Vegas Heat Read Online Free Page A

Can’t we let it die and make things better? I know you can’t go back, but you can go forward and make it better than it was. Sage is going to walk. I could see it in his face.”
    “Sage is not a team player. Neither is Sunny. You and me now, we have the same goals. We’ll make those goals, too.”
    Birch watched as his father swallowed a handful of pills. He could feel his shoulders slump. Sage was his twin, his other half. He never felt quite whole unless Sage was close by. He adored Sunny, always had. It was all getting away from him, just like the last time when they sided with their father against their mother.
    “You can’t tell Sunny she isn’t needed right now. If we do that, Mom will shut this place down so fast we won’t have time to blink. She’ll do it, Dad. I’d hate to see you make the mistake of pushing her to the edge. She won’t jump over the edge, she’ll plow you right under. She takes her commitment to Grandma Sallie and this family very seriously. You’re wrong about Sage, too. Sage has the charisma to make this place work. He works the floor like a pro. Any casino on this Strip would hire him and pay him five times what we pay him. He’d be worth every dollar, too. Don’t mess with Sage, Dad.”
    Ash eyed his son, his one remaining ally. His mind was scrambled with the pills he’d just taken. His chaotic thoughts reeled back in time to when he was Birch’s age. He’d been just as tall, just as good-looking, just as virile, just as mobile. He stared at the replica of himself and wanted to cry. “Sage is weak,” he mumbled.
    “You’re wrong. Sage has more guts than the two of us put together. I’ll walk out of here before I let you put Sage down.”
    Ash stared at his son and knew he meant every word. He waved him out of the room. When the door closed behind Birch, great wrenching sobs tore at his wasted body “I hate your goddamn fucking guts, Fanny,” he sobbed.
    In his office, Birch sat down behind his desk. His head dropped to his hands. He wished he could turn back the hands of the clock to the day he and Sage left for college with Simon behind the wheel.
    He knew the story behind his father and his Uncle Simon. He’d heard his father’s version, his grandmother’s version, Simon’s version, and then his mother’s version. Somewhere in between was the real story. Late at night in the college dorm, he and Sage had put their own spin on the story and came up with one they could both live with. Now, eighteen years later, history seemed to be repeating itself. He was his father and Sage was Simon. He remembered how his Uncle Simon had come out the winner in all the different stories, even their own. That meant Sage was a winner and he was ... his father all over again.
    It was three o’clock when Birch closed his briefcase. “Biloxi, Mississippi, here I come,” he muttered. The knock on his door startled him. “Come in,” he called.
    “Nah. I don’t think so,” Sage said from the open doorway. “I stopped by Dad’s office to drop this off, but he was asleep. He’d just tear it up anyway You can do whatever you want with it. It’s my resignation. You going somewhere? Let me guess. Biloxi, Mississippi, right? Big mistake, Birch.”
    “Come on, Sage, we go through this at least once a week. You always back down. This thing is going to blow over the way these things always blow over. This is our business. We need to pull together.”
    “That’s really funny coming from you. I’ve had it. What we voted for was right for all the right reasons. I don’t have any regrets. All I want is a life, and I’m damn well going to get one. Uncle Simon walked away and got his life. I’ve got the guts to do the same thing.”
    “Let’s not forget that good old Uncle Simon walked off with the queen of this parade. Our mother.”
    “Mom’s personal life is none of our business. Justify what happened with Sunny, Birch. Don’t tell me nothing happened either. I know how you