Chapter 24
Chapter twenty-four
Eli
“We need to go to the casino.”
That’s the greeting I receive as I enter Madeleine’s house.
Cold and void of any emotion. Her eyes are darker than I’m used to as they stare straight ahead.
Her slender arms are wrapped around her waist as if shielding herself from something or someone.
Her right foot taps anxiously in her fuck-me heels.
What the fuck happened since I left her two hours ago?
As I walked through the front door, I intended to confront her with the information Reginald had just presented to me before giving her until the clock struck midnight and letting her know that Vin would like to speak with her.
However, the anguish in her blue eyes forces me to reconsider my approach, at least for the time being.
“Of course.” I look down at my watch, noting seven hours until midnight. Plenty of time left for her to call off the wedding and tell me what the hell has been going on. “Something wrong?”
“It feels like something always is,” she says in a cross tone.
She opens the closet door and pulls out her black peacoat, aggressively tying a knot around her midsection, I might add, before stepping past me and toward the waiting car with Reginald standing outside.
After sliding onto the seat beside her, she holds out her phone, taps a few times on the screen, and then a ring fills the space.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asks.
“Jeez, can’t a sister just call her brother to say hello?”
“Is that what you called for?”
“Not entirely…”
“Out with it then. I’m in the middle of something pretty important.”
She tilts her head back, staring at the ceiling. “Can you do some digging for me?”
“Digging on what?”
“I want to see a record of every single transaction in and out of the casino, and I also want all of Angelo’s bank records.” She sighs. “It may be nothing, but my gut is telling me it’s something.”
“Angelo? Why? Is he stealing?” he asks with anger in his voice. “If he is, just tell me, and I’ll—”
“He’s not,” she rushes out. “Or at least, it’s not confirmed.
” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “The numbers I have projected for this quarter seem to be off. I’ve triple-checked them, but they’re not equating anywhere close to the profit I had anticipated, even with a dip during the holidays.
Could you please just send me that information? I’m heading to the casino now.”
“Madeleine, if there’s an issue, you should let me or Vin or—”
“I don’t need you guys to fix this!” she states firmly. After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she adds, “I can take care of the problem myself. Now, can you provide me with those records or not?”
There’s a moment of silence before Alex responds. “Fine.” There’s typing in the background. “I’ll take a peek now and send you anything I can find. Just call me if you need me.”
“Thank you.” She ends the call and presses her fingers into her temple, rubbing small circles.
My hand reaches out, gently gripping her chin and turning her face toward me. “When are you going to let someone help you? You don’t need to take care of everything yourself. Not when we’re here for you.”
For a brief moment, her glossy eyes are locked with mine, but then, with a single blink, her expression becomes unfazed and unaffected by my words. She shifts in her seat, pulling away from my grip. “I don’t need anyone’s help. Least of all yours.”
The lashing of her words whips at me with anger, catching me by surprise. I rub my palm across my sternum, trying to soothe the sudden ache blooming across my chest as I face forward, giving her space.
The remainder of the drive passes by in silence until the car comes to a stop. She opens the door before Reginald even has a chance to assist her and quickly strides toward the entrance, her shoulders straight, her chin held high, but I can’t help but notice a slight tremor in each step she takes.
“Miss Alarie, what an unexpected pleasure,” Angelo remarks as he enters her office on the top floor of the casino. A room surrounded by privacy glass that allows anyone inside it to observe the floors below while allowing no one the privilege to see inside.
“Please take a seat.” She gestures to the chair before her desk and leans forward, her elbows bracing the hard surface.
Angelo looks between me and her before taking a seat and tugging on the collar of his shirt like a kid who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Only the cookie jar, in this case, is a shit ton of money that’s missing from the Alaries’ bank accounts.
Madeleine displays one of her infamous deadly smiles. The one that says, “You’re fucked,” and not in a good way.
“What can I help you with?” he asks as a bead of sweat rolls down his temple, which he quickly wipes away.
“How much did you take?” she asks, cutting straight to the point of this meeting.
