LUCA (You Will Be Mine) (The Sicilian Mafia Series Book 1) (26 page)

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

I didn’t even realise I was in a daydream until Belinda spoke. “Yes, I’m fine. Would everyone stop fussing?”

“We’re just worried about you,” Mia said, placing her hand on the bar.

With my posture picked up, I smiled brightly and slapped the bar with my hand. “I’m fine. In fact, I’m more than fine. I fancy a night out on the town. We haven’t done that in a while. Who’s with me?”

Belinda smiled. “I would love to, but someone has to stay and run this place.”

Mia jolted up. “Why don’t you two go with a couple of others? I’ll stay and help keep an eye out. Well, me and Alessandro of course.”

Just as his name was mentioned, the one and only walked into the bar, placing a gentle, possessive hand on Mia’s back. “Hey, ladies.” Bending down, Alessandro placed a seductive kiss on Mia’s lips. Mia moaned, and everyone rolled their eyes.

Managing to pry himself away, Alessandro looked up. “What are we talking about?”

“We’re talking about a night out. Belinda and I along with a couple of others are going.”

Alessandro looked flustered all of a sudden. “But you can’t. Mr. Belatoni—”

I glared at him. “Mr. Belatoni can shove his attitude where the sun don’t shine. Do you hear me? I haven’t heard from him in three days—yet, he seems to think he still has a right to order me around and tell me what to do. I’m not sitting around here like a lost puppy waiting for her lord and master to return. I refuse to do that.”

I got out of my seat. I’d had enough. I was more determined than ever to have that night out. “Mia, I will accept your offer to look after the place this evening. Thank you.” I gracefully nodded to her and smiled.

“You’re very welcome. Don’t worry. You ladies have fun, and I promise I will look after everything while you’re away.” Alessandro nudged Mia, causing her to glare back at him.

Great! I had probably caused an argument between those two lovebirds.

Squeezing Belinda’s arm, I pulled her away from Mia and Alessandro. If they were going to fight, I would let them get on with it.

“So, who do you think will be up for it tonight? Any ladies feel they need a break?”

Belinda looked away in deep thought. “I think Samantha would like to come. She’s always good for a night out.” Biting her lip, she thought some more, but then something caught her eye, and she smiled. “Oh, and I think I know just the other person.”

Looking in Belinda’s direction, I spotted Tammy smiling and looking around the hallway. “Tammy!” I shouted. I was glad to see her after so long.

“Clara!” she shouted back as we both ran in for a hug.

“How are you, Clara? I heard things had changed around here since I left.” Just as she said this, Natalie—the girl who took Tammy’s place—wandered over.

“You can certainly say that! I’ll get to that in a bit, but first of all, I’d like to introduce Natalie here to her predecessor. Natalie, this is Tammy.” Shaking hands, they both smiled while taking one another in. I knew they were sizing each other up.

“So, what were you two looking so excited about before Tammy came in?”

I smiled at Natalie. “Well, Belinda and I are going out tonight, and we were wondering who would want to come.” I nudged in Tammy’s direction and she gasped, “Oh I’d love to. We’ve never really had the chance to have a girly night out, so count me in.”

Turning towards Natalie, I felt the need to include her. “I would love to, but I’ve got a very special client coming in tonight—Mr. Gosport.” Natalie’s eyebrow rose.

“No! The famous actor?” Tammy squealed.

Natalie nodded with a smirk. “The one and only.”

“Damn. I’ve missed out there,” Tammy said, biting her lip.

Elbowing her in the arm, I said, “Oh come on, Tammy. I thought you had the love of your life?”

“Oh I do. I love him to bits, but for Mr. Gosport, I think I’d have made an exception.” Giggling across the hall, we soon had a load of eyes upon us.

“Look, it’s probably best we don’t continue this conversation until tonight. Can we meet you at Club Med—say around eight?”

Tammy squeezed my arm. “I’ll look forward to it.”

Getting ready for my evening out, I was startled when a text suddenly arrived on my phone. Retrieving it from my packed and ready bag, I opened it up.

