The women who wander around carrying trays of liquor are wearing short dark blue sequined dresses. They all wear the same gown. I’m pretty sure if they bend over, I’d get an eyeful of their assets.
At the sight of Papa, my eyes light up, and I wave at him, hoping that he’s come to take down the Ricci Family once and for all.
“Papa!” I shout across the room.
He’s sharply dressed, and a cigar bobs from his lips. He pulls it out long enough to throw a punch at Daniel.
They exchange heated words before Papa storms across the room and through a distant hallway. I can no longer see him.
Did he not hear my scream?
Tears well in my eyes. The makeup will indeed be smeared, and I pry at the collar wanting the wretched leather and metal off me. I gasp for breath, certain that I’m choking and the collar is strangling me.
Heavy sets of footsteps approach. “Deal with her,” a man in a suit says to the other men.
Are they talking about me?
Daniel whips out a hundred-dollar bill. “Give me an hour with her,” he says.
He’d been positioned behind the other men in suits that had approached. I hadn’t seen him at first.
Maybe I didn’t want to see him.
Rafael plucks the money from his fingers. “Four hundred for twenty minutes.” He holds out his hand, expecting the additional funds deposited into his palm.
Daniel retrieves his wallet from his pocket and pulls out a wad of crisp hundreds. “An hour,” he reaffirms that he’s buying me for the next hour.
Why is Rafael collecting the money? Is he working for the Ricci’s?
Where did Daniel get that money from? How much more does he have in his wallet?
Maybe I should have snatched his wallet instead of his truck keys. It was too late now to second guess the past.
The other men disperse, and Daniel is left standing over me, looming and brooding.
He looks pissed. He also has a shiner on his cheek. The guys roughed him up.
I still don’t understand what is going on. Why were Papa and Rafael here?
I want to run. The intensity of his stare, his tight eyes, and how he threw money at Rafael makes me nervous.
What does he intend to do with me?
I push myself up from the velvet booth, my legs still wobbly, but I begin to stand. Maybe I can skirt him and make a run for the exit.
If only I knew where the exit was located, and I wasn’t wearing that stupid collar.
“Sit,” his harsh words cause a shiver to course through my body.
He looks angry with me. It’s probably because I stole his truck. Who the hell is he? How did he have so much money?
The capos did well for themselves, but they weren’t tossing money around like the way Daniel had to buy my time.
I shiver. What was he going to do to me for stealing from him?
If he was with the Ricci family, then I was in serious trouble.
“Daniel,” I whisper.
How can I not be surprised to see him? I try to soften my voice and make myself sound less of a vixen than I am.
“It’s Dante,” he says, correcting me. “Dante Ricci.”