Before continuing, Nic considered the people in the past he had told this story to. A cop shrink once. Maybe his mother. His brother and him had discussed it once. He had told Taz one night after too many beers, but he didn’t fully understand why he wanted to share this old memory with a total stranger now. He supposed it was just some pain in her eyes, some shared hurt he saw there that made him believe she’d understand.

“In The Slaughter Room, my brother and I found a couple of my father’s lieutenants and a man hanging from the ceiling like he was a side of beef. The guy was completely naked. A couple of cinder blocks weighted down his feet so he couldn’t kick or move his legs. My dad told me and my brother that the man had been caught skimming, and that they were going to make an example of him. He …”

Nic could still see the look in the man’s eyes. He knew the guy. One of his father’s men who ran books down in Little Italy out of his restaurant. He had played with the man’s son. The man’s wife had kissed his cheek and given him an extra cannoli. The man cried and pleaded. His eyes looked straight into Nic’s soul and silently asked for mercy.

“What did your father make you do to him?” Isabel said.

Nic wiped away a tear. “My brother and I skinned him alive. It took what felt like days. But Pop wanted nothing left but a bloody mess of muscle and sinew.”

“You didn’t try to resist?”

“When I was a kid, my father was a god to me. Not that I worshiped him, but more that he gave life or he took it away. I loved him. I respected him, and a part of me wanted him to be proud of me. And he was. Afterward, he took Junior and me out for ice cream.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We all have a story. Mine was just a bit bloodier. And when I was old enough to think for myself, I got out of that world and decided I would do everything in my power to offset all the evil my father had done.”

“Did he ever make you go back into The Slaughter Room?” she asked.

“Yeah, he did. Point is, it’s never too late. The bad you did in the past is over. Question is: what good are you going to do in the future?”

“Killing Kruger would do a whole lot of good.”

“Maybe. But how good would it be for your soul?”

She didn’t respond, and he didn’t have time to ask her any more questions. They had turned off the strip and arrived at The Jade Dragon, and the Hostage Rescue Team was already in place, prepared to storm the building.

Chapter 93

Nic watched Carter, in his element, instantly take charge of the scene. The Las Vegas FBI office’s SWAT team had discretely created a perimeter around the massive structure that was The Jade Dragon. The hotel, casino, and Chinese-themed amusement park had broken ground in 2007, as Las Vegas profits were at a high. Then the financial crisis of 2008 hit and land values plummeted. Investors wanted their money back, and many Vegas start-ups declared bankruptcy in the fallout. The Jade Dragon had been one of the largest failures, and although several companies had attempted to resurrect the failed project in the years since its demise, the property still sat unfinished and falling into disrepair.