Page 75 of Lord of Vice
“You mean like celebrating holidays and having barbeques with your friends?” I asked, grinning.
He coughed, being playful for a change. “Maybe at some point. Just a life that’s mine.”
“I know you do, Viss. I’ve tried to give you as much space as possible, but I also want to keep you safe. And before you say it, it’s not about asserting some level of shit authority over you. I know you’re an adult. I know you want nothing to do with the legacy our father left us and I’m more than okay with that. However, it doesn’t mean danger won’t find you because of the blood running through your veins.”
He’d lifted his head, studying me intensely. We’d had almost the same conversation many times before, but he’d walked away in disgust or called me names. Never had he been this receptive. “I was thinking. Maybe I do want to have more to do with the company. I’m smart. God knows I’m good looking. I can spot a card shark a mile away. And I’m good with weapons and numbers. You should hire me. Nah, you’d be a fool not to.”
What I’d decided never to tell him was that I didn’t want him in the business. It had been my mother’s dream that neither oneof us be forced to accept the reins from our father, even though she’d known what she’d married into.
“We can talk about that if you’re serious, but not until after I locate who wants me dead.”
“No idea who it might be?” He had more concern in his voice than usual.
“Far too many possibilities to narrow down.”
It was another slightly less tense moment where we sipped our drinks without talking.
“I’m sorry about the way I acted,” he said quietly. “She’s a tough lady. I kinda like her.”
“Yeah, she is. You’ll need to apologize to her. She was singing your praises after you stormed out.”
“I didn’t storm out.” He was grinning because it had been the one thing I’d warned him against over and over again.
“Uh-huh. Just like Pops.”
“Ya think?”
“I know.”
Another moment of silence but at least they were getting easier.
“You gonna marry her?” he asked when I was taking a sip.
I spit it out so fast he burst into laughter. After coughing several times, I rubbed my mouth with the back of my arm. “What the hell? Why would you ask that?”
“Because you swore you’d never bring anyone but the woman you were in love with to your private abode, as you used to call it.”
“As I said, I had nowhere else to take her.”
“And I cry bullshit since I know of what, four safehouses within driving distance. You employ like four hundred guards. Any ten of them could protect one pretty little lady.”
My brother had been paying more attention than I believed him to be. “She does something to me, Viss, something I haven’t felt in a very long time. You know what? That scares me more than the number of enemies out there.”
“Why? Because you’re afraid to feel again?”
“Maybe something like that.”
“Remember when Mom and Dad were killed?”
He asked that like I could ever forget. “Of course.” The truth was that we’d been closer as a unit than what I’d call the typical family. Maybe that was because of the heightened level of danger that always seemed to trail behind my dad. He’d been like a true king, a man with forethought for Las Vegas, investing in several incredible properties after making his fortune. The loss had been devastating to us, both of us handling our grief in different ways.
I’d rounded up assholes I’d thought might have had something to do with the accident, blood coming close to staining the stunning forty-foot fountain of the opening of the first resort designed and built with the family name on the bottom line. It hadn’t solved anything or altered the police report, other than building my reputation as a merciless man.
Sadly, the extreme violence also hadn’t made me feel any better.
“Do you remember what you told me at the funeral after encouraging me to cry?”
“I wish I could, Viss, but it was a fucking shitstorm of a day.” In fact, it had turned into a media frenzy.