Chapter 2

“Shorty!” Kate greeted. “Where’s Jimmy?”

“He’s waiting for you.”

David swallowed against the sudden dryness of his throat and self-consciously stood straighter. Something about this man made him wish he wasn’t nearly so rumpled from the trip. “You go ahead, Kate. I’ll make sure your bag gets to your room.”

“Frankie will see to the bags. The boss wants to see you, too.”

His eyes went wide. “Really? Why?”

Kate slapped his arm. “Because he wants to meet you, you ninny. He’s only heard you play.” Linking her arm through his, she shot him a dazzling smile. “I’m sure he wants to see if you live up to everything I’ve told him about you.”

David sighed. “Gee, that makes me feel better.”

“He’s very eager to speak with you,” Shorty said, gesturing for the two of them to follow. Kate had to walk quickly to match the man’s long strides, but her smile never faded. David didn’t blame her. Jimmy Moretti had personally invited her to his kingdom in the desert. “All the suites are on the third floor. That’s where the two of you will be staying as well.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to argue he didn’t need a suite, but David knew before they hit the hallway it would be pointless. It was more than knowing Jimmy would likely take it as an insult, if word ever got back to him. The set of Shorty’s shoulders was all David needed to know anything he said was carved in stone.

Though he knew he shouldn’t, his gaze flickered down the man’s back. The perfectly tailored suit accentuated his lean hips and long legs, and his ass…

David snapped his focus up again. Off-limits, that’s what looking at Jimmy Moretti’s right-hand man was. Because getting caught would mean getting his balls cut off. And that would be if he was lucky.

His cheeks remained hot as Shorty guided them into the elevator. Kate kept chattering away, but the ride to the third floor was too short to really respond to her. It did mean, however, that she didn’t know how he flushed he was, but even if she said anything about it, David was fully prepared to use the long trip as an excuse. He was tired, which was the truth anyway. And Las Vegas was hotter than Chicago, even if it was nighttime and the middle of March.

When the elevator stopped, Shorty stepped out and turned sideways, using his arm to block the door from closing before they could get out. David caught a whiff of his cologne as he passed, something musky he didn’t recognize. It made him a little hard, and a whole lot dizzy, and the only way he could banish the rush it elicited was focusing on who he was about to meet.

Jimmy Moretti was a name most people recognized in Chicago. He had been the man the Outfit had called on in City Hall. He was one of Curly Humphreys’ men, and had been sent from Chicago to Las Vegas to continue his promising career as a front man. He had a good head for business, but an even better head for blackmail. David knew all of this second and third hand, but there was always plenty of talk in the clubs after the alcohol had been flowing.

Shorty knocked once on the door at the end of the hallway before pushing it open, revealing a room that might have come out of A Thousand and One Nights.It was decorated in the same earthy tones as the lobby, but every single item, every single inch, betrayed Jimmy’s wealth. David followed Kate into the room and couldn’t shake the feeling that he was stepping into a completely alien world. This must have been what it was like to step into the witch’s gingerbread house.

“There’s my girl.”

David was left hovering by the doorway when Kate stepped hurriedly forward to slide into Jimmy’s embrace. Though he wasn’t a particularly tall man, he still topped her by several inches, his body hard and trim as he pulled her against it. He bent and brushed his wide mouth across her cheek, lingering at her ear to murmur something meant only for her to hear.

Kate laughed. Her eyes were brighter than ever when she twisted to wave David closer. “Jimmy, this is my cousin David, the best piano player in Chicago.”

As he approached, David put on the smile he used whenever he was onstage, the one meant to appease an audience who might glance in his direction when their attention could be torn away from the siren at the microphone. He loved to perform, but even after a decade of doing it professionally, he still felt uncomfortable whenever the spotlight shone directly on him.