by Lexi Blake
The doors slid open and she was assaulted by the sounds of the casino. How they managed to move this massive thing once a week, she had no idea. It was like walking into a completely different world.
The whole of the warehouse had been transformed into a sumptuous space. There was rich carpet at her feet and a chandelier hanging from the rafters. Hayley counted ten tables of various card games, each with what appeared to be luxurious chairs for the players. Cocktail waitresses worked the floor wearing little more than Hayley herself had worn at the beach. They had to work their uniforms while carrying a tray of drinks, balancing on stilettos, and keeping their hair and makeup flawless.
“It’s all illusion,” a feminine voice said.
Mr. Jones stopped in the middle of the floor and nodded to the woman. She was a stunning brunette with a killer figure. Hayley would have pegged her age at mid-thirties, but something about the way she held herself made her nudge the number up slightly.
Mr. Jones nodded. “Miss Helena.”
She nodded back, the regal dismissal of a queen to one of her employees. She continued in her perfectly clipped posh British accent. “Mr. Jones. I thought I would come down and welcome our group. I’ve read so much about you in the last few days. Well, about the men at least. I’ve heard much about Miss Dalton for years.” Her eyes narrowed on Kayla. “Nothing on you, dear. You seem to be quite the ghost.”
Kayla gave her a hint of a smile. “Not at all. I’m merely here with my…friend.” She put a hand on Fain’s shoulder. “A working girl like me can never be too careful with her identity.”
Helena’s brow arched. “Somehow I doubt that. As an actual former working girl, I know a spy when I see one. Mr. Fain, Mr. Markovic, my employer would like to welcome you to The Palace.”
Nick was watching the woman with suspicious eyes. “You look familiar to me.”
Helena’s lips tugged up slightly. “Because we’ve met once before, though I doubt you would remember. You only had eyes for my boss at the time.”
“Desiree,” Nick said. “Yes, now I remember. I met you in St. Petersburg. You brought Des intelligence about the head of one of the local syndicates.”
“Yes, he was my lover at the time. A quite brutal man. I wasn’t unhappy to see him go.” She moved in, stepping close to Hayley. “I’ve had several jobs over the years. I think I like this one the best of all.” She swept a hand out, gesturing to the room. “What you see here is mostly pure theater. We can have the entirety of The Palace torn down and stored in roughly twenty minutes. This particular station of ours is much larger than it looks. The walls appear painted, but they’re actually clever draperies that go from above the lighting all the way to the floor. Lighting does much of our work for us. Keep the lights low and the illusion remains intact.”
“Somehow I don’t think twenty minutes is enough if the cops show up,” Fain said, looking terribly unimpressed.
Helena shrugged one delicate shoulder. “I doubt they will since we have several politicians and high-up members of the force enjoying the evening with us tonight. You should know the first job of any good host is to find the best guests possible. But even if they did show up, we have plans and protocols. Never fear. Come with me. My employer is most eager to meet with you.”
Hayley had a few questions. She looked up at Nick. “So you know her and she knows Des, and somehow she knows me.”
Nick put a hand on the small of her back. “I met her briefly and now that I’m here, I can only guess what this place really is. I think they make more off women than the actual casino. The casino is merely the trappings and bright bow for the real work done here.”
“Desiree always said you were a clever man, Nikolai.” Helena headed for the back of the casino, marching in her sky-high heels.
“Somehow I doubt this,” Nick replied, his expression turning grim. “I think she would have said I was a useful man, nothing more.”
“She cared about you quite a bit. Enough to keep you out of her games,” Helena remarked as they approached the back of the “room.” It was clearly marked with a red velvet rope. “It was one of the things she made her girls promise. We were never to offer ourselves to you nor were we to discuss the business with you.”
“The business being blackmail,” Kayla explained. “Like I said, I’ve been around long enough to know what kind of a scam this is. What you really sell is high-class mistresses who can supply powerful men with sex and drugs in exchange for money and opportunity.”
