Old Money Madness

32. Burning Horse Race

"How was your trip Miss?" Daisy asked holding her hand out to take my duffel bag from Harry. 

"Delightful." I turned my head to Dox. "We should go on vacations more often." 

"We have a horse race to go to." 

Daisy disappeared around the corner with my bag. We returned to Dox's car and headed off. 

As a child my father never permitted me to go to the races, told me the rough atmosphere was no place for a sophisticated woman to be. The arena resembled the Colosseum in Rome. With large sand color bricks and cut out to let a breeze through, it filled out the land it rested on. Large red, orange, blue, green, and grey flags stood on posts around the brim. Battle hours could be heard echoing throughout the parking lot. 

"Alright, we are looking for a woman named Mazikeen," I told Dox as I pulled him into the staff entrance. 

"What are you doing Riv? That's not the right way." 

"My name's on the building, you've got the wrong girl if you think I'm paying." 

Dox and I slip in behind a group of staff members dragging in bails of hay. In the back, all the horses and their riders were in stables. We moved past them and into the seating areas. 

"Mazikeen should be on level four, waiting by gate seventeen." 

We shoved through the old rich white men that were filling up the whole aisle and yelling about how they've already practically won. I saw the nosebleed seats from afar and saw how they were shoving each other over already wasted at two in the afternoon. 

Finally, we made it to the right place. I stood on my tiptoes trying to spot a creepy Russian lady. No one stood out, everyone looked big and southern. 

"River Knight?" Asked a cold voice. 

I turned to see green eyes staring straight at me. Her hair was short and messy and all she wore was a contoured bodysuit that only showed her face and hands. 

"Maybe?" 

"If it's not you then I'll have to kill you." The woman stayed monotoned. "No one is supposed to know who I am, so if you aren't the person I'm looking for then you're going to die." 

"Right now? That kind of conflicts." 

"One." She took a step closer. "Two." 

"Alright, I yield. I'm River Knight. Heir to the Knight Fortune, CEO of Knight's Knits, and chairmen of the town." 

"You were going to let me at least cut you first? Press you over the edge?" She arched an eyebrow reaching down to her thigh that held a hostler. 

"As I said, it's a conflict. Next time though, I let you slice some skin."I winked. 

Dox pulled my elbow back so now we were side to side. He bent his head down close to my ear. "Stop playing with her, she's in the mafia and might have killed your parents." 

I nodded and looked back at the woman. "What's your name?" 

"Maze." 

"Do you know my brothers?" 

"Theodore and Oliver, yes." 

"Can you answer my question then?"

"Depends. I am most loyal to my Boss. As long as it doesn't hurt his mafia, then you may ask." 

"Did you kill my parents?" 

"No. I would never try to take away a child's parents." She trailed off at the end.