ELENA

The party had been going smoothly—or as smoothly as a gathering of criminals, politicians, and mobsters could go. The air was thick with expensive cologne, the clinking of glasses, and the hum of meaningless chatter. Everything was playing out fine. Until it wasn’t.

I had been pretending to blend in, when an argument broke out near the casino tables.

At first, it was just loud voices—nothing unusual. Men like these always had something to argue about. A bad hand, a miscounted ...