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He raked in the chips and cackled as the rest of the players scoffed, looking at Benny and holding out their palms.
He grinned at them and shrugged.
One of the girls, a mature long-haired brunette, who tasted like fresh cherries, Florence, walked over to him and whispered.
“We’ll have to keep an eye on that one,” she muttered. “He’s been staring at my ass all night, nearly copped a feel.”
Benny nodded, never taking his eyes off Mason as he balanced the chips to return to Benny for his big payout. He didn’t take kindly to men who thought they owned a woman’s body. He may have been considered a bit of a womanizer himself, but the least sexy thing on earth to him was a sense of entitlement and force.
“Noted,” he whispered, then quickly looked her up and down. “You’re looking rather tasty tonight, Flo.”
Her lips were plump and fetching, and he loved the way they curved when he made the woman blush.
She tapped his shoulder lightly, then murmured, “Not all of them can be as pleasing as you,” to him before walking back to the bar.
He watched her ass sway, then made a mental note to send her a booty call later that night.
“I did it!”
Mason carried his armful of poker chips over to where Benny was standing, then spilled them on the table they’d set up for payouts. A few rolled onto the floor, and it was clear by the way he snickered that Mason was drunk. He was like a toddler giggling at the slightest amusement.
“Oh, hell, I won big!” he boasted loudly.
Mason wouldn’t be the first young man who said too much that Benny dealt with. He sighed, formulating the warning in his mind, when suddenly, Vito burst through the door.
“Benny!” he called out, eyes wide as saucers. “I’ve got to fucking talk to you, bro!”
The rest of the clients were canoodling with the women, drinking, and complaining when they turned to look at Vito. He didn’t notice. He lacked awareness, which was one of the few traits that irked Benny about him.
Benny held up a hand as he counted Mason’s chips. One of the qualities he actually liked about Vito was that he followed his orders like a lion cub following its intimidating father.
Mason staggered in front of him as he finished counting, then called Florence over to handle the cash.
She was also a woman who never wanted anything more from him than a few good fucks a year. That worked for him.
“You need to keep your voice down,” Benny glowered at Vito, ushering him aside and whispering. “Now, what is going on? Tell me quietly.”
Vito wasn’t afraid of Benny, but he respected him greatly. That was something Benny found easy to manipulate. But he was also clumsy and very annoying.
He shot up a piece of paper he was holding into Benny’s face, causing him to lean backward slightly.
“I found this shit in my locker earlier,” he said, his voice still elevated despite a sad attempt at whispering. “Someone is trying to fucking blackmail me!”
Benny snatched the paper out of his hands, then looked at it under the soft glow of a desk lamp.
It looked like someone had been watching too many made-for-TV movies and had cut out letters and numbers from several different newspapers. It demanded that five thousand dollars be placed at a dead drop, yet to be determined, upon threat of reporting an apparent assault that the person had witnessed.
Benny sighed, then crumbled the piece of paper, jamming it into his blazer pocket.
“Come upstairs with me,” he said.
Benny instructed his security detail to keep an eye on Mason and the rest of the clientele as they left for the evening. He went into his private office on the top floor of the club, sealing the door shut for a private conversation with Vito.
It was a luxurious office space that even the billionaires of high-tech companies could admire. It had a massive oak desk near a tall window that overlooked the streets below. The floors were made of white marble, and black bookshelves lined the room. There were also two long, red-leather couches that Benny had many fun nights on, with many women having ridden his face till their bodies touched the ether.
But it was time for business right now, not pleasure. And Benny was great at narrowing his focus when it came to both.
“Sit down.”
