Page 58 of Violent Attraction

10 Months Before

The urge to kill Emilio Castro grows with every passing day.

Every single time that I hear him speak, every time he enters the room on Ronaldo’s tail, the urge to grab the gun that I have hidden in my waistband and shoot him dead, is there.

I want to kill him for killing my father.

Kill him for entering the deal to marry Isabella.

Today though, the urge to kill him comes from the fucked-up bullshit that he pulled yesterday with casino owner, Sterling Chambers.

For weeks, Leo and I have been planning on coming to Las Vegas to speak with Chambers and have him agree to the deal that we put together. Chambers wanted to make a name for himself and what better way to do that than to work with the Muertos Cartel. We’re able to give our customers the best cocaine in the world, of course anyone would choose to work with us.

We had a plan in place, both Leo and I agreed on a price to offer Chambers and it was all going according to plan.

I should have known that the plan was going to go to shit when Ronaldo informed us a few days ago that Emilio was going to come to Vegas with us.

I was already a shit mood since I had spent that morning with Leo in the estate’s basement, torturing one of the men that had talked to the federales and turned one of our runs to shit.

Don’t get me wrong, I can spend hours breaking every single bone in a man’s body to hear them scream, because I’m a sadistic bastard like that, but this was different. This was someone that stood by my side, a man that at times had my back and I had his.

To top it off, the fucker got sloppy one night with some tequila and confessed all that he had said to the feds to me. I listened as he blabbered all about doing it because maybe then he would become the kingpin.

I had two options, tell Leo what Adolfo had spilled or I keep it to myself. The answer was simple, I didn’t care if I saw Adolfo as a brother, my loyalty to Leo was a whole lot stronger. So, his secret was soon out there and after a failed drug run, he was strapped to a chair, fighting for his life.

When Leo finally told me to light him up, it was like a damn Christmas miracle.

So, when Ronaldo brought up the subject of Vegas and Emilio, I just nodded and fucking agreed.

Now here I am, in fucking Las Vegas, nursing a hangover, trying to figure out a way to not let our deal with Chambers’ go to shit.

It doesn't help that Leo is nowhere to be found this morning.

That’s a lie, I know exactly where he is. All cuddled up with the brunette from the club.

Last night we decided to go to find a distraction, well I decided for us because no way in hell was I going to be staying in our room. Just watching Emilio disrespect Isabella over again with the string of pussy that walked through the door made me want to kill the man even more.

So, we went to the club. While we were there having a few drinks, two women that we had helped back to their room earlier in the day had shown up. Instantly Leo’s attention was taken by the dark-haired beauty, and I can’t blame him.

When the beauty’s friend had come over to invite us to join them, I agreed. Just because I was having a shit time, didn’t mean I was going to keep my friend from being right next to me.

We went to sit with the two lovely ladies, Leo went straight to the brunette, and I hung out with her friend. Then the two of them left and then it was just me and the friend, Aria, left to our own accord. I had noticed the closeness of her body to mine, and the way her eyes danced whenever I said something, and of course the beauty that she was.

But I wasn’t going to touch her, and I told her as much. Even with whatever was going on between me and Isabella, I was still loyal to her, and I sure as hell wouldn’t touch another woman that wasn’t her. I thought that Aria was going to fight me on it, but she just smiled at me and told me that she was fine with that.

The rest of the night consisted of us just talking. Yeah, talking. She told me about her life, and I told her the PG rated version of mine. I might have even told her some things about me and Isabella. She was a stranger and I sure as hell couldn’t have that conversation with Leo.

It was good.

But that was last night.

Now it’s time to handle business and I have no idea how to do that.

That’s why I’m currently sitting at a damn blackjack table at seven in the morning, just hoping that something will come to fruition.

Anything that will save out asses if our deal with Chambers’ goes south.

The dealer lays a card in front of me, and I groan when I see a twenty-four.