by Rebel Hart
“I won’t. I promise.” She leaned back in her chair and flicked a hand, and I knew that was my signal to leave. I stood up instantly, huffed, “Thanks, Mom,” and left the room.
Baylor was right on my heels as I walked out and once we were out, he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me down the hallway into a library between my parents’ offices and the kitchen and dining area.
“Have you lost your goddamn mind?” he barked. “You swore you were gonna go to Mom after you got a name! You saw her twice and talked to her before you went to Mom.”
“What are you being all uppity for? It turned out fine,” I growled back. “She trusts me. Don’t tell me you’re upset because you think I lied to you.”
“It’s not that, it’s that where she doesn’t know you, I will. When is this date?”
“Tonight,” I replied. “She just wanted to go home and change and I’m picking her up on my bike.” A smile came across my face, because my motorcycle had ridden right into several women’s hearts and beds plenty of times before. It was, for all intents and purposes, my chick magnet.
Reaching up and whacking me across the back of the head, Baylor frowned. “Don’t smile about it. It’s not a real date, right? You’re just gonna take her somewhere less conspicuous and finish her off?”
“Yes,” I moaned. “I’m gonna take her out for drinks, get her a little tipsy, get her guard down, and then I’m gonna take her out on Lake Las Vegas on my boat for dinner, and dump her in the lake.”
That actually made Baylor take a step back. “That… that sounds like an actual plan.”
The tone my family typically took with me was one of disbelief. Whenever I did something that sounded even marginally responsible or organized, they defaulted to thinking I couldn’t possibly be serious or have come up with it on my own. I realized I mostly only had myself to blame for that, but that didn’t make it any less irritating. Once this job was done, my family was going to see that I could be trusted, and hopefully they wouldn’t look at me slack-jawed when I actually sounded like I had my shit together.
I wasn’t a total fuck-up before. It was just further proof that one big mistake could trump a thousand small accomplishments.
“It is an actual plan,” I hissed. “I swear, Bay, I’m not just pissing into the wind. I’ve thought this out. When I found out that we were actually dealing with Mariana Westun, I knew that I couldn’t just do this the way I would normally. She has to know who I am. As you all have made sure to point out to me, I’ve made it very clear that I’m here. By my guess, she’s probably thinking that agreeing to a date with me gives her more information on me and our family. I’ll just keep her thinking all night that she’s in control. She thinks I’m just some dope who doesn’t realize I’ve asked out the daughter of Vegas’ most notorious crime family. If she’s confident that I’m just being an idiot about it, she’ll get on that boat with me, and that’s my chance. Once we’re in the middle of the lake, there’s nothing she can do.”
“Okay,” Baylor hummed. “But you let her go home. If she tells her family that she’s going out with you and then goes missing, they’ll know it was you.”
“Yeah, but I’m not really all that worried about that. If the Westuns know how quickly and quietly I took down one of their heads, they’ll know the fact that we’re your geekier mafia variety doesn’t make much of a difference. We’re just as much of a force to be reckoned with.”
Crossing his arms, Baylor gave me an impressed grin. “You’ve really thought it all through.”
“I have. I know it’s crazy to think, but this head actually has a brain in it just like the rest of you. Go figure.”
“Hey, you can’t get mad at us because you never use it,” he snapped.
I just laughed and shook my head. “You’re right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a date.”
Walking around him and out of the library, I walked back through the house until I was able to take the elevator down into the hidden, underground garage. Because my parents had more space at their estate than I did at home, I left most of my vehicles behind in their garage. I typically took my Aston Martin as my main car, but I’d be going with a different rig for tonight’s festivities.
My flawless Harley.
I’d built it from scrap with my own two hands after we first came to Vegas. I’d been riding motorcycles since my dad first taught me how when I was just fifteen, and my first bike was a second-hand buy, but when we moved and my mom stopped trusting me with tasks of my own, I found myself with a lot of free time. In order to keep myself out of too much trouble, I started collecting the nicest parts and pieces and slowly building myself a bike.
It was my pride and joy.
Now, I didn’t want to toot my own horn, but I didn’t struggle with women. My parents were both stunning, and they’d passed those looks onto both me and Baylor. My dad’s calm face mixed with my mom’s severe bone structure, in one of my signature leather jackets and riding a Harley… effort wasn’t really needed to find companionship.
That said, I knew that Mariana would be on her guard knowing that I was a Misterro. Even if the looks and the bike would woo her under normal circumstances, she’d have a wall up because it was me. But honestly, that was fine with me. I’d never been the type of guy to shy away from a challenge. It was a shame that I’d have to kill her at the end of the night. This actually sounded like fun.
Rather than meeting me at her home, Mariana chose to meet me back in front of MasCat, which wasn’t a surprise; she obviously wasn’t going to give up her actual address to me. I didn’t complain. Because I was just some dopey guy taking her out, until it was time to get her on the boat, I was going to play it exactly as she wanted me to play it. Whatever she asked me to do, I was going to do it. I was totally at her mercy to lower her guard just enough.
