Chapter 5
Chapter Five
J ames
The blaring music calms me as I walk through the crowd of people gyrating against each other like wild animals. I like music and welcome the distraction of the beat, keeping time with it in my mind as I weave through hundreds of people who make me feel suffocated. A woman steps in front of me and drops her arms around my neck, moving her hips suggestively toward me. I swallow hard and peel her arms off me, gently tossing her to the side as I continue through my club. I didn’t need to look at her. I always knew that whatever woman approached me in such a way was never what I wanted. It happened more times than I cared for every time I came here and walked freely about.
I didn’t date, nor did I sleep around. I didn’t care for it and frankly, I felt too old for it these days. I was uninterested in any woman that came my way. They only cared about one thing, and it wasn’t me, that’s for sure.
I take the staircase to the top floor, where my personal booth is. I’ve owned my club, Underground, for over five years now. Not only was it good for me to invest my money into something else, but it presented an opportunity for me to do most of my under-the-table work that provided nothing but distractions around us. No one at the club is typically focused on doing business or concentrates on the ones who are. They’re too busy getting drunk or doing drugs in the bathroom before pressing their body against someone else’s on the dance floor. They would never even know the work I was doing behind the curtain just upstairs, and even if they did, they could never be entirely sure. The dark lighting and overly loud music mixed with their drinking solidified that fact.
Tobias is already at the booth waiting with Alessandro Barone, one of our clients who just so happens to be a made man working for his boss, Stefano Luccio, someone I consider a brother more than a friend.
I sit at the table and level my gaze with Alessandro’s focused one. “All is well?”
He nods. “As long as everything we’ve discussed is in order.”
“I assure you everything will be in order the second we receive payment. Tobias will hand-deliver your items by tomorrow afternoon.”
Alessandro glances at Tobias. “You’re the delivery boy, huh?”
Tobias grins, a low chuckle leaving him. “The one to be trusted with your large investment? Yes. I’ll make sure you’re satisfied when I leave.” His tone is teasing, and I can’t help but smile in pride at his confidence and all-around playful demeanor. He does have a habit of making people uncomfortable with his all-around flirtatiousness. His confidence in himself knew no bounds. I’ve always enjoyed that specific quality about him.
Alessandro shifts in his seat uncomfortably and directs his gaze back on me. “I have five girls. My wife and our four daughters. I don’t want to be disappointed.”
“They won’t be. You have excellent taste.”
Tobias glances at me as he retakes the lead. We had a system to ensure all our underground deals went smoothly and successfully. I had a way of encouraging the buyer in their purchases, making them feel good about their decision. The second my praise persuades them, Tobias closes the deal exactly as he’s been taught.
“On that note,” Tobias interjects, sliding that little black book of mine across the table and opening it toward the back. “If I could just get your signature on this line right here next to your total amount, we’ll be ready.”
Alessandro’s gaze bounced between him and me before he took the pen and signed it. “You know, Luccio seems to trust you more than anyone.” His hard eyes met mine again as he shut the book and slid it back across the table to Tobias. “I’m counting on that trust, Mr. Kingston.”
“You’re in safe hands, Mr. Barone. I promise you that.”
He nods again. “The money will be wired within the hour.” I knew the payment wouldn’t be an issue, so I took his word for it, shaking his outstretched hand. One thing I always liked about the Cosa Nostra is their appreciation and respect for the jewelry industry. They respected me and what I did and always paid the deserved price. It was always business done well. “Pleasure doing business with you,” Alessandro adds.
“The pleasure’s all—” A figure in the crowd near us catches my attention, and I narrow my gaze on her as her waves of long black curls whip around her. She was walking through the crowd away from our table now, but I knew who it was. “Mine,” I growl, my eyes tracking her every step.
