Funny. My father was an asshole extraordinaire, but he taught me the ins and outs of business and pleasure.

I was fucking lucky he hadn’t drawn me into his hunting games. Had that been his plan?

I’d never know, thank God.

What would I have done?

Didn’t matter. I washed the thought away as the dealer dealt me a jack and then an ace.

Fucking blackjack!

I gathered my two and a half thousand dollars’ worth of chips, tipped the dealer a couple hundred, and then cashed out.

After a drink and quick fuck with Nieves, I’d be back at this table.

I didn’t need more than four hours of sleep a night. Another weird trait I’d inherited from Derek Wolfe. He’d slept even less, and his brain was always at a hundred and ten percent.

Fuck. I’d always known he was a master of manipulation, but even I never imagined everything he was capable of.

Nieves was sitting at the bar, dressed in a green mini dress and black stilettos. Her long, dark hair and fair skin were an intoxicating combination, as was the tat on her shoulder. A scarlet rose and a skull. Like light meeting dark. I loved my sister-in-law, and she was certainly beautiful in a white picket fence kind of way. Nieves, though? Hot. As. Fuck.

“I took the liberty of ordering you a Macallan,” Nieves said in her smoky voice. “Neat, with a touch of water to release the bouquet.”

Macallan. My favorite Scotch, and what I’d drunk the last time we were together. She remembered my order in its entirety. Since then, I’d grown accustomed to Pappy Van Winkle’s fifteen-year bourbon, but Nieves had no way of knowing that.

I smiled. “On my tab, of course.”

She laughed. “Of course.”

I took a sip of the scotch. Smooth and peaty. Nice. Again, it was Derek Wolfe who taught me that just a touch of water released the fragrances and flavors tenfold.

Damn.

I owed so much to that man. That man I hated to the marrow in my bones.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked Nieves.

“A little bird told me.”

Another sip of scotch. “Oh?”

She batted her eyes. Yes, she seriously did. I wasn’t going to get an answer out of her, and I didn’t care, anyway. She had information I needed, and if I could get laid in the process? Even better.

“Did you know Rock is still here?” I asked her.

“He’s an old married man now,” she said.

“True.”

“What’s he see in that uptight attorney?” she asked.

He sees someone who isn’t you. Yeah, Nieves was hot as fuck, but she was also a manipulative little cunt. Great in the sack, though.

“Lacey’s a great woman,” I said. “Smart, too.”

“Yeah, but how is she in bed?”