Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
The waiter stops next to our table. Tersia orders for us, but I barely pay attention. I’m too busy figuring out how I’m going to get into the locker room of a private golf course.
“How are you doing?” she asks when the waiter leaves to place our order at the bar. “And I mean really doing?”
“Great.” My smile feels fake. “Claire is growing fast.”
“Yes.” She makes an apologetic face. “Sorry. I was going to ask.”
“We can’t complain.”
“Are you, um, still working at the club?”
“Same old.”
She bobs her head. “In that case, you must be enjoying it.”
I remain quiet as a realization hits me. We’re just wasting our breaths with small talk. It’s not like before when no hurdles stood between us. Now, we’re like strangers—polite and careful. And all of it is my fault.
Seemingly at a loss for words, she looks around the room as if every aspect of it interests her, but it’s just a way of pretending the silence isn’t awkward.
We drink our tea while she poses superficial questions and I offer vague answers. To be honest, it’s exhausting, and when we say goodbye, I’m relieved as well as sad.
A ping announces a text message on my phone. Expecting it to be from Saverio, I fumble with a racing heart for my phone.
It’s from Dante.
My hope plummets.
Are you okay?
Where are you?
When are you coming back?
I type a quick reply. Is everything okay with Claire?
His answer comes immediately. Sure. Sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you. Livy is with her. You haven’t answered my questions.
Sighing, I type, I’ll be there in fifteen.
Dante paces in the underground parking lot of the club when I park my new Volvo. He’s opening my door open before I’ve cut the engine.
“I’ve been worried sick since Livy came back without you,” he says. “I didn’t know if I should call Sav.”
I get out. “I ran into Tersia, and we had tea. Didn’t Livy tell you?”
He eyes the empty backseat. “Where’s your shopping?”
Taking the piece of paper with the inventory from my bag, I hand it to him. “Here.”
He holds my gaze while unfolding the sheet, questions flashing in his eyes.
After scanning over the contents, he utters a curse. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I already sent you the encrypted video. Elena will be gone by next week.” Eager to see Claire, I walk with long strides to the elevator. “We’re not risking any attacks until she’s gone.”
“Yes, boss,” he says with a note of respect and admiration in his tone.
I’m barely back in the office, feeding Claire, when disgruntled male voices reach me. It sounds like an argument.
When Claire falls asleep on my breast, I gently ease her down in her stroller and adjust my clothes before following the noise to the gallery.
Saverio’s men are gathered around Dante, their faces drawn and their expressions dark.
“Sorry, Dante,” one of them says. “But that just ain’t gonna cut it. You’ve been slinging reassurances around for weeks, but none of us has seen Mr. De Luca since the day they loaded him into an ambulance on a stretcher. We’re done taking your word for it. We need proof. We want to see him for ourselves. If he’s got promises to make, he can come here and make them to our faces.”
His passive-aggressive attitude makes my hackles rise.
I walk up to the group, my voice hard when I ask, “What’s going on here?”
Dante looks at me and blows air through his nose.
The men go still. All eyes lock on me.
I stand taller. “I asked what was going on here.”
“We’re sick of taking orders from Dante,” someone says. “We want Mr. De Luca to tell us what his plans are. We want him to look us in the eye and tell us the business isn’t in trouble.”
I fix the man with a look. Carlo Cassidy. His nickname is Big Ted. I know them all. I know everything about each of them down to what they drink when they hang out at the bar. “Saverio is busy planning our revenge. Are you really so scared that you want him to leave everything he’s doing and run over here to put you at ease?”
Big Ted refuses to back down, holding my gaze with a challenge in his. “We want to see him, that’s all.”
“Why?” I walk into the midst of their circle. “Because you don’t trust Dante? Who’s going to tell Saverio that?”
Another man steps forward. Ashes Amato. “Look, it’s not that we don’t trust Dante, but people are saying shit.”
My stare is frosty. “Like what?”
He has the decency to appear guilty. “That we’re going under. That you won’t be able to pay us next month.”
I look at Dante. “Who said that?”
Dante’s jaw bunches.
“No offense, Mrs. De Luca,” Big Ted says. “But if you work here and you see how slow the business is, it ain’t hard to figure it out.”