Chapter 18
Cipriana
Three sets of tired eyes are now wide awake, and on me.
“Hi, guys.” I wave casually, dropping my Misty persona for my bubbly self. “Capri Dotelli, attorney at law.”
Considering my makeup is as whorish as possible, and my tits are nearly out, I must look insane. Like, worse than Legally Blonde insane.
“My father wanted me with a good girl before he passes. He’s sick, as I’m sure you all could tell last time you saw him. But it’s progressing bad, and I suppose he wants a fucking postcard of me with a family in his reel of dying memories.”
“Yo. That’s dark, boss.” Snaps winces.
“You’re hiding Rocco’s daughter in plain sight?” Mikey slaps his own forehead and wipes his hand through his hair . “Gesù Cristo.”
“My father owes hers his life. I, like the three of you, revere that old fuck. I don’t say it much, or as often as maybe I should, but it’s true. And his dying wish is for this.” Trino holds up his hand clasped with mine, and glimpses the corner of my mouth curve into a grin.
“Was wondering why you were with the same woman two days in a—”
Snaps slaps Bruno in the arm to shut him up.
“It’s going to be for a lot more than two days. So the three of you better get used to it. And if you don’t respect me enough to hide the woman that’d surely start World War Three of the crime families, I hope you’d do it for my father.”
“We’re with you ’til the end, Trino.” Mikey kisses two fingers and holds them up toward the ceiling. “Lord knows my fat ass would be on a yacht somewhere fading into boredom if you hadn’t pulled me back in.”
“Same here.” Bruno winks at me, and I can’t help feeling a little lighter at how easily they’re all accepting this.
“Not going to say it again.” Snaps folds his arms. “Makes me mad when you question my loyalty.”
“I like these guys, hunnie.” I annoyingly cling around Trino’s arm. “Why didn’t you say you had such good friends?”
“Welcome to the family.” Bruno leans over Trino to grab my hand and give it a kiss.
“No raspberries on that one, fat ass.” Mikey cackles. “She’s off limits.”
“Fuck off!”
“Raspberries? Like blowing on bellies?” I lift my crop top jokingly, causing Trino to snap his tongue and put a hand up to stop my shenanigans.
“Act like a lady,” he scowls, an air of grumpy humor in his voice.
“Says the guy who wants me to strip.” I can’t help myself now that everything’s out in the open.
The men laugh.
“I like her.” Snaps points.
“Wow.” Bruno rubs his chin. “Like Mikey said – hiding Rocco’s daughter in plain sight. Fucking genius.”
“Oh, don’t make his head bigger than it is, Bruno.” I push my lips to one side.
We banter for some time. The four of them interact like brothers. Makes me wonder how long they’ve been handling this little Jersey operation together. Then things get serious.
“Alright, boss. Plan for tonight?” Snaps asks.
“The three of you manage your branches. I’ll be shifting between the three. Bruno, you’re in charge of keeping watch of my woman.” Trino looks him dead in the eye.
The proclamation sends a tingle down my thighs and a warm sensation cradling my heart. There’s that masculine energy I didn’t know how badly I needed.
“What transpired here today does not leave this fucking house. Not even Chestnut. I went through Capri’s social media posts that the Lucrazis and Barones have access to, and I can assure you, the woman in those photos looks nothing like this one.
” He thumbs to me. “So we should be good there. Besides, if they show up, they’ll be looking for me, not her. ”
I feel like a popcorn machine. Emotions are going haywire. Now a twinge of fear yanks at my insides. Imagining a bunch of mobsters swarming this house with guns out scares the shit out of me. Trino would know what to do, though. Wouldn’t he?
He’s so commanding in his role.
“Capri.” Trino waves in my face.
“Hm?”
“If you see any suspicious characters heading into the club—”
“Really?” I dip my head. “ Everyone is suspicious at Star Dust.”
“Guys not dressed to get a dance, Capri. Or maybe a group that’s looking to intimidate. If you see anything resembling that, I want you to hide in the corner-most private rooms. Those two have full doors, alright?”
“Okay.”
“As I said before – they’re coming,” Trino growls.
“What do we say if they ask for you?” Mikey asks.
“Yeah, boss, what are you going to be doing?” Snaps fidgets in his seat, and I can’t tell if he’s worried or excited.
