Page 45 of A Treasure To Keep
At that moment, El swings the bathroom door open, put together, except for the small pink hue to the whites of her eyes.
“Are you two cavemen done fighting? See what you did? Making the baby cry. It’s ridiculous. Here, give me Gia. You two can find some clubs to hit each other with.” El shushes Gia while walking away, which, in turn, leaves Marco and me staring at each other.
Hold on. “Did El call me a caveman?”
“Yeah, the fuck she did. She also did the other night. Or were you too busy staring at how fucking hot she was in that bodysuit? Because I almost missed it, too.”
Marco and I stare at each other for several seconds until we turn our focus to El and Luci’s voices coming from the media room. We walk into the room, noticing both girls are laughing hysterically. Wow, El is beautiful when she laughs. She notices my presence and gives me a genuine smile. Unfortunately, her eyes show the sorrow she holds in her heart.
“Come over here, my love.” I stride over to her, sitting down as she snuggles into me.
We spend the next few hours keeping Luci company and helping her get whatever she needs. It’s about dinner time when I notice it’s a good time for us to leave.
“We should head out. I’m sure Luci needs time to eat and get Gia ready for bed. Mon trésor, let’s get some dinner. You can pick where we go.” I go to stand, but El doesn’t move, tucking her lip nervously between her teeth.
“Actually, Luci invited me to stay the night. Quinn has been helping with her postpartum care, but she could use some help at night. If you don’t want to drive my car, I’m sure we can have someone drive you home.” Part of me knows that she needs a night away from me and is too afraid to tell me directly. I give El a sad smile, one that doesn’t go missed by her or Marco before he stands.
“I’ll give Andrea a ride home. I need to go check on a few things in the gambling room, anyway. Let’s go, Lover Boy.” Marco nods his head toward the front door, leaving me behind as he walks out.
I kiss El and head out the front door to get into Marco’s truck. The whole time we drive to the gambling room, I can’t get rid of the lump in my throat. There are plenty of men who wouldtreasure her the same way I do while giving her the one thing I can’t: a baby.
Chapter 49
Marco
Andrea has been quiet this entire car ride. I know something is going on between him and El, but I don’t want to push him on it. Instead, I do the one thing I know how to do: fuck shit up. We pull up to the Leone’s bar, a cover for their gambling room, and park in the back.
“Alright, Lover Boy, follow me. We’re going to have some fun tonight. I’ll comp drinks, but you know the rules. You’re paying your way otherwise.” Andrea has been here several times, most recently during Alessandro’s bachelor party, which was months ago.
“I thought you said you needed to check on a few things.”
“Yeah. One of those being checking my pockets for the extra money I’ll be leaving with after kicking your ass at poker.” Naturally, Andrea is a good card player, to my demise most of the time.
Andrea mumbles under his breath in French before yelling at me while I jump out of my truck. “Dans tes rêves. You suck at poker.”
“Can’t hear you, already out of the truck!”
I walk to the door, noticing one of our bouncers is sitting on his phone, unaware that I’ve stepped up to the door. The other bouncer is nudging him while trying to get his attention. The young kid keeps waving him off instead of taking the time to see who’s in front of him.
Sadly, I remember hiring the two kids when I found them protecting their sister from their perverted and violent foster father. There’s a special place in hell for grown men who want underage girls. The deal was simple: they work as bouncers here in exchange for protection over their sister.
“Man. It would be terrible if your boss saw you on your phone.” The kid freezes, noticing my accent as he slowly raises his eyes, scanning my large tattooed body. I’ve crossed my arms, making myself appear bigger than I am. “Get the fuck out. You’re done.”
“But—” I fucking hate it when these kids argue with me.
“But what? You’re not doing your job. This is simple entry-level bullshit. I could teach an infant to do this. Watch the door, scan for any sketchy people, and make sure everyone who enters is twenty-one. Now. Fuck off before your brains become our new paint for the back door.” I pull out my gun, pressing it flat against his forehead. His phone slips from his hand, clanging to the ground when he audibly swallows.
He inches his feet to the right, showing me his hands while he slowly crouches over to grab his phone. When he comes up, his eyes are still glued to the barrel of my gun. “I’m leaving.”
“And if anyone asks you where this room is, you’ll say?”
“What room?”
I tap him twice on his cheek, causing him to flinch. “Good boy. I don’t want to see your face or your name again. Got it?” He rapidly nods as he runs off. Fucking barely legal kids. I turn to his brother, who’s standing a little straighter than he waswhen I walked up. Nonetheless, he was never distracted. “Here. Continue doing your thing. And don’t worry. I won’t go back on our deal because of your idiot brother.” I hand him some cash and walk in with Andrea in tow to sit down at one of our poker tables. There are three more men in the middle of a game when we join, betting the minimum.
Before I know it, I’m reminded that Andrea is right. I’m down a thousand, and Andrea is up two thousand. The three other men and our dealer jump when I slam my cards down on the table.
“I’m done. Andrea, you have about five minutes for me to check on a few other things before we leave. Closeout, Lover Boy.” I stomp off, putting the thousand in our safe, and fill out my paperwork. Alessandro has one rule. Doesn’t matter who it is, unless it’s him or Geno, whatever we win or lose is our responsibility to take care of.