up to us. Kiara being the clever woman that she was realized he wanted to talk to me. She excused herself and went over to the girls.
“So how are things going with our Russian princess?”
“She doesn’t act like a princess. Smokes like a chimney, and can drink any man twice her size under the table. She’s a damn good race driver too.”
Dinara and Dima were still mostly on the fringes of camp life but they’d participated in the after-race-party, and Dinara had drank half a bottle of gin by herself without any outward signs of being drunk. I hadn’t talked to her since our conversation about my mother even it had cost me plenty of restraint to stay away.
“You sound fascinated,” Remo said with his twisted smile.
“I’m wary. I don’t need trouble in my races.”
“Trouble can bring us money.”
“Depends on the kind of trouble. Maybe I should talk to Eden. She might be able to give me important information on Dinara.”
Remo’s face hardened. “Stay away from Eden. She won’t be able to tell you anything of worth about Dinara.”
“Because you forbade her to talk? What’s your endgame, Remo? Why are we keeping a Pakhan’s ex in our brothels? And why does Dinara think her mother is dead?”
Something flickered in Remo’s eyes, a hint of realization maybe. I wished he’d share that insight with me. “She talked to you about her mother?”
“She questioned me about the day we killed our mother is more like it. Will her mommy issues come back to bite us in the ass?”
Remo’s expression had shut off even more at the mentioning of our mother. He’d hated her with a fiery passion before we’d killed her, and his feelings hadn’t improved since then, especially now that he was surrounded by good mothers like Fina, Leona and Kiara.
“If she wants to discuss her mommy issues, send her to me.”
That was the last thing I wanted to do before I knew what was going on. If Dinara wanted to save her mother and worse avenge her, she’d be in more danger than she could ever anticipate. Maybe a reasonable Capo would hesitate to hurt a Pakhan’s daughter, but Remo had never shied back from insane maneuvers. After all, he’d kidnapped the niece of the Outfit’s Capo and even made her fall in love with him.
Even if Dinara had ulterior motives for joining the races and for seeking my closeness, I didn’t want her to get hurt. I loved Remo, but I didn’t agree with everything he did, and many of his actions had me worried, especially in the past.
C.J. smiled brightly when she opened the door and embraced me. “I missed you.” She lived a thirty-minute-drive from the mansion and after the festivities were over, I headed over to her. We hadn’t seen each other in four weeks, which was a long time. I usually tried to return to Vegas every other week for at least a night or two.
“I missed you too,” I said and kissed her lips. She was dressed in a sexy purple negligee that left little to my imagination and her brown hair hung in smooth curls down her shoulders. We both knew what our companionship was about after all. Why try to be coy about it? Despite what Savio thought, I wasn’t in love with C.J. but I enjoyed her company and the sex even more, and it was the same for her. “How are things at work?”
“Rough,” she said. “The last few days were a real shitshow. Only asshole customers. At least, I used the time while I got them off to think about my own bar.”
She took my hand and led me into the small living room of her apartment. It was a comfy but tiny place because C.J. saved most of her money to open her own business one day. I’d suggested to help her but she didn’t want to accept money from anyone else. She was close to having enough money soon, and I was glad when she’d finally stop sucking off assholes for cash. C.J.’s beginning in the business was one of the topics Remo and I had the most fights about.
C.J. was ten years older than me. She and the other girls I’d fucked on occasion had all been older than me. Dinara was the first girl around my age that caught my interest in a long time, another point that made her all the more fascinating. I followed C.J. toward her small kitchenette and accepted the glass