Trino smirks at them. “I’m going on offense.”
xxx
The lump in my throat from getting married in a musky four-walled box returns with a vengeance. I’m scared about enemy visitors, and that Trino’s going to be going on his own to pay them a visit. I’m in the car next to him, worried to interrupt his focused train of thought.
He always looks like he wants to kill someone when he’s thinking.
Nothing else I can do but nervously twirl the string of this new stripper outfit he had delivered today. Hot pink lace, crisscross ties up the sides, with something similar to a bikini bottom covering my goodies. If I didn’t have this black see-through covering, I’d feel completely naked.
“What you feeling about all this?” He glances my way without turning his head, one buff tattooed arm on the wheel.
“Worried.”
“Mm,” he grunts.
“Won’t going straight to the enemy make you look guilty? On cases, we’re advised never to show our hand until we know we’ve won.” I bite my lip.
“They went after Jay Rockstar pretty aggressively, which means they wanted to send a message. They’re waiting for me already, Capri.”
That sends a new wave of trepidation through me. “Won’t they… torture you, or something?”
“Nah, no one’s got the greenlight to hurt me. They want to judge my reaction. And most of all, they want the whereabouts of my father.”
“What are you going to say?”
“That I don’t have a leash on the retired old fuck. He’s in one of the hot states, and we’ve had a bit of a falling out. So when you find him, tell him to send a fucking postcard.”
The air from his anger makes me sit flat against the car seat. “That was pretty convincing.”
“For a scared woman, sure. Some angry mafia men looking for revenge, though? Who knows.”
“Who are you going to meet?”
“His name’s Nicky Frits . Very hard man to pin down. But don’t you worry your pretty little ass about him.”
“Please be careful, Trino,” I fail to mask the worry in my voice.
He side-eyes me again. “If I die, all this shit goes to you now.”
A pinch of fire ripples throughout my body, culminating into an actual pinch to his leg.
The car jerks slightly from his shock, and I don’t give him a chance to get mad about it.
“Don’t even joke like that! I only agreed to this craziness because you’re my guardian now, Toretto.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up. You agreed because you had no choice but to agree, bug. Now keep those fiery hands to yourself before I wind up running over a pedestrian or something ridiculous.”
I lean closer to his face causing him to pull back, but I grab his collar to bring him close. I’m channeling a bit of Misty right now.
Planting a loving kiss on his cheek represents all my fears and hopes, at least for the short-term. “Come back for me, Trino. Don’t leave me in Star Dust to rot.”
His grey-green eyes linger on mine. “I won’t leave you dry, Capri. Now sit back.”
We arrive at Star Dust, and my second night of work feels more nerve-wracking than the first. As if it was even possible.
Trino whispers something to the bouncers about me when I’m just out of earshot, then grabs the back of my arm and presses his perfectly luscious lips on mine, giving me a brief instant of comfort before pulling away.
“Go see Bruno. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Nerves tingle all the way down to my toes as the warm air of a starry night is sucked into the perfume-sweat musk of the strip club.
Not being paraded in by Trino might work to my advantage today.
I’m just another one of the girls, tonight.
Not to mention, I had to rethink my stoic hot-girl strategy since these dancers can work the pole about one-hundred times better than I can.
Can’t keep relying on ol’ twerky.
I wave at Desdemona manning the front desk, and make my way inside the dingy room. Once I see the long four-corner bar framing the stage, my stomach sinks. Déjà vu of Trino getting up mid-dance still haunts me from yesterday.
God, what a freakin’ whirlwind these last days have been. Just last night I was sitting on a chair surrounded by grass, hiding from a mobster. Now I’m married to him.
“Misty, hunnie. Evening.” Chestnut and her two breasts greet me from the sky. Just kidding, but she’s really damn tall. Her arm slides around my small frame, and I get a waft of her lemony perfume. “Bruno wants you to check in before you get started tonight.”
“Are you holding me tight so I don’t run away?” I address the elephant in the room, and she giggles at that.
“We’ve all wanted to do it before. In a sense, you were the only one with the balls to.”
“Oh, you’re too kind. That was embarrassing as all hell,” I say, looking up at her. She’s as tall as Trino, damn.
“Don’t let those girls get into your head, okay? They can be a little rough about any little insecurity you show them. Keep that bitch face on tight.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
We walk up to Bruno, who’s sitting on his ass with oversized glasses counting cash and working on an old school laptop. Papers sprawled everywhere. Guess he’s doing the books.
