Chapter 2
Sophia
My best friend grins and her eyes sparkle as she looks around the infamous lower level of a popular club that under no circumstance would my father approve of me to go. She almost bounces in her seat with excitement. “We did it! A night out without all of your bodyguards!”
It’s hard not to laugh even while riddled with guilt.
“I have to admit, I haven’t had this much fun in ages.
Out with friends and no one to bother me or tell me what I can or cannot do.
No matter that Papa will be raging mad when he finds out that I ditched my security team to hang out with my friends.
And I don’t even want to think about how mad Delz will be.
He takes the job of my personal bodyguard seriously, far too seriously if you ask me. ”
Olivia nods. “Serves him right for the last time he spoiled all of our fun!”
Sometimes a girls’ night out with friends, minus the prying eyes of lieutenants and soldiers is just what you need.
No matter the price. Regardless, I’ll pay for my deception even though I haven’t consumed a drop of liquor and don’t intend to at all.
Besides Olivia and Mia wouldn’t bring me somewhere not safe, and they know every bar and club in this entire city.
Olivia nudges me with a foot, causing mine to almost slip off the stool as the bartender hands us our drinks.
I try hard to keep a straight face. Handsome heads back to the other end of the long marble bar and she laughs.
“He’s so totally into you.” Olivia nods her head as though agreeing with herself, leaning down to sip some more of the margarita from her fishbowl sized glass.
I turn to Mia on my other side. “Do something with her.” She is no help at all, just grins and nods in agreement.
I pretend to huff. “Not you, too! You are supposed to be the voice of reason. Dancing, laughter and fun, no men tonight. Those were the rules. You both promised if I was designated driver you would refrain from your incessant matchmaking.”
Mia laughs, lifting her glass of Blue Moon and clinking the edge of it with my glass of water. “Agreed, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off you since you walked in that door. Those jeans, strappy heels and that halter top, mamma you are looking hot and classy tonight.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh at my dramatic friends who are both grinning from ear to ear.
It is so fun to be out and about, away from the stifling rules and security that make it feel like being chained in an ivory tower most days.
I forget how downright oppressive all the protection detail is, but as soon as I get home for school break, all my privileges get curtailed again.
I’m back to all the protocols that are put in place to protect the daughters of a crime family, especially one as notorious as ours.
No matter that it’s supposed to be for my safety, it’s exhausting.
The bartender returns and the way his eyes slide over my body sends a chill down my spine.
I quickly turn away, taking a sip of my drink before he even has a chance to spark a conversation.
No matter what these two try tonight, I am not in the market for a relationship, date, or anything of the kind.
The bartender walks away, and I turn back towards Mia who looks up at me with a smile from her drink.
“I can barely stand coming home these days. If it weren’t for my sister Anna, maybe I wouldn’t even bother.
At least on campus I have a little freedom.
It’s given me a true understanding of just how isolated and secured we really are when not at a school, where no one knows my real name.
There, I’m not a mafia daughter, a mafia princess, or anyone but me.
You know? Just one of many, working hard and pursuing a degree in business. ”
I take another sip of the lime water and place it back on the bar, not really thirsty at all, just increasingly annoyed with all the protocols placed on me, half tempted to order a margarita and call an uber tonight. That would give everyone something to talk about in the morning.
Just the imagined look on my father’s face causes me to smile, but the trouble it would bring to my guards, especially Delz.
He’llno doubt already be on the firing line of my father’s wrath for letting me slip out of the estate without security once he finds out, and it’s hardly worth the fun of a couple drinks.
Mia shrugs and links her arm with mine. “At least you’re at college most of the year.
You have one more year before you have to think about anything definitive.
Tonight, no tails, and we can do what we want.
Forget about the rest, Sophia.” The tempo of a popular song picks up and Olivia half drags us to the dance floor singing at the top of her lungs with the rest of the crowd as the chorus to Tipsy is shouted from the stage.
One minute I’m following my friends, laughing and care free and the next minute my ankle twists, and I fall right into the arms of a brick wall, who’s looking down at me with the most intense dark eyes I’ve ever seen.