ChapterTwenty-Seven
AVA
On Saturday night, Bella came to the casino to hang out. I couldn’t take her upstairs to my apartment, not with my bosses always watching me. So I met her at the Fino Bar.
“Girl, drink up!” Bella tipped the bottom of the glass to my lips and then threw her arms above her head. “Yeah, bitch!”
She was so annoying, especially when she was drunk. Even after years of friendship, I still wondered how we’d stayed friends. Probably because neither of us had many options.
The Mafia kids ran in the same circles. We couldn’t risk letting outsiders into our world.
So I was stuck with her.
Bella thought I was boring and uptight, the typical number cruncher. Maybe she was right. It wouldn’t have killed me to have fun once in a while.
I downed the contents of the glass and set it on the bar, a fake smile plastered on my face.
Bella slung her arm across the back of my neck and turned me so that we could look out into the crowded bar. “I can’t believe you live at the Portofino. This is so fucking awesome.”
“Not quite,” I shot back. “You know what the Lucianos are making me do for them.”
She sighed, eyes downcast. “Sorry, babe. You were so close to getting out of this place, and they pulled you back into this fucked up shit.”
“I thought I was going to be the one to break the chain. The first person to get out of here.”
“My dad mentioned something to me last night.” She pressed her lips together and glanced around the bar, checking that no one was close before saying, “I think my dad is going to set me up with Sneaky Pete Morelli.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and gasped. “Are you joking? He’s Nico’s best friend. I went to his thirtieth birthday party at his apartment in Manhattan.” I did a double-take around us and then said, “Does that mean you’ll live in New York?”
“Nah.” She drank from the glass in her hand. “Pete has a place in AC. If we got married, we would live there.”
“Is it a done deal?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. But my dad sounded pretty confident Pete would be asking me to marry him someday soon.”
I gripped her shoulder and leaned closer. “Why Pete?”
“He has all the right connections. My dad wants to ensure he becomes a captain.” She flicked her black hair over her shoulder and groaned. “Anyway, do you think your men will make an appearance tonight?”
I laughed at her ridiculous comment. “They’re not my men.”
“No?” Bella’s red-glossed lips curled up into a smile. “Because I doubt Nico cooks breakfast for the women he fucks.”
“We didn’t fuck.”
“Uh-huh.” Bella giggled. “You better not be holding out on me, bestie.” She lifted another shot glass from the bar. Half a dozen glasses lined the space in front of us. “What about Dante? Any more spankings on your desk?”
“No, he’s barely even looked at me since. I get the feeling he hates himself for wanting me. But I don’t know why.”
Bella sat on the bar stool and pulled me into the chair beside her. “How about the twins?”
“Just the times I told you about.” Resting my elbow on the bar, I looked at her. “Is it wrong that I liked it? Because when they touch me, I can’t control myself. It’s like everything I have ever believed goes out the window.”
She rubbed her red glossed lip together and smiled. “This is the first time in your life you don’t have to follow the rules or worry about getting good grades. None of that shit you cared about matters anymore.”
“But I still want that future.”
Her eyebrows rose an inch. “But do you? Because you seem happier since you moved in with the Lucianos.”