I glance at Tobias, who hasn’t noticed a damn thing. He always focused on the business before him, whereas I’ve always focused on our surroundings. “Excuse me,” I ground out. I should probably let Tobias handle this, but he needed to be focused on the job, making his own connections and building trust with our clients if he was ever going to make it in my business. So, for now, I had to handle the little wench myself.
I stand from the table and head back towards the staircase, where I see her frame weaving in and out of the people like she was in a hurry to get away. I go down the stairs and follow her into the crowd. She goes to the bar and plops down on the stool, her back still facing me, and I take a moment to observe her before I pounce.
Her hair was wild and down her back again in those thick black curls. Her attire wasn’t what most women wear here, which is probably what drew my gaze to her in the first place back at the table. My club was more high-end, meaning men wore suits or nice button-downs, and the women wore classy dresses. Despite some being short enough to show their ass, you could tell they were expensive and elegantly styled.
But little Cecilia wore a short, strapless black mini dress with a fuchsia butterfly printed across the chest and stomach and knee-high black heeled boots. It showed a decent amount of cleavage, which was enough to still gain the attention of passing men despite being clearly tacky compared to the other dresses around.
I move toward her now and sit on the stool next to her. The bartender immediately nods at me and begins making my usual drink, but she still hasn’t noticed me yet. Her body faces the other direction as she sips her glittery drink and looks out into the atmosphere, so I observe her profile as she does. I look past her mane and track the height of her cheekbones and the round swell of her lips, making it look like she didn’t have a cupid’s bow. It was all curve, and I found myself utterly distracted by it for a moment before she turned back towards me and jumped in her seat the moment she saw me.
“Holy Jesus,” she mutters, clutching her chest.
“I can assure you there is nothing holy about me, Cecilia. At least not right now.” She gives an awkward laugh, and I glare at her. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? This is a public place.”
“This is my place. What are you doing here?”
Her eyes blink quickly as her nose scrunches up. “Your place?”
“My place. As in the club that I own.”
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” she huffs out. “You own this club?”
I tilt my head curiously as I look at her. “If you didn’t know I owned the club, why are you here? I assumed you were spying on me.”
She rolls her eyes, and the act makes me want to latch onto her chin and force them to stay locked with mine. “As if I wanted to spend my night watching you. I came here to see my brother.”
“But your brother doesn’t know you’re here, does he?”
She shrugs. “I like to surprise him. It’s what sisters do.”
“Well, not in my place of business. I thought I told you that before.”
“What kind of business is this place? I thought it looked like a strange private matter was going down upstairs. And here I thought people only came to party and act foolish.”
“I assure you the only person acting like a fool here is you. What I do in my club is none of your business.”
“But what my brother does is, and whatever was happening upstairs seemed suspicious. In fact, I’m going to get my brother now,” she challenges, hopping off the stool. Something in my stomach flips, burning like acid, and I latch onto her wrist, yanking her back to me.
Her breath escapes her in a gasp as she flies towards me, her hands bracing herself against my chest. Something in my throat feels constricted as her small hands touch me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been touched in such an intimate spot by a woman, and the fact that she was now gripping my shirt sent a charge through me that consisted of a mixture of irritation and desperation. The latter being a feeling I wasn’t used to. I chalked it up to the fact that she wasn’t the usual kind of woman who would try to have her hands on me, nor was I used to having to restrain women from interfering with my business. It felt…startling—another foreign feeling.
Her fingers uncurl from my shirt and fan out over my chest as she steadies herself, and I keep my glare fixed on her, looking down at her like she was a pest in my club. “Let me make something clear to you,” I growl. “This is my world, Cecilia, and you don’t fit into it. It doesn’t matter if your brother does. You don’t. My world is a maze not meant for people like you to get lost in. So, I suggest you turn back while you’re ahead, or you won’t like what you find inside.”
She rips her hands from me, and I grin down at her as I let go of her wrist with a little more vigor than I intended. “You see, when you say things like that, it makes me want to keep going. I don’t want my brother to get tied up in whatever dangers lie within your world.”
