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“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell. Or is that not how the saying goes?” I said, making them chuckle, and thankfully two waitresses-slash-prostitutes came by to take drink orders and flirt.
After playing a few rounds of Texas Hold’em, I picked up on everyone’s tells fairly quickly. Conrad’s fingers twitched on the table when he was bluffing and were completely still when he wasn’t. Erik inhaled before he bluffed, and Hector always touched his face. Nicoli took me a while to figure out, but every time he got a shitty hand, he’d tap his finger on the backside of his cards as he looked at them.
“You have a stone-cold poker face like your father,” Conrad said as he folded his hand.
I smiled as I took a quick sip of the whiskey I had ordered. “Well, he was the one who taught me how to play.” The only reason he had was to teach me to read people. It hadn’t ever been for fun. Just another lesson. A year ago, I would have felt bitter about that, but now I understood. As hard and messed-up as my childhood had been, all of the games, tests, and lessons had been necessary.
Erik had to leave after that hand. “I would like to set up a meeting to discuss business and how the future is going to look now that you’re the head of the Quinn empire. Can I still schedule through Brody, or do you have someone else handling your schedule?”
“You can reach me through Brody,” I told him.
He nodded and left. As the four of us were halfway through another hand, someone pulled out the chair Erik had been sitting in. “Mind if I join you?” an Italian man in a gray suit asked as he sat down, which defeated the purpose of even asking. The man was very familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him. With how Nicoli straightened in his seat and stared coldly at the new addition to the table, I’d say he wasn’t a comrade to the De Lucas.
The new guy smirked and tipped his head at Nicoli. “De Luca.”
“Romano,” Nicoli greeted back.
Hearing that name triggered my memory. Sitting across from us was Vito Romano, the consigliere for the Romano family, who happened to be a rival family to the De Lucas and possibly the Quinns as well. Many generations back, the Romanos had ruled over my and Nicoli’s territories until the Quinns and De Lucas had formed an alliance to remove the Romano family from power. Our families had succeeded and split the Romano territory in two. Of course, the alliance between the Quinns and De Lucas hadn’t lasted long, and we’d been fighting with each other ever since.
“You’re in the wrong territory, aren’t you?” Vito asked Nicoli.
Nicoli folded his hand in the game. “I was invited.”
Vito’s attention moved to me, and his eyes dragged over what he could see of my upper body. “When did they start allowing girlfriends in here?”
I put chips in the pot, calling Conrad’s current bluff, and smiled at Vito. “Why? Does my presence threaten you?”
Vito chuckled. “You got a mouthy one there, De Luca.”
Brenna walked slowly out from behind me and around the table. Anyone else wouldn’t perceive her as a threat. I knew otherwise.
Nicoli relaxed back in his chair with a smirk. “She’s not mine.”
Vito glanced at Conrad and Hector and they both looked away, shaking their heads.
“Then who does she belong to?” Vito asked the table.
“You might want to shut up, Vito,” Conrad warned.
Vito frowned at him. “And why is that?”
Brenna came up behind him and pressed something into his back, making him go stiff. “Because you’re insulting the head of the Quinn family,” Brenna said in a low voice.
Vito didn’t even look surprised, which told me he had been purposely insulting me under the guise of ignorance. “This is a neutral club,” he growled.
The table’s dealer backed away slowly and then took off, undoubtedly to go get Sasha or security.
“Yes, it is,” I agreed. “But don’t forget that no matter how neutral this club may be, it’s still within Quinn territory. My territory. It is merely out of respect for Sasha that I honor the rules of his club. However, there isn’t a rule that says I can’t drag your ass out the fucking door.”
“If you do anything to me, you’ll be starting a war,” Vito threatened.
Nicoli let out a dark chuckle full of malice. “Dominik won’t start a war with the Quinns for you.”
Dominik Romano was the don of the Romano family.
“Are you sure about that?” Vito asked. “Stefan is gone and a bitch—”
Brenna grabbed the back of Vito’s head and slammed it down onto the table. “Oh! I’m sorry, sir! I must have tripped!” Brenna said loudly.
