So here I am. A nasty coppery taste in my mouth, feverish and shivering, but otherwise unhurt. See? The stress’ll do that. Wore down my immune system. Then I just kind of…snapped.
I allow myself a moment of relief. I dreamed it all. Now time to return to my real world problems. My moms. Parole. Money.
I shift a little on the seat and am about to lift my head when a stabbing pain radiates from my right forearm.
Where the wolf bit me.
No way.
Must be another explanation.
That’s from falling when I was attacked.
Smacked my arm against some sharp rocks.
But I can still feel the wolf’s fangs sinking into my skin. His bright red eyes mad with the urge to feed. The stink of his cold breath in my face—
Maybe there was one wolf?
“Shit,” I mutter before I remember I’m supposed to be passed out.
“You awake?”
Landon.
I keep my eyes closed. “No.”
Landon laughs. It’s the first time I’ve heard his laugh. It’s beautiful, genuine and rolling, but with a hint of reserve, like he doesn’t laugh often—
I find myself smiling. Super-shit.
“I’m not ready to sit up yet.”
We have to speak loud over the rushing wind. It’s even louder than being in a convertible.
“You don’t have sit up. Rest.”
“I’m not ready to see you.”
“Fine. Good.”
I listen to the wind whistle for a moment. Then I say, “You’re alive?”
“Still kickin’.”
“Kickin’? You don’t talk like a billionaire businessman.”
“How does a billionaire businessman talk?”
I keep my eyes closed. I decide I like talking to him like this. Just hearing his voice without all the visual distraction. His voice kind of rumbles through me. Like bass at a concert. Makes my ribs tingle.
“Are you really a billionaire?”
Landon sighs.
“Okay. None of my business. I just thought you’d talk…you know…”
“Like a stuck-up British WASP? Or his butler?” There’s a hint of irritation in Landon’s voice.
He thinks I’m being judgmental. Maybe I am.
“WASP?” I ask.
“White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. You know? The half-dead old men who rule the world? Skull and Bones? Secret societies?”
“Only one thing rules my world. Money. And how to get it.”
“That makes me…that’s kind of sad.”
“Really? You’re a suit. Aren’t suits all about the money?”
I gulp down my anger. He’s not meaning to be patronizing. He just has no clue. “Anyway. About how you talk? Yeah. I guess I expected you to sound like any other—”
“I wasn’t born rich.”
Huh. I keep my mouth shut and wait for him to continue, but when he doesn’t I finally open my eyes and sit up. Every muscle in my body’s sore, like after a bad round of flu. We’re cruising down a two-lane road. We’ve been driving for a while. It’s almost dark. “How long was I out?”
Landon looks at me from the corner of his eye. “Maybe six hours?”
“Six hours?” No wonder I’m so thirsty. “Do you have any water?”
Before he can answer I slap my hand on my forehead. “Oh, shit!”
“What?”
“I have to work tonight. Oh, man. Like…hours ago.”
“You’re not going to make that.”
The way he says it makes me shiver, but I dig through my bag anyway, find my phone and flick it on. Messages galore. I sigh. Sometimes I want to throw the thing out the window, but I check my texts first. A lot are from Alfie. He’s hitting the panic button. I send him a quick message saying I’m alive. I almost type ‘and safe,’ but think better of it. Instead I say I’ll get back with more details later.
The rest of the messages are from my boss. Mr. Delaney. By the third message his usual happy-go lucky demeanor is wearing thin, and on the fourth he tells me not to bother coming in. Ever.
I slip the phone in my bag. Lean my head back and stare out the window. Watch the desert roll by. I needed that job.
“Something the matter?”
“Thirteen bucks an hour. It wasn’t much. But it helped.”
“You got fired.”
“Yup.”
“That’s shit. I’m sorry.”
I think about saying he should be. He’s the one who dragged me out here. But instead I say, “We’ve been driving the entire time?”
