Chapter 11 Nash
NASH
“Fuck.”
I couldn’t sleep. I pushed the sheet off my naked body. Slicing out of bed, I yanked on some jeans and a long-sleeved henley, and shoved my feet into my shoes.
I felt…tense and jittery. I’d fallen asleep for a bit, but it’d been fitful and restless.
I’d dreamed of Georgie.
Her pretty face, her bruises, her pain-filled eyes.
Everyone I love is dead.
My hands curled into fists, my muscles straining. I tried hard not to think of the look on her face as she’d left earlier. Destroyed.
My chin dropped to my chest. I couldn’t believe that she’d lost everyone. She’d fought so hard to save her sister, and been hurt in the process, and still lost her.
She was alone.
If it wasn’t for my fellow assassins, I’d be alone, too.
My jaw tightened and I ran a hand through my hair.
I’d made her leave. I didn’t want to drag her into the darkness. She deserved the best, far better than a former assassin.
If she knew what I’d done for the best part of a decade, she’d run away as fast as she could.
She thought she wanted revenge, but once you crossed that line, once you took a life, there was no coming back.
I didn’t want that for her. It was why I stayed away for years.
It’s not your decision, asshole.
I walked through my dark villa. Things—nameless, uncomfortable things—churned inside me.
She’d leave Las Vegas. She’d go back to Elk Falls. She’d move on and heal.
With a growl, I opened the door and followed the path to my greenhouse.
It was dark as I stepped inside. The rich aroma of the plants and the sweet scent of blooms washed over me. It made me think of her. She’d always smelled sweet, like a springtime meadow.
But the woman tonight, she hadn’t been sweet. She’d had a core of toughness inside and been running on grief and fumes.
I let my hand drift over the glossy leaves of an orchid, trying to clear my head. Trying to get Georgie out of it.
I’d spent years imagining her happy, healthy, smiling.
Yet, that wasn’t reality. She was stuck in pain and darkness. She’d been hurt, was too thin, wasn’t sleeping.
She deserved so much more. She deserved someone to take care of her and be her shield.
With a growl, I kicked the workbench, setting empty pots shaking. Dragging in a breath, I tried to find some calm.
Being calm right now was fucking impossible.
I didn’t stop to think. Whirling, I strode out and headed toward the casino.
Now, I was worried about her. If she went after Snyder and his men again…
She had no one.
No, that wasn’t true. She had me.
I had all the skills needed to help her, protect her, keep her safe.
I needed to find her.
It only took me a few minutes to get to the security room. As I shouldered through the door, I barely paid any attention to the wall of the screens and the men and women manning them.
One of the team looked up from the screens. “Hey, Nash. Late for you to be here.”
I lifted my chin. “I have some things I need to check, Michelle.” My gaze flicked to the busy screens. “Everything okay?”
She gave me a faint smile. “It’s been a quiet night so far. We’ve only had one card counter, a couple of college kids trying to use tech to cheat, four drunken fights, one handbag snatcher, and one flasher. The night’s still got a bit of time to throw us a challenge.”
I nodded. “I’ll be in the office, if you need me.”
I opened the door to the small office I sometimes used. I dropped down in the seat behind the desk and touched the mouse to wake the computer. After entering my password, I quickly tapped on the keyboard to access the casino’s facial recognition system.
All the casinos used them. It helped weed out the cheats, the criminals, and the troublemakers.
I inputted Georgie’s photo. The one of her from my wallet. It was true her face had changed as she’d matured into a woman, but the key characteristics were the same.
I rubbed my thumb over the photo. That carefree smile was long gone.
Who the fuck was Dean Snyder?
I thought of the man hurting her, abusing Viv, and it left me enraged. While the facial recognition worked, I looked up Snyder.
He looked like a smarmy bastard. Handsome, entitled. There were lots of pictures of him at Vegas parties and events, and several with Viv by his side. She looked a little like Georgie, but her hair was curlier and her body curvier.
Fuck. At first, Viv looked pretty and vibrant, dressed up in short, glittering dresses. But the later photos showed her thinner, strung out, her eyes haunted.
Nothing overt popped about Snyder. His nightclub looked legal. At least, at first glance. The guy had a little power and money, and I suspected he used it to manipulate women.
Okay, now I felt compelled to deal with him.
The computer beeped.
There were no hits on Georgie in any of the casinos.
I hesitated for a second, then tapped again. I’d made a few modifications to the system. It meant that we could tap into all the public CCTV in Las Vegas.
It wasn’t legal, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Barely a second later, I got a hit.
I leaned forward. It was video feed from a street. I frowned. It was outside Snyder’s club, Red Neon.
My insides froze. Georgie. With a gun in her hand.
She was striding across the street to a group of men. I recognized Snyder.
She fired, and men scattered.
What she didn’t see was the asshole sneaking up on her.
When the man grabbed her, my body locked.
When another big guy rose from a crouch and slapped her face, I was on my feet and running.