Chapter 6

• LIAM
• As soon as I left Felix, my irritation still pulsing beneath the surface, I gave him a clear directive: "Dig into this 'Queen of the West.' I want to know everything by morning."
• This day kept getting better and better, with more mysterious women throwing themselves in my path.
• This Queen of the West woman, whoever she was, sounded more like a joke and a waste of time, and I had a feeling the stunt she pulled back in the game room wouldn't be her last.
• I walked out of the casino, the glitzy lights doing nothing to calm the storm inside me. Once in the back of the car, I pulled out my phone and started making necessary calls. The night and my initial plans were already ruined. I needed to reshape my plans to gain new and bigger deals... more partnerships and expand my dealings far beyond the country. That was the aim when I first started to build my empire from the ground up.
• I decided to call the hotel contractor working on my newest hotel, which would open in a few weeks. The man had been a thorn in my side for weeks, and I wasn't in the mood for any more delays. Not to mention adding to my current state of irritation.
• "Sterling," I bit out when he picked up. "I need an update on the hotel. We're not pushing the opening back again."
• There was a moment of hesitation on the other end, as there always was when people heard the tone I used when I meant business. "We're still trying to get the licensing concluded," the contractor stammered. "But we're working around the clock to meet your deadlines. Are we still scheduled for the meeting this week?"
• I clenched my jaw. "Yes, we are, and you had better give me something worth my time by then." I hung up before he could offer more excuses, tossing my phone onto the seat beside me. I hated relying on others to get things done, but even I couldn't be everywhere at once.
• "Just take me back to the penthouse," I said to the driver, my tone flat. I needed to regroup and plan my next steps. The casino business was an epic fail tonight.
• By the time I made it back to my penthouse, the city was starting to wind down, but my mind wouldn't let me. The irritation from the casino still lingered like a bad taste in my mouth, and I found myself pacing, brooding, unable to shake the feeling that I was losing my ground in the Underground world.
• The penthouse was silent, too silent, and I hated the way the quiet made my thoughts louder. I poured myself a glass of scotch and leaned against the windows; the skyline spread out beneath me like a glittering web of power and secrets. But my thoughts weren't on the city—they were on her...again. The mystery woman from last night who had me so damn distracted. Not that I was complaining about such distractions though. I would have given anything to get her in my bed again to distract me some more. If only I could find her.
• I downed the drink in one long pull, feeling the burn chase away some of the tension but not enough. Memories I didn't care to revisit crept in—the kind that usually only hit me when I had too much time to think. I walked to my desk and sat down, fingers tapping idly on the surface as images from my past flickered in my mind.
• My childhood had been a brutal education. The streets were where I learned to survive long before I learned to thrive. I started dealing when I was barely a teenager—anything to keep food on the table for my little sister, Marie, and to keep my alcoholic mother from throwing us out on the street.
• We were barely scraping by, the three of us trapped in a tiny apartment that stank of liquor and desperation. Marie was too young to understand what I was doing, too innocent to know the things I'd done to keep her safe, to make sure she never went to bed hungry.
• I had to grow up fast. Fucking faster than any kid should. The streets taught me more than school ever could—how to hustle, how to stay two steps ahead, how to make sure no one ever saw you weak. The world doesn't care about sob stories or broken homes. It respects strength. Ruthlessness. The ability to take what you want and make sure no one takes it from you.
• It wasn't long before I got noticed by the right—or wrong, depending on how you see it—people. Selling drugs turned into running crews and trying hard to prove myself, and that turned into building an empire. I made sure Marie had everything she needed, though she never asked for much. Always so quiet, so gentle. The exact opposite of me.
• But then she disappeared. Nearly nine years ago, her car went off a bridge in a small town near Manhattan. I remember the call—the panic, the frantic drive to the scene. Her car had been found, pulled from the river, but Marie? She was never found.
• The search party had told me the current must've taken her far away, too far to recover. But I hadn't believed it then, and I still didn't. No body meant no closure, and I had spent every day since wondering if she could be out there, somewhere, waiting for me to find her.
• That kind of unresolved pain stuck with you, poisoning everything else. Maybe that's why I had become this. It was the only way I knew how to survive.