as his eyes hit Tommy and then purposefully moved to Tommy’s sister. Leo’s eyes traveled the length of Tessa’s body and he licked his lips in an oily and perverted way. Tessa saw him and her body locked tight. She glared. He jerked his chin casually at her and then his expression made my skin crawl.
Tommy’s demeanor would seem cold but impassive to anyone around, but I could feel the energy in the room change, to a level I could only think of as “Danger.”
Other than his eyes looking hard and stone cold, the rest of him was completely still. He took a sip of his drink and put it down and he stared at Leo Denarda.
Tessa stared at Leo as if he was something she’d wiped off her shoe and then leaned over and put her mouth to my ear and whispered, “Look at him, look right at his crotch, and then laugh.”
I didn’t feel good about it, because I didn’t want to do anything to antagonize this situation but I did what Tess had asked. She bumped my shoulder with hers and then Tommy said, “G’head. Dex? Show the girls to the ladies’ room. Staff one, to the right of the bar.”
I kissed Tommy’s jaw and he squeezed my hand but his eyes never left where Leo stood with his date, getting served champagne. His lip was curling just a little and then his face transformed. He gave Leo the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Ice Cream Parlor Hottie smile and my heart skipped a beat at that.
He was going to kill that guy. Murder. Cold blood. Lots of blood.
My heartbeat was in my ears and I felt a little light-headed. I moved behind Tess, who’d grabbed my hand, Dex behind me, and he steered us toward the employee’s ladies room, which was not far away from our table. I suspected that this was intentional so that we wouldn’t have to pass Leo.
Once we were inside the bathroom she grabbed me and held me tight. I hugged her. She was shaking.
“It’s okay. You did good. No, you did great, Tessa. We’re almost through this,” I told her.
She started to hyperventilate. I rubbed her back and when she seemed to be settling down a bit, I let her go. She started breathing harder so I dashed into the stall finding what I’d hoped would be there. In the stall there was a dispenser of small brown paper bags. I grabbed one.
“Wanna try to breathe into this?” I held it out.
She shook her head and grabbed the counter edge at the sink with both hands and stared into the mirror at her own reflection and hunched, blowing air out.
Tommy
We knew Leo Denarda was gonna be coming. We were prepared.
One of his men had agreed to help with the promise of support of his taking over Denarda’s role once the fuckhead was taken out. That man was the rest of that organization’s choice to take over.
The guy had been like a son to the uncle, but Leo was blood-family so it’d been a problem in the Denarda organization. It was a small organization but one nonetheless and they owned some big construction contracts in Nevada and had some strong ties with politicians as well as had pull in the bookie business.
The organization was worried Leo being at the helm would fuck that all up. And he’d already taken away from their livelihood because they never got the Fete build, but the guy we’d brought over to our side was going to be in a solid position for his power play after Denarda was out of the picture. And he’d benefit from being a subcontractor in Nevada for the Ferrano Enterprises construction arm.
He’d let a mutual acquaintance know that he was very unhappy with the state of play and we used that to our advantage. Someone on the other side had been there when Leo Denarda got Ben’s invite to the Fete launch.
It’d been delivered only two days before but we’d made it look like a courier problem that had delayed it. The envelope was beat up, there was a fake waybill attached that was backdated if Denarda tried looking it up online. Leo might be suspicious but he could come without losing face, which would be perceived as important to a guy who thought he had any face in Nevada or anywhere else.
I saw the look on his ugly mug when he spotted my sister. He’d tried to hide his surprise but I saw the smug look die on his face. And he’d given her a chin jerk like they’d been old hook-up buddies or something. The smug bastard hadn’t flinched through that part. Either he wasn’t surprised that I’d gotten her back, someone had gotten that news to him (which would be really fucking bad but I doubted it), or he didn’t give a fuck and thought he was untouchable.
Or, he had what he believed would be another ace up his sleeve.
We’d had Ben increase security, add another layer of vetting through Hal, Zack Jacobs’ man for staff for the opening, and there were cameras everywhere. If something went wrong, we’d be able to pinpoint how it had happened. I’d not only had a GPS in my wife’s engagement ring, but we’d had Tess wear a watch that had a GPS as well.
We also had Leo’s limo driver being switched out for one of ours. He wouldn’t be going back home tonight. His two bodyguards, who I’d just had a text stating were directly outside the bar giving death-ray eyes to my other guards, would be put out of commission, too.
I was uncomfortable with how long the girls were taking to come back so I looked over my shoulder at Dex. I could see him standing outside the employee bathroom. I touched my index finger to my wrist and jerked my thumb toward the door.
I looked back in Denarda’s direction and caught a look on his face that set my teeth on edge. He put his drink down, grabbed his date’s hand and they moved quickly out of the room. Too quickly. Nino didn’t wait for my ‘go’, he immediately moved to follow.
I sipped my drink. My phone rang with a blocked number. I rejected the call and looked over my shoulder toward Dex.
I didn’t like that I couldn’t see the girls so I jerked my chin at him and said, “Now.”
Dex knocked on the door to the washroom but at that second, the lights flickered as the room shook with a vibration that hit me in the depths of my gut. The bar area, to the left of me and not far from the alcove that led to that ladies’ room where my wife and sister were, it exploded. Something scraped my face and temporarily disoriented me.
I saw an orange flash that accompanied the deafening sound of glass smashing, wood splintering, and people screaming. Screaming filled the crowded space.