Page 15 of His Forbidden Alliance

“I need to talk to you,” I said. “I’ve got a problem.”

“It’s Rafe. He needs to talk. Go on back to sleep.”

I heard sheets rustling, then a door closing.

“I hope this is worth waking me up for,” Dante said.

“Yeah, it is.”

“What’s wrong?” I could hear the concern in his voice. I knew that while he might be mad that I woke him up, and he might be willing to make fun of me for any number of small problems, he would do anything to help me.

“A few weeks ago, Remington called me with an assignment.”

“And you didn’t bother to share that then? Does Lorenzo know?”

“No, I wanted to deal with it myself. Remington was trusting me.”

Dante huffed. “What’s the job?”

I explained to him that one of Remington’s informants let him know that someone associated with Ivanov might attempt to infiltrate the casino. We didn’t know whether they would be a player, an employee, or what, but I was supposed to be on the lookout. “What happened?”

“Nothing yet, at least not anything significant or at least nothing bad.”

“Rafael, spill it.”

“Security caught a man counting cards. He’d been accused of cheating once, and he and the accuser were asked to leave after causing a disturbance. The guy came back. We caught him again, and I had him come to my office. I suspected he was trying to get caught, and I was right. He wanted my attention.”

“Rafe, tell me you didn’t ignore how significant that is.”

“I didn’t. He wanted to be part of one of my high rollers’ games.”

“And you let him?”

“We made a deal where the house gets half his winnings. I figured this gave me a good chance to watch him without him knowing what I suspected while bringing in some extra money so Remington’s happy. Trust me, I’ve got my eyes on the guy.”

“What did Remington say?”

“That’s the problem. I didn’t tell him.”

“What the fuck, Rafe? Remington told you to look for anything unusual. Then a guy comes to you after cheating and starts making propositions.”

It sounded so much worse when Dante spelled it out. “I wanted to handle it myself.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

How did he always know? I should just confess. There was no reason for me to bother calling him if I wasn’t going to tell him everything. Otherwise, I might as well have called Remington. “I like him. I don’t want him to be Ivanov’s man, and my gut tells me he’s not.”

“Your gut or your dick?”

“If I only wanted a hot fuck with him, I could take it, then turn him in.”

Dante sucked in his breath. “You wouldn’t fuck him if you really thought⁠—”

“No, I wouldn’t. I’d cut his dick off if I thought he was working with Ivanov, but I’d still need to tell Remington about him. I can’t make these decisions on my own.”

“Damn, Rafe. You’re really growing up.”

“Shut up, asshole.”