by Anna Widzisz
A quiet whimper filled the room. All heads turned towards the couch where Anastasia was sitting. They’d forgotten that someone was listening to their conversation. And she most certainly shouldn’t have been. Noah moved towards her immediately, but Flavio pulled him back by the arm. The Capo looked at his brother and snarled at him.
"What’s wrong Anastasia?" asked the Underboss, ignoring his boss’ disapproval. He must have seen something in the girl’s eyes that no one else had.
"My father was the one who favored cutting off the hands of his victims," she explained in a barely audible whisper.
"Your father is fucking dead, sweetheart. So, you cannot talk your way out of this with false information," the Capo seethed.
He was close to losing control. There were so many obstacles not only with Lynette’s case but also his Capodecina’s murder. It was all connected but no one seemed to be able to make anything out of it. Even Flavio.
"Noah," Flavio murmured seeing the expression on his face. It was never a good one and it meant trouble most of the time.
The Capo ignored his brother and walked up to the girl, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her close to him. Fear glimmered in her eyes and tears started strolling down her cheeks. Noah rolled his eyes at the girl’s reaction. It annoyed him to no end.
"You seriously need to learn to be more gentle, Noah," said Drew, getting closer to them.
"This is me being gentle," he snorted, letting go of Anastasia. She fell down to the couch from the rough gesture. ”Tell me everything you remember from the restaurant incident. No matter how unimportant it may seem,” he ordered, keeping a safe distance between him and the girl. There was no use in making her even more scared. She already looked as if she was about to have a panic attack. And if not for her comfort, then for his sanity, he preferred not to give her more reasons to cower.
She blinked a few times, trying to calm herself. But the shaking didn’t go away.
"There’s really not much to tell. I came into the restaurant and my father told me to sit down and order whatever. He was angry at me for most of the time, so he didn’t talk to me or explained anything for that matter. No one there looked out of place. I only knew my father’s men. There were three waitresses from what I saw. But that’s it. Until I heard the shooting. People were panicking, hiding under the tables. One of his men pulled me down as soon as possible, even though father didn’t seem worried about me at all. But somehow, I hit my head trying to hide from another gunshot and passed out. I woke up when one of your soldiers brought me down to the basement."
Anastasia seemed to be telling the truth. She had nothing to gain by withholding anything. But at the same time, her information didn’t help much. "Leave us alone." Noah ordered, as both Isaac and Drew left the room. Flavio had always been present when Capo was dealing with business, and he was without a doubt going to stay for this.
"Why did Cesarino hate you?" he asked, sitting down on the table in front of the girl.
They heard how the man had treated her and what he was calling her in the basement. As if he didn’t love or care about her. But the reason for it hadn’t mattered before. Whatever it was, had no impact on his Famiglia. However, right now Noah was trying to figure out what to do with the girl. He couldn’t send her back. He wouldn’t.
The girl fearfully looked at the man, swallowing hard. Her eyes indicated to the Capo that there was much more than just her being afraid of him. There was shame. And it lightened up a spark in him.
She reminded him of his sister. Whenever Sienna had done something wrong, she wouldn’t be able to look Noah in the eyes and her expression was all the same. The sight of her got to Falcone. Protectiveness welled up in him. He tried to talk himself into remembering that the girl in front of him wasn’t his sister. She was a stranger and he had no duty to protect her.
"Anastasia, I asked something so answer me," he drawled. Anastasia looked up at Flavio, clearly searching for any indication that it wasn’t the worst idea ever to rely on the Capo’s mercy. Being in the Underboss’ presence for the past days had made her shallowly trust him.
"I kissed my bodyguard," she admitted.
Noah frowned. That wasn’t all. "Kissed or fucked? There’s a big difference, sweetheart. First gets your bodyguard killed and you watch the execution, the latter gives you all that, as well as being called a whore and getting dragged to Seattle to be part of the slaughter."
