“Yeah,” Alessa said, starting forward, “that wasn’t a suggestion.”
Gwathney choked on some kind of outcry and threw himself around in a sloppy attempt to flee.
Alessa grabbed hold of his bouncing duffel, threw her weight entirely in the opposite direction, and added a sweeping kick of her leg to make sure she landed him squarely on his ratty ass. The duffel handle ripped and the bag rolled out of reach, in Rocco’s direction. She snatched up Gwathney’s nearest wrist before he could catch his breath, hauled his arm up and awkwardly behind him at the most uncomfortable angle she reasonably could, then stepped on that hand while she stretched for the other arm. Within a few seconds she had both wrists zip-tied together and the bastard back on his feet.
Rocco was watching with a smoldering grin, the duffel under one arm.
Alessa raised a brow. “Whatever money’s in there is probably no good. I can’t imagine this guy’s that clever.”
“Hey!”
She shoved him into the wall without releasing his arm, just to shut him up.
Rocco’s smirk only darkened. “Oh, I thought of that. Frankly, even if it was squeaky clean, I wouldn’t want this shitstain’s money. But I have the perfect use for it, assuming it isn’t.”
“I’m listening.”
He tilted his head back toward the door, where Emanuele presumably waited, and pulled it open for them. “I heard there’s a group of neighborhood street racers who recently had a bunch of their expensive cars shot to hell. Bet they’d love a generous, anonymous donation.”
As Alessa barked out an uncontrollable, short laugh, Emanuele called to them from deeper into the lobby. “That is the most unexpected entrance line I think I’ve ever heard.”
Alessa pulled her grumbling, bruised captive with her through the doorway. “Found Gwathney. Kind of want to beat on him with a jagged stick for about a year.” Her gaze dropped to the unconscious lump of muscle by Emanuele’s feet. “Are we taking that charmer, too?”
Emanuele shrugged. “I didn’t figure it could hurt. And he was rude to you.” He tipped his head. “That’s a proven no-go.”
“Man’s got a point,” Rocco said with a grunt.
Alessa rolled her eyes. “Okay, boys. Sure. But we don’t have enough car for both of them. I vote we dogpile them in the back.”
Emanuele snickered.
“Too much risk, unfortunately,” Rocco said. “Their transport should be outside by now.”
Alessa shrugged. “Fine. I can live with that, too.”
Gwathney tried to jerk from her grip as if thinking she’d stopped paying him attention. “L-let me go! I didn’t mess with the Cavallos!”
Alessa cut him a glare. “No, asshat.” She shot out a foot and kicked the side of his knee, causing him to go almost completely limp. Then she reached around and took a fistful of the shirt beneath his chin, forcing his face up so she could glare down at him. “You and your dog crossed the fucking De Salvos.”
“Oh, welcome back, sir!” Rocco’s assistant, Carla, trilled as soon as he rounded the corner. There was no other path to his office and it was the middle of the day, and particularly since he himself had been sidelined in the interest of being available to Alessa, having Carla on-site for at least a few hours was necessary.
A necessary headache. Part of looking out for family meant finding places, when possible, to let them contribute. Carla was someone’s sister or cousin, close enough that she was family by extension. But it was a loose extension.
Rocco felt Alessa’s body stiffen and begin to lean to the side, as if she intended to step out of his reach. So he pressed his fingers into her hip as he swung his head the other way, toward Carla’s already approaching figure. “I’m only here for a minute, Carla,” he said. “Just came to pick up a couple things.”
She stepped directly into his path with all the feigned obliviousness he’d come to expect from her. “Some men came by and delivered a package earlier,” she said. “I thought it looked questionable—”
“I don’t pay you to worry about what my private security team does.”
Her smile tightened. “They wouldn’t tell me what it was, and given that you were marked as unavailable today, I thought it was best to have the entire thing moved off-site.”
Alessa sucked in a breath.
“For the safety of the casino, and all of our guests, of course.”
Rocco felt his lip curl. “You should have fucking called.” He would almost undoubtedly have ignored her call, but he also knew she hadn’t made the effort.
“Your schedule was quite suddenly cleared for a full week,” Carla said, her expression morphing with alarming ease into puppy-eyed concern. “I didn’t want to bother you in the middle of whatever could be going on.”