A shadow flickers across Landon’s face. “Need to put some distance between us and…”
“The nightmare wolves that nearly ate you alive?”
“Yeah. Them.”
We fall into a heavy silence. There’s a car crash of thoughts in my head. About how I felt kissing Landon. About the wolves and the awful wailing sound I made. About how he looks healed. About my job and my mom and my parole meeting tomorrow morning. It’s enough to make my head hurt, and suddenly everything seems broken beyond repair. I always knew my life was unstable. Vulnerable. I mean, shit, half the time I don’t even know where my next meal’s coming from. But now?
It feels like everything’s been blown wide open—
“Don’t you want to know where we’re going?” Landon asks.
I think about that for a moment. Decide it doesn’t matter. Not now. “As long as I get back by tomorrow morning, I’m good.”
“What’s keeping you in Vegas?”
I think about what to say. I don’t trust him. Not by a long shot. I’m not even sure I like him. You don’t have to like everyone you want to fuck. In fact it’s definitely better if I don’t like him. I’m a white trash thief and he’s a billionaire casino owner. I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago—
“My mom,” I tell him.
“Yeah. She’s unwell, right?”
“I guess you know that. Since you planted cameras in my fucking apartment. Stick one in the toilet, too? You perv on piss? Got a webcam set up—”
“I needed you to know I’m serious.”
“Oh, I see. That makes it better.”
I hug my backpack to my chest, suddenly freezing again. Then I remember something and reach inside. “Where’s Layla?”
“Who?”
“My Ruger.”
“Oh. In the glove.”
I take her out, pop the cartridge, sight down the barrel. “Never come between a girl and her gun.”
“That is a beauty.”
“You surprised? That a poor girl like me has a gun like this? I didn’t steal her, if that’s what you think.”
“No?”
“You assume a lot, you know that? You have your file on me, fine. Like all the other pigs and tools. But it’s what’s between the lines in that file that counts.”
“Not to the pigs and tools,” Landon says quietly.
I slip Layla into my backpack. “She was a gift from my father. He died when I was three.”
“I’m sorry, Summer.”
“I saw how you held her. I was talking shit when I said you don’t know how to shoot. Where’d you learn?”
“Like I said, I wasn’t born rich.”
“Bank robber?”
Landon flashes me a quick smile. Shit. It’s like someone turned on the heater in the truck. Even that little bit of connection makes me warm al over. But not giddy. I will not use the word giddy to describe how Landon Stone makes me feel—
“No. Trains.”
“Oh, awesome. Six shooters? Horses?”
“You got it.”
I settle back into my seat, unhappy with how the conversation’s going. We’ve fallen into a pattern of parry and deflect. Hit and block. Our questions are real enough, but our answers barely skim the surface. It doesn’t feel genuine. In fact it feels shit. Especially since I remember how he felt—
I whirl at him, suddenly pissed. “Can you be straight
with me for a single fucking second?”
“Can you?”
“What? Me? I…fine. But listen. I’m feeling at a bit of a disadvantage here, all right? You had photos of me. I know you have a file on me. Prolly know what month I was born in—”
“June.”
“—and my middle name—”
“Alexis.”
“—and a whole bunch of other waaay more embarrassing shit. So yeah. Excuse me if I’m a bit…edgy.”
“Bitchy?”
“Edgy.”
“Ask me then. I promise I’ll try and give you a straight answer.”
“Is this a one time thing? Like after one straight answer you revert back to spewing bullshit?”
“No.”
Landon looks at me in a way that makes me feel…close to him. Like I can trust him. Which is maddening, and sends all my grifter instincts on high alert. The dude’s playing me? Whatever. I don’t have time for this bullshit.
“Take me back to Vegas,” I say.
“I can’t do that, Summer.”
That really pisses me off. “What? I see. So now you’re abducting me. Fuck that. Take me home—” Before I even know what I’m doing I have Layla pointed at him. My shoulders tense. But I’m committed now, and to tell the truth it feels pretty good, having the gun pointed at him. Like it was supposed to be this way before I walked around the SUV and saw him sprawled on the ground. “Take me home, Landon, or I’ll blow your fucking head off.”
