Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Luna
“Looks great,” I tell the tattoo artist, examining the new ink on my wrist. A dainty queen chess piece with a crown, perpendicular to my self-harm scars.
I step out of the tattoo parlor and continue my stroll down the boardwalk, lifting my bandage to take another peek. If I get the urge to cut, I’ll look at this tattoo and remember I’m a queen in this game of kings.
Stepping inside the arcade, I exchange a twenty for quarters from the same worker as before. Turns out I’m not a queen at any of these games, and it’s not nearly as fun without Vince here. Which pisses me off even more.
“The claw machine is rigged,” I bitch at the worker after I’ve spent all my quarters, with no stuffed animal to show for it.
“You’re just now figuring this out?” He goes back to playing on his phone .
I exit the arcade and continue my aimless wandering, when a man appears from the alley, blocking my path. It’s the big Italian security guard from Fabio’s restaurant who called me jailbait. And from the gross way he’s eyeing me, he’s still thinking it.
Spinning around, I go to take off running, only for another man to appear from the other side of the building, blocking my path.
“Luna, we’re here to take you to Fabio’s,” the newcomer says.
“Why don’t we have a little fun with her first?” the man who called me jailbait says, grabbing my wrist from behind. “I wanna little taste of this jailbait pussy; see what all the fuss is about.”
Swinging my body around, my knee connects with his nuts, and he doubles over with a curse.
I take off in a sprint in the opposite direction.
“Get that bitch!”
The other guy catches up to me, wrapping his arms around me and jerking me to a halt. “Sorry about my friend?—”
I rear back and head butt him, and he curses, releasing his grip. I sprint around the building, practically running into a uniformed cop. “Officer, there’s two men harassing me,” I say in a rush, my chest heaving.
He looks to his phone and then to me, grabbing me by the wrist. “Mike,” he calls over his shoulder. “I’ve got her.”
Mike, the one I head butted, catches up to us, pinching his bloody nose. “Sal, over here,” he calls to his friend. Sal appears, looking like he wants to snap me in two.
“Guess I’m going to Fabio’s,” I say. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Nice try. Let’s go,” Mike says.
“You got this?” The officer asks the men.
“Yeah, thanks,” Mike says.
“Any time. ”
“Thanks for the help, officer,” I shout after him. “If either of you touch me, I’ll tell your boss.” I point at them.
“Fabio told us to bring you in; didn’t say anything about not touching you.” Sal eyes me suggestively.
“I mean the boss.”
“You’re so full of shit, little girl,” Sal says dismissively.
I call Nicky on speakerphone. “Hey, Luna.”
“Nicky, two of your fiancé’s men are forcing me to go with them. One insinuated he was going to sexually assault me.”
“What?” She says in an ice-cold tone. “Give me their names. Romeo!” she shouts.
“Mike and Sal,” I blurt out.
“No!” Mike and Sal go for my phone, and it gets jostled out of my hands, dropping on the boardwalk.
I dive after it, but a whoosh has me looking up in time to watch Sal get drilled in the stomach by a baseball bat; he flies backwards, hitting the ground.
“Vince, hold up,” Mike starts.
Vince swings, hitting Mike in the left kneecap with a painful-sounding crack. Swinging again, Vince takes out Mike’s right kneecap.
Mike screams as he crumbles to the ground, and Vince extends his hand to me.
I accept it, and he pulls me up to standing. “Vince…” I start, but shut my mouth when he cuts me a look. It’s the really pissed Vince look.
Vinc e
“Take off the bandage,” I order Luna, glancing at her covered wrist.
I expect—hell, I don’t know what to expect with this girl anymore—but she peels it off, revealing new ink.
“ Bella chaos. I’m stealing Naples’ nickname and bestowing it to Luna Barone,” I mutter.
We step inside Fabio’s restaurant, and Kat sticks her head out of her office. “Luna, come visit with me while they do…whatever it is they’re doing.”
Luna goes with Kat, and I enter Fabio’s office to find Sal seated across from our visibly annoyed capo. Mike’s on the couch with his legs stretched, icing both knees.
“Vince, take a seat,” Fabio says, and I claim the chair next to Sal.
“Sal and Vince, I thought we had a come to Jesus talk, but obviously, it did not sink in. And now, Mike felt the need to interject himself into this beef.”
Mike and Sal both open their mouths to speak, but think better of it when Fabio produces three vials from his desk. Our capo silently walks across the room to his wet bar. Grabbing a pitcher of water, he pours three glasses and carries them back to his desk.
“Gentlemen, there’s a problem. The boss’s fiancée is upset, which means the boss is upset,” Fabio says. “Mike, Sal, care to tell me what happened with Luna?”
“We found the girl, then Vince went all psycho on us with a baseball bat,” Sal says in a rush.
“Mike, is that all that happened?” Fabio asks. “I’d choose my words carefully if I were you.”
“Well, er,” he bumbles. “Sal did make some comments to Luna. Joking around, I’m sure.”