She didn’t have to answer at this point. The way she started crying quietly was enough for the man to come to the conclusion himself. He gazed at his brother, but he gave no hint of any emotion. He was standing by the couch, looking at the girl. Noah would pay millions to find out what his Underboss was thinking. The man was always a mystery and rarely gave away the way he was analyzing, thinking. It was always out of the box and straight to the point.
Impressive.
Noah grunted. "Alright, Flavio will take care of your living arrangements. Whether it’s a hotel or an apartment, I don’t care. But you’re going to be guarded, so no trying to escape," he said, surprising Anastasia. She wiped out her tears, taking a deep breath.
"You’re not moving me to the whorehouse?" she asked doubtfully. She clearly thought that her confession would pave the way to suffering the worst degradation possible.
Capo laughed darkly. "You haven’t broken my rules, so I don’t see a reason for such a thing. You’re not even of age. And no, I am not going to wait for your birthday to change my mind. You’re safe as long as you don’t go against me."
Flavio took Anastasia towards the elevator. She got in and waited patiently for the Underboss. Noah looked at her and then at his brother. "I don’t give a fuck how you will make it work, but she is to be kept safe. Pick trustworthy people to guard her. I have a feeling the Bazzoli won’t go down without a fight. She might come in handy," he paused, lowering his voice. "I meant what I said to her. She doesn’t deserve any cruel treatment so remind her not to test me."
"Does this have anything to do with Sienna?"
"Everything I do has to do with Sienna. I want her death not to go to waste. As long as I have a word to say, no girl will be collateral damage in any of my fights. Whether she’s part of my Famiglia or not." His mind went from the image of his younger sister to Inéz, who had been put in a difficult situation. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her and intended to keep that promise.
Flavio nodded, clapping his brother’s shoulder in a comforting gesture and moved to the elevator to take care of Anastasia.
CHAPTER 19
Ever since Inéz had woken up her stomach was in knots with anticipation of what was to come. She had a hard time trying to eat anything in the morning but needed to because she had another training session scheduled with Nicodemo at noon. The slow progress was unbearable, especially now when she would need the skills more than ever before. Her mind couldn’t focus on anything else other than her meeting in the club later that day. She knew that this time there would most likely be no dancing, but still, being surrounded by mobsters was far from ideal, especially in a place like that. Being so close to the person her Capo was trying to kill made her anxious. She wasn’t sure whether the fear would ever stop. Not until she was done with her task. And even then, she couldn’t be totally certain.
That was exactly why she was determined to learn how to properly defend herself. Earlier she’d had a feeling that it could be useful but couldn’t find enough motivation to keep pushing herself. But as she was sitting on the wooden bench, waiting for the Enforcer to get to the gym, she was more than ready to give it another shot.
Five minutes later the doors opened and Nicodemo stepped into the room already dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. He didn’t bother greeting the girl, immediately taking some bandages from a shelf and threw them her way. It turns out that this would be the first time she had any kind of protection during their training. Usually, Nicodemo was a supporter of ’learning raw’ as he’d explained to
her. Because of this Inéz had more bruises on her knuckles after each fight than she ever had altogether on her body throughout her life.
She raised an eyebrow. "You can’t have bloody hands while working in Gastone’s club. It would be suspicious, not to mention they value perfection in their women," he said in a low voice, putting his shoulder holster down on the cage’s floor and climbed in himself. Inéz joined him.
The girl had gotten used to training with Nicodemo, so being locked in a cage with him wasn’t that scary anymore. However, every time he prepared to strike she imagined all the women he handled in his everyday job as an Enforcer. Did he beat, hurt, kill or rape them? It was unthinkable to her, but Flavio’s words still rang in her head. He was the best at handling women. It paralyzed her whenever she remembered it.
"Alright, I’m fucking done seeing how scared you are. Ask me what you want to know and let’s get this over with. Because I cannot fucking train you if you keep cowering each time I make a move," he seethed.