Once she was on that boat, she’d never get off.
The roar of my bike pulling up to the curb where Mariana was standing drew attention. I parked it in front of her and took my time getting off and walking around to greet her. Yeah, I’d be killing her by the end of the night, but old habits die hard, and I wanted her to eat her heart out a little too. She was clearly playing at the same game with the short, sequined black dress she was wearing. It strangled her legs around mid-thigh, and one wrong move would have it popping up even higher. The back of it was totally open, and it hung in a deep scoop across her chest, giving a perfect shot of her cleavage beneath. She had a perfect bend in her waist that curved out across her ass, forming my ideal proportions on a woman.
My only complaint was that she was still rocking the fake wig and contacts as opposed to the natural look I’d seen from her a few days prior.
“Jade!” I said, as I approached her. “You look fantastic.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “I figured it was a better look than the pantsuit.”
“In your defense, you looked fantastic in that too,” I said with a smile, and it wasn’t a lie. It really was a waste to have to murder such a beauty.
She offered me a sweet grin. “Well thank you.” Stepping closer to my bike, she ran her hand along some of the shimmering chrome. “A Harley, huh? I’ve always wanted to ride one.”
“Well then we shouldn’t waste any time.” I walked over to the small box I had on the back and opened it, retrieving my spare helmet before handing it to her. “Let’s go.”
With a little swish in her hips, she took the helmet and pulled it over her head. I climbed onto the bike and Mariana climbed on after me, pulling herself firmly against my back and wrapping her hands around my waist. I fired up the bike, only just barely hearing a little squeak of excitement before the rumble drowned her out. It was insanely adorable, but I tried to push it from my brain. I couldn’t go getting endeared to her now. She was on borrowed time.
To start our date, I wanted to keep her close to the city. If I immediately rushed for the outskirts or something, she might get suspicious. It was a process to mari
nate someone and lure them into a false sense of security, and where I might normally give myself a week or two to do it, I wanted to do it with Mariana in a matter of hours.
And she wasn’t a layman like someone else I might be doing it with.
Not far from MasCat was a bar called Here that I had discovered early on after we moved. It was a very laid back place, and anything downtown as opposed to on the strip was better in my opinion. On top of that, Here had a small parking lot that had a few reserved spaces specifically for bikes, because it tended to attract Vegas’ biker crew. There was one open and waiting for me and I pulled in and powered off the bike.
Mariana climbed off first and pulled her helmet off to give to me, and I stored both hers and mine and then held my arm out to lead her towards the door.
“Have you ever been here before? I love this place,” I commented.
“Yeah,” she responded. “It’s one of my favorites too. I just came here with my coworkers on Saturday.”
“No kidding?” I said. “I guess we’re both in the know, then.”
I pulled the door open, and she threw me a seductive gaze as she passed through. “I guess so.”
Rather than picking a table near the dance floor to sit and get drinks, I opted to have us sit at the bar. It meant we could actually hear each other, and it made it much easier to keep drinks flowing at a steady pace. Mariana was playing it smart, only ordering a hard cider with a low liquor content to start the night out, and I could tell she was going to be a worthy adversary. No matter how much I tried to distract her with conversation, she drank her cider slowly and kept her wits about herself. It would have been irritating if it weren’t so intriguing.
“So,” I asked after a couple of hours of failing to get too much liquor in her. “After such a long day at work, you must be hungry.”
She nodded immediately. “I’m a little famished, I’ll admit.”
“I know a great place outside the city. I made a reservation there. Would you care to join me?”
“A reservation?” she said with shock in her voice. “A lot of effort you’re putting in for what was meant to be a friendly drink.”
“I don’t frequently get to spend my time with such a beautiful woman,” I replied. “When I was headed home to get my bike I wanted to plan as many ways to drag it out. You know, in case you didn’t want to give me a second date after this.”
After staring at me for a few seconds, she hiked an eyebrow. “I’m intrigued. Knowing places downtown and places outside the city makes it sound like you were born and raised here. Nevada original?”
“No actually,” I was honest. “My family moved here from Boulder, Colorado, about a year and a half ago.”
“How come?” she asked.
Giving her a smile and leaning a little closer to her, I hummed. “I’ll tell you all about it if you join me for dinner. You still haven’t given me an answer.”
A smile grew large on her face, and I saw her eyes flash with interest. “You’re not just all muscle are you?”
“You’d be surprised,” I said, then I flicked the sleeve of my jacket back, revealing my expensive watch in order to check the time. “The reservation’s at nine, and we’re about thirty minutes away. Are you in?”
Her eyes flitted down to my feet and back up again, then she downed what was left of her cider and nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Mariana eyed my motorcycle with renewed excitement when we walked outside to climb back on it. “I’m guessing you like the bike then?”
She snickered. “It’s kind of dumb, but my life has been a little boring up ‘til now. I never saw myself wrapped around some gorgeous guy on a Harley, so I’m living it up.”
I pulled her helmet out, beaming a little at the compliment. “Let’s go for a long one then.”
