My hands shook with resentment and something pent-up I couldn’t even explain. All I knew was that I couldn’t keep playing games with this man. I was going to wave the white flag to our rivalry, because in the end, I’d never win.
I stepped out of the cab in front of the club. It was only two o’clock and currently closed, but I’d been informed of a meeting happening here this afternoon, only because Elena had told me why they’d put off their honeymoon until tomorrow.
Angelica stood in front of the basement door looking at her nails. Her gaze came up, and she pursed her lips. “You can’t be here.”
“Well, I am. Move.”
Her eyes fell down my body. “You know, some of us girls actually use a mirror when getting dressed in the
morning.”
“Some of you also drop to your knees for a twenty-dollar bill,” I retorted, as I pushed past her and opened the door.
Being careful not to get my strappy white heels stuck in the steel staircase, I didn’t notice the large meeting currently taking place in the middle of the room until I stepped off the last stair.
I looked up and froze.
Twenty male pairs of eyes pinned me to the spot. All of them filled with the darkness of the Cosa Nostra.
I swallowed.
Meetings were always in the conference room.
Why weren’t they in the conference room?
Nico sat at the front of the room next to his uncle and Luca. Jimmy looked like he was trying to hold back a low chuckle, but the other two, not so much. Ace’s expression said he would strangle me if I was in reach.
Black suits, testosterone, and a thick tension eating away at any oxygen filled the area. Nothing but Abellis seemed to be sitting or leaning against the card tables on one side of the room, including their don, Salvatore, while Russos sat on the other. And smack dab in the middle of them sat a special agent who used his badge to threaten law-abiding citizens for catching feelings for the wrong woman.
His eyes were on me, simmering with an anger that told me I was in deep shit if he caught me alone after this. I was suddenly more worried about his reaction than having to face Ace.
Christian’s fury cooled and burned my skin as his gaze skimmed down my body.
And then I remembered my dress. My very white, very wet dress.
My cheeks grew warm, but I refused to show my embarrassment by pulling Vincent’s jacket closed.
The words were filled with arrogance and amusement. “A hundred bucks says I could make her that wet.”
It was a stupid bet and an even stupider joke, but the fact it came from an Abelli mouth only amplified the tension. Something shifted in the air. The slight lift of a murderer’s lips after a kill. A starving dog catching the scent of blood.
“Watch your goddamn mouth,” Luca snapped. “That’s the wife of a capo you’re talking about.”
The Abelli who sat toward the middle of the room, his ankle resting on his knee, scoffed. “A capo on his deathbed. She’s practically fair game now.”
I shifted on my heels, waiting for the smallest cue to get the hell out of here.
“Touch one of our women against her will and see how fairly we’ll treat you,” Ricardo growled.
“Against her will?” The Abelli laughed. “I could have her begging for my cock in no time.”
Hardly.
Salvatore Abelli appeared almost amused at the exchange, and Ace only sat there, leaning back in his chair, not in any hurry to stop the words from being hurtled back and forth. His eyes expressed how ridiculous he thought this was, but he seemed resigned to let it play out. And I knew why: I was the perfect experiment to see how the families would react to the other’s taunts.
“Keep laughing,” said someone else. “Everyone knows you have to pay for any of the pussy you get.”
A few laughs broke out.