“At a hundred ten miles an hour?”
“No. First I’ll make you slow down.”
“Really?” He presses the pedal, shooting us forward. “And what if I don’t? You’re plan’s shit, Summer. If you even have a plan.”
He’s calling my bluff. I lick my lips. Disengage the safety. “I swear on my mother’s life I’ll kill you.”
“Even if it kills you?”
“Hell yes.”
“You always like this? Half-cocked?”
“Unlike you, Landon my love, I am fully cocked.”
Landon looks at me. His golden eyes are full of worry. But not for him. He’s worried about me. The smug prick. Like I need a rich boy’s sympathy.
“Why don’t you ask me that one question,” he says, very slowly.
“We’ve moved waay past that. Try and keep up. Shit. More brawn than brain. So much for having to be smart to be rich.”
“You want to know why I called you out into the middle of the desert.”
“No. I don’t give a shit. You’re taking me home. Now.”
Landon takes a long breath. “I want to offer you a job, Summer. A job I think you’ll be particularly well suited for.”
I hold Layla at his head for a long three seconds, just considering what it’d be like to kill him. I almost blab that Alfie hacked his casino’s security shit and I know about the death threat he received this morning, but I decide to play that card close. Then I lower the gun into my lap and say, “Shoot.”
CHAPTER TEN
LANDON
I’LL ADMIT IT. I’m a bit nervous. I think a part of Summer really wants to shoot me. I glance at the gun. I could snatch it from her no problem. But that would get her riled. She’s got a temper, this one. Sexy, too, when she’s pissed. Eyebrows flaring. Chest heaving. Cheeks flushed. Like when I had her pinned against the truck—
Summer’s not one of those girls to get all worked up for no reason. I saw that right when I first met her. If she’s pissed, she means to do something about it. That’s good. I’m beginning to see how she’s survived as a grifter in Vegas for so long. She might have a chance.
“Well?” Summer says.
A wave of guilt washes over me. The wildwolves nearly killed us both. The deeper I bring her in, the less chance she gets out of this alive. In fact every second she spends with me puts her in more danger. I lost control. Freed my lion. The Wildblood Council sent the wildwolves on the hunt. They want me dead, and they’ll think nothing of offing a human girl who gets in the way. Not to mention what I want her to do is extremely dangerous.
“How much do you know about my family?”
“Only that your brother Blake’s a Grade A asshole.”
“He’s the reason I need your help.”
“Why?”
“Because I think he’s going to try and destroy…my business. The casino. Maybe even Blue Line.”
I can’t tell her what I really suspect is that Blake’s gunning to take over as alpha of the Stone Pride. Which means he needs to take me down. Destroy me completely and utterly. Wincing, I rub my hand across my shoulder. The stinging, burning sensation from my healed-over wounds is finally starting to fade. If I’d had the strength to call my lion I could’ve fought the wildwolves off.
But in my human form? No way.
Then that sound. The high-pitched keening noise. It stabbed into my mind like a poisoned blade. It almost seemed like it was emanating from Summer.
But that’s not possible.
“So?” I say. “You interested?”
Summer brushes her hair behind her ears, folds her arms and flashes me a stubborn glare. “You’re a big boy. Handle your own family drama.”
I crack a smile. Man. Girl’s as cold as ice. I hope she relaxes when I get her to the desert retreat. “I can handle Blake. But as you like to remind me, I’m new at the casino business…and new to Vegas. I could use a local to help me—”
“Get the lay of the land?”
“Yeah. I got…a disturbing message.”
Summer sits up. “What’d it say?”
I pause, wondering how much truth to tell her. “That I’m a dead man.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.” My animal’s growling. She’s a fine actress. But I’m scenting something’s not quite right. She knows more than she’s letting on, and that suddenly makes me wonder if I’m making a colossal mistake. Is she in with whoever’s scheming to bring me down? Was she planted at my casino so I’d find her, bring her into my confidence?
