Chapter 7—Tommy
“How did it go?”
“Which part? The bitching and moaning you left me to deal with or the issue outside?” Dante grumbles as he takes off his jacket, tossing it on the bar top, then undoes the top two buttons on his shirt.
“You really expect me to apologize for having strippers throw themselves at you to gain favor?” I raise my eyebrows at him, lifting my gaze from my phone as I do.
He huffs a response before sitting on the stool opposite me. “Crying to keep their job is not throwing themselves at me.”
“I’m sure at least one did,” I say with a smile as I look back down at my phone to finish my game.
“Yeah, the same one who gave you the Basic Instinct show.” I catch Dante visibly shuddering out of the side of my eye, and I can’t help but chuckle. I had a similar response but kept it to myself.
Men like Dante and I enjoy women as much as everyone else.
But we prefer the type who aren’t so… how to say it so Mama won’t hit me upside the head?
Skanky? Yeah, that would get me a head slap, but really, there’s no other word for it.
At least not one I’ve learned, but I also wasn’t the book-smart one in the family.
Putting my phone back in my pocket, I ask, “What was the issue outside?”
He shrugs as he looks over the bar, seeing what I already noted: too much dust on these bottles, and not a single known label among them. Despite that, this would be a conversation best had with a solid drink in our hands. We have none currently.
Along with the cleaning team, which started about forty minutes ago, I have a call in to an acquaintance who’ll be arriving to take over bar duties.
She’ll serve what she can tonight, and then I’ll get a list of what we really have and make sure the suppliers are on board about the new management rules.
“Same shit, different city.”
“I take it Joel wasn’t one to go quietly into the night?”
“No.” His eyes narrow as he flexes his jaw. “He and a few of his buddies got it in their minds that they could take on Danny’s boys.”
I smirk at the very thought. Danny handpicks every man he hires.
He expects each one to take a bullet for anyone in the Leone family.
He makes sure they’re good when they get to him, and then he trains them the way he wants them after they join his team.
Danny doesn’t pick someone just based on looks; he goes for skill.
If Joel and his boys thought they could take out a few men in suits, they’re dead wrong.
Hell, they might be dead already considering how Danny tells his men to deal with people who threaten his family.
And technically, Joel did. The bouncer might already be in the Hudson if the traffic was in his favor.
“Good thing your brother brought more than we expected.”
“I figured he would. At least for the initial day. And I bet they’ll stay on a while longer now that a situation occurred.”
I called him after I got in last night, which was very early morning for him. He answered, but he didn’t greet me as I expected. Which was fine. I was never one to fear silence or afraid to fill it.
“Danny boy, how’s life? Anything new with you? How’s the family? Did you get my care package? I saw it and couldn’t resist.”
Silence.
But it was better than being hung up on.
“Ah, a man of few words. I like that in a man. Anyhow, just calling to thank you for the use of your men last week. They did swell. No mess or fuss from any of them.”
“That’s why I hired them.”
I remember actually smiling at my brother’s gruff response.
He might not be one for idle chitchat, but speaking about his men is another subject entirely. Dad did well choosing him to be the man in the family who focuses on security. He’s a walking advertisement for a security firm or a workout magazine. Both would fit him well.
“Exactly. They’re good at their job and know how to do so. You did good, big bro.”
He just grunts in response. Danny’s never fond of compliments.
Actually, no one in the family except Mama and me seems to take them with a smile.
The others deny them or ignore them. I revel in them.
Even if a person is trying to insult me rather than point out a success, I take it with a smile and see it as a compliment that it was even noticed at all.
Maybe there’s still a bit of my sunshine self within me. I might not smile as much, but I’ve still got the right mindset. Something I hope never truly leaves me.
“So, I’m sure it won’t be a problem to send about four of your guys to G-Spot for security while I set up shop before I vet my own team. I’ll expect them there at four. Thanks.” I hang up quickly and feel my entire face light up with glee watching my phone ring.
Not that I plan to answer. Danny can be quiet most of the time, but he has a way with words when he wants to say something. He definitely wants to talk if he keeps calling and hanging up just to call again.
I left my phone in the kitchen as I went to bed, letting it ring.
I knew he wanted to talk more, probably to ream me out about using his men for my own jobs instead of hiring my own team, but we both know he wouldn’t be happy with them unless he did the recruiting.
Something he doesn’t have time for, so this is just our family love language of sharing, yelling, and asking for favors.
Which is why I wasn’t surprised when I showed up and found not just his men already here but my brother as well.
He greeted me—well, glared—as I forced a smile to keep up appearances.
My smiles are now for the family and for those who I want to use.
None of them are for me. Not lately. Maybe one day I’ll smile again for me, but not today.
Tomorrow doesn’t look any better either.
Danny was less grumpy outside this morning than on the phone. He probably had his daily protein shake, or two, and was able to calm down enough to have prepared a speech for me. One I didn’t listen to.
“Answer your damn phone next time.”
“And deprive myself of seeing you outside your little fortress? I think not.” He might be stiff as a board most days, but he let me get in close enough to wrap one arm around him and pat his back.
He detests it when I call his office a fortress.
He protects it like it is, even more so sometimes.
Prison would be a better word choice with how much he prefers to be inside the walls than out, but saying a Leone is in prison leaves a foul taste in my mouth. Even as a joke.
