DeLuca (Mafia Romance)

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Gina came back shortly after our food was served and we all made polite conversation while we finished our dinner. I was still reeling from what Carlo had said to me about just surviving. He was right of course, the bastard. I had been treading water before, just trying to keep my head above the swell. How was it that we had only known each other for a short time but it felt like he knew me better than I knew myself?

We are kindred spirits, bound not by the blood running through our veins but the by the blood staining our hands.

That’s what he had said to me the day he brought me home with him, and as well as he knew me I still knew awfully little about him. I understood that he wanted to take care of me and probably felt an obligation to me despite his protests. I decided then that I would use the rest of the summer trying to get to know who he really was, not the Boss, but the real Carlo. The man behind the suit.

After dessert Carlo excused himself, “I have some business to attend to, Angelo will take you girls to the club attached to the hotel if you wish.”

“Sweet! Angelo is the hot one right?” Gina asked.

I rolled my eyes, “Carlo, we don’t have fake IDs and we’re way underage.”

Carlo just chuckled, “I did tell you I own this hotel right? That gives me additional pull not allowed to others. You may go where you please and drink what you’d like, everything will go on my tab and Angelo will watch over you.” He walked around to where I was still seated at the table and laid a hand on my shoulder. His fingers brushed my exposed collar bone gently and my entire body erupted in goosebumps. “Just be careful, yes?”

I nodded, “Of course.”

Carlo straightened, “Good, have a good time ladies. I’ll see you in the morning.” With that, he strutted out of the dining room.

Gina looked at me from her seat across the table, “This is going to be EPIC!” she squealed and did a little happy dance in her chair. Giving Gina an open tab and free reign of a high class hotel was most definitely a recipe for trouble, and I couldn’t wait.

Dinner had only taken a couple of hours and it was still too early to head up to the club, so we opted to have a drink at the bar to kill some time. It didn’t take long before a couple of guys saddled up to us. They were cute, college-aged, my guy was tall and built like a linebacker with buzzed light brown hair and incredibly straight, and white teeth. Other than his kind of creepy teeth, his dad was an orthodontist apparently, he seemed nice enough. Gina’s guy was about the same height but not as broad. He had longer dark brown hair and piercing green eyes.

Gina was instantly in lust. Both guys were dressed in slacks and button down shirts, no tie. We chatted with them for a while and mentioned that we were headed to the club. Surprise, surprise so were they. Normally I was more cautious and I wouldn’t go anywhere with someone I didn’t know, even if it was just to another part of the hotel, but Carlo had said that Angelo would be watching us. Even though I hadn’t seen him, I trusted that he was there somewhere keeping an eye out. With that knowledge I let some of my inhibitions go and decided to have some fun and not get lost too much in my own head.

We got into the club without issue, the bouncer didn’t even card us. He just moved the rope aside and nodded. Someone must have tipped him off that we were coming. Inside the club was dark, warm, and packed with sweaty gyrating bodies. As soon as we got past the entry we were approached by a man in a suit that led us to a raised platform VIP area.

“Whoa, are you guy’s royalty or something?” Gina’s guy, Derrick asked.

“Or something,” I replied before Gina had time to come up with an answer. These guys seemed harmless enough but I didn’t want to divulge unnecessary information about ourselves and I certainly didn’t want to tell them anything about Carlo.

Gina caught on to my apprehension, “Everything is taken care of for tonight, and you’re our guests,” she added with a sly smile. That got the point across, don’t ask and you get to party for free. Even though I didn’t think Carlo would like us extending his hospitality to men we didn’t know, the guys seemed to like that deal.

“Sounds good to me,” Jackson, my guy, said with a blinding smile. Jesus, his teeth are really white. They were even brighter under the black lights in the club.

A cocktail waitress came around and took our drink order, Gina decided to play up the spoiled princess card and ordered a bottle of Crystal. I was a little annoyed but I was grateful the attention was off of me. She was making it look like she was the privileged brat and I was the tag along friend. With anybody else that may have been off putting but I knew she was just doing it because she was picking up my fear of being made in public. After a glass of champagne, which was not as delicious as the price tag would lead you to believe, we decided to take a turn on the dance floor.

House music was pouring from the speakers, lasers were slicing through clouds of fog and I was in my element. Gina and I were no strangers to the dance floor and soon found our groove with each other and the guys founds theirs at our backs. After a while Jackson’s arms snaked around my waist and he gently moved me away from Gina to dance with him, and I went willingly. The drinks I had earlier were starting to catch up with me and I was feeling relaxed. We danced for a while and Jackson’s hands got progressively friendlier with each song. I wasn’t complaining, this is exactly what I needed to get my mind off of Carlo and his sexy tattooed body. Whoops, there I go again. I did however guide his hands further north as they had started to drift down to my ass. I needed a distraction but I was certainly not going to sleep with this guy.

“I need a water break,” I shouted, the music was so loud I wasn’t sure he heard me but he nodded and led me back to the VIP area. When we sat down to catch our breath I noticed I hadn’t seen Gina in a while, “Where are the others?” I asked.

Jackson shrugged, “I haven’t been looking at anyone but you,” he said as he slung an arm behind me on the sofa. There was a glint in his eyes that made me think he might know more than he was letting on, but before I could question him further Gina’s voice rose above the music.

“Shot time!” she screamed as she climbed the stairs to the dais. Her hair was mussed and Derrick was wearing a shit eating grin. You little slut, I mentally scolded her. She made eye contact with me and plastered the same shit eating grin on her own face, confirming my suspicions.

The waitress appeared almost instantly with a bottle of Patron, and poured us each a shot. “Salute,” I said and downed my shot. This was not my first time on the party train that was Gina. Another round of shots and a few more songs I excused myself to go to the bathroom, I tried to get Gina to go with me but she was faded and there was no way she was making it across the dance floor in those heels. I briefly wondered how I was going to get her back up to our room but my bladder demanded my attention. Jackson offered to escort me but I brushed him off.

One thing at a time.