“Despite your belief, your brother can handle himself, and I keep him close. You may not like me, which is fine because I don’t like you, but I care about your brother and do my best to ensure he doesn’t come into harm’s way.”
“Why would he come into harm’s way if you’re just a simple jewelry business?” she fires back, and I’ll admit, I’ve said too much that has probably made her more suspicious. She was making my head burn, and I was losing my usual resolve around her, and it was pissing me off.
I step closer to her, my chest nearly touching hers, and she doesn’t move this time, only looks back up at me, matching my frustration. “Money brings a lot of enemies. Now, leave my business alone. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. I don’t have patience for people who defy me. Keep that in mind.”
“I think…” she taunts, pretending to think hard about it, “I think I’m going to go dance,” she finishes, giving me one last smile before turning back into the crowd and disappearing into it.
I snatch my drink off the bar and swallow it whole as I watch her enter the center of the dance floor and begin dancing alone, although I feel it won’t be long before someone tries to fill that space.
Her hair whips around her like an enticing tornado, and her hips begin sashaying to the rhythm of the music. I can’t help but stare as she lights up the dance floor, noticing everyone else’s gaze is on her, too, because she is so out of place yet undeniably alluring. I think for the first time in my life that I’ve met a witch because I’ve never met someone so suddenly infuriating and enthralling all at once.
I spot Alessandro leaving the club, and the next thing I know, Tobias is at my side after grabbing a drink from the bar and blowing out a hard breath. “That guy is intense,” he tells me.
“You’ll never meet a made man that isn’t,” I tell him truthfully, still never taking my gaze away from his sister.
“What are you looking at?”
“An infestation,” I say, nodding toward Cecilia, satisfaction brewing in my gut. I knew she was about to be roasted by her brother the second he saw her.
He follows my line of sight and slams his drink aggressively onto the bar countertop. “Mother fucker,” he snarls, a particular irritation in his tone I’ve never heard before. It sounded tired and annoyed, and I could highly relate to it at the moment.
He barrels into the crowd toward her, and I watch, amused, as he shoves a man away from her who tried to dance with her, and then she shoves him in the chest despite it not moving him an inch. They seem to be in a screaming match now, but I can’t hear anything over the music. The dynamic between them was interesting to me, and I found myself becoming more curious about them. I tend to have a possessive streak and always liked having Tobias to myself, considering we spent most of our days every day together. I assumed he’d had no one else as I did, but it turns out he does have someone, and it makes me wonder now how much of his thoughts she takes up and what’s more important to him.
Labyrinth Crystals or her.
If there was one thing that I knew, it was that Cecilia was worried about her brother. Although I can’t relate to that feeling or begin to describe how it feels to worry over someone, I figured she had every right to feel that way. We did have a hand in dangerous work, but we’ve always managed to avoid life-or-death situations, although there have been a couple of close calls. The last thing I wanted was for her to come here and ruin everything he and I have built together.
Later, when I arrive home, I’m only inside my apartment for less than ten minutes before I get a knock on the door. I glance at the clock, finding it to be after midnight. I walk to my kitchen, pulling my gun from a hidden compartment under the kitchen island and holstering it into the back waistband of my pants. Late-night visitors weren’t a common thing for me. Life without enemies wasn’t common for me either, so I cautiously went to the door and braced one hand behind me as I opened it.
Tobias’s eyes lock with mine the second he comes into view, and I relax, opening the door wider now as he walks past me.
“That fucking girl,” he gripes, going straight to the mini bar cart in my living room. I assumed he was talking about his sister, whom I was already very tired of seeing and discussing, but I supposed he was my friend, and I was obligated to listen to his frustrations.
“Did you see her home safely?”
He nods vigorously as he swallows down a shot of whiskey. He clears his throat heavily and pours himself one more, downing it and then dropping onto the armchair across from where I sit on the sofa. “She is a fucking terror when she sets out to be. I almost forgot what it was like to deal with her incessant behavior.”
