29. Brie

CHAPTER 29

Brie

“Why did you do it?” The words come out as barely more than a breath.

His face twists into something I’ve never seen before—grief and rage, and then he laughs, and it doesn’t sound entirely sane. “Would you believe it was an accident?” The gun waves around and I flinch. “It really was, you know. I was pointing this at him, begging him to change his mind, and…it just went off.”

“Holden,” I say slowly, “why were you pointing a gun at Terry?”

“I loved him,” he says, and his voice breaks on the words. “I loved him so much. But he didn’t love me the same.”

“What are you talking about?” I grip the edge of the vanity behind me to keep my hands from shaking. “Terry worshipped you. Everyone knew that.”

“Then why did you get everything ? A house at Solara, the jewelry, the clothes—even his goddamn Family .” His grip tightens on the gun. “While I got written out completely from his will.”

“Written out?” The words don’t make sense. “But why would he—oh.” I let out a sigh, enlightenment coming too late. “Because you were the one skimming from the expense accounts. You used Phil’s login—and Phil thought it was Sophie.”

He pulls his lips back from his teeth and for a moment I think he’s baring them at me, like a dog, but then I realize it’s supposed to be a smile. “I started it just to prove that I could . To show Terry I was just as smart as his precious Breezy , that he could talk to me about things just as much as he could talk to you.”

If I was a little less fight-or-flight right now, my mouth would drop open. “You were jealous of me? You’re the one who set us up in a fake marriage!”

It’s not the right thing to say. I see that at once. Holden’s fingers tighten around the gun and he raises it a little higher. “I wasn’t jealous,” he growls. “You were just too good a grifter, Brie. You were supposed to be satisfied with that. That was the deal, right? Marry the Don. Live a life of luxury. Show up to events when you were called on, and enjoy yourself the meantime. But that wasn’t enough for you, was it? There’s no satisfaction for a gold-digging whore like you.”

I don’t even blink at the insults, because I’m in survival mode. My mind is racing. Four casino guards outside the door, not close enough to beat a bullet. The gun Nik insisted I take tonight is in my handbag, over near the door. And Nik is still somewhere in the building, I’d bet my life on it.

I guess I am betting my life on it.

My phone is on the vanity, just behind me. If I can just get to it…

I need to keep Holden talking, find a way to distract him. “But Terry made sure you never wanted for anything.”

“Terry made sure I was dependent on him,” Holden contradicts me stiffly. “I started skimming to show him I was much smarter than he ever gave me credit for, but I kept doing it because…because I liked it. I liked having something that he didn’t control. Something of my own, something I worked for—but you wouldn’t know about that. Everything you ever wanted in life, you’ve had it handed to you on a silver platter.”

I swallow down my protests. All I need to focus on right now is information. “But he figured it out in the end.”

“It took him so damn long,” Holden says, contempt in his voice. “Terry Colombo, so fucking smart—and he couldn’t even see what was going on under his nose because he was so blind to it.”

“Blind to you ,” I say coldly. “Because he loved you, Holden.” That’s the wrong approach, slapping him in the face with the truth, because the gun stops wavering around as he trains it steadily on me again. I keep talking, fast. “So how did he find out?”

Holden gives a snort. “It was that day, the day he changed his will. I had to log into the system as Phil on Terry’s office computer—had to move some money around, because Sophie Johnson was tracking it down too fast. But I forgot to log out. Terry noticed when he came in, and he knew it wasn’t Phil, because he’d just come from a meeting with the guy. “ He laughs, shakily. “Guess I only have myself to blame for that, huh? But it did give me the idea for setting up Phil later on, with Sophie—leaving him logged on to her computer.”

“What happened to Sophie—it was never supposed to be credible as a suicide attempt,” I say slowly. “It was just supposed to throw me off the trail. Get me looking at Phil again.”

“Sand in your eyes,” he agrees.

So Sophie Johnson came that close to death just because Holden needed a distraction. I can feel my rage building, but I keep cool, try to listen for anything that might help.

“I needed to stall you while I was looking for that will,” he goes on. “Because no will? No motive. And you wouldn’t let me leave Vegas—you and Nik, you had eyes on me all the time .” His eyes glitter with hatred.

I can’t believe I ever thought Holden Brooks was my friend.

“But I just couldn’t figure out where Terry hid the damn thing,” he goes on. “Still can’t.” He resettles his fingers around the gun. “Any ideas?”

I have no idea at all. But if I keep him talking, I might be able to grab my phone. “What about the contract you took out on me?” I ask, changing the subject. “Was that just supposed to be a distraction, too?”

He gives a snort. “Actually, that was my first plan—get rid of you . I knew you were the only one who would find it weird that I wasn’t in the new will. Frank? The Colombos? They would’ve seen it as Terry hiding me away, like he always did. You would’ve raised hell, and I couldn’t afford that, couldn’t have anyone looking too closely at me. But that guy I hired to take you out, he was useless. Although I should’ve expected that,” he adds morosely. “I couldn’t use anyone with a decent rep in this town, because it would’ve gotten back to the Family. Had to hire some loser in a bar who promised he’d make good. Never did, though. Twice he failed, even after I literally laid you out for him in an enclosed space. You’re the luckiest bitch in Vegas, Brie. Did you know that?”

