“He was,” Vienna said. “Just the way he was with me. He relied on his psychic gift to always win the big hands. My guess is his voice didn’t work on Liam any more than it did on me.”
Raine looked at Zale and Rainier again. She waited a few moments while the clock ticked, filling the silence with the rhythmic sound. Vienna glanced up at her and then followed her gaze to Zale and Rainier. They appeared to be wearing expressionless masks. The tension in the room wound tighter. Both stared at Raine as if they might really pull out their guns and shoot her at any moment. Vienna felt that the danger to her friend was so real she shifted position to put her body between Raine and Rainier, believing, at first, that he might be the bigger threat.
“Liam apparently went directly from the casino to a young lawyer who was a junior partner in a rising firm in Vegas,” Raine continued. “He had his will drawn up, leaving his shares in the casino to his son and any heirs his son might have. He instructed the lawyer to file the will and also his share in the casino immediately. Liam then disappeared, which scared the junior lawyer. He did, in fact, file the document proclaiming Liam was a shareholder, but it wasn’t the original. He had that as well as Liam’s will locked away in a safe in the law offices.”
Vienna’s heart began to pound. Zale’s eyes had gone very dark. His gaze narrowed until his eyes were twin laser beams, deadly and lethal. There was no doubt that he was warning Raine to stop the flow of information. Vienna had shifted her body to block the wrong man from her friend.
“Wallin owned someone who intercepted Liam’s claim and he destroyed it. He was certain that was done. There were no more filings and as far as Wallin knew, when Liam turned up dead, that was the end of it. The junior lawyer was terrified after Liam’s body was found. He didn’t want to end up the same way, and he knew that the Bottaro family had to be involved, so he simply wrote a letter to be opened in case of his death and put it with the original document containing the shares and Liam’s will. That lawyer died recently and his firm opened the letter.”
“Raine, enough,” Zale said quietly. The purr of menace was in his voice.
“You had every chance to come clean,” Raine said. “Both of you.”
There was no fear in her voice, but Vienna knew there should have been. The tension in the room was coiled so tight she expected the room itself to shatter at any moment. Her chest hurt. The pressure felt enormous. She lifted a hand to her heart and pressed hard. Tiny beads of sweat trickled between her breasts and her palms felt clammy.
“I’m telling you to stop,” Zale commanded. “You’re walking the edge of classified information.”
“None of this is classified. Do you think I don’t know the difference? This is information certain parties don’t want known and you didn’t disclose but know you should have.”
For the first time, Vienna could see that Raine was angry. She rarely lost her temper but when she did, the explosion was like a bomb going off. She was extremely angry at Zale and Rainier—and that didn’t bode well for Vienna. Whatever Raine had discovered neither man wanted disclosed, but more than that, Raine knew it was going to really hurt her friend. Raine only got angry when someone harmed her friends.
“Liam’s son, Elliot Blom, was raised by his mother, unaware that he owned shares in a very lucrative casino. His mother passed away right before he turned eighteen and he joined the service and made that his career. He was extremely intelligent and while in the military pursued college. Eventually, he became an officer, got his degree—several degrees in fact—and joined special ops, where he had an exemplary career.”
Vienna glanced at Raine’s face because she stopped speaking and was looking at Vienna with sympathy. The tightness in her chest increased. The pounding of her heart accelerated. This definitely had something to do with her. Elliot Blom. She didn’t know that name. The connection couldn’t be through that name. She flicked another quick look at Zale. His dark eyes focused on her intently.
This was going to be bad. Very bad. She heard Avril’s voice. They can’t be trusted. They lie to you. They’ll say anything they think you want to hear in order to get their way. Elliot Blom. A special ops soldier choosing his career. She pressed a hand to her stomach. She had a psychic gift. Daniel Wallin had gone so far as to have the doctor take her blood. Why? Not to see the alcohol content in case she tried to sue him but for DNA purposes. Had she been invited to the casino because Wallin was certain she was Blom’s daughter? Was that what Raine had discovered?
“No.” She whispered the denial aloud. She didn’t want Raine to confirm it. If she did, that meant that everything Zale had told her was most likely a lie. But it made sense. It fit. She was sweating. Barely able to breathe. “Just wait a minute, Raine. Give me a minute. Don’t tell me yet.”
“Vienna,” Zale started.
His voice. That voice. She wanted to drown him out. Put her hands over her ears like a small child might. She shook her head. “Don’t, Zale. Not now. I think it’s a little too late for explanations, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry, Vienna,” Raine said gently. “Do you want to stop until we’re on the plane?”
If she said yes, did that make her a coward? She wouldn’t have to face Zale. On the floor, her back to the love seat but facing the two men, Shabina stared at them both.
“What I’m getting out of this conversation, Raine, is that neither Rainier or Zale were actually in Vegas for the purpose they said they were here for. Rainier, we just had a conversation yesterday, out in the backyard. Was a single thing you said to me the truth?” Shabina asked.
Rainier didn’t answer her. He kept his gaze fixed on her face. She shook her head. “I should have known. You’re so good at telling lies. I don’t know why I ever believe a single word that comes out of your mouth. I want to believe you, I suppose.”
Vienna heard the raw hurt in her voice. Shabina wasn’t good at deception. She’d sacrificed to draw attention away from Vienna.
“The limousine is here to take us to the airport,” Harlow reported.
Vienna all but jumped up, reaching down to help Shabina up. She looked straight at Zale. “If you weren’t there to find out who was killing agents, what were you doing at that hotel, Zale?”
He didn’t answer her. She shook her head and walked past his outstretched hand without looking at him again. Bending down, she shouldered her pack and picked up as much of her gear as she could carry. Ignoring the men guarding the walkway, she went to the limousine’s open trunk and placed her baggage on the ground just outside of it. The guards urged her to get inside the vehicle. She complied, mostly because she knew Zale would come outside to insist if she didn’t do what she was told.