by Lexi Blake
Nick could answer that question for her. Unfortunately, he knew her father a bit too well when it came to this. “It’s never enough for him, dushka, but he can’t help that. It’s a sickness. At least that’s how Ariel would describe it. He can have all the money in his hands that he needs, but the truth is the money itself doesn’t please him, doesn’t make him feel alive.”
Dalton seemed to age before his eyes, his shoulders slumping, eyes dimming. “Nick is right. I make the money, I gamble it away. I can’t tell you how much I’ve made and lost in my lifetime. Millions. Tens of millions. I’m a little better now because running The Palace is one big bet. It gives me the adrenaline rush I need. But before too long, I’ll have to find a game or a race and bet everything I have. Sometimes I win, but I always lose in the end. And this wasn’t Desiree’s idea. Believe it or not, Des really was getting out of the game. She had enough because of that one last play she made.”
“Tell me about that op. It seems to me it’s why we’re here.” Ezra spoke, his tone bland. “What do you know about it?”
Dalton sat back. “I know that I thought I had buried it, and that it will get my daughter killed if we don’t do something about it.”
“You cared so much you blew up my house,” Hayley stated, her bitterness an almost palpable thing.
Nick was starting to see a pattern emerge. Hayley might be missing something because she couldn’t see past her anger. “You did that because you were trying to throw them off the scent, weren’t you? That’s why it happened during office hours. You knew what Desiree had sent her.”
“I didn’t at first. I have a few people who owe me favors, and one of them is rather good with computers,” Dalton began.
“So you have a hacker on the payroll.” It would do him well to have one. A hacker could watch for everything from police activity concerning The Palace, to which high rollers might be coming into town and would need an invitation. A hacker would monitor the Dark Web for all kinds of activity. “When your hacker told you there was talk about Hayley, you knew you had to move.”
“You could have given me a call.” Hayley didn’t seem like she was about to bend.
“I had to make it big. I didn’t want to disrupt your life more than I had to.” Dalton grimaced under the stare that came from his daughter’s eyes. When Hayley wanted to, she could cut a man with that stare. “I know. I know. I might have gone over the top, but I didn’t want anyone to think for a second that the information was in Hayley’s hands. I worried I was going to be too late. I had to sneak away as it was. I don’t trust anyone with my identity. I faked my death when I realized that whoever Desiree had blackmailed thought I was the only other person who knew.”
“We figured she had it sent to me so I could get it to you,” Hayley replied. “It was fate that Des died. She couldn’t have known you would fake your own death. This was her way of ensuring someone would keep the business going.”
Dalton shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think she wanted you to have whatever was there. Desiree thought quite highly of you. I believe at first she liked the idea of having an American cousin to poke her relatives with, but she came to care for you quite deeply. I think it surprised her, too.”
Ezra scrubbed a hand over his head as he paced across the office. “So you don’t know anything. Is that what I’m supposed to believe? You don’t know why someone is after what Des left behind. You don’t know who is after it, and yet you felt strongly enough that you blew up your own daughter’s home and sent her on the run.”
“No, I’m not completely ignorant. I know it has something to do with a video she made years ago. Right before she died. She called me before she left for the Caribbean. She wanted to let me know she was leaving and might be out of touch for a while because she was expecting some kind of big payoff. She told me she’d finally done it.”
He remembered her words. “She finally caught her whale.”
Dalton pointed his way. “Exactly. That’s what she said to me. She thought her boss was catching on to her and she’d decided to get out. I was surprised when she told me she wasn’t taking you with her. She told me she was sending you back where you belonged.”
He wanted so much to reach out to Hayley, but she’d stiffened at the words. He had to settle for continuing the dialogue. There would be time later when they were back in the hotel for him to beg and plead with her. To explain to her that he was done with the past and only interested in the future. “Desiree understood my feelings for Hayley, but none of this explains why you’re here in Rio when everything I believe puts the information right here in the city.”
“I believe that as well,” Dalton affirmed. “I’m here in Rio because this was where Des and I were based. She had an apartment in Ipanema, but we had a home in the city. It served as a base of operations.”
“You and Des?” Hayley asked the question in a soft voice, her skin flushing.
Dalton couldn’t quite look his daughter in the eyes. “As much as any man was ever with Desiree. She was leaving me, too. The house was in one of my aliases so when I needed to hide, I came here. Also, I knew her habits. I’ve been trying to figure out where her storage is. I’ve combed through all the places I can think of. I believe one set was with the Tokyo apartment. I took care of that. The other is likely here. If I can find it and destroy it in a way that everyone understands it’s gone, Hayley can get her life back. So far I haven’t found it, but I will. I promise you, Hayley.”
“Because we all know your promises mean something,” Ezra spat out between clenched teeth. “I want what you owe me.”
Dalton turned, looking every year of his age. “I lied to you. I told you I had the intel because I needed you off my back so I could do what I had to do. I never had it. Never got close to finding out who gave up your brother’s unit. To tell you the truth, I didn’t try. I was far too busy making money with Des.”
