Nico (Ruin & Revenge #1)(89)
His jaw tightened. “I know what it is.”
“It’s going up for auction.” She hesitated, waited for him to fill in the blanks, but he said nothing. Just stared at her as if she were trying to memorize everything about her, as she was trying to memorize him. After all, she didn’t know if she would ever see him again.
“I know the realtor because his daughter is in my coding class,” she continued. “It would be a shame if someone bought it and tore it down. It’s Dante’s favorite place to game. He’s got a bit of a gambling problem. My father used to get so angry. Dante isn’t very good with numbers and he would lose big. Really big. At one point he was so heavily indebted to one of Tony’s bookies, my father had to whack the bookie to clear the debt before Tony found out. That’s when he hired Rev. He said it was to guard Dante, but really, it was to keep him away from the tables. He was afraid Dante would ruin the family.”
Silence.
Mia gritted her teeth. Either he wasn’t understanding what she was trying to say, or he was still determined to put a bullet through Dante’s heart. She didn’t know what else she could do aside from spelling it out for him. Old Vegas hotel. Real estate deal. A casino. Dante’s big weakness. A way to avenge his father without spilling blood. Justice. Everything he could want in one neat package. And Dante, although he didn’t deserve it and would pay a heavy price, would be saved.
“I’d better go.” She walked to the door and looked back over her shoulder. “It’s a closed-bid auction. Apparently, the bids are submitted electronically and the computer spits out a winner.”
There. She couldn’t be clearer than that. He knew what she did for a living. She could hack the system and tell him the highest bid and he could bid higher. If he owned the casino he could let Dante run up his credit until the amount he owed was so high, Nico could take over his assets. He could ruin him financially. Maybe even the family, too. It wasn’t black-hat hacking she was offering to do for him, just a shade of gray.
*
“Vito, get me a meeting with the realtor who’s dealing with the sale of the Desert Dream Hotel.” Nico stalked through his casino, barking orders at Vito over his shoulder.
“Yes, sir.”
“Book it at Il Tavolino. Tell Lennie we’ll be coming.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Louis reported a huge increase in the number of low-level drug dealers coming into the casino. Any idea what’s attracting them? Or who?”
“No, sir, but I’ll ask around.” Vito pulled out a dove-gray handkerchief and mopped his brow. Nico had never seen Vito sweat. He’d never seen him ruffled or flustered in any way. He was always impeccably, albeit oddly, dressed in his silver-and gray suits, his hair perfectly coiffed, gray shoes polished to a shine. Maybe Nico was asking too much of him. Working him too hard. He had been an associate with Nico’s crew for six years and a good casino manager, although Nico didn’t think he had what it took to become a made man
“Are you sending any associates to deal with them?” Vito ran the handkerchief around the back of his neck.
Ah. That was it. Vito already had a heavy workload, and policing the low-level dealers would stretch him too thin. Nico made a mental note to hire an assistant to give Vito a hand. “I’ll send a few, but we need to find the source of the problem. And we need to find it before I buy the Desert Dream. I don’t want any carry over.”
Although Nico understood that Mia was willing to hack the realtor’s database to find the highest offer, there was no way he was letting a woman get involved in family business. And especially not his woman. It was his job to protect her. He had ways of getting information that didn’t involve his wife putting herself at risk or crossing a line she never wanted to cross. He hadn’t decided if he would play Dante the way she suggested, but he certainly wasn’t giving up the opportunity to purchase an iconic hotel.
“Where are Frankie and Luca?”
“Craps table, sir.” Vito pointed out Frankie and Luca, who were at the center of a big crowd. No doubt Luca was on a roll again. He had a lucky streak when it came to dice. Nico just wished he would play that lucky streak somewhere else.
He groaned inwardly when he saw Luca’s rack of chips. Every time he got lucky he threw his cash around like it was going out of style. One day he was going to attract the wrong kind of attention and he and Frankie wouldn’t be there to save him.
After discussing more issues with Vito, he joined the crowd at the craps table. Frankie was playing it out on the pass-line bet, a safe strategy and one that had the best odds to win.
“What’s happening with the capos?” he asked quietly.
Frankie stepped back, away from the crowd. “We’ve got five capos who are gonna vote between you and Tony on Sunday after church. You also get a vote, and Charlie Nails breaks a tie. We got four for you and one against if you can bring the Cordano alliance to the table.”
A cheer rose up and the dealer pushed a stack of chips in Luca’s direction.
“What if I don’t bring the alliance?” Nico had been mulling over the alliance for the last few days. His personal issues aside, the Cordanos were not a good fit with the Toscanis, at least not the way Nico wanted to run things. They were heavily into the drug trade and he was determined not to go down that road. It was an easy temptation, his father had said, but easy money came with big risks.