AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Surprise had me echoing his words. “A date?”
“Have dinner with me, Piper. Maybe if you get to know that I’m not such a bad guy, you’ll feel better about kissing a stranger.”
“Dinner?”
His low laugh made my thighs clench. “Or, you could just keep repeating everything I say. Is that some kind of technique you use with your patients?”
“Dinner when?”
His dark eyes gleamed. “Whenever you want. How about your next day off? Because I’d rather not eat dinner at four in the morning.”
“Okay.” My brain seemed stuck in neutral, but my mouth took over and I told him what day would work best. We agreed on a restaurant and a time, and that was that. Except, unlike Will, he stuck around until I was in my car. He even held the door until I’d climbed in and fastened my seatbelt.
With him standing over me, he looked even bigger than before. And with his arm resting on the edge of the car door, I wondered about what was under his jacket. Besides his impressive muscles, I meant. Was he armed tonight, too?
That, and many other questions, kept me awake well after the sun came up. But despite my misgivings, I couldn’t bring myself to regret agreeing to have dinner with him.
5
MATTEO
I wincedas I opened my wallet and threw a twenty on the bar. There were only four more twenties in there. It was enough to last for a day or two, but it was pretty paltry when you considered that we were supposed to be rolling in millions by now.
Not that the heist had been about the money. Or not entirely about the money. It wasn’t, not for me and not for Cesare, at least. It was as he’d said—it was about power. If you had enough power, you were in control. That was what it boiled down to for me. I’d spent years in the army following orders. Eating what they told me to. Sleeping where they told me to. Killing who they told me to.
I never wanted anyone to have that kind of control over me again. It was time for me to be the boss. Well, me and Cesare. Somehow, I didn’t mind when he took charge. He wasn’t just family, he was a good man. And those were rare these days.
Finishing off my nearly empty glass, I surveyed the dark bar. There were a few guys I recognized by sight, but no one I really knew. That was probably a good thing given the foul mood I was in tonight.
Music piped through the creaky overhead system. There were a couple of ancient pool tables on the other side of the room, and I couldn’t see past the two corner pockets nearest to me. The purplish light fixtures on the ceiling were well overdue for replacement. Pretty much everything in this place was. The clientele here wasn’t exactly made up of fine, upstanding citizens.
Most of the regulars were bikers and other shady individuals, myself included. Once, the cops had barged in and arrested two men who were afterwards tried for a series of burglaries. But, I wasn’t going to go anywhere else. Amanda’s was the only place I liked hanging out within walking distance from my apartment. I didn’t like to drink my ass off and get back behind the wheel. I didn’t drink often, but, tonight, I actually felt the need to do so. Alcohol would numb my senses and take my mind off my recent failure.
I shifted on my stool at the bar, spotting Amanda herself to my left.
The bar’s manager came over and frowned at me. “Did someone die or something? Because, I’m telling you, you look like someone died.”
I smiled bitterly. “Almost.”
The middle-aged woman’s smile faded, and she paused her perpetual gum chewing. “I heard your buddy Leonardo got hurt. He’s a good kid.”
I nodded automatically, but I couldn’t help examining her statement. In what world was a nearly thirty-year old guy with a long crime sheet and the impulse control of a squirrel on meth a good kid?
Oh yeah, this world. And as it happened, I agreed with her.
She patted my shoulder and took off, moving on to talk to other customers as she usually did this time in the evening.
I finished my beer and caught a biker over by a pool table staring at something behind me. He muttered something, drawing his friend’s attention. The two of set their cues down on the floor between their feet. My curiosity piqued, I looked back over my shoulder.
The sight that greeted me was bizarre. For a moment, I thought I wasn’t in Amanda’s, but at a much fancier place. There was a beautiful brunette, just five feet from the gray, steel entrance. Her outfit perplexed me. She had a deep purple dress that looked way too classy for this joint. It ended above her knees. Her black high heeled boots revealed very shapely legs that warranted a second or third glance. But her purse was out of place, too. The leather bag, I knew from my youthful days of stealing and fleecing, was worth several thousand dollars.
Yet, the stranger’s appearance was not the weirdest thing about her.
That would have to be her company.
Herhugecompany to be exact.
She had one bodyguard on either side. Both of them were in gray suits and wore black ties, their fingers interlocked over their flat stomachs. Their muscles and their demeanor clearly spoke of mob involvement.