“Daddy’s main squeeze has arrived.” Chestnut presents me. In the back of my head, I wonder how many women she’s presented this way, and whether she was ever one of them. Shit. Did Trino fuck all the Dusties?
Yeah, I just nicknamed all the dancers Dusties. That’s sticking in my book.
“Misty, have a seat.” Bruno pretends to barely know me. “Thank you, Chestnut. I’ll get her started.”
She winks at me and struts away. It’s only now I realize the establishment is attracting more business folk than last time. Rolled black sleeves and open corporate-casual blazers are on pretty much every guy around the bar.
“You know you’ll never keep that kind of clientele with the floors so sticky,” I say.
He puckers his lips. “Then the old flies will come right back to take their place.”
“Don’t you want to thrive? I know these types – lawyers, accountants, financiers – I went to school listening to their complaints. They got the moola, Bruno Belly.”
“Don’t want too much attention, hun.”
I shrug. “Guess I have a lot to learn about the underworld.”
He looks over the rim of his glasses. “You want to learn? I’ll teach you. Come by after your shift.”
I smile at that – some semblance of my old life gives me a shred of hope. “Sounds good. So what’s my directive today?”
“Hm. It’s possible you launched yourself out of a cannon the first day. Why don’t you take it slow. Get to know some of the girls, and if someone requests a dance, see what you can give ’em.”
That last part made me stiffen. I have no idea what the hell I was imagining, but dancing up on random guys as they groan and try to rub their junk on me was something I thought I was protected from.
What was I thinking? Could Trino just order unlimited dances from me?
“Will do.” I adjust my lace to perfectly cradle my breasts, then about-face, psyching myself to get out there.
“Oh and Misty.”
“Yeah?” I look over my shoulder, translucent cloak swaying like I’m some kind of sexy fairy.
“If there are any concerns, you come see me.”
“Thanks, Bruno.” I wink at him, putting on my sexy stripper seduction voice, hoping to God it doesn’t crack once I get out there.
As I strut around the bar to try and blend in, I notice one of the Plastics – Ruby – teasing her finger around a new patron’s shoulder. Then I glimpse the queen bee, Britta, strutting out of the private area with a tall handsome businessman, who has a stain on his pants.
My soul almost leaves my body at the sight. It’s so degrading to make money this way, isn’t it? Or am I acting a privileged bitch?
Here comes that feeling again. That itch to run for the hills.
Britta’s shadow of a smirk haunts me while she struts past. Where does one go after jerking a guy off over the pants? Or riding him until your bare ass is soaked in whatever cum is bleeding through the threads? Bathroom, duh.
The handsome man grabs for a napkin on the bar and unabashedly pats the sweat off his forehead. Honestly, if I swung that way, Britta would be the one who’d do it for me too. So no shame, big guy.
I stop at the farthest corner of the bar, where Diamond is sipping on some kind of clear fizzy drink with a lime.
“Hello, Misty. Did you have a nice run?” She smirks cattily at me.
“Bet you wish your girlfriends were around to hear that one.” I plop on the seat next to her without asking. “Don’t repeat it when they huddle up to us. That’d be tacky.”
Don’t be such a bitch, Capri.
You need these girls if you’re going to blend in.
Naomi is whipping around one of the poles in front of us, clacking her heels and spreading her legs as she slow-slides to the floor.
“What made you come back?” Diamond takes an obnoxious sip of her drink.
“Need the cash,” I lie.
“Takes guts. I would’ve ran all the way to the next club and started over.”
I shrug. “Can’t get much worse than rock bottom, right?”
“We’ve all been there.” She takes another sip. “Well, tonight you’re going to learn to prowl, because another train of business boys just rolled in.” She nods toward the door.
“I think I’ll just watch this time,” I say.
“Nonsense. You had the right idea last night.”
“That’s all I had, Diamond. I blew my load, so to speak.”
She cackles at that, then gets quiet, like she’s thinking about something.
“What?” I ask.
“C’mon. We have a trial pole in the dressing room. I’ll teach you a thing or two. Then by the time we come out, these guys will be nice and tipsy so we can grab at their wallets.”
A breath of fresh, cum-misted air fills my lungs. I’m delighted – not because I’m going to learn how to dance, but because I made my first real friend in here.