When The Sun Goes Down - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Ten

After our little chat, Alessio had granted me that little bit of freedom he claimed to have granted all "his girls" and given me permission to branch out of his VIP lounge and work in different areas. I did so immediately. Without his intrusive gaze following me around I felt less tense, I felt free to do a little bit more investigating, and I was far less intimidated by the lower level men. Alessio had told me that this was intended as a safe place for business. In his VIP lounge men often conducted such business with a hot babe on their lap, but where the lower level men stationed?

They drank. They cared less about their image. They were proud to have been permitted down here at all. As a result, they were more crude, made more obvious passes. They were equally quick to retreat their advances if they got so much as a stink eye they cowered away, but its not as thought you can unring a bell.

                So when a felt a shaking hand on my rear end I rolled my eyes. I was almost always pleasant, knowing I had to be, so I forced a light smile as I turned around to politely ask the owner of the hand to shove it somewhere...else. When I turned around my smile instantly fell.

                "Nicolo Luca Santoro what are you doing here!" I yelled. Literally, yelled, I could feel every eye in the room turn to me. "And what is your hand still doing on my ass!"

                "You know I freeze up when I get nervous!" He squeaked with wide eyes and then pulled his hand away.

                I grabbed his wrist and pulled him up and away from the table. I dragged him through the room, weaving around the tables and when we finally found the most secluded area in the room I shoved him hard against the wall.

                "Kate-pie." He groaned.

                "Don't call me that. You are in so much shit right now." I warned.

                "Wh-what?" He stammered.

                "What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed.

                "Well, I joined the mafia." He shrugged and tried to pretend to be casual and nonchalant about the situation.

                "You WHAT?!" I must have been loud because his hands shot up over his ears.

                "What are you doing here?" He yelled back and moved his hands slightly away. He kept them hovering close to his ears just in case I snapped again. "We all thought you were dead or something!"

                "You're not asking me questions right now! What in God's name do you mean you joined?"

                "I joined the mafia." He repeated and shrugged. He looked purposefully to the side, completely refusing eye contract.

                "You didn't." I groaned. My cousin. My little cousin, my little cousin who was barely sixteen, joined? And Alessio let him.

                "Yeah. I did." He said and looked back. We locked eyes and I could tell he was trying to be tough.

                "You can't join."

                "Why not? You did." He said smugly.

                "That is an entirely different story. I haven't joined anything. You have no clue how I wound up down here, and we aren't talking about me right now. You are not joining anything. You hear me?" I said and wagged my finger at him.