Page 34 of Sexting My Bratva Boss (Mafia Silver Foxes #1)

Behind me, I hear the Mercedes pull up, and two sets of feet hit the deck. Martino must have picked up Teo from the safe house.

Bellini murmurs something as he fumbles with his pocket. Two identical pistols appear next to my shoulders as Martino and Teo train them on the informant.

The safety goes off the second Bellini pulls out his own gun, a tiny, ancient revolver that he awkwardly clings to with both hands.

“Put the gun down,” Teo warns at my side.

But Bellini doesn’t acknowledge him; he only stares at me. “I’m sorry, Rocco.”

“Bellini.” It’s the only warning I’ll give, and we all know it.

“I wanted to see it for myself—what you would do for the Guild,” he says as tears stream down his aging face. “You are a hundred times the man your father ever was.”

“Boss?” Teo hisses, but I raise a hand to silence him.

He’d noticed at the same time I had, that Bellini’s gun wasn’t intended for any of us.

“Then help me,” I reply evenly. “Tell me who the other rat is. This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed.”

“You are going to do great things, Rocco.”

I cautiously reach out a hand toward him. “Give me the gun, Bellini.”

But a cool calm comes over him. His resolve suddenly seems as natural as the waves below us, sweeping up against the shore.

“There is no other rat. It has always been me. You just never wanted to believe an accountant could slip through your defenses.”

“Rocco!” Teo cries. But this time, his warning came too late.

Bellini ate the barrel of his gun and pulled the trigger.

Chapter 2

Cassandra

“Bellini, you little bitch!”

I wince as Danny’s voice shrieks in my ear. The blonde bombshell in a sparkly bodysuit snatches a chunk of my hair before I can respond, dragging me from my seat at the vanity.

“I knew I should have never let you open for me!”

I gasp as her grip tightens. My scalp burns with pain. “Let go!”

“Why? So you can steal my tips again? You nasty little thief!”

Despite her words, she throws me to the ground. But by the time I recover, it’s already too late. Danny snatches up my tip jar from the vanity and rifles through my generous savings.

“Those are mine!” I protest, internally cringing at how juvenile I sound. The tears prickling the corners of my eyes add insult to injury.

Danny merely laughs as she leafs through the bills. “Give me a break. This is twice I’d make in a month.” She pauses to shout over her shoulder. “Teresa! I found where our money wandered off to!”

My heart sinks as Teresa appears at the door a moment later. The singer only sneers at me as she waltzes over to Danny.

“Here I was thinking the new girl wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull anything in her first week,” Teresa says as she takes her half of my money from Danny’s outstretched hand. She secures it in her midnight blue bra strap, flicking her jet-black hair over her shoulder.

The two of them together look like night and day—fitting for the Candelabra ’s two most popular performers. But their charm hadn’t lasted long for me. Sharing a dressing room tends to reveal the worst in people quickly.

“I didn’t touch your money.” I rise, drawing energy from that small kernel of fire inside of me that urged me to defend myself in the first place. “Those are all my tips. You can ask Claudio. There was a stag on table twelve, and they…”

“Here’s my problem,” Danny cuts me off. “About a week ago, things started to disappear around here. Has that ever happened before, Teresa?”

“You know, I don’t think it has, Danny.”

“A ring here, a necklace there. I figured I’d let it slide. Let the demure little girl from the sticks borrow a few things. God knows she needs to add a bit of sparkle to her performances.”

Teresa giggles at this, and I ignore her.

“I don’t need any of your tacky jewelry.”

Danny’s eyes flash dangerously. “But what I can’t turn a blind eye to, is the fact you stole twelve thousand dollars from us. Did you think you could just sleep with the manager and not get caught?”

My gut hollows out at the mention of Claudio. That tiny flame of defiance splutters out into nothingness. He’s already warned me about getting along with the other performers. If he finds out about this…

“Danny, please, it wasn’t me.” I glance at the door nervously. “But if you need the money, take what you need. I just need a few dollars to get a cab home.”

But Danny merely scoffs at me. “You should have thought of that before you tried to cross me.”

“You don’t understand,” I try again. “I have nothing else.”

“Oh, save us a sob story, will you?” Teresa rolls her eyes.

I step forward, ready to get on my knees to plead with them both. “Please. Just twenty bucks. The rest is yours.”

For the briefest moment, something flickers across Danny’s face. But before it can manifest into anything more, a shadow falls across the doorway.

“What’s going on in here?”

