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Luca
I pulled into the nightclub's nearly empty parking lot, shutting my car door a little harder than intended.
In the harsh midday light, all glamor was gone. All that remained were empty alcohol bottles, and the remnants of parties from hours before. There were no lines of eager patrons or bouncers guarding the door.
I entered the club and headed straight for the back office which would be the only occupied area prior to the club opening that night.
The club owner’s voice came from behind the closed office door, but I didn't bother knocking. I barged in, wanting to make an entrance. He sat behind a large glass desk, talking to someone on his office phone, but jumped in his seat, his wide eyes meeting mine the moment I entered. "I—Let me call you back."
He hung up the phone without giving the person on the other end time to respond.
“Ciao, Luigi.” My voice came out dark and eerily calm.
"Luca, how can I help you?"
"Help me?" My voice pitched. "You can help me by telling me how the hell my Don's little sister ended up roofied and almost assaulted in your club last night?" My voice rose with each word as did the tension in his posture.
"I—I didn't know she was here."
"Bullshit.” In a few quick strides I was to him, my fist bunching up the collar of his shirt and lifting him out of his chair while he scrambled to his feet. “You know everything that happens in your club. We give you certain perks and assurances with the understanding that when someone in our family comes to your club, they are treated like family. That includes watching out for our girls and making sure that they don't get harassed. Perhaps we weren't clear but that also includes not being drugged or assaulted."
The image of Mira lying limp on the bed surrounded by those bastards flashed in my mind and my anger flared. I slammed Luigi against the wall closest to his desk, and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
"I didn't know who she was. She wasn't with her usual group. Those girls she was with—they're wild. They get messed up on all kinds of shit. They hook up with random guys in the VIP rooms all the time. I didn't know she was the don's sister. I swear."
“Okay. You know what? I believe you.” I released my grip on his collar and straightened out his shirt before stepping back.
He slumped against the wall, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank you. I want you to know that I am loyal to you and the Venturi family. I’d never do anything to jeopardize that.”
“Good.” I nodded my head in thought. “That’s good to know, Luigi. And I have the perfect way for you to show me your loyalty and prove how sorry you are.”
“Anything. You name it.”
“I want all the video surveillance from last night, everything and every copy. If you’ve got names of these girls or the dead men walking who tried to lay hands on the don’s sister, I want those too. Anything you have that might help me with tracking them down, I want.”
“Of course, I’ll send it all over to you as soon as I can get it all together.”
“No need to send anything. I’ll wait.” I plopped down in the chair across from Luigi, draping my arms over the back, and making myself comfortable.
***
An hour later, I strode into Teo’s office without a word and dropped a file on his desk along with a flash drive.
“What’s all this?” He raised an eyebrow curiously as he lifted his eyes from the file to me.
“Information on the guys who nearly assaulted Mira last night, info on the girls she was partying with along with every bit of video footage the club had.”
Teo flipped through the detailed intel with an impressed look on his face. “That was fast.”
“Luigi was very cooperative.”
“I assume that you helped motivate him in that regard.”
“I just gave a little nudge.”
“There’s a lot here. You want to give me the cliff notes version?” Teo closed the file and looked at me.
“The guys didn’t drug Mira’s drink. The girls did. They set her up and dropped her off with those assholes.”
