Vice Read Online Free PDF Page A

advantage.
    Hell, he might even enjoy it.
    He called Wade on the phone and told him to bring the redhead inside. As soon as he made the summons, all his blood seemed to rush to his crotch.
    Well, damn.
    When did his crotch develop a taste for confrontation?

Chapter Two
    The doorman smiled at Kate, greeting her as she walked in with Wade. “Welcome to Vice.”
    “Um, thanks.”
    You don’t have to be nice to these people , she told herself. If you let down your guard, they’ll have you drunk at the roulette table before you know it.
    Even still, when the guard held open the door for her, she thanked him. It was just in her nature. Yes, she might have channeled her inner badass for a while, but she’d always been a mild-mannered woman, the kind who said “excuse me” when she bumped into people. Life may have dealt her some shitty cards, but she’d always believed in being polite.
    Shitty cards. Even her inner dialogue seemed rife with gambling metaphors. Just another reason New Horizons remained so important to her. She’d often felt used and undervalued, but the group had taught her that her father’s gambling addiction was not her fault. She’d learned those lessons so well she’d been given her own group to lead.
    New Horizons wasn’t run by doctors or psychologists. It had begun as a grassroots collective who shared tragic circumstances. As her mentor had once explained, all one really needed to help others was empathy. For people such as herself, Kate had loads of empathy and advice.
    Even if she had trouble putting it into practice herself.
    However, since she’d turned her anger toward the unlikely target of Liam Doyle, she felt she had a new purpose in life. A way to make amends. She might not be able to fix her own life, but she could help Lisa and others like her. At the very least, it was a way to strike back at the addiction that had razed her family.
    As she walked with Wade, she wondered about the man who’d talked to her at the end of the day yesterday. The amazingly-edible man who’d made her doubt her own senses. He’d warned her off in a deep voice that had scared her a little, but made her want to draw nearer. That man was the closest thing she’d ever seen to a living, breathing orgasm. She wondered what he did in the casino. Would she see him inside?
    It was best to forget him. She didn’t care for men who had the whole pompous, Alpha male thing down to a fine art anyway. The sort who looked as if they’d turn you over their knee before relinquishing the slightest bit of control.
    She followed the security guard into the casino, shaking her head and trying not to gawk. However, it was hard not to. She’d been in a lot of casinos, but only the old ones on Fremont Street. Her dad had dragged her along many times when she was a kid, desperate for a fix and unable to wait for her mom to come home. He’d tuck her into a chair at the slot next to him and proceed to ignore her for hours while she sucked back second-hand smoke.
    She’d seen things no kid should see, and had spent every waking moment since trying not to fix her gaze on the inside of a casino. No easy task in Las Vegas.
    Vice seemed nothing like her memories of those old, smoke-filled casinos. Oh, there was smoke. It wafted over their heads like a second hazy ceiling. Allergic to the smell, she coughed into her hands a couple of times, but it did little to dispel the feeling she was slowly choking.
    Ignoring the painful prickle in her throat, she looked around the immense room. Black-tinted windows and an absence of clocks gave a sense of time standing still. Soft LED light displays flashed everywhere, bright but never gaudy, guiding the unfortunate to their next sin. Well-dressed men and women flirted over their fancy cocktails.
    She wasn’t sure what was prettier, the people or the drinks. Wonderful aromas teased her from various corners of the cavernous space, temporarily dispelling the smell of smoke, and she spied the