Hayley grasped the concept quickly. “Ah, the opportunity to collect information. Information you can sell or use as blackmail.”
It confirmed everything Nick believed about how she’d ended up in this position. It was good to know that Des’s legacy continued after her death. And she meant that as sarcastically as possible. It was so like Des to continue to fuck everything up even after she died.
Helena stopped in front of the massive man who guarded the door. “I prefer to think of it as we provide good service to our clientele. Anything more would be indiscreet to discuss. Now, if you’ll join me, the boss would like to see you now. He’s a busy man, of course. And a private one.”
She nodded to the guard and he pulled open the door for them. It was more of a flap, a place in the curtain where two parts met. Now that she was close, she could see what Helena had been talking about. From a distance, with the soft lights and mood music setting the scene, the place had looked rich and decadent. Up close, it was nothing more than a façade, and one with pieces that were threadbare and worn.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
It was all smoke and mirrors and a perverted wizard. Was this what Desiree had hoped to become? The wizard of her own decadent Oz?
Helena allowed them to walk through. Ezra and Kayla stepped past the curtain and disappeared into darkness.
Helena stopped Hayley before she crossed the threshold. She looked down at her neck, right to the place where the red and gold heart sat. “That’s a quaint piece of jewelry. I do believe I’ve seen it before. Desiree wore it a few times. I always thought it was odd. She was quite serious about her appearance and never wore less than the best, yet she wore that quite often. Did she leave it to you?”
Nick had told her not to lie. He’d explained that the necklace was bait of sorts. The necklace might be traded for Hayley’s life if they got into a sticky situation. “Yes, though in truth, it was a gift from me to her. It was a silly thing. I was a teenager and I spent pretty much everything I had on it. Everything I had was about fifty dollars. I’m surprised to find out that she wore it when I wasn’t around.”
“Yes, it surprised me, too,” Helena replied.
“Desiree was very private.” Nick’s voice had gone deep, his accent coming out. Hayley had learned that happened when he was emotional or trying to be intimidating. “She would not show these pieces of herself to mere employee. This she would keep only for family. Hayley was family. I was family.”
What was he doing? Beyond dropping his articles, he was deliberately provoking the woman. It made Hayley nervous as hell, but she had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
For a second Hayley was almost certain Helena’s claws would come out, but the brunette merely smiled, her eyes cool as she gestured them through. “Well, I’m sure Hayley is family to many people. Family, in my opinion, is far overrated.”
Hayley stepped through and realized that Helena had been playing with them all along. She’d been shown into the industrial portion of the warehouse. All was dark around them with the singular exception of a light illuminating a metal staircase that led to an upstairs office. Standing there at the bottom of the stairs was a man wearing a dapper suit and looking far more alive than he should have.
“Hello,” her father said. “I see your taste in men hasn’t changed, sweetheart.”
“Hello, Dad.” She gripped Nick’s hand and prayed her father wasn’t about to end them all.
* * * *
&
nbsp; Nick didn’t like the fact that there was a man at his back and two above him. For all he knew Helena had a gun on her, too. They were outnumbered and outgunned and had only the threat of extreme retribution to keep them safe.
He hated that he’d brought Hayley here, but there had been no choice. The only thing that brought him any comfort at all was the fact that Paul Dalton was staring at his daughter like a desperate man. He was definitely the same man he’d seen on the beach that day, and that made Nick wonder how long he’d been planning whatever the hell this was.
“You look beautiful, sweetheart.” Dalton stepped forward and then stopped as though he wasn’t sure of his welcome.
Hayley frowned his way. It was the frown that Nick knew meant trouble. “You look alive. That’s a bit surprising.”
“I can explain if you’ll let me,” her father said quietly. “Why don’t we go up to my office? I’ll have coffee brought up and we can talk for a while. I need you to see that everything I’ve done has been to protect you.”
