AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I gasped and sank down to my knees, collapsing from pain.
The glimmer of satisfaction in his hard eyes and the evil smile in light of the pain he’d inflicted on me made me shudder. “Go, slave, and do what you’re told.”
I pulled myself together, got up, and without a backward glance, moved back into the dining room.
But I could feel the blue-eyed devil’s stare burning a hole in my back.
I continued my serving-drinks duty until the guests got seated and the Ape took the head of the table.
Only men.
A sea of black.
Black suits, black-haired and black-eyed. Conversing in Italian.
Except for the blue-eyed devil who was sitting to the Ape’s right, his back to me.
Even though he was black-haired, as well, and even though he spoke fluent Italian.
He stood out. Was different.
Everyone appeared to respect him—but there were sideways glances and murmurs, as well, like an undercurrent. As if everybody was wary of his presence, as if he was somehow an anomaly.
I looked away from his back, and my eyes got stuck on the Ape’s hands.
He opened a vial and filled some kind of clear liquid into his own glass.
Drugs? Or was he spiking his wine with more alcohol?
But why would he do that?
Then the Ape nodded at a server with a big meat platter in his hands, who’d been hovering to the side.
I watched the short interaction, and then the server carried the platter toward the table.
He leaned forward and knocked some glasses over when he placed it on the table—the blue-eyed devil’s glasses.
“Oh,dio mio.” The Ape jumped up immediately, pushed the server to the side, and dried everything with his own cloth napkin. “Gabriele,my apologies. Here, take mine,”he said and handed the blue-eyed devil his own wineglass.
The one he’d just spiked with something.
My heart raced. What the hell was going on? Was all of this staged? To get him to drink?
Damn.
I shouldn’t care, but I did.
I grabbed a glass of wine from the tray of the server next to me, then approached the table.
Don’t drink, don’t drink. Please don’t drink.
I stopped right next to him.
He looked up at me, and his eyes widened. I handed him the glass and shook my head slightly.
I didn’t know if he understood what I was trying to tell him, but he took the glass from my hand, gave the other one back to the Ape, said something in Italian, and nodded at me.
Then he clinked his glass against the Ape’s, and both took a sip.
