Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
ETHAN
I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. Every decision, every move I make is always calculated.
Done with a purpose. But since Nevaeh has fallen into my life, I’m not thinking at all.
Her innocence is disarming and has me stumbling around trying to figure out which way is up.
She’s gorgeous and sweet and so damn sexy, and the worst part is she genuinely has no idea.
I tried to stay away. Really fucking hard. And it was working… until my father showed up with my goddamn mother. The woman who hasn’t been a part of my life in twelve years. My thoughts go back to earlier in my dad’s office.
“How could you do this?” I slam the door closed behind us.
“I know what it looks like,” my father says.
“It looks like you’ve taken back the woman who walked out the door without looking back. The woman you loved and fucked you over. The same woman who was supposed to be my mom and chose to leave.”
“I was in the Dominican Republic, visiting your grandmother, when I ran into your mother at an art show your grandmother made me bring her to. Did you know your mother bought a small cottage on the water and has spent the last several years selling her art to the locals and tourists?”
“I don’t give a fuck what she’s been doing. I can tell you what she wasn’t doing… being a wife and mom.”
“We were never divorced,” Dad says.
“The fuck?”
“She never filed them. She always loved us, but she couldn’t live the life we were living. We spent the last several weeks reconnecting. Talking about everything.”
Dad gives me a pleading look, one I’ve never seen before, as if he’s begging me to understand. “I miss her, Ethan. I love her, and I want her back.”
I want to yell and scream and throw shit, but the vulnerable look on his face has me stopping in my tracks.
“Nothing’s changed,” I point out. I don’t have to explain further for him to know what I’m referring to.
His business. Our business. No, we don’t sell drugs anymore, but there’s still the alcohol and weapons and illegal gambling.
“Actually everything’s changed,” he says. “I’ve been working on it while I was away.” He drops into his chair and hands me a cigar before lighting his own.
“I never should’ve let her go, but I was so money driven,” he admits.
“You didn’t let her go. She ran.” Just like… Fuck, I can’t go there.
“With reason. Look what my business did to you, to your life.”
“So what now?” I ask, changing the subject. Dad gives me a knowing look but lets it go.
“Now, I work on making the casinos legit. I’m going to lose a hell of a lot of money, but the hotels and casinos are profitable.”
“The gambling?”
He shrugs nonchalantly. “I’ll keep the underground casinos. They aren’t hurting anyone.”
I smirk. There’s the dad I know. At least he hasn’t completely lost his mind.
“Now tell me about this woman.”
I gave him a brief recap of what’s happened, and of course he pointed out Logan has always been shady as fuck.
He told me as long as I can be civil to my mom, Nevaeh and I could stay while I figure shit out, and if I needed anything to let him know.
I wish I could be as forgiving as my dad, but I’m just not there yet.
So, knowing my mom was walking around the house, and afraid I would have to talk to her, I hid out in Nevaeh’s room, working on my laptop and keeping an eye on her while she slept.
When she woke up, with her luscious lips all plump and her thick hair all over the place from sleep, begging me to take her with me, I should’ve told her no, but the way she looked at me, with her innocent, pleading, fucking eyes, I never stood a chance.
I knew why she wanted to go—her list. What I didn’t expect, though, was for her to end up spread open on the table while I brought her to another orgasm.
I couldn’t even tell you how the hell it happened.
One minute I was explaining to her how the casino works and the next I was making her come on my fingers.
“Wow,” Nevaeh says, pulling me from my thoughts. “This place is gorgeous.”
While she was getting changed into a sexy white dress that shows off all of her amazing assets, I contacted Rosco and told him my plan. I’m sure he thought I’ve lost my head, and he isn’t wrong, but he told me he would handle it.
“This is the high roller’s room,” I explain. It’s also where all the underground, off-the-books games are played.
We head straight over to the table where Rosco told me everything is set up, and Nevaeh and I both have a seat.
The dealer greets us and gives me a slight nod, letting me know he understands what he is to do, as the barely-dressed cocktail waitress saunters over and asks us what we would like to drink.
“Umm… I don’t have any money on me,” Nevaeh says.
“Drinks are free when you play,” the waitress tells her.
“Oh, well, I’m not playing. I’m just learning.”