“Vinny has you taking on this dump?” He pulled back and positioned himself a firm space away as he straightened his suit from the rude way I rumpled it. He won’t say the words, but I’ve known him my whole life. I can read him like a book; all his expressions are sentences in their own right.
“You talk to him?”
“Enough to know that I’ve got more shit to put on my plate with men down.”
“They aren’t down,” I said with an eye roll. “They’re working here. And with them here, you can tag in the other team that usually follows me for other things when I’m working.”
“Working? Since when do you work?”
A person running past us has me sidestepping to avoid her splashing in the puddles. She has no umbrella in hand and is getting soaked by the second.
Unlike Danny and me, who have no less than three people holding umbrellas for us to talk under. I think I might have gotten a drop on me when I opened my car door to greet my brother, but his men were there quick to escort me, dry and all, to his side.
As she ran past, I caught her eye for a second before she continued on. Just like last night when I watched her dance, I couldn’t look away, following her movements till she entered the club.
“Ah, I understand now.”
I turned back to my brother and shook my head with a small smile.
It was like that before. And while I might find her fascinating to watch, I know I’ve got a job to do.
A big one. Vinny offering me a chance to take on more of the family business isn’t a small task.
It’s a tall order. One that probably should go to Bobby, even Danny, before going to me.
And yet he picked me. It’s an honor, and one I won’t let him regret.
“Doubtful, but you were never the one with the brains.” I smirked even as he jabbed me in the arm. Proving the unspoken point that he’s the muscle, as he doesn’t pull his punches at all.
I grab my arm and rub at the sting I still feel, smiling as I do. “Always was the overprotective type.”
“Lucky bastard,” Dante says with a side grin, and I don’t deny it.
I have four siblings. Dante has none. He might find some joy in being an only child, but he never knew what it felt like to have someone watch his back till he came and worked with me.
I raise an eyebrow and look at him. “Still get nightmares from his talk with you?”
“Not sure ‘talk’ is how I would phrase it,” Dante mutters. “More like life-threatening for them and their family if something happens to you. And yes, every night.” He nods in earnest, and I let out a grunt of mirth.
Dante was always part of the family by name, but Dad never forced the family business on anyone. If you wanted to walk, you walked. Only, of course, if you knew nothing. Then you were just rolled into areas that were less “family in the face” type and more on the outskirts. Like a club.
Something Carl had the luxury of having, but he failed to do as he was told.
“Well, I suspect the wait has lasted long enough,” I say as I stand. A grin spreads across Dante’s face as he does the same.
“I secured a room for you. It’s small, but I have the boys clearing it out to make space. When we start the renovation, we’ll get you a better setup.”
I nod at his words, having little doubt about that.
I looked up the building schematics last night, so I know what potential this place has and what areas were slotted for but never finished.
Like the large meeting room above the bar, which has double-paned windows.
It’s used for private parties where the patrons can look out at the dance floor and see what’s going on, but those below can only see a mural or sexual art.
I honestly think it’s a secret fetish my brother has, to watch and be watched while having sex, but I won’t voice it since I really have no clue which one of my kin was the brains behind this place.
The Leone family doesn’t invest or build something without having all the details at the start. So if there wasn’t a place set up there when we built it, then I know one of my brothers added it. I just have to figure out who—eventually.
As soon as the girl I just interviewed shuts the door behind her, I scrub my face, hard.
God, this is tedious.
I almost have a newfound respect for Bobby and the company he runs. All those corporate hires he deals with every day. Almost. I’m sure he’s hired a few people in his life, but I doubt he spent this long in so many interviews. It’s already been four fucking hours.
Danny might hire people himself, but he deserves all the headaches they bring him.
I might love my brother, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a little shit to him, like the rest of my brothers, when I want to.
And Danny’s cross to bear is that he doesn’t let shit bother him. So, I make a point to do it for him.
I started with the longest-tenured employees first, hoping some insight into them might help me figure out who might be stealing from me. Other than Carl, of course.
So far, I’ve just found desperate women looking to keep their jobs either to support kids and/or deadbeat boyfriends, or those with a kink who get off on people watching them dance for money.
Whatever floats your boat. I don’t really give a fuck why a person is here; I just need to make sure they keep making the club money and don’t cause problems.
A knock on the door is the reminder that those few minutes are all the time I get alone before Dante pushes it open.
“Ready for the next one?”
“How many more of these?”
“Two.”
Thank God.
“Our waitress from last night who was hired last week, and another dancer, hired a few weeks before.”
“Let’s get this over with,” I grumble, and he just smirks before exiting once more.
I ready myself for the next sob story, and when the door opens, I don’t look up. Then comes the ping on my phone to give me the initial background check Dante found on them along with what Danny’s tech team got me.
Name: Payton Coffman
AKA: Crown Jewel
I look up immediately, skipping everything else as I watch her hesitantly move around Dante, who’s holding the door open, and gingerly take a seat.
“All set, boss? Need anything?” he asks.
“Couple of waters and a caffè corretto.” I don’t look at him. I know he heard me. My focus, once again, is on the girl from last night. She’s dried off a bit, but not completely. “And a towel,” I add before he shuts the door.
She worries her bottom lip between her teeth, and just like last night, I wonder what it would feel like against mine.
“Ms. Jewel,” I start after taking my fill of her once more.
“Payton,” she corrects quickly, and I nod, glad to be done with the silly nickname. I’m also silently pleased that she offered me her name without knowing I was already aware of it.
“Tell me about yourself.”