Ruthless King

Quiet didn’t mean good though. And from Victor’s scowl, he thought the same.

“Santiago’s nephew is keeping quiet?” Maxim asked.

He looked between Jardin and Maxim. He kept them out of the business as much as he could. Jardin was a shark of a lawyer and a partner in his firm, while Maxim ran most of their nightclubs—the clubs that were on the up-and-up.

He couldn’t keep Victor out. Their father had raised Victor to be Regent’s protector and he took that job seriously.

“Yeah, although I’ve got a meeting with him Friday night. He wants to meet at his strip club. Apparently, some of his girls got ill from a bad batch of mixology and he wants to ensure that doesn’t happen again.”

“You had nothing to do with that, though,” Jardin said.

“No, but I think it’s some sort of excuse to meet with me.”

“So you’re going to meet with him? Why not send Basilien or Luka?” Maxim asked.

His father would never have taken a meeting with someone like Santé Santiago. Would have considered it beneath him.

But Regent had found that it paid never to dismiss anyone.

He also had another reason for wanting to go to the club.

“I want to see what he says.”

“You don’t think Patrick is still involved with that dancer, do you?” Jardin asked.

“You’re too smart for your own good,” he said, sitting back in his chair.

Fuck. He felt like an old man.

Was this what nearly being forty got him? He felt . . . exhausted.

Alone.

It’s better like this.

Or that’s what he told himself.

“Nah, I’m too smart for your own good,” Jardin replied. “So, does she still work there?”

“She does.”

“You’ve agreed to go to the club so you can see her, haven’t you?” Maxim asked.

“Perhaps.” That was as much as he was going to go into it.

Patrick McMahon was an old enemy. He’d once been someone in power in New Orleans. But he’d become a greedy asshole who’d wanted more, which is why he’d tried to have Regent killed.

But that hadn’t worked out well for him since Regent had gone on the warpath and destroyed everything he owned.

Patrick had run. He was good at hiding. But he couldn’t stay hidden forever.

Regent was going to find him eventually.

Patrick been seen a while back at Sexy Sins, the club now run by Santé Santiago. Not only had Patrick become obsessed with one of the dancers there, but Santé’s uncle, Carlos, had been working with him.

Which is why Regent liked keeping an eye on the place.

Victor shuddered. “I hate going to the strip club.”