“Take?” His eyes widen as he swallows, shaking his head. “I don’t believe I know what you’re referring to.”
She leans back, clasping her hands before her. “Are you sure about that?”
“Perhaps if you told me more specifically what you’re looking for, I’d be more helpful to you.”
A moment of silence passes as she stares down the man.
“Fine. Since you want to play games, I’ll play one with you.
How about a riddle?” Her lips curve into a dangerous smile as she takes pleasure in seeing Angelo squirm in his seat.
And I can’t deny that I’m pretty fucking turned on watching her revel in her throne.
“Who has the brain of a rat, the personality of a snake, and has stolen close to two million dollars from my family’s business? ”
“I…I don’t know.” He shakes his head adamantly. “I’ve never stolen a penny from your family.”
I’ll give it to the man; he won’t back down without a fight.
And I’m guessing from the look on Madeleine’s face that that is exactly what he is going to get.
Her hands slam down on the desk, her eyes narrowing on him as she leans forward. “You would dare to lie to me?”
“I would never,” he rushes out, appalled.
“Eli.” She jerks her chin toward him.
“You got it,” I respond, stepping toward Angelo.
The man cowers in his seat, waving his hands before him. “Wait! Wait, this is just a misunderstanding!”
I yank the man from his seat and force him against the glass wall, holding him up by his neck. “Speak!”
“I didn’t take any money!” he gasps, his cheeks turning crimson as he struggles for breath.
Madeleine swivels in her chair, scrolling through her phone. “I thought you might say that. That’s why I asked Alex to look into you.”
His eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets as he realizes how fucked he is.
There’s almost nothing Alex can’t uncover.
“It seems on November first, you had a seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar transaction sent to an anonymous account in the Cayman Islands directly from the casino funds.” She looks up at the man. “Probably assumed we’d be a little too busy that day to notice, huh?”
November first.
The day after, the Alaries almost lost everything to a couple of psychopaths.
The day after, I jumped in front of Madeleine, taking a bullet for her.
My grip tightens around the man’s thick neck.
“You son of a bitch,” I growl, my face only inches from his.
“Then, on November twenty-fourth, the day the whole family celebrated Leo and Scarlett’s engagement, there was, conveniently, another transaction wired to the same account—this time for eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
” She scrolls through her phone. “There were several smaller transactions after that, and oh look.” She turns her phone to face him.
“My brother was even nice enough to send me a video from our security cameras showing you stealing portions of players’ winnings under the table in cold hard cash.
You probably thought we wouldn’t be able to trace that money, right? ”
The man’s face pales.
“All together, I’d say that equals the two million I’ve been searching for.
” She tsks. “This amount is just a small fraction of the hundreds of millions this casino generates yearly. I assume that’s why you thought no one would notice and that you could get away with it.
But here we are.” Madeleine’s chair stops moving as she leans forward, pressing a finger to her lip, appearing deep in thought. “Now, what to do?”
“I can… I can give it back!” He struggles in my grip. “I just need some time.”
“And how do you plan on giving it back when you’ve spent it all on prostitutes and cocaine?”
“But…how? You couldn’t possibly know—”
She abruptly stands, placing the palms of her hands on her desk. “I am an Alarie. We know everything. Because sooner or later, we always find out. And you are just a worthless piece of scum at the bottom of a feeding pond about to discover what happens when you fuck with my family.”
The man appears aghast, his face turning redder by the second.
“You think you’re going to teach me a lesson?
You?” A vein on the edge of his temple bulges as he squirms relentlessly beneath my hold.
“You are nothing but a stupid woman who should be spending her days where she’s useful…
like in the kitchen. It took you this long to even realize money was missing because you were probably too busy getting your cunt fucked by your bodyguard over here, you miserable bitch! ”
All I see is red as I begin to strangle the life from Angelo, enjoying the look of defeat crossing his eyes.
“You watch your fucking mouth!” I shout. “If you ever say a word about her or dare to look in her direction, I will personally end you. Piece by fucking piece. Until you’re nothing but a corpse six feet beneath the ground! Do you understand me?”
Boom!