Nico (Ruin & Revenge #1)(98)

“You’re saying it wasn’t your fault?” Nico snorted his derision. “That he made you do it? That’s a coward’s way out. We always have a choice. It’s the choices we make in life that define us.” His pushed himself off the stool. Dante was a pathetic, broken man. He didn’t need Dante’s death to fulfill him anymore. Mia had shown him a life beyond the emptiness of revenge.

“Or sometimes, it’s the choices we make that kill us.” Dante lifted his finger, looked over at Vito.

“No.” Luca threw himself in front of Nico. A gunshot cracked the silence. Luca staggered forward. He grasped at the table and collapsed in Nico’s arms, his shirt blooming red with blood.

Stunned, Nico looked up to see Vito with his gun pointed where Luca had been standing seconds ago.

Dante drew a weapon from beneath his jacket as Nico dropped to his knees with Luca in his arms.

“It’s you or me. And I choose me.”

*

Stay calm. Stay calm.

Mia ran through the casino with Kat, her phone plastered to her ear. “Where is he, Jules?”

“I’m looking. I’m looking. He’s got one serious security system here. There are cameras everywhere. And so many people. How do you find just one person in all this?”

“The system is so sophisticated they can track individual people, but we don’t have time to figure it out.” She weaved in and out of the crowds, trying not to bump into anyone. “Try his office.”

“Found it. There’s no one there.”

Mia’s heart pounded, and she forced herself to slow down. Running wasn’t going to get her anywhere if she didn’t know where she was going.

“How about the back hallways, restrooms, or the alley outside? No one is going to whack him in the middle of a crowd.”

“There are too many cameras showing too many things. You need a team of people to find him,” Jules said.

A team. Led by an ass-pinching guard loyal to Nico.

“We’re going to the control room. Keep looking.” Mia waved for Kat to follow, and she headed for the control room. The last time she’d been there, she’d been trying to evade detection. Now, she didn’t care if the whole damn world saw her.

“Louis.” She banged on the steel security door. “It’s Mia. Let me in.”

The door opened, just a crack, and then wider. Louis stared at Mia and his eyes widened. “Jesus. The knife woman.” He tried to push the door closed, but Mia stuck her foot in the crack and pushed her way through. “That’s Mrs. Toscani to you. And I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m trying to find Nico. He’s somewhere in the casino, and he’s in trouble.”

Louis glanced back at the sea of monitors behind him. “I can’t let you in. This is a secure area.”

“Are you kidding me? You let me in when I was dressed as a go-go dancer.”

Louis’s lips pressed together. “I paid a big price for that. I still got fucking bruises.”

“Nico beat you?”

His face turned stony. “I don’t talk business with the ladies.”

Ah. That’s right. She was a “lady.” But not just any lady. She was a Mafia queen. “You go by the name Mikey Muscles, isn’t that right?”

Louis gave her a wary look. “Yeah.”

“Well, Mikey Muscles, your capo’s wife is telling you to let her in. Do you really want him to find out you told me no? He might have beat you before, but that will be nothing compared to what he’ll do to you when I tell him you refused to let me in. And when he’s done with you, if there’s anything left, it will be my turn. The knife I stabbed you with isn’t my only weapon.”

“Fuck.” He opened the door. “Now it’s like I got two fucking bosses.”

“You’re badass,” Kat whispered as she reached for the door. “I want to be just like you.”

“Leave it open,” Louis directed. “I don’t want anyone saying I was alone in a room with the boss’s wife.”

After wasting five minutes searching for Nico, Mia threw up her hands. “Where is he? What kind of system is this? I thought you could track a person from the minute they come into the casino.”

“We can.” Louis scratched his head. “But he’s not here.”

“He is here. I hacked his phone.” Mia held up her phone with the little blue dot on the screen showing Nico somewhere in the building.

“What about these screens?” Kat pointed to six blank monitors. “What do those usually show?”

“High-stakes room. The casino manager, Vito, told me to turn them off on Mr. Toscani’s orders.”

Mia frowned. “Why?”

“I don’t ask why,” Louis said. “I just do.”

“He must be in there. Turn them on.”

Louis hesitated. “If Vito or Mr. Toscani find out…”

“Now.”

He pushed a few buttons and Mia stared at the screens as they flickered on. A gasp from behind startled her. And then she heard a familiar chuckle. “I think you should listen to the nice security guard. You don’t want to get him in trouble.”

Mia spun around, and her heart dropped into her stomach. Rev had an arm around Kat’s waist and a gun pressed to her temple.