So. Fucking. Innocent.
“I’ll take a Macallan neat, and she’ll take a blueberry martini.”
“Thank you,” Nevaeh says to me with a soft smile that has my insides tightening.
“All right, Blackjack,” I say, clearing my throat.
I run through the basics of how to play and Nevaeh follows along, asking questions. When she tells me she thinks she understands, I hand her a stack of black chips, each worth one hundred dollars.
“Place your bets,” the dealer says. He’s not running the table how he normally would since he’s been told not to. This game is just for Nevaeh.
When I grab five chips and place them in the betting area, Nevaeh copies me.
The dealer deals, and I take a look at my cards and then Nevaeh’s.
I have a two of clubs and a seven of hearts, and Nevaeh has a ten and a five of clubs.
The card we can see from the dealer is a queen of diamonds.
He peeks to make sure he doesn’t have Blackjack, and when he continues, I know he doesn’t.
I explain what he just did to Nevaeh and she nods.
I tap my finger on the table, signaling for the dealer to hit me, and he hands me a nine of clubs, putting me at eighteen.
“Umm…” Nevaeh chews on her bottom lip.
“Remember, the goal is to get as close to twenty-one as possible without going over.”
“Right, hit me,” she says. “Wait! I mean…” She taps her fingers on the table, remembering what I told her about using the hand signal.
The dealer hands her a card, and with what she already has, she has twenty-one.
When she adds them up, she squeals in excitement, and the dealer and I both have to force ourselves not to laugh.
The waitress hands us our drinks, but Nevaeh doesn’t notice.
She’s too excited at the possibility of winning.
“Do I say it?” she asks me.
“Say what?” I play stupid.
“I have twenty-one.”
The dealer turns over his other card, showing he has nineteen.
“You win,” I tell her, and she squeals in delight again.
The dealer counts her winnings, which is one and half times her bet, and slides the chips over to her.
“Thank you!” Nevaeh says with a giggle. “How much are these worth?”
“A hundred… each.”
“What?” Her head swings over to look at me. “You let me bet five hundred dollars? What if I had lost?”
She glances at my smaller stack of chips. “You lost five hundred dollars?”
I laugh at how adorable she is. The dress she’s wearing is worth five times that. “I’ll live,” I deadpan.
The dealer takes our cards and then deals again.
We go through this several times, and each time Nevaeh wins. We play until I run out of chips and she has all of them. I was afraid she would catch on, but she’s too excited to question anything.
“That was a lot of fun,” she says after the last game. “What now?”
“Now you grab your chips and cash out.”
Her eyes bulge at the tall stack in front of her. Once she learned a chip was worth a hundred, she refused to bet more than a chip or two every game. So in the end, she’s only won a few grand.
“I can’t take these,” she says with a shake of her head, as I take the chips and walk with her over to the window to cash out.
“You won.”
“But I didn’t really pay for the chips,” she points out. “It was just for fun.”
In the past, I’ve brought women to the casino on dates before bringing them back to my place to fuck them. They never have a problem taking my money. Most of them even ask for it. The second they learn what my last name is, they expect it. But not Nevaeh. She’s honest to a fault.
Ignoring her rationalization, I take the money from the cashier and hand it to her. “It’s yours. You won it.” And for some reason, knowing she has some cash makes me feel better.
“Fine.” She sighs. “But I don’t have any pockets. Can you hold it for me?”
“Sure.” I fold the bills and put them in my pocket. “You ready to get out of here?”
“Okay.”
Threading her fingers through mine, I guide her back upstairs.
When we step outside, the warm breeze whips her hair around her face, and she smiles.
“I love the smell of the beach.” She looks so happy and carefree, the complete contrast to how she’s looked the last week.
Not that I could blame her. Her brother was killed and she was kidnapped.
An idea forms. “C’mon.” I tug her hand, forgetting the valet.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
The sun has gone down, leaving us in the dark, but the sidewalk that takes us from the hotel to the boardwalk is dimly lit.
I can’t see Nevaeh well, but I can feel her hand tremble.
It’s warm outside, but with the breeze coming in from the ocean, it’s still chilly.
Unbuttoning my suit jacket, I shrug out of it and stop so I can place it on her shoulders.
“Thank you,” she says with a smile.