Chapter 7
She said yes!
Gianna’s hair is spread out across my chest as I gently run my fingers through the long blonde locks. She’s snoring slightly with her head right over my heart.
I haven’t been able to close my eyes long enough to sleep.
I’m afraid if I stop looking at her, she’ll disappear again. I kiss the back of her head and inhale the smell of coconuts coming off her. I’m not sure what body care products she issues, but I’m addicted to the smell of her, so I’m going to make sure I find out and buy her cases of it.
“Watching people sleep is creepy, you know.” I smile at her sleepy voice.
“A man in love must be forgiven such things.” She turns her head slightly to look at me.
“I don’t have to forgive you shit. Especially after all the trouble you’ve caused me. Getting back to the US to be confronted by Lucia DeSantis was not the homecoming I wanted. What were you thinking!” She pushes up, using me as leverage to sit up.
“Fuck baby,” I gasp when I’m finally able to breath again.
“Lucas this is serious. What have you been doing and leave nothing out. I was ordered to kill you.” My eyes widen.
I guess I’ve been playing my part to well.
“Not what you think. Well, yes I’m selling drugs out of the club,” I stop short and raise my hands when she reaches for her bedside table.
I know it has a loaded Glock inside because I’ve been living in this apartment for months.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” she says, pulling out a hair tie to twist her hair up and out of the way.
“I love it this long,” her eyes rolling made me smile.
“It’s a nuance, like you. Keep talking,” she stands completely nude and walks over to the bathroom.
I hear the shower turn on and stare at the door, waiting for her to come back out.
“TALK!” She yells at me as the toilet flushes.
I grab my crotches and hop over to the doorway.
“I need to see you when I’m talking to you. Do you realize how many conversations I had with you while you were gone? I convinced myself they were real. I can’t talk to you through a wall.” She sighs before giving me a small smile.
“Fine, but I need to wash away the last few months. Join me?” How was any man supposed to decline an offer like that?
Especially coming from a naked woman he loved carrying his child?
“Put your tongue back in your head, Lucas.” I blink and then burst out laughing.
“Was that a joke?” She shrugs as she makes sure my shower chair is secure.
“It has been known to happen,” I kiss her on my way into the shower.
“The drugs aren’t drugs,” I say as I sit down and watch her close the shower door.
It’s a tight fit, especially with her belly, but I back up to the wall so she can move.
“I think I need you to start at the beginning.” She grabs a washcloth and lathers it up with that fucking coconut soap.
“You left Reno and it took me all of six hours to realize I need to come after you. The only problem stopping me was, me. So took my head out of my ass and started doing my physical therapy. Got my new prosthesis and came running to LA. When I got here, you were gone. Bruno was trying and failing to keep shit afloat, and your girls were going to be out of money within a week.” She stops rubbing the washcloth around my back and looks at me.
“I left plenty of money,” I put a finger over her lips.
“More than half of that went to pay off the guy I’m trying to put out of business. He came in and,” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
When I came and reopened the doors, some of the staff didn’t want to return. They had been beaten up pretty badly or worse. I clear my throat and continue.
“Bruno paid him off to keep them safe, then closed the club.” Her eyes widen.
“Yeah, I figured that wouldn’t have been what you wanted, so I got things up and running again. Then, the drug problem came into play. I let Bruno be the face of the business while I handled the shit I could quietly in the back. About two weeks after the reopening, this asshole comes back and tells Bruno that he now works for him.” She’s working on shampooing my hair now and pulls my hair rather roughly, causing my dick to wake up.
“WHO?” She grinds her teeth, waiting for my response.
“Baby, if I knew that, he’d already be dead. It was some middle guy sent in to lay down the law. Bruno sent him packing with a black eye, broken arm, and a very polite fuck off. Next night, a car bomb went off out back.” She curses rapidly in Italian and throws the washcloth she was using on her own body to the tiled floor.
“That’s when Jester had a brilliant idea. If we give them a little competition, maybe we can flush the asshole out. So I pretended myself to the public as your husband, and the King Pin persona took root.” She shouts off the water once we’re both clean and wraps a towel around her body.
“So you are running drugs.” I shake my head.
“He’s supplying me drugs that I am switching for placebos. Everything leaving this club is fake. But we aren’t the only club he’s running out of. Last night, we switched it up so that, hopefully, he’ll finally surface.” She raises an eyebrow at me.
“We put the competitor’s logo on the baggies.” She stops brushing out her hair and stares at me.
“Who’s that?” I smile.
“Me of course.”