Lorenzo, however, seemed to have developed a tic. He flexed his jaw several times before he stepped back, still not taking his chair. His expression toward Mia had iced over, and that prompted me to shift onto the balls of my feet. I still hadn’t sat down again.
“You know, I hate to end the evening this soon, but I have an early day.” I was none too gently shoved aside by Giovanni as he slid out of the booth. “Gentlemen, it was good to see you as always.” He leaned across the table to fistbump Marco, then shook hands with Lorenzo, who continued to stare at Mia as if he’d forgotten how to blink.
I didn’t like it one bit.
“You got a problem?” I asked when I couldn’t take another second of Lorenzo’s scrutiny. “If you do, let’s settle it here and now.”
Finally the hard planes of his face cracked into a small smile. “And who will be doing the settling? You, a pathetic drunk?” His smile sharpened. “You’re no better than your father.”
Mia grabbed my arm. “Tray,” she warned. “Not here. He’s not worth it.”
“Oh, I assure you, I’m worth more than either Trayherne Knox’s useless son or his whore girlfriend can afford to pay.” His mouth curled dismissively as his gaze flickered to Mia. “Tell me, does he know about your penchant for rich men? And what you do to them when you decide you’re finished?”
I didn’t think. Didn’t breathe. I lunged around the table, my hands clenched, but Mia was closer and she got there first. Goddamn my sluggish reflexes. Fucking alcohol.
Without hesitating, she reeled back and slammed her fist into Lorenzo’s jaw. The other man hit the floor, and Marco scrambled out of the booth to help him, his expression incredulous as he looked from Mia to his fallen friend.
“Giovanni,” he barked.
“I’ll handle this,” Giovanni said in a clipped voice, grabbing my arm and Mia’s and shoving us away from the table. I was on the verge of prying his hands off me when he spoke close to my ear. “We need to leave now. Trust me.”
I glanced at him and was staggered by the intention burning in his eyes. He wasn’t kidding around.
Handling us or not, he wanted us gone. Not just us. He was coming too.
Swallowing hard, I looked back as a crowd formed. Who the hell were those guys? People were shouting, and the panic level in the club didn’t match what had occurred. Everyone was rushing about as if a visiting dignitary had been attacked, not just an ordinary guy who’d gotten into a bar scuffle. I tried to process what I was seeing, but between my alcohol-dulled reactions and my lack of coordination, I found myself propelled by Giovanni onto the sidewalk.
What shocked me more was that Mia had gone too. Without fight. Without speaking.
He kept his fingers clamped around my arm and looped his other arm around Mia’s waist. The way he was herding us up the block set off a million sensors in my brain, but I couldn’t quite transmit my concern into action.
But Mia wasn’t drunk, and she wasn’t reacting at all.
“Stop,” I finally snapped at Gio, pushing his arm away as I reached for Mia. She didn’t glance at me. She was like a mindless doll, just putting one foot in front of the other as we made our way through the Friday evening crowd. Somehow people kept moving aside to let us pass, three-as-one, as if they sensed something major had happened.
Weird. This was all so fucking weird.
“Not here,” he snapped back, driving his elbow into my back to keep me going. “We need to get gone. Out of the area. Now.”
“Who are those guys?” I asked, lowering my voice as I glanced over my shoulder.
“I made a mistake,” he said instead of answering my question. “Never should’ve brought you there. Never should’ve waited around for Mia. I didn’t know.” He studied Mia’s blank, emotionless face before shifting his focus to me. All the while, he continued to haul us up the street as if our own pace simply wouldn’t get the job done. “They’d run you both.”
What the fuck was he talking about? “Who are they?” I repeated. “I thought the guns were a bit much for a…” Jesus, what was the word I needed? My thoughts were fuzzy, the alcohol taking over in spite of my struggle to remain clear. My lack of tolerance was really kicking my ass tonight.
“They would kill you as soon as look at you. And now…” He shut his eyes for an instant before staring straight ahead. His jaw worked, over and over. “You’re going to have to stay with her, every minute. Every fucking minute, Tray.”
The first frisson of real fear cracked the glaze of alcohol. “Of course I will.”
Even in the middle of my confusion, I knew something was very wrong with Mia. She wasn’t responding as Giovanni talked about her as if she were a little woman who needed protection. She wasn’t doing anything but walking.
Fragments of what had been said in the club pinged through my muddied brain.
Penchant for rich men…what you do with them when you’re finished.
He knew about Mia’s past. About her kidnapping. Somehow that fucker had known.
“Who is he?” I asked again, my voice rising. I had as much control of it as I did the rest of myself.