Chapter Eight
Valentina
M y head bounces off the surface and stars erupt behind my eyes. I’m about to shove him off, whoever he is, when his hand closes around my throat and he pins me in place.
“Who the fuck are you?” The unknown man sneers into my face. Spittle from his lips lands on my cheeks.
His strength overpowers me. I’m unable to loosen his hold on me, no matter how hard I claw at his wrist. The more I struggle, the more angrily he squeezes.
A shout pierces the air.
“Stop! W-what are you doing?” Capri cries. For the second time in thirty minutes, she comes to my rescue when she launches herself at him.
The man backhands her with his free hand and sends her flying to the floor. My eyes bulge as she hits the ground and doesn’t move. He knocked her unconscious with one slap.
“You’ll pay for that later, bitch.” He turns back towards me, his face twisted in a hateful rictus. “ You . Explain why the fuck Matteo Leone is interested in you.”
That’s twice in under an hour that Matteo’s attention has made me an unwanted enemy. I think I’m only beginning to scratch the surface of uncovering just how bad a fuck up crossing paths with him will turn out to be.
“He’s not,” I bluster, grabbing the man’s wrist with both hands to release the pressure and allow some air in.
“Then why the fuck did he audition you himself?”
“I…don’t know,” I gasp. I feel myself turning purple from lack of air. “He said he was bored.”
The man pulls me from the wall and slams me back into it. Pain momentarily blackens my vision. I’m seconds away from passing out.
“Please…” Desperation makes me beg and I hate him that much more for it. “He wouldn’t… have hired me… as a stripper … if he was… interested in me,” I argue.
My muscles relax and my body goes limp.
It’s only then that he releases me. I fall to the ground in a pile of boneless limbs. My murdered throat fights to survive, alternating between sucking in greedy breaths and giving in to bouts of uncontrollable coughing.
“I’ll be watching you,” he threatens. “Stay the fuck out of my way.”
“Or you’ll kill me?” I choke out, trying to cancel out the previous desperation I showed him with an admittedly reckless lack of fear.
The hair on the back of my neck raises when the man crouches next to me.
“There are worse things than death. Worse places I can send you.” He grins sadistically, and my blood runs cold. “You wouldn’t be the first.”
Then he’s gone, leaving me dazed, hurt, and beyond fucking confused. I crawl over to Capri and grab her shoulders. She doesn’t immediately wake so I shake her and gently smack her unharmed cheek.
“Capri, wake up. Please wake up.” Her eyes blink open slowly and dazedly, but she’s conscious and seems at least somewhat alert. “Oh, thank god.” I sigh in relief. “Are you okay?”
“I think so…” She sits up and cups her face gingerly. “What happened?”
My throat is screaming, every word out of my mouth painful when I answer. “Some psycho just assaulted us.”
I sit and prop my back up against the wall. Capri does the same on the opposite side of the hallway. She nods slowly, indicating she remembers what happened.
After a moment, her brows pull together. “What do you mean ‘some psycho’? Didn’t you recognize Guido?”
Ah. The infamous Guido.
“We’ve never met.” I wince when I rub at the sensitive skin of my throat. “Can’t say I’ve enjoyed the introduction thus far.”
She cocks her head to the side. “Didn’t he audition you?”
This again. If I’d known just how out of process having Matteo take me to the VIP room would be, I’d have fought harder against it.
Then again, that would have meant spending time with Guido alone and that hardly presents as an appealing alternative.
“No,” I say simply.
“Then who did?”
I shrug offhandedly. “A guy named Matteo Leone.”
The stretching silence is broken by her sharp, astonished whistle. “ Cazzo ,” she curses.
“What?” I question. “Is he worse than Guido?”
“No,” she says, before correcting herself. “Well, yes. He’s second in line to be Don after his father, Augusto, dies, behind only his brother, Rocco.” She scoots across the hall to sit next to me, whispering, “That entire family… They’re sociopaths, Melody. Take Guido as a prime example of that, he’s a cousin of theirs. You need to avoid the Leones at all costs.” Her eyes dart up and down the hallway fearfully. “Don’t tell anyone I said that. They’ll kill me. But you need to be careful.”
