"But,fratellone," Xander’s smirk widens, "we were just talking."
"And now, you’ve finished talking." I nod my chin toward the door, "Don’t call me, I’ll call you."
"Aww," Xander chuckles, "and I was only trying to be friendly."
"Well, take your friendliness somewhere else." I fold my arms across my chest, fix him with my most stern gaze. "Now," I say in a low voice and that wipes the smile off of his face.
"You got it, Boss."
He walks past us without saying another word. The rest of the guys file out with him. Antonio closes the door, and I turn to find Beauty staring at me with an incredulous look other face.
"Don’t call me, I’ll call you?" She huffs, "You really do need to work on your dialogues."
"Is that right?"
"Yeah," She swipes her hair over her shoulder, "I mean, how trite can you get?"
"Trite, eh?"
"Seriously, every part of you is a cliché." She sniffs, "From your dark suits, to your glowering face, to…" She glances around the space, "To this office, on top of a nightclub."
"What’s wrong with having an office at the top floor of a nightclub?"
"It’s predictable."
"It’s convenient."
"Why? So you can have women service you as you are working?"
"Hmm." I stroke my chin, "Now that you mention it, that is a fringe benefit."
"What the hell?" She pushes against my chest. "How dare you say that to me?"
"I’m not the one who brought it up, Beauty; you did. Speaking of," I peer into her face, "what are you doing here?"
"I wasn’t aware that I was a prisoner."
"My point, exactly." I hold her gaze, "You could have escaped, Beauty; you could have walked out of the house—"
"Which I did."
"Or called your sister—"
"You didn’t give me my cellphone, and if I had called from your home, no doubt, you would have found out about it right away."
"You could have called her from somewhere else, once you left the house.
She blinks, "True."
"But you didn’t think of it?"
She shakes her head.
"Why is that?"
"For the same reason that you didn’t imprison me in your home, this time," she murmurs.
"What reason is that?" I fold my arms across my chest.