“Must happen all the time for a billionaire. Extortion. Kidnapping. Don’t you have, like, bodyguards?”
“No.”
“Well that’s dumb.”
“Haven’t needed them. Blue Line’s a fuel cell company. Based in Belgium. Not really death-threat material.”
“In Vegas even a parking spot’s death threat material. With so much money sloshing around…puts people on edge.”
“I gathered that.”
Summer taps her palm with her index finger, just like she did when waiting for her roulette roll to come through. She’s considering—
“So you want the local down-on-her-luck grifter to sniff out the source of the threat?”
“I want you to confirm the source.”
“That’s all? Who do you think sent it?”
“Don Luca Abatelli.”
Summer takes a quick breath. “If that’s true, you might as well sell the casino and scoot on back to Europe. You’re fucked.”
“Why?”
“Il Potere? The Power? It’s all there in the name, Landon. The most powerful crime family in Vegas, if not the western US. They don’t make threats. They make promises.”
I think about how best to break it that I know she’s involved with Vito. Finally I say, “I know you can get inside the family.”
Summer digs her nails into her thighs, then says, “You mean you know Vito gets inside me.”
“I know you two are…acquainted, yes.”
“So that’s why you chose me.” A cynical laugh fills my ears. “Makes sense now. Good. You have leverage on someone vulnerable with a connection you can use to your advantage, so you blackmail her into helping you. You might do all right in this town after all, Landon.”
“Not blackmail. Employment.”
Summer laughs. “Fine. Whatever you need to tell yourself. I hate that you know so much about me and I don’t know fuck all about you.”
“It has to be this way.”
“Sure
it does. Because it benefits you.”
I want to tell her the truth. I’m thinking about the Council and the wildwolves sent to kill me and how much of the Wildblood world Summer just saw. I don’t think she suspects…yet. But she knows something’s not right. She saw me get mauled, and now here I am. Healed.
Plus…if she did make that wailing sound—
That thought doesn’t even merit completion.
She’s a human. That’s all she’ll ever be. But I remember the wildwolves dropping like stones. It’s almost like she was in their minds, goring them from the inside, and there’s only one explanation—
I wipe the rain from my eyes.
The road’s gaining elevation.
We’re not far.
The Wildblood world has remained secret for thousands of years. The Council exists to make sure it stays secret. Their laws are sacrosanct. The Council is everything we are. We cull Wildbloods who can’t integrate with the human world. The sick-minded and plain bloodthirsty. The ones who lose control. But the knife cuts both ways. Humans who are exposed to a Wildblood’s true nature are also hunted down and murdered.
There’s safety in secrecy.
Wildbloods learned that the hard way.
“We’ll have time,” I say, trying to sound like I believe it, “to get to know one another. Maybe you’ll trust me more then.”
“Would you like that?”
“I’d like to trust you more.”
I look at Summer. Her hair’s a mess, whipping around her face in the wind. Her tank-top’s torn and bloody. Her broken pinkie finger’s duct-taped to a Bic pen, for fuck sake. She’s completely different than any woman I’ve ever known. Rough. Capable. Confident. She’s got this sharp exterior…but I saw her break down. I don’t know what she is yet. How she killed the wildwolves.
But I know there’s a force drawing me to her.
When we kissed…my animal finally quieted. I’ve been fighting him my whole life. Keeping him caged inside, afraid he might bust free, like he did earlier today, and bring the Council’s hunters down on me.
Summer does something to him.
Settles him.
“Yeah,” I say, reaching across the console and putting my hand on Summer’s thigh, “I’d like to know you.”
She flinches slightly, but doesn’t pull away. I think about sliding my hand higher, caressing the warmth I felt between her legs when I had her pinned under me—
High Card: A Billionaire Shifter Novel (Lions of Las Vegas Book 1) Page 11
