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Why they’re telling me this, I don’t know. I don’t want to be chattel. I’m not. Nicolo has been explicit in what he wants from me. Sex. Now. Nothing more.
And me? I could fall for a man like him. It’s there in my bones, my blood, way down deep where I can’t reach. I could, but I’m not going to. The crush is bad enough, and his world and the one I want are too different. I’m not about to step back.
“Nicolo is a De Luca. Maybe not by birth, but he’s family.” Mia gives me a pointed look.
“You both had no right to send someone to pretend to like me.”
She holds up her hands, and Scarlett pats my shoulder.
“I asked him to check up on you, keep an eye on you,” Mia says, “not lay claim.”
“We wanted you safe. You’re our friend.” Scarlett’s quiet words warm me.
“I’m not a mafia princess. But this. . .” Mia spreads out her hands. “Is mine. Burlesque, high class, with great clientele. Come on. I’ll give you a tour.”
* * *
I didn’t want to warm up again to these women, but I did. Blake stays in the main room on the phone, drinking her horrible drink, and my mind keeps going back to Nicolo.
How I can be all tied up is beyond me. I should be out of here. It’s the smart answer. Just pack up and go.
But that’s running.
I did it once to give myself a chance to have the life I wanted, and I didn’t want to run because someone might be stalking me. I’m stronger than that, right? I know I am. After all, I am my father’s daughter.
Might be? The low-level irritation of the rub of my knees scrape against the soft denim of my jeans and little pull to my elbow remind me.
As does the small bruise blooming on my face.
I like Mia’s place, and I like these women. And they really do like me. But I hold back a little because they’re so at ease with everything, open in ways I’ve never seen with people in this business.
Or married into it.
All the versions of them I met or passed through our home back in Gold Bay did two things. They kept to themselves like they were nothing more than subservient offshoots of their men or went out of their way to draw me in.
And by in, I mean they were about the life, the structure, and these women? They told me who and what they were, and then everything was just normal girl chat, like me and my friends in Cali.
With the tour done and Mia needing to get things ready for that evening, and Scarlett on her computer, I’m chatting with Blake as she shows me Rocco, her toddler, as she careens from subject to subject. Her dogs, her husband, the new baby, her son, her writing, and I can’t help but like her more and more.
My phone buzzes, and I pull it from my pocket, blood draining as I see who it is.
Brother’s Shack Bar and Grill.
“Oh, God,” I say as we sit at the bar, Blake next to me, and Mia is on the other side with a ledger in her hand. Scarlett looks up from her laptop.
“What is it?” Blake asks.
“I forgot I was on the lunch shift today.”
“It’s not quite eleven,” says Mia.
“I know. But we need to be there at ten-thirty.”
Suddenly my skin pricks as my heart starts to thump.
I know Nicolo is there.
Then he speaks. “You don’t have to go in. You don’t work there anymore.”