Luca:
You’re not going anywhere tonight. I shall see you in a couple of hours. Stay put!

Tossing the phone back in my bag, I checked my make-up one last time and moved towards my door. Upon opening up, Tony stood to attention. “Mr. Belatoni told me of your planned night out.”

Closing my door behind me and heading for the stairs, I said, “Yeah. What of it?”

“Please, Clara. You can’t go out tonight. Luca would have a fucking hernia.”

I stopped at the stairs momentarily, trying to calm myself. I turned to a flustered Tony. “Listen, I appreciate your concern, but it really is none of anyone’s business what I do—least of all Luca’s.”

I could hear Tony’s loud footsteps behind me as I carried on my journey. Seeing Belinda at the foot of the stairs, I smiled. “Are you ready?”

Belinda held out her arm to me and smiled. “As I’ll ever be. Samantha can’t come, but Tammy said she would meet us there.”

Turning to Tony, I squeezed his arm. “Goodnight, Tony. I may or may not see you when I get back.”

Hearing Tony cursing, Belinda and I laughed all the way outside. I knew Tony had instructions to keep me in my castle, but all of them also had strict instructions not to touch me. Where did that leave them when it came to stopping me from doing anything? Not with much I thought. It didn’t stop them doing what a lot of them did next, however. Halfway up the road in the taxi, I spotted Tony and some others climbing into another car. I guessed I was going to be tailed and stalked all evening. No rest for the wicked.

“Wow, you both look great.” Tammy was waiting outside Club Med wearing an elegant, black, knee-length dress and the most gorgeous high-heeled shoes.

Kissing Tammy on both cheeks, I smiled. “You look great, too. Come. Let’s go in now before the mob turns up.”

Looking confused, Tammy just shook her head and tagged along. The music was booming, and it was welcome. Club Med was having an eighty’s night, and I loved eighty’s music.

After ordering our drinks, we were about to head over to a table and chairs when a security guy came marching over. “Excuse me, Miss Murphy?”

All the girls shrugged their shoulders. “Yes?”

“I have a VIP table upstairs for you and your lady friends.” The security guy eyed both Belinda and Tammy, and then his look turned to one of hunger.

“Okay. Lead the way, McDuff!”

Laughing inside, I knew full well who was responsible for this. Even now, he was getting his own way. I wasn’t going to say
no
, though. I wanted to be with my girls more than anything tonight.

Walking into the plush, cosy room, I experienced a sense of comfort. It was well put together with comfortable sofas and a big-arsed TV screen taking up the expanse of the room. On one of the tables by the balcony—which overlooked the dancers below—was a bottle of champagne and three glasses.

Shaking my head again, I sighed in disbelief. “I can’t believe he’s done this.”

The security man nodded. “I shall leave you ladies to it. Unless I can get you anything else?” His leering eyes were still roaming over Belinda and Tammy.

“No, this is fine, thank you.” With a little bow, the security guy was out the door.

“What the hell is all of this?” Tammy looked around the room in awe.

I sighed and looked at Belinda for a moment. “It seems I have a lot to tell you.”

Settling down in our seats and helping ourselves to our drinks, I began telling the full story to Tammy. She sat, listening attentively with occasionally widening eyes and a few cheeky grins. It seemed she was just as amused as everyone else had been.

“I can’t believe Rachael did that.” Tammy looked pissed.

Shaking my head, I completely agreed with her. “I know. I really didn’t think she felt as strongly as she did. It was quite uncomfortable—the whole experience was.”

“I bet it was,” Belinda interjected. “She’s always been a little strange. At times, I thought she may have been bipolar or something. Her moods were all over the place.”

Feeling this conversation was getting a little too deep, I decided to change the subject. “So, Tammy. You and John. How’s that going?”

Smiling, Tammy put her drink down. “We’ve set a date. Well, a roundabout date”

“Really?” Belinda’s posture picked up. “When?”

“We were hoping for mid-June. It will be two years since we met by then.”

