Page 49 of Vicious King

“I’ve been living in the penthouse at King of Spades,” I inform Rina. “And we’ll keep that as well. But I bought this house a couple of years ago as an investment. Since I’ve been gone, I’ve had it renovated so it would be ready for us to move into. I figured neither of us wanted to raise Charlie on the Strip.”

She simply nods, not saying anything in return.

“Holy moly, Mom!”

Charlie bounces in his seat as we pull up to the house.

“This was an investment?” Rina asks, lifting an eyebrow at me.

With a smile, I help Charlie out of the car and let my men get the bags as I lead my family inside.

It smells like fresh paint and wood, and it’s all finished, just like Rome said it would be.

“Wow,” Charlie says. “It’s a mansion.”

“This is a big house,” Rina agrees, still putting on a fake smile for our son.

“The kitchen was just updated, along with all of the bathrooms.” I lead them through a living room to the kitchen, and Charlie’s eyes bug out when he sees the pool outside.

“I can swim?”

Rina turns to me. “We don’t need all this, Carson.”

“It’s yours anyway. And it’s always surrounded by twenty men, on top of a state-of-the-art security system. Aside from the brother’s homes, there’s nowhere safer for you. Come on.” I take her hand and am relieved when she threads her fingers through mine. “There’s a game room back here.”

The room is brightly painted, with flashing arcade games, a pool table, an air hockey table, and a setup for video games. There’s also a table set up in the corner with storage for LEGOs because I know that Charlie loves them.

“We can add anything he wants to this. I figured this would get him started.”

“He’ll never want to leave,” she murmurs, and Charlie immediately runs over and starts playing with the LEGO set on the table. “Come on, buddy, let’s look at the rest of the house before you get lost in here.”

“Okay.” He runs over to us and takes his mom’s other hand. “Do I get a bedroom?”

“Of course,” I reply with a smile.

I take them up a set of stairs and lead Charlie down a hallway where his bedroom is.

“This is too much,” Rina whispers to me as Charlie stands and stares.

I had it decorated as a superhero room, and there’s everything he could possibly need or want in here. The attached bathroom is decorated the same.

“This is my room?” he asks with wide eyes.

“Yep, it’s all yours.”

“Can I play in here for a while?”

“Sure, bubby,” Rina says. “And when you get tired, why don’t you grab one of those books and curl up on the bed. You don’t have to sleep, but some quiet time might be good before dinner.”

“Okay, Mama,” he says, already playing with an Iron Man action figure.

I lead Rina down the hall to the primary suite and watch as her eyes take everything in. I want to know what she thinks of all this. Does she hate it? Is it good enough for her and our boy?

“All the furniture in the house is new,” I tell her. “The other wives helped.”

She nods and wanders into the closet and stops short on the threshold.

“This is already full of clothes.”