“Including blowing up my house?” Hayley asked.
He nodded. “I know it was shocking, but I had to do it. I thought I could keep you out of this. Please come upstairs with me and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Your friends can enjoy the casino. Helena will show them around.”
Dalton held out a hand, but there was no chance at all that he was going to allow her to leave his side.
He stepped up beside Hayley, his hand finding hers again. “She goes nowhere without me.”
“And he goes nowhere without us.” Fain stepped into the light. “Hello, Paul.”
Dalton sighed, a weary sound. “Hello…I hear you’re going by your brother’s name now, Beck. I suppose you should all come up. Let’s end this game so we can all try to move on with our lives. Helena, could you please begin preparations? We’ll need to move quickly. I think after tonight, we’ll leave Rio for a while.”
“Of course.” She strode up to Dalton and laid a perfectly non-platonic kiss on her boss’s cheek. “I’ll take care of everything, darling. As I always do. And you were right. She’s lovely. She looks a bit like you. I’ll talk to our friends and then bring some coffee up myself. Do be careful. You know what the Russian is capable of.”
“I don’t think it’s only Nick I have to worry about,” Dalton said quietly. “But we’ve all agreed to a parley this evening.”
Hayley laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “You are so clever, Dad. What a word to use. It brings your two worlds together. Parley in the pirate vernacular means giving an enemy the promise of safety while you negotiate, but if you spell it just a little different it means something in the poker world. I think you meant parlay. Is that what you’ve actually been doing? Placing bets and risking it all to parlay into the real treasure? How much is on the line?”
Dalton had paled a bit. “I suppose I hadn’t thought about it that way, but yes, they both apply. And there’s more on the line than you can imagine, my girl. Please, can we do this upstairs? I meant it. No harm will come to you. My men are merely here to guard the money from the casino and to protect my patrons. So much of my work is about illusion and creating a persona that protects and conceals who I really am.”
“Dare I ask who you really are?” Hayley was staring at her father, pure stubborn will in her eyes.
“I’m a father who missed his daughter, a father who wishes he could go back and do it all over again.” He turned to Nick. “Nikolai, I have a way to get her out of this forever. I can save her, but you have to make her listen to me.”
“You want the key.” He’d known the minute they’d been invited that the key would be his main bargaining chip. Hell, he’d set it up as bait.
Dalton stepped onto the first stair. “In private, please, Nick. You’re all welcome, if that’s what it takes to make Hayley feel safe.”
Nick turned to Hayley, stepping in front of her so all she would be able to see was his face, his promises. He prayed she understood that he would honor them all. “Dushka, this is up to you. If you wish it, I will step back and allow Fain to do all our negotiating so you don’t have to deal with him.”
“He lied to me.”
“Yes, he did.” The words lay between them and he knew the subtext wasn’t merely about her father. He needed to bring them to the forefront because there was more on the line than the next few moments. His whole future was there and suddenly he realized what happened between Dalton and Hayley would affect him. Perhaps deeply. “I’ve lied to you as well. I need you to know that I will not lie to you again. Never.”
“He left me.”
Again, his heart clenched at the vulnerability he heard in her words. He gripped her shoulders gently. “He did. And I did. And I need you to understand that I will never leave you again. Not until my soul leaves this body, and even then I will find a way to wait for you, to watch over you. I will do anything to bind us for all time because I will never love another woman. Not in this life or the next. My heart and soul are yours. So you make this decision and I will follow you.”
“You think I should listen to him.” Her hand had come up, brushing against his cheek, touching him as though she couldn’t quite help herself. “You think I should listen to him so I’ll listen to you. Because if he’s not so bad, then maybe you aren’t either. If he had a reason, maybe you did, too.”
Such a smart woman. He wished she didn’t see through him so easily. “I love you, Hayley. I can’t imagine how he couldn’t love you. He might have been a shit, but he’s your father. Yes, I hope if you can forgive him, you’ll find a way to forgive me. But it’s up to you.”