Nick stood, putting himself between Ezra and Dalton. He couldn’t have Ezra murdering Hayley’s father. They still needed him. “Please calm down. I told you. When this is done, I am your partner in finding these men. For now, let’s concentrate on saving Hayley. She’s innocent in all of this.”
“She is.” Dalton had stood up. “Fain, if you’ll help my daughter, I’ll go quietly at the end of all of this. You can take me to prison and I won’t give you any trouble at all. I’ll even confess. I’m ready. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t when I know what kind of pain I’ve cost her.”
Fain stepped back, nodding silently.
Nick turned to Hayley’s father. Oddly, it didn’t hurt that he’d been one more man Desiree had played around with. It didn’t matter. He was thankful to the man because without him, Hayley wouldn’t exist. Still, there was a price to be paid, and at least he felt somewhat certain that Dalton was ready to pay it. “Desiree did leave the information here and she guarded it with a key. I believe the reason everyone is after her is that Desiree’s mark knows about her security system. They certainly do now that I’ve informed every mercenary on the Dark Web that the heart around Hayley’s neck is the only thing that will unlock the security system Desiree put in place. Hayley, I need the necklace now.”
She turned wide eyes his way, her hand going to the necklace around her throat. “I can’t give this up.”
He got to one knee in front of her. God, one day he hoped he would be giving her a piece of jewelry rather than taking one away. “Do you trust me? Hayley, I think I can get you out of this. I don’t care about justice or revenge anymore. I only care that you’re safe. Do you understand me? You mean more to me than anything. I would give my life and my soul if it meant you were alive and happy. Please trust me in this.”
Dalton moved in, looking down at his daughter. “I think you should trust him, sweetheart. He sounds serious. I’m going to take that necklace and let everyone know that I’m the man who has it and I’m the only one who knows where it is. This is on me. Let it finish with me.”
“Af
ter we hand over the necklace, Kayla and Ezra will put out the word on the Dark Web that we’re out of this,” Nick explained. “You and I will get on a plane back to London and you’ll stay at The Garden until Ezra can get your name cleared.”
“But those men or whoever…they ruined my name, my reputation,” she said, a little stutter to her voice.
He put a hand over hers. “And I would love to kill everyone who had anything to do with it, but I’ve discovered there’s a time to step back because you’re more precious than any revenge. I love you, Hayley. You stood in front of me once and asked me to change my life to be with you. You asked me to walk away from everything I knew and you were right to do it. I was wrong. So I’m here now asking you to walk away with me, asking you to change my life again.”
Tears shone in her eyes as she shook her head. “That’s not fair.”
“It’s not and I know you think you should walk away from me, but you need to understand that I won’t be far behind. I’ll follow you and watch out for you. I’ll always be there, making sure you’re safe.”
“Stalker,” she said, but her lips curled up enough to make hope flare inside him. Her hands moved back and she undid the clasp of the necklace. She held it up to the light for a moment and then sighed and passed it to him. “I do trust you, but I have to think about the rest of it. I’ll go back to The Garden with you. That’s all I can promise.”
It was all he could ask for now.
He stood back up. Now that he had her consent, he was ready to get her out of here as soon as possible. He wouldn’t feel truly comfortable until they were safely behind the walls of The Garden. “We’re going to walk back out into the casino and I need you holding that necklace.”
Paul reached out a hand, taking the heart on its gold chain. “I have some cameras in the casino. I’ll have my hacker leak the photos.”
That would play into his plan, but he had already set a few things in motion. He looked to Ezra, who nodded. “Thank you. Photos will help, but we’ve got a couple of friends who are even now talking about the fact that the key has been transferred. Ezra is putting the same information out on certain intelligence lines we’re certain these groups monitor. We believe within a few hours, the heat should be off Hayley, especially when she settles back in London and is completely out of the game.”
Dalton pushed his chair in and started for the door. “Let’s get her out of here then. Nikolai, please take care of her. She’s been let down by most of the men in her life. Mostly by me. She needs someone who can put her first.”
Nick held out a hand because no matter what this man had done, he was still Hayley’s father and the moment felt sacred, the solemn promise of a husband to a father. That was what he would be one day. Hayley’s husband. “All my life I look to find something I can give my whole heart to. I tried to give it to my country. I tried to give it to revenge and the ghosts that haunted me. All my life I wanted to belong to something bigger than myself, but now I only wish to belong to her. This I promise you. For the rest of my life I will put her first.”
Dalton shook his hand, emotion plain in his eyes. Regret. Relief. “Thank you.”
“Hey, we need to get out of here.” Kayla’s low voice broke through the quiet of the moment. “Someone’s moving downstairs. Could be nothing, but I’d like to see the street now.”
He trusted Kay’s instincts. If she thought something was changing, then it was time to leave. He held out a hand and helped Hayley up, hating the fact that there were tears clinging to her cheeks. She was so far away from him in that moment, but he couldn’t think about that. He had to get her home and then perhaps he could start trying to heal the wounds finding her father had caused. “Stay between me and Fain.”
Ezra was already moving in. “Get down the stairs as quickly as we can. I don’t like being stuck here.”
“Kay, can you take our six?” There was no one else he would rather have at his back. Well, no one except Owen or Brody or Damon. His team. He trusted them. How long had they been there in the background, waiting for his ass to wake up and join them? He thought he’d lost his family, but he’d found another.