Inéz thought the question through, realizing that this situation had the potential to go really badly if Nicodemo didn’t like her next words. Or misunderstood them. He could get furious and show her exactly what his job was about. A shiver went up her spine. But as Noah had already pointed out, she was too curious not to ask. "How come you’re the best at handling women?"
He frowned. "Who said I was the best?"
"Flavio said it when I asked why Noah picked you to train with me," she admitted, wrapping her hand at the same time.
"It just means that I studied through the course of my life the way they interact, attack, fight and defend themselves," he paused. "I have sisters and my father always thought it necessary for them to learn self-defense technics. I observed him teaching them and picked up certain things like gestures and moves along the way."
"As an Enforcer, you take care of women as well, right? What does that entail exactly?" Her voice faltered, not sure how to get straight to the point. Maybe he would pick up on it without any other additional clarifications.
And he did. "I have never raped a woman. Some mobsters think it necessary and no one can do anything to remedy that shitty approach. I don’t believe in it. Yes, I handle women sometimes. Only those that betrayed the Famiglia or are against us. Like Bratva women. The fuckers initiate them more often than not."
Inéz sighed with relief. She hoped for such an answer but never thought that it would be the one Nicodemo would offer her. "Can we now go back to training?"
She ignored him. "Have Noah or Flavio..." she began, choking on the words.
"Flavio for sure hasn’t. He’s too noble to ever do it. I can’t speak for Noah because we weren’t close before when his father was the Capo. I was in Sicily while he was taking over the Las Vegas business. He does have his own rules and morals so if I was to guess, I would say no. He likes making people think otherwise, though. Believe the worst of him. But as you probably came to see, he’s not always the big, bad wolf. You saw a glimpse of that when he didn’t actually do anything to this girl Anastasia, or her mother. But if you want to be sure, you need to ask him. I've already said too much, actually."
That was the longest exchange between them. The Enforcer wasn’t the most talkative person, and never before had he revealed his thoughts on his Capo and his rules. He was a loyal Made Man, sticking to his oath as he should and cared about what he was supposed to say and what not. So, to ignore the consequences of perhaps revealing too much to Inéz was very unlike him. But the girl appreciated it, so she ended the topic, ready to fight.
§ § §
The first person Inéz spotted as she came into the nightclub was Elio Conte - one of Gastone’s twins. She could only tell him apart from his brother because of the way he preferred to have his hair up, while Fabro kept it down. He was standing by the bar, talking to one of the waitresses. With a smug smirk, it was more than obvious that he was flirting with her. However, the girl didn’t seem interested but rather annoyed. She most likely didn’t turn him down on the spot because of his position, but her replies were there just for the sake of keeping her job. It was obvious for anyone observing this, but Elio didn’t appear to realize it, or if he did, he didn’t give two fucks about it.
Inéz’s face hardened, knowing that she was in the lion’s den and couldn’t afford to show any sign of weakness. Much to the waitress’ relief, the man turned his attention towards her, brazenly checking her out. And it would get to the girl if she wasn’t so tired after her workout with Nicodemo. Right now, she just dreamt of getting this meeting over with and going home to sleep the day off.
"Hello," she greeted the man, pretending like she didn’t notice him undressing her with his eyes. A fake smile crossed her lips.
"Well hello to you, doll. It’s good to see you again." He came up to her leaving barely a step between them. Too close for Inéz’ taste. However, he was still a better option than his father. "I was just waiting for you. Alberto is going to be late, so I’m going to take care of you."
Inéz looked at the man, trying to figure out whether that was a bad thing, or if she should be glad for the change. Alberto didn’t seem like an approachable person at all. But as she felt Elio’s hand rest on her ass, she drew the conclusion that neither was a good choice. They were all goddamn mobsters.
She moved a little bit to get his hand off her. It worked but clearly displeased the man.