Slowly, she nodded and moved close to him, her hand seeking his. “I’ll talk to him, but not without you, and Ezra gets his answers, too.”
It wasn’t an I love you, too, Nicky, but she was still with him. He started to lead her upstairs, Ezra and Kayla following behind. He couldn’t help but turn to watch Helena walking away, her arm on Mr. Jones’s shoulder as she leaned in and whispered to him.
“Did you take over the business when Desiree died? Is that why you faked your own death? So you could run the business after Des was gone?” The words were out of his mouth before the door had closed behind him.
Dalton leaned against the desk. There were pictures and office supplies scattered around. The pictures were of a happy family, certainly not Dalton’s. It looked like he’d taken over the manager’s desk for the evening. That would be his life, constantly in motion, always on the move.
It had been Nick’s life for years. It had often been Hayley’s.
Dalton gestured for them to sit. There were only two chairs. Ezra shook his head, preferring to stand, and Kayla stayed close to the door, so he settled Hayley in and then took the seat next to her. He got the feeling this was his show for now.
“Do you understand what I was doing during those years when you were growing up?” Dalton asked, his whole attention focused on Hayley.
“You worked for the CIA.”
He nodded slowly. “And for some other friendly intelligence agencies. You have to understand that I got into some trouble when I was younger and working for them was the way I got out. I know you won’t believe it, but I did it for you. I did it so I wouldn’t have to go to jail and you wouldn’t be left alone with your mother.”
“My mother was a wonderful woman,” Hayley shot back.
“Yes, and I loved her so much. I never loved anyone or anything the way I loved you and your mom. I wasn’t a good man. I know she complained about me and she never told you, but I paid for almost everything. Those jobs of hers, she made nearly nothing. I had to stay out of jail so I could make sure you went to college, got to eat, had a roof over your head. I took you during your school breaks because your mom needed time off. That’s a lie. I took you because I hated being away from you.”
Hayley sat quietly, the silence lengthening.
He had to be the one to ask her questions. She couldn’t do it on her own. She was
too angry. “How did you meet Des? Was she your MI6 contact, the way Ezra was with the Agency?”
“Yes, like Bec…Ezra was,” Dalton confirmed. “I met Des and we found we had some similar interests.”
“Meaning you both liked to blackmail people?” Hayley asked.
Nick reached out, sliding his hand over hers. She seemed to calm a bit.
Dalton sat back, his eyes shrewd. “I met Desiree and unlike her CIA counterpart, I knew she was someone I could make a deal with. She was someone I could work with in a way I couldn’t with Ezra.”
“Tell me about what you set up with Desiree.” Ezra stepped in, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Yes, I would like to hear it,” Hayley said when her father waited too long to answer.
“Des and I set up a couple of long cons. I had access to some places it would have been hard for her to get into, certain games with power players that women weren’t allowed to play in at the time. Because I had a name in that world, I grew close to some of the true high rollers. It gave Desiree some connections she wouldn’t have had. She knew some lovely women and men who were willing to be a bit flexible when it came to making cash, and we started there. Gambling and liquor and drugs and sex. That was how we started making money. I’m not proud of what I did, Hayley.”
“Excellent, because I’m not proud either.” She pulled her hand away from Nick’s, putting space between them again. “So you hired hookers to pillow talk with various and sundry politicians.”
“And businessmen and actors and royalty. You have no idea how well we do in the Middle East,” Dalton explained.
Hayley was staring at her father like she couldn’t quite figure out if she recognized him. Nick could feel her pulling away from Dalton, from him. “So this was all about money. Desiree set this up and you decided to take it over, so you offed yourself to get away from Ezra and the Agency and kept the party going. Can you answer a question for me? How much is enough? If you make ten million, will that be enough? Twenty? When will you stop hurting other people and be content with what you have?”