I nodded understandably, although I didn’t understand any of it. I didn’t have a sibling. I had Stef, who was like one, but even he had an actual sibling, so it’s not the same. But we’re both very like-minded, and fights have been minimal.
“Speaking of,” I finally mention because it’s been weighing on me since I found out about Cecilia. He still didn’t acknowledge the shocking reveal of her to me when I informed him of her hysterics at the headquarters. He just grumbled something about her not trusting him and stormed out of the building; I’m assuming to confront her. We've been busy with work since I’ve seen him after that. But now we weren’t.
“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” I ask, the disappointment shockingly evident in my tone. “I’ve known you for five years now. How could you not tell me about her?”
He sighs, his fingers tapping nervously on his knee. “Many reasons,” he admits. “I was never a good brother. I was the oldest, and I should have acted like it. I should have protected her more. I should have been more of a shoulder to lean on. I should have been someone she could always rely on and depend on, but I wasn’t. After our mom died as kids, I should have been all those things the most, and I faltered. I let her down, and our father let her down, too. She had to find her way herself at a very young age. Learn to rely on herself too young. The older she kept getting and the more I let her down, the more I could see that little girl, my little sister, disappearing more and more, but I was always too far gone to care enough. When I met you and finally decided to get my shit together, I decided I was going to try and protect her this time. I would keep her out of my life while I got it together so she didn’t have to see me that way.” His eyes meet mine, and the look in them puzzles me. He looked hesitant and guilt-ridden. “I wanted to protect her from both of us.”
It feels as though the muscles in my body freeze at his surprising statement. Protect her from us. Me. I didn’t understand how I had anything to do with her.
“What do you mean? I have no business with the girl.”
“I know that, but I do, and I’m directly linked to you now, and we both know you’re not Mr. Innocent around these streets, and there’s also your past. We do dangerous shit every day. Our clients are all capable and guilty of cold-blooded murder. I’m fine with that being my life. In fact, in a sick way, I thrive in it. But it’s not something I ever want for her. I want zero ties between her and my life in New York. I wanted everything about my sister to remain in Boston.”
I tap my fingers to my lips as I take in all of the information. This I understood. Everything he said made sense, and none of it hurt me. I didn’t blame him for wanting to protect her, but I just hoped he knew I’d never endanger her, even if I did want to throttle her little neck on the short occasions I’ve spoken with her.
“You do realize Stef and I both have residences in Boston?” I ask quizzically. It was where Stef was raised as a child by his mother while his father ran the city in New York. It was where I was raised after the age of eleven until I turned eighteen. We both had sentimental ties to Boston, and our homes are there despite us having to stay at apartments in the city for most of our time. Stef even had a private bar there that only he and a few trusted others frequented to blow off steam.
“I know that. She’s not the kind of girl to cross your path, though, so I was never worried about it.”
“Maybe you should be. She’s…tenacious.”
He chuckles at that, and I observe with interest the warmth lighting his features as he still manages to admire her despite being frustrated with her. “She’s always been that way. It was why I tried to hide her away so adamantly. I should have known she'd try to devour it completely the minute I welcomed her back into my life. Despite being my baby sister, she’s a bit of a mama bear. She’s a lot like our mother was.”
“You can’t fault her for that after all she’s been through.” I could, however. I didn’t have emotional ties to her like he did. She was downright annoying.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her,” Tobias mentions. “I guess a warning would have been good where she’s concerned.”
I shrugged it off, this conversation getting too heartfelt for my liking. “I don’t think a warning would have sufficed. Maybe a tranquilizer or a?—”
He playfully kicks a foot out in my direction, his toes scraping against my shin. “Shut up. There’s a chance you’ll see her from time to time now, so no tranquilizers if you can manage it.”
I fake a frowning face. “You’re no fun.”