Perhaps that had been Desiree’s gift to him.
Kay stood, holding the door open, her whole body taut with awareness as her eyes swept the floor. “We have three guards and Helena, who just came in. There’re several more hovering at the door. I don’t like it.”
Dalton moved in after Fain. “I’m sure it’s nothing more than a problem with the casino. My guards are well trained to take care of things quietly.”
“Yes,” Kay said. “The quiet bothers me, too.”
That was when he realized the noise he’d heard earlier from the casino was gone. The place was almost eerily quiet.
They were in serious trouble. His time had run out.
Chapter Twenty
Hayley wasn’t sure exactly what was happening but she knew it was bad. She could feel the tension rolling off the rest of them and it informed her own. Nick moved in front of her and Ezra behind. They kept close to her, so close it was hard to move. Nick stepped down cautiously, his head swinging as he glanced around the darkened room.
That was the problem. The light seemed to have shifted to the office. It was hard to see the reaches of the floor below, but then Helena had told her that everything here was theater.
It looked like Helena had set the scene for the final act.
Hayley wiped a hand over her eyes because tears had blurred her vision after the last few minutes.
Her father was alive and he had apologized, had said so many of the things she’d longed to hear all her life. Her father was a gangster who ran illegal casinos and sold information to be used in blackmail schemes. Her father had been Desiree’s lover.
Nick loved her. Hayley, not Des. Nick loved Hayley. Nick was ready to put her first.
It was all a great big roiling pot of emotion and she couldn’t focus on it.
They were in some kind of trouble. She forced herself to move along the stairs, emotional numbness settling in. She tried to force it back. Numb was easy and she didn’t want that anymore. She wanted to feel. That was one thing she’d learned. It was okay to feel even if it was bad.
“What’s wrong?” Hayley whispered the question because it seemed like the right thing to do. She wasn’t going to hide behind them.
“Nothing, yet,” Nick whispered back. “Stay close and keep your head down. We’re going straight for the street. Once we’re there, we stick to the shadows and go for any crowds we can find. Hayley, can you run in those heels?”
Nope. She would be horrible at it. She could sort of walk in the gorgeous things, but there was no way she could run. Luckily they were easy to kick off. She shed them and felt the metal stair beneath her as Nick hustled them down. “They’re gone. I’m ready.”
She would run even if she hit glass. She would run because Nick thought they should and she wasn’t about to hold him back. They’d made a deal. She was his partner in life. She was in control of the throw pillows and how they spent cash. He was perfectly amenable to most of what she wanted to do. He was in control during sexy time and when the bullets started flying.
She was cool with that. It was a perfectly reasonable exchange. Why was she even fighting it?
“I don’t think there’s any reason to worry,” her father was saying. “We have protocols to follow. We’re an illegal business. We go quiet anytime the outer guards sense a police presence. If you’d actually been a guest of ours, you would have gone through a nice lecture on how we handle things like this. The first rule is that the casino goes utterly silent. We have to.”
“I would rather be safe than sorry.” Nick took the stairs quickly.
Hayley glanced behind her and noticed that Kayla was still standing at the top of the stairs. Was she not coming with them?
Everything was happening so fast and she couldn’t quite keep up. She knew she’d given away their only real bargaining chip since they
hadn’t been about to find the actual intelligence. That necklace was the next best thing. But Nick had a plan and she was following him.
Because she trusted him.
Because no matter what he’d done before, she loved him and always had. Why hadn’t she told him? Why hadn’t she given him the words back?
Nick hit the bottom of the stairs and started to lead her toward the curtain entrance they’d come through before. They’d almost made it when the flap opened and one of the big, black-suited guards stepped through, a shiny automatic in his hand.
Nick stopped, putting his body between hers and the gun. “We will be leaving now.”
The man simply shook his head and nodded to someone behind them.
“I think we have a few things to work out before you leave us,” a feminine voice said.
“Helena, what’s going on here?” Her father moved out of the line they’d been in, taking a step toward his second in command. “Why aren’t the guards at their posts?”
“Because I’ve put our protocols in place and had the casino evacuated,” Helena stated calmly. “We’ve never actually had to do it. It worked quite nicely. We evacuated in under five minutes and made very little sound.”
Her father looked back. “Nick, get her out of here. If she’s taken in by the police, she’ll be a sitting duck.”
“I don’t think the police are on their way,” Nick said, his tone grave.
“Ah, see, I always thought you were far smarter than Des gave you credit for,” Helena said, her heels clicking across the floor. “Although you are the one who walked in here carrying the key. Such a stupid man, but then I’ve made my living by being underestimated. I’ll take the key now.”
“What the hell is going on?” Her father held his ground even as he found himself surrounded by his own guards.
Helena laughed, a sinister sound. “Oh, Paul, you can’t think they ever truly accepted you. You’re weak and everyone knows it. I kept you around because of your connections, and you knew this world better than I. I’ve learned and now the guards all understand it’s time for a coup. I find paying them a bit on the side helps to settle their loyalties. Where is the other girl?”