Chapter 7 #2
Elio finished the identity check and strolled up the stairs to the casino, wondering if his wife had already been alerted to his arrival. He hadn’t told her he was coming.
Going through the double doors, his first thought was that this was a casino. His extensive network of spies meant he knew the layout and everything else about it perfectly, but knowing something intellectually and experiencing it in the flesh were always different.
He’d always avoided going to any of the Esposito-owned casinos for the reason that he didn’t want to raise their suspicions, and also because he didn’t want to give them his money.
As his country had very few legitimate casinos, the times he’d chosen to gamble his money had been in underground ones and private members’ clubs.
The difference was stark. Even the smell of this place screamed money rather than camaraderie.
But he wasn’t the target audience in this casino or the others his wife owned.
Elio had no delusions that he was anything more than what Lorenzo had once been, a jacked-up thug.
He was rolling in money and wore the best clothing money could buy, but this place was for those with wealth and social standing, not members of Italy’s shadowed world.
Cleverly, the Espositos had made membership so exclusive that being granted it was like winning a golden ticket.
It made him smile to know that very soon, this exquisitely designed hub of money laundering would be his.
He’d hardly taken five steps before a hostess approached, asking if she could get him a drink.
“Malt whisky, neat,” he said.
“I’ll take care of Mr Ranieri’s drink,” said a soft, husky voice behind him.
Just to hear Siena’s voice was to inject his veins with hunger, and when he caught the scent of her perfume as he turned, his hunger grew.
He eyed her appreciatively. The funky skinny jeans, pink t-shirt, black leather jacket and biker boots she’d had been wearing when they’d gone their separate ways early that morning had been replaced with a fitted lime silk dress with short sleeves and a rounded neck.
Falling to an inch above her knees, impossibly high silver shoes elongated her short, curvy figure into something statuesque.
“Here to play?” she asked with a tight smile once the hostess had bustled away.
“With my wife, yes.”
She started walking towards the bar. “I’m afraid your wife is working.”
“Will my wife give me a tour of the place? We can play and work at the same time.”
Not breaking her stride, she swept a slender arm around her. “Everything is here for you to see.”
“I was thinking of a tour of the more private places,” he said with the merest hint of suggestion in his voice.
“I’m afraid those places are off-limits.”
He placed his hand on her lower back, lowered his face to her ear, and whispered, “Then I will wait until we get home to explore them.”
Only the slight tinge of colour high on her cheeks gave away the effect his words had just had on her. “I shall be working until early morning.”
“I can wait.”
They’d reached the bar. She lifted the hatch and stepped through it, closing it before he could follow her through it, and met his stare with a steely one of her own. “It’s your sleep you’ll be missing out on, not mine.”
He laughed and rested his forearms on the closed hatch. “Trust me, neither of us will be getting any sleep tonight.”
Mouth tightening a fraction that was noticeable only to him, she reached for a bottle of the cheapest whisky they stocked and poured him a small measure. Placing it gracefully before him, she flashed the thousand-watt smile he’d seen so many times but never directed at him. “On the house.”
He lifted the glass and winked. “You really are a gracious hostess.”
She returned the wink. Only someone looking closely would see the venom behind it. “This is your first time here. As we both know, the first time is always special and should be treated as such – it would be such a shame for an occasion so momentous to be spoiled.”
Siena felt a stab of satisfaction to watch Elio’s smug smile falter.
Since she’d arrived at the casino, she’d been on tenterhooks. Instinct had told her Elio would show up. She’d been tempted to add his name to the barred list. Instead, she’d left a note that his membership fee was to be double everyone else’s.
When his name had flagged up on the system, her heart had punched into her ribs. Catching sight of him on the camera had made it punch even harder. She hated him for that, wished she could be completely indifferent to him. He would hate that.
Smiling widely, she leaned over the hatch and put her face close to his. “Excuse me, husband, but I have work to do. Enjoy spending vast quantities of your money on my profit levels.”
As she slipped through the door at the back of the bar, she made a side eye at him and smiled widely again to see him sniff the whisky she’d poured him, as if checking that she hadn’t poisoned it.
* * *
Elio was scooping the chips he’d just won at the blackjack table to his ever-growing pile when he spotted Mattia and his pet goon strolling through the casino.
He played the next couple of hands with one eye on them, instinct telling him Mattia would approach him. His instinct was right. When the player on his right left the table, Mattia slid into the vacated seat.
“How are you enjoying your time in our casino?” he asked as he handed a two-hundred-euro note to the croupier to change into chips.
It gave Elio great pleasure to reply, “I think you mean your sister’s casino, and yes, I am very much enjoying beating the house.”
Through the spies he paid within the Espositos’ inner circle, he knew Rico’s handing over of the casinos to Siena had been something that had seriously pissed Mattia off.
Control of the casinos was entirely hers.
Over the years, Lorenzo had gifted his wife and each of his sons numerous businesses and assets to launder money through, but that was all small-fry compared to what was now in Siena’s hands.
Soon, it would all be Elio’s. All of it. The wheels he’d put in motion were turning faster by the day.
“When it comes to the family businesses, everything belongs to everyone.” There was a slight edge in Mattia’s reply.
“Sure, but say, for example, your sister decided, once the legalities of your father’s estate have been finalised, to gift or transfer the casinos to someone outside of the family, there would be nothing you could do to stop her.”
Mattia’s playing chips were given to him. He nodded acknowledgement to the croupier, then nodded a tight smile to Elio. “I wouldn’t need to stop her. Siena’s an Esposito. She knows where her loyalties lie.”
Elio laughed and placed his stake. “For sure. And now I, too, am a part of the great Esposito family, and you have my loyalty, too.”