whatever they want, he gets them. Vice versa. And they bury bodies in the desert.”
“Mafia? Really?” I laugh. “Since when do you believe in that shit?” I know they exist. But in Vegas? They’re in places like New York, Chicago, and Italy. “And what could this Bones guy get them?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know exactly. I just know that anything goes there. I guess there’s some sort of black market that the guys run.”
“Illegally?”
He rolls his dark eyes. “That’s what black market stands for.”
I’m still not sure I believe it. But even if I did, I ask, “What would Ethan have to do with that?”
He shakes his head. “You need to find out. And better hope that it’s not too late to get him out of it.”
Alexa frowns. “He’s a teenage boy. Maybe some friends of his had a party there or something.” She shrugs. “Kids do it all the time.”
“Or it’s something much worse,” Derek argues.
I sigh and tip back my beer as he goes to help a man who just walked up to the bar.
My brother better not be into some shady shit, or I will beat him so badly he won’t be able to sit down for a week. He forgets that I can knock his ass out. I’ve done it before. Many, many years ago. But a woman doesn’t forget how to fight. It’s like sex. Another thing I haven’t done in a while. When your body is put in that situation, it just knows what to do. Instincts take over. And cravings need to be satiated.
“What are you going to do?” Alexa asks me.
I shrug. “Not sure just yet.”
“Well …” She slaps the bar top. “How about we go out tomorrow night?”
“How is that going to help me?” I arch a brow.
“It won’t, but you need to have some fun and let loose. When was the last time you went out and had some fun?”
I sigh. “I don’t know.”
“Exactly. I have this girlfriend who’s having a party. I actually have a night off. It’ll be fun.”
“Girlfriend, huh? Have something to tell me?”
She laughs. “Trust me, April, if I was trading teams, you’d be the first one to know.” She winks at me, and I throw my head back laughing.
CHAPTER SIX
GRAVE
I LOOK OUT the oval window in my brother’s private jet. All I see are clouds, but it’s better than the judging looks he’s been giving me since he picked me up and dragged my ass onto his plane this morning.
“Here you go, Grave,” his flight attendant, Nicki, announces as she comes over to my seat. “Sure you don’t want anything, Bones?” she asks him.
He shakes his head once without even bothering to look up at her.
“Thank you,” I tell Nicki and throw it back. Setting it on the table between my brother and me, I notice his eyes on mine. Then they drop to the now empty glass. “If you didn’t want me to drink, then you shouldn’t keep your bar stocked,” I say matter-of-factly.
He runs a hand through his hair and looks away from me. He’s clearly still very pissed.
“Why are you fucking your best friend’s fiancée?” I come out and ask.
“What me and Emilee do does not concern you,” he snaps.
“My other question is why would Titan allow that?” I go on when he doesn’t say anything. “I mean, if I was engaged, I wouldn’t let you go anywhere near my pussy …”