“What comments?” Fabio asks.
“That he was going to have a little fun with her, that sort of thing.”
“What kind of fun?” Fabio presse s
Mike gulps. “You know, that kind of fun.”
It takes all my willpower to remain seated.
“What else?”
“That boss, you didn’t say we couldn’t touch her.”
Stay seated. Stay seated. Stay seated.
“Is that all?”
“And something about her jailbait pussy,” Mike mumbles, and I nearly break the armrests off the chair.
Fabio silently puts on a pair of surgical gloves with a dramatic snap before he opens the first vial, pouring it into a glass. He proceeds to open the second, pouring it into glass number two, and then the third, pouring it into glass number three.
“Vince.” He pushes the first glass across his desk. “Mike.” Glass number two. “Last but not least, Sal.” Glass number three.
Russian roulette with poison. Out of all the ways I thought I might go out, this one didn’t make the list.
My heart pounds as I grab my glass.
Sal tries to take Mike’s glass, but Fabio notices. “Sal, that’s not your glass.”
“Ah, sorry, boss.” Sal grabs his glass, discreetly taking a sniff.
“Mike, since both your knees have been taken out, keep your seat.” Fabio walks across the room, handing Mike his drink.
“Thanks, boss.” Mike accepts the drink with a shaky hand.
“Of course.” Fabio smiles, returning to his desk. “A toast. To peace in our crew.”
We lift our glasses, and I tip back the liquid. There’s no taste; only the burning taste of regret should this be it for me.
I should’ve made plans with Aldo to look out for Luna.
I should’ve taken better care of Luna.
I should’ve never made Luna cheat.
I should’ve never fallen in love with Luna .
“Gentlemen, here’s a thing you should know about me,” Fabio says, his voice cutting through the silence of the room. “I don’t find threats of sexual assault funny, even if, Sal, you were ‘joking around,’ as Mike so pitifully defended you.”
Sal and Mike begin to convulse violently, with Sal falling out of his chair, and Mike slumping over on the couch. Both mens’ eyes roll back in their heads.
“You’re on casino security until I can work something out.” Fabio points to me.
“You got it, skipper,” I’m quick to agree.
“Is this girl worth all the trouble?”
“Yes,” I answer unequivocally.
“Alright, then.” He tosses me a pair of gloves. “Help me take out the trash.”
Luna
“You work here now?” I check out Kat’s fancy office.
She nods. “I’m the pit boss.”
“I don’t know what that means, but you’re definitely a girl boss.”
“Like it. I need a ‘girl boss’ name plate.” Kat rubs her nails on her dress with a smile. “Pit boss means I oversee the gambling operations. I make sure everything’s running smoothly; dealers are dealing clean; players are on their best behavior. If there’s a dispute, I handle it. On the off chance I can’t handle it, Fabio steps in.”
“You sound like an arbiter.”
“My turn; I don’t know what that means,” she admits .
“Pretty much how you described it, but substitute chess for gambling.”
“Ah,” she says. “I hear you’re a big deal in chess.”
“I became a Grandmaster yesterday,” I tell her. “And beat the reigning world champion, the first time a woman’s ever done it in a rated game.”
“Forget girl boss. Fucking queen moves.” She claps.
I laugh, peeling off my bandage and showing off my new ink.
“Love it. Who’s your tattoo artist?”
I tell her, and she shows me her most recent ink on her wrist. “Just say no?”
She smiles. “A motto, one I completely ignore, because here I am, working for the family.”
“What’s it like working with all these men?” I wonder.
“My life is never dull.” She grabs a deck of playing cards on her desk, shuffling them with one hand. “How long have you and Vince been together?”
“He became my guardian when I was seventeen.”
Kat shakes her head. “I mean like together together.”
“What makes you say that?” I deflect.
She snorts a laugh. “Girl, I’ve got eyes, for one.”
“Vince and I aren’t together together, exactly. It’s…I don’t know what it is.” Nicky told me she’d let me figure it out, but I haven’t yet. That reminds me. “Sorry, I need to send a text to Nicky.”
I’m safe now. At Fabio’s restaurant with Kat. Thanks for helping me out.
Any time.
“Another girl boss, Nicky. Have you met Romeo?” Kat asks.
“Yeah. He’s fucking terrifying.”
“Right?” Kat grabs her phone, checking the time. “I’m conducting dealer training today. You can hang out at the bar while I work. ”
I wrinkle my nose. “Sounds like fun.”
She laughs. “That’s the exact face my dealers made when I told them.”
I follow her out of her office and downstairs, where we enter a casino similar to the one at the social club.
“Aren’t I a little young to be here,” I tease.
She arches her perfect eyebrows. “In this illegal gambling establishment?”
“Ha.”
“I suspect I know what it is, by the way,” Kat tells me quietly. “With you and Vince.”
“What?” I ask, curious.
“Sorry, no spoilers.” She winks at me, joining the dealers.