Blind Luck (Blackstone House #5)

1. Erin

CHAPTER 1

ERIN

“ V egas? We’re going to Vegas? Yeehaw! I always wanted to go to Vegas.” I mean, I’d seen pictures—the fountains at the Bellagio, the mini Eiffel Tower, the gondolas at the Venetian, Fremont Street, the STRAT Tower… “Can we visit the Grand Canyon?”

“We’ll be working,” Ari said. “This isn’t a vacation.”

“But it’s Vegas .”

“It’s work.” My brother backed up Ari. My brother . I still had to pinch myself that we were both here in California. After circumstances forced us apart when I was twelve—and by “circumstances,” I meant the cult we’d grown up in—I thought I’d never be a part of his life again. Kai had been kicked out of the Promised Land while I stayed long enough to get married off to an old pervert, and it had taken me another three and a half years after Kai left to escape. “I didn’t know you wanted to see Las Vegas. If you’d told me, I would’ve taken you.”

“I want to see the whole world, and you did take me to Australia, Hawaii, Brazil, and Mexico. Plus we literally got back from Indonesia two days ago.”

Next month, Kai would be flying to South Africa as part of his duties on the World Surf Tour, and I had an open invitation to join him. The past nine months had been wild. Ari’s boyfriend, Zach, was a surfer too—the raddest surfer ever, although I’d never say that in front of my brother, who happened to be Zach’s bestie.

After we reconnected, and also after I lost my job, Kai had offered to pay me to be his assistant, but that was just out of guilt because he didn’t really need an assistant. He already had one, kind of. Zach’s sister, Maya, did stuff for both of them. And since Maya and my brother obviously liked each other—like, like liked—I didn’t want to get in the way.

I did want to smush their faces together and tell them to stop dilly-dallying around, but Ari said that Maya was a little fragile at the moment and we should give them both time.

So, I’d accepted Kai’s offer of a place to stay—which was the first time in my life I hadn’t been blessed with at least one weird roommate—and I let him pay for my flights to wherever, but I was supporting myself by working for Ari. She’d been a private investigator in Las Vegas for years, and she still had one big client there, but she mostly took cases in California now. I carried out surveillance, answered the phone when she was busy, and helped with background checks.

The best part of the job? We based ourselves out of Zach’s oceanfront villa, so I could go surfing on my lunch breaks.

“I didn’t get to spend much time with you in Indonesia,” Kai said. He’d come over to talk to Zach about surfboard wax, which was good because he’d given me a ride. My driving lessons were going…not well.

“If you really want to take me on a vacay, I’m not gonna turn that down. Maybe we could all go together? You, me, Ari and Zach, Haven, Maya. ”

Ari gave me a look. Was my matchmaking too obvious? Oops. Haven was Ari’s daughter, nine years old and super cute. Ari’s grandma looked after her while we worked, or sometimes Zach did the honours. Two weeks ago, she’d asked if she could call him “Dad,” and he’d cried.

“How about we just focus on this job for the moment?” Ari suggested.

“Sure, sure. So, what are we doing in Vegas?”

“Looking for a possible loan shark.”

“What, like he’s disappeared?”

“More like he hasn’t revealed himself.”

“Huh?”

Ari added chocolate sprinkles to the foam on her cappuccino and took a seat at the breakfast counter.

“Ever hear of the Galaxy Hotel and Casino?” she asked.

“Nope.”

“Well, you’re lucky—it’s a real dive. Anyhow, the owner died recently, and his nephew inherited the place. A month ago, a man calling himself Jimmy showed up there, claimed he lent money to the hotel, and told Cole Gallagher—the new owner—it was time to pay up. Cole figured it was a scam because there’s no record of any loan where they’re not already in dialogue with the counterparty, and he shrugged the whole incident off.”

“How did this Jimmy guy expect Cole to settle the loan if he doesn’t know who to pay?”

“Apparently, he left a piece of paper with the address of a Bitcoin wallet.”

“Like one of those scam emails, but in person?”

“Exactly. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about Bitcoin, but Alexa offered to help with that side of things.”

“Alexa? You mean weird computer girl?”

I hadn’t met Alexa, and neither had Ari, but Zach knew her from years ago when he shared a house with her and a bunch of other people. That had come to an end when the dude who owned the place killed one of their roommates in her own freaking bedroom. Zach said that when the cops showed up, Alexa got sent to a foster home because it turned out she was still a minor. After she decided the foster system wasn’t for her, she’d run away in the middle of the night, and nobody had heard from her again until recently.

“Maybe don’t call her ‘weird computer girl’ to her face?”

I wouldn’t, mostly because I never actually saw her face, but also because I liked her. She’d offered to pay my rent when I was having a hard time, and I would’ve ended up homeless otherwise.

“She’s probably bugged the house,” Zach muttered. “Alexa has zero respect for boundaries. Why is she involved with a casino?”

“From what I understand, she isn’t,” Ari said. “Jerry’s involved with the casino, and Alexa’s helping her out.”

Zach groaned louder than I’d ever heard him groan before, and considering I’d set his kitchen on fire last week, that was big. Not the fire—that was small, and I threw the toaster out the window real quick. The place was all minimalist, so there was hardly anything to burn anyway.

“Jerry’s crazy, you know that, right?” Zach said. Jerry was another of his old roommates.

Ari calmly sipped her coffee. “I met her last month, remember?”

“Did I tell you about the time we were in a bar and some asshole called Ruby a slut? Jerry walked up behind him and poured a pint of beer over his head, then ducked when he swung a punch. Two guys tried holding him back, so he spit at her, and she whacked him in the nuts with a pool cue. And Ruby was just standing there, drunk out of her mind, saying, ‘But I am kind of a slut.’” Zach gave a soft laugh. “In some ways, I miss those days. Don’t go to any bars with Jerry, okay?”

“We’ll try to avoid that.”

“So we’re just trying to find out whether the loan is real?” I asked. “Why would they hire us to do that? Why not ignore this Jimmy guy if there’s no evidence the loan even exists?”

“Is it because of the interest?” Kai asked. My brother was smart, even if we shared the dumbest parents alive. “The longer they bury their heads in the sand, the more they owe?”

Ari grimaced slightly.

“There was an incident that might or might not be connected.”

“What sort of incident?” Kai asked as Zach muttered words we definitely wouldn’t have been allowed to say in the Promised Land.

“Several guys showed up at Cole’s home.”

“And…?” Zach prompted when Ari didn’t elaborate.

“And that’s as much as I know so far. Jerry said they wouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

Wow, Zach knew some really creative swear words. Kai didn’t curse; he just didn’t look particularly happy about the situation.

“Is it dangerous?” he wanted to know.

“Jerry said her team would handle any hazardous parts.”

Zach raised his gaze to the ceiling. “Heaven help us all.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Kai said. “This Jerry woman sounds sketchy.”

“I only want Erin for surveillance,” Ari promised. “She’ll mostly be sitting in the hotel bar.”

“Kai, stop being such a quimby. I’ve helped with surveillance before. ”

“I care about you, that’s all. Let me do the big brother thing.”

His unspoken words? Because I couldn’t do it before.

I made an effort to soften my voice. “I swear I’ll be careful. And I promise I won’t do anything foolish.”

I could tell he didn’t entirely believe me, and maybe that was because I’d punched a guy on live TV last year? But there had been extenuating circumstances. It wasn’t as if I’d done it for fun.

Kai nodded grudgingly. “Then I’ll see you when you get back.”