“Terry always thought the same.” I know I shouldn’t say that, make him angrier. But I’m starting to think that getting him to lose control might be my only option. Distract him—dive to the side if he shoots— when he shoots?—

“And how the hell you walked away from Larry Caruso alive, I’ll never know,” he goes on. “I set that up so carefully, pretending to find you on the footage, pretending to try to hide it…and you still wriggled out of it.

“And there were no threats against you,” I say. “At all.”

“Had to sell it, didn’t I?” His smile is twisted. “Had to make sure no one looked too closely at poor, grieving Holden. Making out like you needed saving was always how you worked, Brie. I decided to play the same card—and it worked perfectly. I got you to take me with you to your safe house so I could search there for the damn will—and I still came up empty.”

Nik hadn’t wanted him to come, I knew that at the time. She’s never liked him much. Instinct, maybe. Something else occurs to me, another wedge between us, now explained away. “ You put Nik’s tracker on your car,” I say. “You activated it when we left Solara after the attack.”

“I knew Caruso would go straight to Eva Novak when you left town, since Nik was supposed to be her operative. The tracker—I grabbed that from Nik’s bags when the Consortium sent them over to the Golden Sands. I insisted on taking them up myself to your suite, and then I went through them, just in case she had anything that would come in handy. And what do you know, she did.” He shakes his head, almost admiringly. “Even that crazy bitch who blew up your fucking house didn’t kill you.”

I don’t point out that Lyssa was Katy’s target, not me. Because I don’t want to remind Holden that I’m his target.

“So I played my Hail Mary,” he goes on, “and activated that tracker. When Frank and Larry and Vince drove off with you that night, Brie, I was sure that was it. Sure my problems were over. When you walked into the security room the next day alive and well, I thought I was going fucking insane.”

“Like I told you that night, Holden—” I flash a grin that I pray looks cheeky rather than terrified “—I know how to wrap an old man around my finger.

He laughs, a cynical laugh that holds no real humor. “Of course you do. That’s how you’ve lived your whole life, as a parasite.”

I hold onto the anger building in me, let it sharpen my mind. I can get out of this, even now. I see another strategy to try. Flattery. “You know, Holden, you’re right. Terry should have realized that he had an equal in you. You had the balls and the smarts to skim from the casino. When Big Joe started looking into it, you dealt with him, too. Didn’t you?”

He nods. “Terry liked to keep insurance on all his higher-ups. It was simple enough to go into that safe and find what he had on Big Joe, leak it out to the prosecution.”

I shake my head slowly and let an admiring smile cross my face. “Amazing. You played the Mob and won, Holden. Not many men can say that.”

He smiles as well, and for a moment I think it might be my chance. But just as I’m tightening up my muscles for a leap, his smile dies. “But I didn’t get away with it,” he says. “Terry did figure it out. Called me in that night to tell me he was cutting me off totally. And then he laughed when I pulled out my gun and told him to rethink things. You know what he said?” He gives a hollow chuckle. “He said I should count myself lucky I could walk out of the Golden Sands with my life, because any other man would already be six feet deep in in the desert. He acted hurt , can you believe it? Like I was the one who had betrayed what we had…when really, this is all your fault.”

His face goes cold and blank. And in the silence, I feel rather than hear a subtle shift, a change in pressure…like someone has opened the front door of the suite.

“How exactly was this my fault?” I ask loudly, desperately hoping Holden won’t figure out why I’m raising my voice. “Explain it to me, Holden. You’re the one who shot him, not me!”

To the side of the room, out of the corner of my eye, I see the door handle start to turn. I snap my eyes back to Holden’s face, wondering whether to point it out to him so I can get the jump, or?—

My heart stands still for a moment when I see Nik appear in the crack of the door. She holds a finger up to her lips and then makes a signal with her hand, like a quacking duck.

Keep him talking .

“You know what, Holden? I didn’t want to say before, but…honestly, I can see why Terry just kept you as his piece on the side,” I say derisively. His eyes go bright and hard, lips pulling back from his teeth again in that expression that’s more animal than human.

And he hasn’t noticed Nik sliding into the room like water, her sights trained on his back.

“You think you’re clever,” I go on desperately, trying to keep his attention, “but right from the start, you fucked up. You forgot to take a bullet out of Terry’s gun, for one thing. Amateur move. And all those patsies you tried to set up—me, Phil, Sophie… damn , boy. Pick one and stick with it next time. That’s my advice. I mean, how the hell are you even going to explain killing me? No one’s going to believe it was an accident. And they’ll hear if you shoot. The guards?—”

“Will also be killed by a mysterious assassin,” Holden finishes in a low hiss. “I’ll be the only witness left. You think you’re good at manipulating those old Family men? I’ve been doing it a lot longer than you, honey.”

That’s when Nik speaks up. “Gun down right now, Brooks,” she says calmly.

He jerks the gun wildly around to aim at her, then back and forth between Nik and me, eyes wide with panic. The weapon weaves erratic patterns in the air, and I flinch and duck. “Don’t move!” he shouts. “Either of you!”

“Gun down or you’re dead,” Nik says, coming a few steps closer. She’s drawing his attention, I realize—making him focus on her so that I’ll be safe.

And it’s working. Working too well, because I see his finger squeezing on the trigger?—

Instinct takes over completely.

I throw myself forward at him, trying to grab for the gun, just as Nik shouts, “No!”