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Atlas ignores the DJ and guides me away from the sound booth.
"They must be pretty successful for Chaos to turn darn near obsequious," I say wryly.
"Successful enough." Atlas stops in a secluded corner and pulls me around so I'm facing him. "Is he always so demanding?"
"Talent usually is. One way or another." I shrug. "It's the price I pay for getting the best. Chaos brings in clubbers from all over. People will drive eight hours to be here on a night he is running the music."
The lines will be down the block tonight. I have two extra bouncers coming in.
"How did you get him to come here?"
I don't take offence at the question. My club is successful, but it's not big and I only have the one location. In the suburbs.
"One of my bartenders is his cousin." I've spent five years leveraging every person I have contact with to make Nuovi Inizi profitable.
"He'll leave for LA if Leon offers him a gig," Atlas says warningly.
"Can't be helped. Chaos refuses to sign a contract with any of the area clubs because he wants to break into either the Los Angeles or New York club scenes." Even without a good word from Atlas, Chaos is on the right trajectory to do that soon too.
Which is why I put up with his need to be the center of my attention when he plays my club.
Atlas grunts.
"Is there a reason you haven't mentioned the name of your family's clubs?" I ask.
"Zesti." He waits for my reaction.
I open my mouth. Nothing comes out. I close it. Then I try again. "Your family owns the Zesti clubs?"
There are three in Los Angeles that I know of, and he mentioned that they have clubs in San Francisco too. I'm pretty sure they have locations in San Diego as well.
Tino and his father tried to emulate their success in Detroit. They managed well enough to draw the attention of the local Irish mob and Russian bratva. My husband died trying to keep control of lucrative nightclubs that laundered money by the millions.
Cold suspicion runs up my spine. "Are you here scoping locations for another Zesti?"
Does he want to take over Nuovi Inizi?
Atlas pulls me in for a kiss. "No, Lucia. I told you, me, my brothers and my cousins moved here to build our own thing, not extend what others have already done."
I believe him, but I still say, "Promise me you're not using me to get information so you can start your own club and destroy mine in the process?"
"On my honor, I do not want to destroy your club." He presses his forehead against my own. "I promise."
Again, I believe him. Either that makes me hopelessly naïve, or a really good judge of character.
"Break it up you two." Willow looks down at her tablet. "The bachelorette party cancelled. The groom eloped with the bride's pregnant cousin. I didn't think you'd mind us refunding the reservation deposit for the tables. I wanted to check with you first though."
We usually require a minimum of twenty-four-hour notice to cancel a table reservation without charging a fee.
"We won't have any trouble filling them tonight with Chaos in the sound booth. Have Cheryl contact the waitlist before we open them up to walk-ins though."
"Will do. Barry wants to talk to you about security tonight."
I don't roll my eyes because this is typical of Barry. He has a plan, approved by me, but insists every night on going over it one last time before we open the doors.
Probably comes from being in the military.
I don't complain though. We've never had a major security incident and the minor ones get handled quickly and efficiently.
