“Bet.” He flashed his cards so she could see he’d pulled two aces and a ten from the risky draw, giving him a full house.
Taking a chance that she’d been right in her assessment of him, she leaned over and pushed all his chips forward. Her breast brushed against his shoulder, and his body tensed, but it was nothing compared to the current of electricity that surged through her veins at the small touch.
“Two hundred thousand,” the dealer announced.
Mia almost wept. Two hundred thousand dollars could get her a new apartment that didn’t have a giant fungus growing on the ceiling from the leaky pipes upstairs that the slum landlord refused to fix. Two hundred thousand dollars could take her and her little sister, Kat, away from Vegas and set them up with a new, anonymous life where they weren’t constantly being watched by their Mafia crime family. Two hundred thousand dollars could buy her a bigger office and pay for additional employees who could take on the growing amount of work her cyber-security company was generating. Two hundred thousand dollars would set her free.
“She’s a gambler,” he murmured when the man beside him called the bet.
“Maybe, I’m just lucky.”
“Lucky people don’t get caught trying to hack into my computer system.” In one swift movement he stood, yanked the man seated beside him off his chair and smashed his face into the table. “Thieves don’t belong in my casino.” Blood splattered over the green felt and the man staggered back, holding his broken nose. It had taken only seconds. Silence filled the room. Adrenaline surged through Mia’s body, freezing her in place as her mind tried to reconcile such brutal violence in such a sophisticated, elegant place. She had been right that Mr. T’s civilized exterior did not reflect the inner man. He was the most dangerous of predators. Beautiful on the outside. Deadly within.
Mr. T hadn’t even broken a sweat, but Mia could see the veins in his neck pulsing, his anger kept tightly in check. “Gentlemen.” He gave the briefest of nods to the men at the table. “My casino manager, Vito, will be with you shortly to address the inconvenience.” He turned to Mia, his narrowed, cool gaze holding her in place. “Come.”
His voice didn’t broach any argument, nor did the firm hand he placed on her lower back, or the slight pressure he exerted to direct her where he wanted her to go. He was even taller than she had thought, well over six feet, broad and muscular. She inhaled sharply at his touch, breathed in the fresh, spicy scent of his cologne. Given the violence he had just unleashed in the private salon, she had expected something wild and musky, reflecting the primitive, feral side of his nature.
“Where are we going?”
“My office.”
She hesitated; looked back at the man on the plush carpet, his white shirt covered in blood. “Alone?”
“Yes, bella. Alone.”
*
She was liquid sex.
Dark hair. Dark eyes. Curves all over the place. Creamy skin. Breasts almost bursting out of her corset. That little skirt barely covering her ass. Those high cheekbones and rosy cheeks. Those fucking long legs in those fucking stockings, the heels …
Nico hadn’t paid much attention to the uniform his casino manager had picked for the waitresses, but on her it was so fucking sexy his dick got hard the moment she walked into the salon.
Usually he didn’t get involved with the casino cheats, thieves, or the scammers who thought they could evade the hundreds of cameras and top-of-the-line security system he had installed when he renovated the old Lucky Duck casino on Freemont Street, but then soldiers from rival crime families were usually not stupid enough to walk into his casino much less try to cheat at a high-stakes table where Nico was seated, and sexy women didn’t try to hack into his computer system.
He wanted to know everything about her. What she was doing in the casino control room? Why she didn’t she flinch when he lost his temper at the poker table? And why she was so goddam familiar?
Nico steeled himself to do what had to be done as he walked the beautiful woman through his casino, a cacophony of alluring stimulation—bells ringing, siren-like lights flashing, slot wheels whirring, digital sounds beeping, the occasional simulated sound of change clanging—all meant to captivate and enthrall, giving the impression that everyone was a winner.