Chapter Twenty

“You didn’t kill anyone, that has to be a bonus.”

Cyrus eyed his mate, who was sitting in an armchair in his suite at the chateau. Not a penthouse suite - that wasn’t possible the way the house was designed. But Cyrus had claimed an entire floor for himself and to hell with the expense.

“They stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from me. I had every right to string bricks around their necks and throw them into the moat.”

Ness shook his head. “Throwing bodies in there would cause a stink and probably kill the fish. You did the right thing.”

“I’m not so sure,” Cyrus muttered glumly, tugging at his tie and dropping it and his jacket over the bottom post of the four poster bed which dominated the room. “The right thing, in my head, should never involve calling authorities, having those crap shits with titles arrested for fraud. And let’s not forget that asshole Charles. I considered him family. He’s worked for me for fifteen years!”

“My concern,” Ness said slowly, “and this is purely from an outsider’s point of view, but my concern is that Charles was expecting you next month, which was when you’d originally planned to visit France. I remember you telling me that our first morning together.”

Cyrus’s eyes narrowed. “Go on.”

“You said yourself your visits were random – designed that way to catch the very things you saw today. All of the crew who work in your games rooms knew what was going on, but they didn’t dare say anything otherwise they’d lose their job, none of them thought they could come to you directly, for whatever reason. I’m not saying you’re at fault here,” Ness added quickly, “I just feel that it’s possible that some people see the concept of family differently from you.”

“I’m not seeing your point.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, Cyrus kicked off his shoes and put them to one side.

“When you talk about your family, what does that concept mean to you?”

“You know what the word means.” Cyrus still didn’t have a clue what his mate was getting at, and that was just increasing his frustration. “A family is a group of people who are deeply loyal to each other, share the same values, work together with other family members to ensure everyone in the family is well looked after, succeeds in what they are doing, and protects each other.”

“Okay, well that definition doesn’t come close to the family I grew up with, but fair enough. This is your idea of family that stemmed from back when the mafia as an idea was born?”

“At the start, mafia families were originally only blood related members. Of course, as their reach expanded they had to involve more people. Members got married, other people proved their worth and loyalty and were included as trusted members. But the values behind those families never changed.”

“But people have – the way people think has changed.” Ness leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Our societies are different, cultures are different, the way we communicate has all changed over history and you know that. You’re an extremely intelligent man. You’ve seen and adapted to those changes and been very successful because of it.

“The only thing I see you being stuck in the past about is your reliance on and your trust in people who clearly don’t feel the same way you do anymore. Charles is one example, actually taking bribes to turn off the cameras, knowing those patrons were going to cheat your casino. Your gaming room staff is another because they were the ones dealing the hands. Roman and Jon back in Las Vegas are two other examples of people who haven’t behaved the way you expect your family members to conduct themselves. They totally disregarded what their actions or lack of actions could do to your safety from prosecution or at least some heavy-handed questioning by authorities.”

“The gaming room staff didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t want to lose their jobs. They spoke up quickly enough, filling in the details for the authorities as soon as they realized they weren’t getting fired. I can’t fault them for that.”

“No, but that’s the thing. Your staff didn’t think they could come to you about their concerns, either. No one dared send you an email, or text, or a message of some kind and say, ‘Hey, Charles is allowing people to scam and cheat at your casino, and firing anyone who speaks up about it.’”

Ness wasn’t wrong. Cyrus scratched the back of his head. “The gaming room staff aren’t family per se – they’re employees,” he said slowly. “They’re going to have a natural respect for me in my position as their overall boss, but they don’t report to me directly.”

“It’s not respect if they’re letting you get cheated,” Ness said bluntly. “Again, I’m not saying they’ve done anything wrong. It’s as you said when we met, a man or woman for that matter, will do what they have to do to feed their family. But by putting ‘family members’” - he used air quotes - “in positions between yourself and your staff, you’ve created a barrier that allows family members the opportunity to cheat you with very little chance of getting caught. Charles was a classic example of that today.”

“You’re right. I know you’re right, and fuck, I feel like I’ve been wandering around with my head up my ass, because I never saw any of this mess coming.” Cyrus flopped himself back on the bed. “I don’t know what you expect me to do about it though, except make random checks a lot more often and don’t tell anyone apart from you that I’m doing it.”

“That’s my main concern.” Ness had come over, lying on his side on the bed next to him, a hand resting heavy on Cyrus’s chest. “Who knows where you’re going except people you consider family? More specifically, how did Charles know or anticipate that you weren’t expected here until next month?”

Cyrus’s mind immediately flew to the people who he might have mentioned his plans to. Apart from Ness, he couldn’t think of anyone. He’d lived his life never answering to anyone. “It can’t be anything connected to the plane,” he said, still thinking through the possibilities. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have had two tables worth of cheaters in the casino today. And no one has access to my calendar – that’s on my phone and I don’t share that with anyone.”

“Can I look at your phone for a minute?”

“Of course. I told you from the beginning my life is an open book to you, darlin’.” Even frustrated, Cyrus wouldn’t deny Ness anything. Reaching in his pants pocket, he pulled out his phone, unlocked it and handed it over. “Are you thinking there’s some super spy attachment on it, some sort of tracking software that someone is monitoring from anywhere else in the world? Because I have to tell you, I already have software on my phone to stop anything like that happening.”

“I figured you would have, just the same as me.” Ness glanced up from Cyrus’s screen and smiled. “Your calendar history is interesting though.”

“I can’t think why.” Cyrus wasn’t worried Ness was seeing any evidence of dating history. He didn’t have any.

“It tells me you’re a creature of habit.” Ness grinned up at him. “If I glance through your five year history, just scanning it, I can see you visit this place in August, January, and May. You also visit your New York casino in the same months, every year like clockwork. In September and March each year you visit Greece and Berlin. You seem to spend every July and December in Las Vegas, and then…”

“Are you telling me I’m predictable?” Cyrus sat up in shock, grabbing the phone from Ness’s fingers, starring at and then scrolling down the screen. “My gods, I am. How the hell did that happen?”

Ness smirked. “It does explain why your various casino managers seem to know when you turn up for your random visits each year.” His smirk was fast turning into a chuckle.

“It’s not funny. I’m getting cheated and ripped off…” Cyrus couldn’t help himself. There was something about how Ness was sitting there, his fist shoved up against his mouth and his big shoulders shaking as he tried to hide his laughter. “Fine. It’s funny.” He shook his head. “At least I don’t have to worry about being tracked or anything ridiculous like that. I’ve been thwarted by my own predictability. Just for that, we’re going back to Greece and Berlin as soon as we’ve visited your candy factory.”

“You only went there last month.” Ness was on his back now, laughing his head off.

“I know, but they could be ripping me off from now until September.” Cyrus threw himself over Ness’s body. “You are taking too much pleasure out of my misfortune,” he mock growled over Ness’s face.

“We’ll talk about concepts such as profit-share and joint ownership another time.” Ness was never sexier when his eyes were sparkling. “Kiss me.”

Which Cyrus did, because while he might have proven to be predictable, he also wasn’t stupid. And when it came to Ness, he was probably proving to be predictable in that respect as well. But as Cyrus reached for Ness’s pants button, he really didn’t care, so long as Ness kept kissing him.