There was something relaxing about taking a half-hour bike ride out of Vegas with Mariana’s arms wrapped around my torso. If the situations were anything other than what they were, I’d be putting this in the running for the best date I’d ever had. Part of me was sad that I’d never get to go out with her with her natural look. Her beauty radiated past the fake hair and eyes, but I’d give an arm and a leg to take her out for a ride with her blonde hair whipping in the wind. I bet that little flash of excitement she kept getting would look even better in her green eyes.
Eh, if anything, she was helping me carve out a type.
Hoping that I’d done enough to lower her guard without the use of too many drinks, I took the path that I knew would eventually lead me to the docks. The drinks in the city were meant to develop her confidence that I wasn’t up to anything by dragging her outside the city right away, and to hopefully show her that she could trust me to take her somewhere she wouldn’t normally go. Maybe it helped that she was having a good time, but the fact that she agreed to letting me take her outside the city at all was an indicator that she’d probably let me pull off my next stunt without too much issue.
The boat.
When we turned off the road and into the parking lot at the dock for Lake Las Vegas, Mariana’s arms tightened around me. She would have no business being in such a dark world if being driven to a boat dock didn’t make her a little nervous. Of course, she’d be right to be nervous.
This wasn’t going to end well for her.
I parked the bike in one of the spots and waited for Mariana to get off before climbing off myself. She handed over her helmet, which honestly surprised me, and I decided to get a little bold and grab her hand. She didn’t fight me, and let me take her out of the parking lot and down the dock to where my small yacht was already waiting. One of only two staff members I’d called to operate the boat was standing in front: the ship’s captain.
“Good evening, Mr. Misterro. Miss Meghan,” he said. “I’m Leonard, your captain for the evening.”
“Dinner outside the city is on a yacht?” she asked, looking sideways at me.
“You thought the bike ride was exciting. I figured I’d up the ante,” I replied, then I looked at Leonard. “Go ahead and get it started up. I’ll lift the plank after we board.”
He nodded. “Yes sir.”
Turning around and leaving us standing there, I held my hand out towards the plank for her to climb on. “After you.”
She started to laugh and shook her head. “Be real with me. This is where you kill me, isn’t it?”
7
Mari
I watched Bryce very carefully for any signs of panic at the words I said, but he just started to laugh, a sexy, charming laugh. “I know, I know. It seems a little much. I guess now’s as good a time as any to admit that money isn’t something I struggle for, but I swear, this,” he pointed at the yacht, “is not overcompensation. It’s like I said earlier, I’m laying it on a little thick. You are far and away the most incredible woman who has ever given me the time of day.”
It was such a rapid and perfect answer that I couldn’t tell if that meant it was true or he was just that good of a liar. The date up to that point had been marvelous, and if he were anyone other than who he was, I’d be skipping up the dock with a grin on my face. A bike ride through the city, drinks at my favorite place, and now a yacht ride dinner over the lake? It was about as romantic and perfect as any woman could ask for.
Was he just that good with women?
I looked both ways up and down the lake, but we were far from the touristy stuff that sat on the lake near the strip, and were in the much wider, much more removed from society end of the lake. There was only desert surrounding this area, and then the mouth of the lake which led back down to the other end. If Bryce Misterro did actually know who I was and was actually trying to kill me, this would be the perfect place to do it.
Then again, how could he know? This date had shown me he wasn’t as much of a meathead as I assumed he was, but my family had been careful to keep my identity hidden. I wouldn’t be able to be successful doing what I do if everyone in Vegas knew who I was. It’d take much more th
an a dyed wig and different color contacts to hide my identity. Every single month, I checked. I didn’t pop up when my name was searched; only articles about other women with my name in other states and countries. If someone looked up my parents or brothers, any results usually talked about the rest of my family, but never me. That was the whole point.
So there was no way that Bryce could know who I was.
He was just a guy who saw a woman and wanted to ask her out, and I’d been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to wine and dine with him and try and get to the bottom of what he did. He’d been honest about recently moving to Vegas, and about having money at his disposal. He promised to tell me the truth about why they first moved to Las Vegas in the first place. I could get so lucky here. Finally, I could do something with immediate pay-off.
Finally, something my dad would actually pay attention to.
“It’s so hard to take you seriously. I’ve never been shown such a good time,” I said, stepping towards the plank. “Thank you.”
“Believe me when I say, you hold all the chips right now,” Bryce said behind me.
When we reached the deck of the yacht, Bryce turned around and lifted the plank from the water and pulled it onto the boat, then shut the door. My heart started to pound a little faster when he signaled up to the captain in the top cabin and the boat immediately rumbled to life and started to pull away from shore. Hopefully my parents would forgive me. Getting onto a boat and riding out to the middle of a lake with a known enemy was easily one of the dumbest things I’d ever done, but I believed that I had the upper hand, and the reward was easily worth the risk.
“So, do you actually own this yacht?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. Social media was frequently flooded with pictures and videos from the parties he’d had on the thing. In those cases though, the boat flowed towards the strip, not towards the desert like we were going now.