We all turn to see the devastatingly handsome man standing in the doorway. His toned body is clearly visible through his tight black T-shirt as he towers over us, his mouth a grim line beneath his short beard.

I school my face into something more neutral. “Nothing.”

But my boyfriend does not acknowledge me. He crosses his arms and stares at Danny, waiting for an explanation.

“We were just doing a little hazing,” she chirps innocently. “If Cassandra wants to play with the big girls, she needs to show us she has what it takes.”

His eyes glance down at the wad of bills in her hand, then at the empty jar on my vanity. “Are those Cas’ tips?”

Finally, he looks at me. Those piercing blue eyes search mine for the answer to his question.

“I…”

Claudio leans against the doorframe. “Daniella, Theresa, kindly return whatever money you took from Cas and go home. Mia just called last orders.”

“Narc,” Teresa hisses at me as she begrudgingly hands Claudio her bills on the way out.

But Danny lingers to whisper in my ear. “He’s not going to be around to protect you forever.”

She turns on her heel and stalks away. I don’t miss how her fingers linger on Claudio’s as she hands over her stack of bills.

Perhaps my blood would boil if I could muster up enough energy to feel anything at all. I slump back down in my chair and close my eyes, taking a breath to anchor myself.

This isn’t how I thought moving to Brooklyn would go. Claudio said the girls at the club were lovely, that they’d treat me like a sister. But the bartender was the only person who’d shown me even a shred of kindness.

But did that even count if Mia and I had known each other since we were kids?

“Cas.”

My eyes shoot open to see Claudio standing behind me in the mirror. The door to the dressing room closed tightly behind him.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper as he places his hands on my shoulders. “I don’t know why they hate me.”

I try to place a hand over his, but he shakes it off.

“I need you to try harder than this, Cas. They are my moneymakers. If they ask me to let you go, I won’t have a choice.”

My shoulders sag. He’s right, of course. He’s not just my boyfriend now, he’s my boss, and I’ve done nothing but let him down since the moment I arrived.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper again.

Something cold and long extinguished rages against my pitiful apology. None of this is my fault. I didn’t steal from Danny and Teresa. I didn’t ask for him to come to my rescue. I just wanted to sing on an actual stage—the Candelabra stage—one of the most notorious clubs in Brooklyn.

I watch him in silence as he gently strokes my cheek. Against my olive skin, his hand looks frighteningly pale, as if I’m being comforted by some kind of ghost.

“I’ll get better.”

His hand halts its caress, and he leans over my shoulder, holding onto the tops of my arms instead. Eyes meeting mine in the mirror.

“You keep saying that, but I haven’t seen any improvements, Cas,” he murmurs. “Are you trying to make me look bad?”

All I can do is shake my head as his fingers press firmly into my skin. That extinguished flame inside me rallies to ensure I don’t wince.

“It’s just girl stuff,” I whisper back, more defiant than I’d usually dare. “I’ll settle in with them once I’ve gotten used to this place.”

Claudio’s expression in the mirror crumbles and the mask he wears in front of everyone else slips away to reveal the boy beneath it. “I thought you loved me.”

I swallow down my cry of pain as his fingers press harder. I whisper as soothingly as I can. “Of course I do, darling.”

The pressure eases on my arms, but I don’t check to see if he’s left a bruise. Breaking eye contact with him would be like somehow admitting I was lying.

“It’s just you and me, right?” he breathes in my ear as he stokes my arms up and down, as if reassuring himself that I’m still here.

“I’m with you, Claudio,” I reassure him as he moves on to touch my hair. His fingers run through the dark, thick strands, and for a moment, I think he might pull at it like Danny did.

But he sucks in a long breath and finally steps away.

I can’t help the way my shoulders sag in relief.

“I just want you to be a star. I knew you were one the moment I set eyes on you.” His usual cold mask slowly slips back onto his face. “That’s why I brought you here. I saw your potential and knew I had to be the one to guide you to your destiny.”

“I know, baby, and you will,” I say as earnestly as possible.

“You wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t found you in Ohio, drowning alongside mediocre talent.”

I turn to look at him, eyes snagging on the bills bulging out of the pocket of his jeans. “I will always be grateful that you did.”

But it’s clear he’s stopped listening to me, the facade of the Candelabra’s talent manager taking over once more. As he stalks back to the door, a sinking feeling settles into my stomach.

“I need you to go out there and close the show better than ever. The Italians are here, and they’re going to be pissed that they missed Daniela’s performance.”

“Right.” I nod absently but can’t tear my eyes from his pocket.

“I mean it, Cas. You need to make this up to me, remember?”