"Elio, behave yourself. You’re going to scare her off before she even starts working here." A male voice in the background reached them. One she knew all too well.
By the entrance, there was Flavio Falcone dressed in a black dress shirt and ripped jeans. Casual but elegant at the same time. His usual style.
The Underboss’ eyes met hers but the recognition that she’d expected didn’t come. And she understood why. It had to look like they were meeting for the first time. As far as Elio was concerned, they didn’t know each other. And Flavio checking her out the same way the twin had merely a minute ago gave away the required depth of their needed act. They were to be total strangers in this place. She couldn’t help rolling her eyes.
"Oh come on, man. I am the most well-behaved person out there," he joked, coming up towards Flavio and greeting him in a friendly manner.
Observing this, Inéz wasn’t sure whether that was an act or not. She didn’t know the younger Falcone well enough to be certain of anything, however, at the same time she couldn’t picture him partying and spending time with his enemy’s son like nothing was wrong. It confused her to no end.
"New dancer?" he asked Elio, playing his part perfectly. He was an amazing actor.
The man nodded, smiling widely as if he’d just gotten a new toy. Which couldn’t be that far from the truth, judging by her job. The girls here were expected to be the entertainment for Made Men. And she would have to become one of them.
"I’m Layla," she introduced herself, extending her hand. Flavio sent her an amused expression, which only meant that he wasn’t going to shake it. Inéz quickly dropped it, a little embarrassed. This part couldn’t be an act, but his natural attitude towards her, Isaac and Drew. The Underboss still didn’t like his brother’s decision.
"That’s sweet," he remarked, and with a small wave of the hand, he turned to Elio. "When are you going to be free? I could use your help with the new casino."
The soldier regarded him and smirked. "Give me ten minutes and we can go. First, I have to give this doll a tour of the nightclub."
Getting an approval nod from the Underboss, Elio took her hand and guided towards the stage. Flavio sat down on the barstool and ordered a drink, his eyes never leaving them.
"He’s got a stick up his ass if I ever saw one," she murmured.
Elio laughed, shaking his head. "Flavio can be rude but don’t let him hear you say something like that about him. It’s disrespectful and he won’t stand for it, doll. You might just find yourself in a fucking bad situation," he warned her but his eyes still held a glimmer of
amusement.
"Alright, coming back to business. You already saw the changing room," he started, leading her into the back through the changing room’s doors. There were two girls sitting and talking. Neither of them was in anything but their dance clothes, which was a polite way of saying that they only had their underwear and bras on.
It would take some getting used to. Going from spending a lot of time with her male friends, to actually having to communicate and get friendly with women wouldn’t be an easy task. She was nice enough to get along with anyone really when she put her mind to it but never before had she spent time with actual nightclub dancers. It was an entirely different company than she had kept in high school. That much was certain.
The women quieted down upon seeing Elio come in. He sent them a flirty smile and walked up to the far end of the room, stopping at the lockers. He pointed at the last one on the left. "This one is yours, however, I don’t give a fuck where you leave your things. We’re not in kindergarten, but I was told to show you for some fucking reason."
He shook his head towards the racks full of clothes and the vanity tables. "You choose whatever you want and do your own makeup. But I warn you that in spite of how hot you looked yesterday you have to put darker makeup on. You’re supposed to stand out so that people can admire you."
Inéz held back a scowl. She wasn’t one for wearing heavy make-up. She preferred it easy, quick and natural. Next, they walked out to the main dance floor area again.
"You will work six days a week. Alberto is going to send you the schedule. The club is open from ten-thirty till four so it’s not that long of a shift, really. You will be paid thirty dollars per hour. Of course, you’re expected to perform one dance on the main stage each night. It will give you an additional one hundred dollars. Try your best not to do the same routine each night, doll." he explained. "You dance on platforms unless Alberto tells you otherwise. You can order drinks on the house but watch your alcohol intake. It goes without saying that you can’t get drunk."