Page 82

No guns are drawn yet, but the whole room is tense like in one of those old westerns. I’m half expecting a fucking tumbleweed to fly across the marble.

“Word on the street is, you been busy.”

“Cut the shit, Laundry. I’m always busy. The fuck are you getting at?”

“Whoa horsy!”The card dealer shuffles the deck over the table to break some of the tension. I know him. SteveDouble Down. Went to gamblers anonymous and now torture’s himself as the dealer. “Hear ’em out, kid. You might be in over your head a little, huh?”

“Why don’t you have a seat?” Frankie motions me away from the door.

“I’m staying right where I am.” I shrug Frankie back, daring him to try me.

That’s when I notice Steve nod to the guy next to him, who probably has a pistol trained on me under the table.

“Have it your way. But, you’re making a friendly game uncomfortable. Ton Ton is hitting his stride. Two flushes in a row.”

I’m losing my patience.

“Anyway, you’re not here for any of that.”

“Certainly not,” I growl.

Frankie paces casually, confident that he’d get the jump on me if I decided to act. I have half a mind to usehimas the meat shield as soon as he steps in front of the table. But he doesn’t. He’s too smart for that.

“So, something interesting popped up recently. Nicky has been carefully peeling back the onion to Sonny’s disappearance. Jay Rockstar turned out to be a dead end. But your father… mm. Why would he be off grid? Why, oh why, little Knots?”

I don’t flinch, or react at all.

“Well, Nicky got fed up with that, you see. So he took matters into his own hands. Started bugging and following anyone close to Rocco Dotelli, including his daughter’s friends.”

My heart starts to race. That’s a lot of fucking resources to expend on a crapshoot.

“Yeah, I know.” Frankie pretends like I just reacted, but I didn’t. “Nicky really does go the extra mile, doesn’t he?”

The table snickers at that.

“The thing is, one of Capri Dotelli’s friends – Gil, I think his name was – went on a rant about this woman at a certain strip club who looks remarkablylike her. Hm.” Frankie taps his chin.

This fucking prick.

“What are the chances, am I right? She went into hiding, right? Yeah, she disappeared from her job, her home. And what are the chances she pops up in the most unlikely places? At a club… owned by the son of Sonny’s suspected killer.”

She’s in danger. My woman is in danger. And I’m stuck here, surrounded with guns on me.

Frankie sighs. “So you see, Nicky needed to wait for your next stupid move in trying to track him down, so he could take a look for himself.”

I ball my fists.

No…

Chapter 24

Cipriana

It’s my first go at the pole tonight, and I’m pumped. Trino… he and I grew closer since last night’s wild sexcapades, opposite of all my fears. I’m giddy. I couldn’t believe how gentle that dark knight of a man was this morning, cradling me in his furnace of a hold, leaving a trail of soft kisses down my neck and shoulder. There’s something real brewing between us.

Giving it up to him was all I ever hoped it would be. I literally had wet dreams last night. Woke up totwoorgasms. One where I was tied up in a dungeon with him as my warden. The other? Well, it was weird. I was crawling on a pearly white cloud, naked except for a pink tiara, and he was on a grey thunderous one. I was shaking my head ‘no’ yet opening my legs for him to jump onto mine. His cock was out and ready, and I was dripping wet, making my cloud rain.

You can guess how the rest went.