“If you’re so terrified of him, why did you say no at first?”
She winces, her eyes moving back to mine as she admits, “Because Matteo is a mystery. He moved back to London less than two years ago and we know as much about him today as we did on that first day. I’m not just saying “we”, the dancers, I mean “we”, the whole Famiglia . He takes care of his branch and that’s it. He stays out of the way, he ignores mostly everyone except his shadow, Enzo, and he never interacts with the girls.”
If Matteo moved back to London less than two years ago, that means he came home just before Adriana was kidnapped and murdered. I wonder if that’s just a coincidence or an actual piece of evidence to be leveled against him.
“He’s limited the dancing I’m allowed to do,” I admit.
Surprise colors her features. “How so?”
“I’m only allowed to dance. No stripping, no nudity, no lap dances. I’m not sure why.”
Capri’s brows hit her hairline. “He’s putting a hands off order on you. I think the why is clear.”
I shake my head at her suggestive tone. “No. It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s exactly what I’m thinking. It’s a good thing I didn’t take you through the menu, yours is going to be very short.” She laughs, her expression turning bemused. “No wonder Arabella sees you as a threat. Her and her posse have been trying to get their claws in him from the jump. He’s quite the catch, if you’re willing to take the risk that he might turn out to be just as psychotic as the rest of his family.”
“Maybe he’s not,” I hear myself say. Then, because I could slap myself for saying something so foolish, I add, “But it’s irrelevant. Whatever his motives and interests may be, I have no intention of going anywhere near him.”
She gives me a conciliatory smile beneath a dubious expression, like she doesn’t quite believe me. Like she thinks I might be as foolish as Arabella where he’s concerned.
“Good,” she says nonetheless. “Because all men are bad, Melody, but Leones are by far the worst.”
She rubs at her forearms, absentmindedly feeling for the bruises on her skin. I think back to Guido, to how easily he’d hit her. He never paused, never hesitated. There was a familiarity in his blows that spoke volumes.
“Is Guido the one who gave you those bruises?” I ask softly.
Her throat works with difficulty as she looks down at her arms. When her eyes meet mine, there’s a raw vulnerability in them that rends me open.
“Yes.” Her answer is barely audible. “He doesn’t care about dirtying up the merchandise,” she adds with a mirthless laugh. “His words.”
“Does he make you do other things?”
This time, she doesn’t look at me when she speaks. I barely make out her answer. “Sometimes.”
There’s a hollowness to her voice that I haven’t heard yet. It sends a violent urge flaming through me to murder him for daring to dim her sparkle. She’s already saved me twice in a place that made a victim out of her.
I reach over and twine my fingers with hers. Her hands are smaller than mine, darker. We must be around the same age but her diminutive size makes her look younger. When I look up, it’s the innocent look on her face that has honest words tumbling from my lips.
“I had a panic attack earlier,” I admit.
Her gaze softens and she squeezes my hand. “I know.”
“I can’t talk about why.”
“That’s okay.”
We sit silently for a while. Our bodies are marked with bruises left there by the same man and our secrets are bared before us, and it’s impossible to resist the connection I feel starting to form between us.
“Aurora.” She looks at me. “That’s my real name.” My heart swells and a soft smile teases my lips. “I don’t want to pretend to be someone else when we’re talking about this.”
I drop my head back and blink up at the ceiling. The weight of holding up my protective walls is draining and I realize I won’t make it through this without trusting someone.
“I’m Valentina,” I whisper. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“It’s a pleasure to actually meet you this time, Valentina.” I turn to look at her and find her beaming back at me, her sparkle twinkling once more in those beautiful eyes of hers. “Your secrets are very safe with me.”
“Likewise, Aurora.”
I close my eyes, completely spent. I survived my first day. It didn’t go anything like the way I’d planned it. I got a new job, made a few enemies, and nearly died.
But more importantly, I made a new friend.
I tell myself there’s a reason Aurora and I met. I’m sure Adriana guided her to me. She would have liked her.