Squeezing her hand tightly, I smiled. “That’s so sweet. I hope you’re going to invite us all?” Biting her lip, she looked a little apprehensive. “What is it sweetie?”

“I wanted to ask you something, and I didn’t know how you would feel about it.”

Feeling a little worried, I asked, “What is it?”

Tammy nervously darted her eyes and paused for a moment before she spoke. “I was kinda hoping we could have the wedding at The Castle. I understand it would be a big deal, and I know it would mean hiring it out for the day and the evening, but you would be highly compensated for it. John is rather wealthy, you see.” Taken aback by her request, I hesitated for a moment. “I told John it would be a bad idea.”

Shaking my head, I found my lucidity. “No, of course it isn’t. I’m just surprised; that’s all. I thought you wanted John well away from The Castle.”

“Well, I know it carries a certain risk, but I also know that I trust everyone there not to blab. It’s just that I talk about The Castle a lot to John, and he knows how much the place—and all of you—mean to me.”

Tammy smiled sweetly, and it caused my heart to flutter a little. Giving her a reassuring squeeze, I looked her dead in the eye. “Of course you can have your wedding at The Castle. It would be my pleasure.”

For a solid half an hour or so, we made plans for the wedding and figured out how much it would cost. I would normally charge quite a bit for hiring out The Castle exclusively, but this was Tammy. I wasn’t going to charge her and her husband-to-be the going rate. She wanted some of her guests to stay as they were travelling a great distance, so I worked it all out in my head and came up with a figure. She was stumped.

“That sounds way under-priced to me.”

Smiling, I kissed her hand. “It’s for you.”

“But, I can’t. That’s too much.”

Shaking my head, I knew I had to get through to her. “Let’s just consider it a wedding present from me to you.” I was still going to buy her a present of course, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

She suddenly jumped up squealing. “Come here! I need to give you a hug.”

Bouncing out of my chair, we hugged each other, and soon after, we were on to other subjects and getting well and truly tipsy.

“I love this song!” Belinda shouted as we all rose out of our chairs.

The booming sound of “Get Down On It” was blasting through the speakers down below.

Standing up, we all started dancing forwards and backwards and singing our arses off. All in sync with our dancing, we sang, “Get down on it, suck my helmet. Get down on it, suck my helmet.” I was laughing so hard, I thought I would wet my knickers.

“You can’t sing that song without those lyrics.” Belinda flopped her drunken self back in the chair and tried to calm her giggles.

“I’ve got something funny for you to try.” Sitting up in their chairs, I had Belinda and Tammy’s full attention. “Say, ‘I work for Cunard.’”

“I work for Cunard,” they both said, looking confused.

“Now, say it over and over again really fast.”

“I work for Cunard. I work for Cunard. I work forkin ard.”

When they realised what it sounded like, they stopped dead and looked at me. “You’re telling me you work fucking hard!” I shouted.

Erupting in laughter again, I realised it had been a long time since I had been out, having a good time with my girls.

“That’s so funny. I’ll have to try that one on Jeffrey.” Looking timidly towards me, she pouted. “He misses you.”

Not wanting to dwell on it, I shrugged my shoulders. “Nothing lasts forever. I’m sure with Mr. Arsehole out of the picture, we could get back to some sort of normality.”

“Over my fucking dead body!”

I looked up and found Luca hovering above me like the proverbial lion that he was. Behind his sexy glare, he looked tired and somehow anxious. It didn’t stop the anger from rising within me, though.

“Oh, look who it is. The one and only. Tammy, you haven’t met the arsehole yet, have you?”

Blushing, Tammy shook her head and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Luca looked as excited about shaking her hand as an eight-year-old would be about going to the dentist. He took her hand nonetheless, but I could tell what his main agenda had been all along. Me. “We need to talk.”

Sighing, I stood up to face him. “I don’t want to talk to you now. I’m out having fun with my girls.”

Exasperated, Luca glared at me. “Okay, listen. I got your message loud and clear. Now, stop being childish and let’s talk.”

“What the hell are you on about? What message?”