Read Vice for Free Online Page B

coerce them to spend their hard-earned dollars there. He simply provided venues for entertainment.
    In fact, just as a good bartender kept an eye out for drunks, his employees were trained to watch out for customers who might also have had enough. He didn’t like the idea of taking someone’s last dollar. Ethics aside, it was bad for business. Kate Callender might see him as a mustache-twirling villain, holding bags of other people’s money, but he knew the truth.
    Vice, along with his other casinos, was merely a business venture, and he’d wager most of his customers knew when to call it quits. As for those who didn’t? Well, that was why he sent a lot of money in Gam-Anon’s direction.
    So why did none of that seem to matter when faced with that silly woman’s stinging barbs?
    He poured himself a glass of water and chugged it, then set the glass in the sink and stared at it.
    Damn. What did he care if she despised him? More important people already did. Kate Callender was no one to him and never would be. Just a momentary inconvenience, she would soon pass out of his life and he needn’t think of her again.
    Still, his mind wandered as he pictured her. Upon reflection, she hadn’t been quite the ethereal creature he thought he’d spied from the fourth floor. She had flaws: a bountiful figure, a generous nose, and ears that, while sort of endearing in an annoying way, stuck out a bit. It was possible her eyes might even be somewhat asymmetrical, one a tiny bit smaller than the other. He’d noticed it when she glared at him.
    However, on her, somehow it all worked. Like Cleopatra, she might not be the most beautiful woman in the world, but she wore her looks well.
    They made a man curious.
    He wanted to drag the ponytail elastic out of her hair and watch the red strands tumble around her shoulders. He could admit he felt a weird compulsion to touch her again to see if her skin was as soft as he remembered. And those hazel eyes that flashed in anger? He wondered what else could make them sparkle.
    He was most intrigued by the flirt he’d seen in her eyes when he’d first approached her outside, and was intoxicated by the idea of seeing it again. He drummed his fingers on the counter, realizing he wanted to see much more than that. He wanted to see how her face would transform after he spread those voluptuous legs.
    “Shit,” he muttered to himself. “Okay, on some fucked up level you find her hot. So what? The woman wants to bury you. Forget her.”
    Determined to do just that, Liam fired up his laptop and set it on the counter. Plunking himself down on one of his bar stools, he decided to clear a few emails in an attempt to ignore his hard-on. Within minutes, his phone buzzed with an incoming text. He pulled it out, discovering a missive from Bridget.
    We need to talk. Can I come to your office tomorrow?
    He quickly entered his response. Talk to my lawyer.
    Please .
    I’m busy.
    I just want five minutes. No lawyers. Just us. A pause. I’ll bring Michelle. You two can catch up.
    He stared at the screen and willed himself not to get excited, not after his hopes had been dashed so many times.
    Liam? Are you there?
    I’m here. Why should I trust you?
    Do you honestly think I’d fuck with you like that?
    You have before.
    Another pause. I’m sorry for what I did. You have to know that. Will you hate me forever?
    Biting back anger, he lifted his thumbs from the key pad before he keyed something he would regret later. She thought a few clumsy apologies could do the trick?
    He’d never forgive her.
    And once his attorney, Nando Perreira of the famed Perreira, Michaels and Johnson was done with her, she’d understand exactly how unforgiving he could be.
    You swear you’ll bring Michelle? You’ve reneged before.
    I swear.
    He didn’t believe her. It was just like Bridget to keep their daughter away from him. Scratch that, her daughter. She’d made it very clear Michelle wasn’t his. She used her own child as