Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Iwake with a start when someone kicks my foot. My eyes snap open, landing on Aurelio glaring down at me.
“What the fuck are you doing sleeping in my sister’s bed?” he asks.
I look at his hands, surprised that they’re empty. If it were me, and I found some asshole in my sister’s bed, you better believe I’d have the end of a barrel aimed at their dick. I make a point of scanning the room. I am in fact still in Daniella’s assigned guestroom.
I thought she’d come back. She didn’t. “Last I checked, this was my house, not your sister’s.”
I slide off the bed, stand, and roll my neck from side to side. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him where she is. I don’t, though. I know better than to let him know his suspicions about us were right.
Daniella wanted to keep us secret, so I did. Until my family figured out why I went slightly off the rails after she left.
“What are you doing in here?” I turn the question onto him.
“Looking for you,” he says. “Come on. We’re going out.”
“I’m really not in the mood to go out.”
“Too bad. I need to go and hunt down my sisters because the little shits managed to sneak out, and since it’s your house they escaped from, you’re helping me,” Aurelio says.
“Daniella went out?” My blood goes cold. “Someone just fucking tried to kill her three days ago. Why the fuck would she go out?” I yell as my anger boils to the surface.
This is a feeling I’m accustomed to when thinking about her. It’s easier to accept than the longing I feel whenever I see her.
“She followed one of Rosie’s plans, but I know where they are,” Aurelio explains.
“If you know where they are, why are you standing here? Go and fucking drag her ass back,” I tell him as I storm out of the room and make my way down the stairs.
“Their asses. There are two of them.” Aurelio chuckles from behind me.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” I grunt.
“Sure you did,” he mutters. “I’m driving.”
When we make it outside, I find Aiden, Alfie, and Elias waiting by the cars. “I hear we’re going dancing,” Aiden says.
“Dancing?” I question.
“Yeah, it’s where the girls went,” he tells me.
“If you all know where they are, why are you standing around holding your dicks? Get in the fucking cars.” I open the passenger door as Aurelio walks around the front.
“Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed,” Elias says.
“Someone got up on the wrong fucking bed,” Aurelio counters right before getting behind the wheel.
The trip into town is quiet. “How do you know where they are?” I ask him.
“Emilio,” he says. “It was Frankie who got them out of the house unseen. And well, that girl can’t go anywhere without Emilio knowing exactly where she is.”
“Maybe you should put trackers on your sisters,” I suggest.
Aurelio gives me a look I can’t decipher. “I don’t usually need to worry about them sneaking around.”
At this, I chuckle. He’s so na?ve when it comes to his sisters. “Sure.”
I know for a fact that Daniella is a master at sneaking around. I know this because she sneaked around with me on and off for years.
“You know anything about why my sister was crying earlier today?” Aurelio asks.
My face drops. “Daniella was crying?”
“No, but if she was, it’d no doubt be your fault,” he grunts.
“Asshole,” I retort. He knew exactly how to get a reaction out of me.
“Whatever happened between the two of you, you need to fix it. I don’t like seeing my sister hurting,” he says.
“Nothing happened,” I insist.
“Oh, so you didn’t ask her to stay here with you and she didn’t reject you, choosing to get on a one-way flight back to Melbourne a few years ago?”
I stare at him. How the fuck does he know about that?
“She told me,” he answers the unspoken question.
“Well, then you know that I can’t fix it. She made a choice. I respected it.”
I didn’t want to, but I did because I respect her enough to give her what she told me she wanted. Although there is a niggling thought in the back of my head telling me it’s not what she wanted.
It’s probably my own psyche making shit up to find a reason to go after her. I can’t go through it again, though. I will not put my heart on the line a second time, only to have her discard it like yesterday’s trash.
The memory of her walking out of that hotel room without even a backwards glance plays through my mind like a movie scene. That’s what I need to hold on to. The anger, the devastation she caused by not choosing us.
That doesn’t mean I won’t do anything to make sure she’s safe, and her being out in a fucking club right now is not safe for her.
Aurelio drives into the valet section of the Wild Card. And I jump out.
“Mr. Bianchi.” A young kid nods his head at me. Elias, Aiden, and Alfie are already waiting by the door.
“Keep it here. We won’t be long,” I tell him.
“Yes, Sir.” The valet nods and grabs for the keys Aurelio holds out towards him.
I walk through the casino floor, heading to the bank of elevators. If Frankie brought them here, I know exactly where she is. My cousin has a favorite dance club in this hotel.
Sure enough, when I step into the darkened space, I look towards the roped-off VIP section and there they are.
Emilio walks towards us. “They’re fine,” he says.
“They’re fine. She was just shot at. She shouldn’t be out,” I growl at my younger cousin, pushing him out of my way as I march towards the woman I shouldn’t even be thinking about, let alone making a scene over.
What I should be doing is letting her brother handle this. But before I can think better of it, I’m stepping over the rope and stopping right in front of Daniella. “Get up. We’re leaving.”
Her head tilts upwards, her eyes meeting mine with a challenge. “Oh yeah? And who the hell died and made you the boss, CJ?”
“Daniella, I’m not fucking around. Get up,” I growl.
“No, I think I’m good right here.” She smirks at me.
“Want a drink? You really look like you could use one.” She holds up a glass, and I snatch it out of her hand, sculling the sugary red liquid before slamming it back down on the table.
“Hey, I was going to drink that.” She pouts—fucking pouts—and it’s all I can do not to bite down on that bottom lip of hers.
“Daniella, I will throw you over my shoulder and walk right out of here, and not a single person will do a thing to stop me. Get. Up.” I lower my mouth to her ear.
Daniella looks at the crowd gathered around, watching the interaction between us. And then she pats my cheek with her palm. “Nice try, but there is no way Aurelio is going to let you walk out of here with me over your shoulder, caveman.”
“Who do you think told me you were here, Dani?” I raise a brow at her, and her gaze shifts to her brother.
Then she’s standing. “You know what? I don’t care who you think you are, CJ, but you are not the boss of me. I came here to dance and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Rosie, come on.” She takes her sister’s hand and walks right past me towards the dance floor.
“Well, that went as about as good as I expected.” Aurelio chuckles beside me.
“You wanna do something about getting them home? Or are you happy to just sit here and laugh at me?”
“Both,” he says. “Watch and learn, CJ. There’s a certain knack to handling my sisters.”
I watch him walk over to them. They share a few words before the girls nod their heads and they’re following Aurelio towards the door.
What the fuck did he say to them?
It doesn’t matter. What matters is Daniella is going to be back behind the walls of my parents’ estate.