Chapter 23 Everett
Everett
“Get a grip on it, Everett.”
I ignored Ro as we jogged down the hallway.
“She doesn’t need you to fly off the handle,” Enzo added from the other side of me.
Caden was silently keeping pace behind us.
“I’ve got it.” A muscle in my jaw ticked. I didn’t have it. What I had was a wild mix of anger and fear.
Enzo’s cousin had called him. Piper’s brother had snuck into the hotel, as had the people hunting him, and Piper had been attacked. Again.
“They came through a balcony door.” Caden’s tone was clipped and pissed. “Right where our new cameras have been glitching.”
She wasn’t even safe in the hotel. I saw the open doorway to the suite ahead, and with two long strides, I cut the others off and entered first.
She was on the floor, Tessa beside her, and a man who looked a hell of lot like Enzo crouching beside them. He looked up and his dark gaze hit mine.
Fuck. This man was a killer, through and through.
My gaze dropped to Piper and my body locked.
“I’m okay,” she said.
“Ro, get some fucking towels,” I clipped out.
She was holding a blood-drenched cloth to her arm.
“He had a knife,” she whispered.
Tessa rose, keeping her hand on Piper’s shoulder. “She saved me. She leaped at the guy and pushed me aside.”
My fucking heart stopped. Ro returned with some towels just in time to hear that. He made a rough sound.
Locking down my raging emotions, I took a towel, tossed the soaked cloth aside, and saw the cut. Not too long, and I hoped not too deep. I pressed the towel to it.
“The bleeding’s almost stopped,” Enzo’s cousin said.
“He saved us.” Piper’s gaze dropped to the carpet. “My brother ran. He left me.”
That fucking coward.
“Everyone, this is my cousin Alessio Rossi,” Enzo said. “He lives in Las Vegas, and works at the Avernus Casino.”
If that guy worked at a casino, I’d eat my flannel shirt. Maybe as some sort of enforcer. Still, whatever his employment, I was glad he’d been here. I met his gaze and lifted my chin.
In return, he inclined his head.
I tugged Piper closer and when she leaned into me, some of the tension in my chest eased a fraction. “We need an ambulance.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s a cut. I don’t need—”
“It needs stitches.” And there was a lot of blood.
“Everett, I’m all right.” She swallowed and pressed a palm to my cheek. “Please? No hospital. I’ll sit there for hours, probably catch someone’s germs. I want to clean up…and have a whiskey.”
“You don’t like whiskey.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I do today.”
“I can call our hotel doctor,” Ro said.
I stared at her pleading face. “Fine.”
“It is time we think about calling the police,” Caden suggested.
Piper made a strangled sound.
“I don’t believe the local police will be much help,” Alessio said.
Caden eyed the man like he expected Alessio to pull out a few knives. “You want to share how you ended up here?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
Enzo’s cousin rose. He was lean, wearing a black shirt and black suit.
“Enzo called me, and asked me to track down where Chance Ellis had been gaming in Las Vegas and who he might owe money to.”
Piper pressed her face deeper against my shoulder. I tightened my grip.
“I discovered he’d racked up a sizable debt to—” his gaze flicked to the women and back “—let’s just say a very bad man.”
Piper made a sound.
“Who?” I asked.
“Rocha,” Piper said. “That’s what the guy who was after Chance said. The one with the scar on his face who attacked me in the alley.”
Enzo cursed.
“That means something to you?” I asked.
He nodded, looking very unhappy. “Elias Rocha. He’s involved in all kinds of organized crime in Vegas.”
Shit. “Mafia?”
“Mafia adjacent,” Alessio said. “He tries to avoid the main mafia groups in Vegas, but he’s tangled up with them.”
“My brother owes money to the mafia,” Piper said, voice hollow.
“Rocha’s man, the one who attacked Ms. Ellis—”
“Chance called him Corvo,” Piper said.
Alessio nodded. “His name is Hugo Corvo. Rocha unleashes him when he needs his money back…or needs to make a statement. Corvo likes to slice off body parts.”
My arm convulsed, and Piper pressed her face to my chest.
“Rocha’s operation is designed to lure people into debt,” Alessio added. “When I realized who Ellis had messed with and heard that Corvo and some of Rocha’s thugs had headed to Colorado. I followed.”
“Thank you, Alessio.” Ro now had Tessa tucked under his arm.
“There was another man here first,” Piper said. “With a gun.”
“What?” I breathed.
“He was actually kind of nice,” she rushed to say. “Chance had the brilliant idea to gamble here in Windward to try and win money back to pay Rocha.”
“I’m guessing that didn’t go well,” Caden murmured.
“No. Apparently, he now also owes a Mr. Fowler some money,” she finished.
I was going to kill her damn brother.
“Fowler is a local businessman,” Tessa said. “He’s been in Windward for years, and while he’s not mafia, some of his businesses are on the shadier side. He walks a fine line of trying to stay respectable. On the bright side, it sounds like he’s only after Chance, not Piper.”
Well, it wasn’t much of a silver lining, but I’d take it.
Piper’s face was pale, her skin and clothes smeared with her own blood. All because of her brother’s bad choices. I slid my arms under her and lifted her off the floor.
“Everett—”
“You’re getting checked by the doctor and your cut’s getting stitched, then, I’m taking you somewhere safe for the night.”
She opened her mouth, looked at my face, then closed her mouth.
“Take her to the sick bay room,” Tessa said. “We’ll have Dr. Roberts meet you there.”
I carried Piper down the hall, trying to remind myself she was safe.
“You threw yourself in front of guy with a knife.” I tried to keep my tone controlled.
“To save Tessa! She’s not involved with this. I couldn’t let her get hurt.”
“You shouldn’t be involved either.”
“But I am.” Now, she sounded tired. “I always am. But it’s worth it to keep Mom and Gram happy.”
“They’ll find out eventually, Piper.”
“Not if I can help it.”
I took the back corridor to sick bay so I could avoid the lobby. In the small room, I set her on the narrow bunk. “You worry about everyone else. You work yourself to the bone for them.”
She blinked. “I love them.”
She fiercely protected those she loved, but didn’t look after herself.
There was a knock at the door. “I hear someone needs stiches.”
The older doctor, Dr. Theo Roberts, had been helping out at the hotel for years. I was pretty sure he’d been at my birth. He wore a flannel shirt, jeans, and suede jacket. He had a head full of thick, silver hair and a raw-boned face. “Hey, Doc Roberts.”
“Everett. How’s your father?”
“He’s good. This is Piper.”
“Hello, Piper. I hear you caught the wrong end of a knife.”
She nodded. “Thanks for coming.”
“Oh, Ambrose pays me very handsomely for that.” He set his bag down and flicked it open. “Now, let’s take a look.”
She glanced at me. “Hold my hand?”
I sat beside her and took the hand of her uninjured arm. Her fingers tangled with mine. “I’m not going anywhere.”