Page 129

Bianca

We were at a dessert bar at one a.m. Sera had an appetite for their chocolate cake jars and one didn’t deny a pregnant woman their cravings. As for me, I had champagne and a raspberry tart. Ivy gave us a mischievous idea to take home jars to our husbands while Sloane rolled her eyes as the only single one in our group.

We were one of the few tables left and I made a mental note to leave a hefty tip.

“We’ll take you home,” Divina told Sloane. “I don’t want you taking the subway dressed like that.”

“It’s a Friday night. I’m going to blend in,” she told her. “You’re used to getting chauffeured around and forget how it is.”

I hadn’t used the subway in years either. I wasn’t fond of it during rush hour, but it beats New York traffic when you needed to be somewhere in time. The security around the De Luccis had tightened ever since Sera married into the family and it had never relented. I didn’t see that easing soon, especially now that I was married to Sandro.

I glanced at our bodyguards seated at the corner of the bar. They seemed to have agreed with my request not to inform Sandro about the incident with the asshole on the dance floor. After what happened, we transferred to the second floor, which seemed to have a younger crowd, and we enjoyed the scene without incident.

“How’s your foot?” Ivy asked.

“It’ll be better by tomorrow. It just got tweaked slightly,” I answered.

“I could have taught him a lesson,” she replied.

“He got the message.” I finished my tart. I had a pleasant buzz from the champagne.

“Something’s off.” Ivy leaned closer. “Did you notice how Trevor never reacted to the dance-floor incident?”

“He was letting Miller and Al handle it?” I replied, although I shot our bodyguards a longer glance. “I mean, he’s got his hands full with the two of you. Besides, he didn’t want to step on any toes.” Then I laughed. “Pun not intended.”

“Hmm…” Sera said.

“What?”

“Our husbands are surprisingly absent,” Sera told Ivy. “They usually show up at the end of girls’ night and they’re not responding to our texts.”

I slid out my phone and checked for Sandro’s location. It was still grayed out, which meant he turned his phone off. This was nothing new when he was going into a meeting.

“What do you mean? Your guys show up for girls’ night?” Sloane asked. “It’s supposed to be a girls’ night. They can’t stay away from you even for one night?”

Sera and Ivy exchanged a knowing look while I snorted, “Put that way, it sounds like a red flag.”

“A big red flag.” Sloane nodded. “Right, Divina?”

Divina shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. I wish Tommy was more needy like that.”

“Well, it appears he and Sandro aren’t as clingy as my brothers,” I grumbled, realizing I wanted Sandro to be like that because what the hell, he used to stalk me.

“They have a lot on their minds right now,” Sera offered in an effort to make us feel better.

“You don’t want Sandro to be any more intense with you.” Divina shot me a pointed look reminding me about the Raffa Eight as we like to call the eight men Sandro mercilessly annihilated. A shudder rippled through me. I shut out that day, but whatever my mind went through, I coped. It was me or them. In my dreams or nightmares, it had progressed from horror to dark comedy. Gold Tooth’s exploding head became a bursting watermelon, and then Sandro would appear and ask me to make frittata. I think in one of my dreams, Sandro fucked me in that room full of butchered watermelon bits with Raffa and Griselda watching. After I orgasmed, I would always end up saying, “There. Happy now? You could have spared their lives.”

The dream always cut there. I didn’t know what I was becoming, but my brain chemistry was altering to accept a darker side. A darkness that was needed to become my husband’s queen.

“See,” Ivy said. “But then, it doesn’t explain why our guys are not answering our texts.”

“I know,” Sera said, and a yawn escaped her. “It’s time for this pregnant woman to call it a night.”

“Or morning,” I quipped.

We said our goodbyes on the sidewalk since our vehicles were parked on opposite ends of the block.

“This was fun,” I told Sera. “Thanks for organizing. We needed this.” Theweincluded Sloane and Divina.