16. Ilaria
16
ILARIA
I needed this.
Looking at my best friends, all the sand and salt water from the day we spent at the beach together drinking our weight in frozen drinks laced with liquor.
They were all in various forms of getting ready for our night out at the casino.
Being around them was giving me strength, letting me breathe when I was freaking the fuck out about everything.
Even now as we got ready to go out I thought about how in three weeks we would be getting ready for my wedding.
A fucking wedding.
When we got home it would be planning for a wedding or at least whatever details I would be allowed to plan.
I’d need to get a dress, book my hair and makeup, figure out all the details. We’d have to do cake testing and figure out colors for our friends to wear.
Did Dante even have friends or did he just have men who worked for him and owed him their loyalty?
Fuck .
I was going to have to quit my job.
I’d need to talk to my father about finding someone who would take over but since my father had planned this wedding I was sure he already had a replacement ready to take over to sign off on things at City Hall.
A made man wouldn’t have a woman who worked unless that job was owning something and a hobby job.
My city job, with its pension and benefits wasn’t something Dante would probably want to put up with. Plus it was a risk and neither of us needed the attention that risks brought up.
“I hate how my tits sweat. They smell like old pasta water.” Becca complained, cupping her breasts as she slipped past me into the bathroom to shower before our night out.
She was the last one to get in the shower because she was the best at doing makeup and had been helping everyone
But I smirked, glad her off handed comment dragged me out of all the mental adulting I had been doing.
“It’s because you have big tits. Use baby powder.” Tessa called out, head bent forward as she combed out her long black hair, not missing a beat.
My phone buzzed and I ignored the call from Dante without even having to look down and confirm who was calling me.
He had been relentless, calling and texting all day.
The girls all knew not to post about where we were for a few days or when I told them it was fine. I just wanted to be away without worrying about him showing up.
Because I knew him for a day and I could tell already he was the type of man who said mine and meant it as a claim.
My vanishing was driving him crazy and when I got back I was sure he would insist on inserting a microchip into the back of my neck so that we never had a repeat of this.
Dante had texted me about how he missed me, good morning, a copy of the article of our engagement, asking me about my day, asking if I wanted his mother to go dress shopping with me, and calling me so much that I had debated on blocking his number.
“That boy has it bad for you.” Sammie slid over in a checkerboard dress that hugged her curves. It was the type of thing I would have expected on the Nanny but she wore it looking amazing, as always.
But everyone was looking good tonight since we were headed out to the casino.
I was dressed in a simple emerald green silky dress that was too short and too low cut. My hair in a high ponytail and draped in diamonds, except for my engagement ring that was locked in the safe at my fathers office he had in the house.
The diamonds could all be replaced but the engagement ring getting stolen was something I didn’t want to deal with.
“I think we should take one picture to post. We all look way too hot to not post a picture remembering this.”
Becca was right.
Plus I knew her not posting about things could cost her money.
“Post it after we get home. But once you post just know I think Dante will be here as soon as he sees it” I warn .
I hated having to ask them to wait to post things, and hated that we couldn’t just be in the open with everything but this trip was important. Not only was it a girls get away and much needed escape from Dante but it was a way to make money.
At the casino we would head to. I’d sit at the card table, counting them in between flirting with men.
If I played my night right I could walk out of the casino with over $100k in winnings and I planned on that happening. Especially because here I would walk out with cash not a check or a promise of a wire.
Real American dollars.
I’d need to buy a suitcase to carry it home.
People thought my father paid for my every whim but he didn’t. He gave me nice things, treated me like a princess but also had expected me to work not only for the family but to show me how to make my own money.
What he didn’t know was that in college we had started going to local casinos making money as the girls distracted and I worked a table. The casino weekends turned into weekday card games, traveling around between New York, Chicago, Vegas, and Miami to play at high stakes games.
It had started out as a way to make money and had turned into a way to get revenge.
That’s how I knew about the illegal card tables Dante had in the Inferno, another reason I couldn’t sign off on his permit with my name.
He knew me as Ilaria Russo but he wasn’t aware that Valaria Smith, the female card shark, was his fiancée.
And he never would.
I used a different name thanks to a fake ID that had been made in someone’s dorm room.
When we were kids I knew better than to use my name; God forbid I got caught, it wouldn’t be my family’s name that would be talked about.
“I’m ready. Are we ready to…Jesus, can you please answer this man’s calls? Some of us can’t even get a second date and you have a man who is desperate for you.” Maddie asked as my phone lit up and I saw Dante’s last text message on the screen.
Please come home, Ilaria.
Fucking home.
How could he be home already?
But he was, he was right about that and I fucking hated knowing that when I got back to Boston I would be back with him because Dante was my home now.
But instead of answering the phone I shut it off, ignoring the way my stomach tightened at the way he wanted me so much. It should have made things easier, knowing that the man that I was betrothed to was this crazy about me. But all I could see was him in the corner with that blonde and felt the way betrayal felt in my veins.
“Let’s take a picture by the pool and we can head out.” Madeline was getting us all outside as my mind drifted to Dante and the way he was trying so hard to reach me.
Could I have been wrong about what I saw? Why was I thinking about how I wanted to forgive him so soon?
I was great at holding grudges. Was he going to take that away from me too?
I needed to put Dante out of my head for the night and just focus on the game ahead.
I was going to make money and get so drunk that I’d be hungover until noon tomorrow.
And maybe then, after that I’d answer his fucking calls.