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“You’re fucking crazy, Viper” Gilberto says, trying to get up. My guards press him back down into his chair. He winces but stops trying to flee.
I smile. “The next time you walk into any of my clubs and call any of my girl’s whores, I will have your tongue cut out of your mouth. Do I make myself clear?” I growl.
“We heard you, man. Fuck,” Fernando says.
I smile. “I knew you both were reasonable men. Let’s carry on, shall we?”
It’s not surprising that both men are cowards. They have let a couple of broken fingers turn them into quivering messes. We come to a deal, but I’m not impressed with what they had to offer. I feel vaguely let down by the meeting.
I have my men escort them out and I go back into main part of the club.
“Now, what’s the boss himself doing up here?” Gracie asks as she sees me.
I sit down at the bar. “Can’t a man visit his own club?”
She smiles. “Well, you can, but you’re distracting the girls,” she says.
I turn to see that the girls in lingerie who were either dancing or sitting with my clients now have their eyes subtly, or less-than-subtly, focused on me.
She leans over the counter. “How does it feel to be a heartthrob?”
I smirk. “Make me a drink. Something strong,” I reply. I run my hands over my face, feeling the scrape of my tidy beard beneath my fingers. I used to love engaging in violence to get business deals done. It used to make me feel like I was alive. Tonight, however, I just feel tired.
She winks. “I’ll just be a minute,” she says.
From the corner of my eye, I search for the green-eyed beauty. I wonder where she went off to, and then I wonder why I am searching for her at all. Pretty women with perceptive eyes are too much trouble for people in my world.
And what would I tell her if I did see her? Do I owe her some sort of apology?
I shake my head. I must be getting soft in my old age. Not that I’m old, but this business ages people rapidly. I can feel my world-weariness threatening to pull me into the grave.
“A penny for your thoughts?” Gracie asks, appearing from nowhere with my drink.
I thank her and take a sip of it before I say anything else to her.
“There’s this green-eyed girl. Long red hair…” I begin.
“You mean Alyssa,” she says.
So that’s her name. “Yes, I think so. Where is she?” I ask, clearing my throat so that I don’t sound too invested.
Gracie searches my face with a smirk. “Now, don’t tell me—” she starts, but I cut in.
“I just want to know if she is still on her shift. Those…guests of mine…they were handsy with her. I just want to be sure she’s okay,” I say.
Gracie sighs. “She was one of our best. Unfortunately, her shift finished a few minutes ago, and she announced that she isn’t coming back. Maybe her encounter with those thugs you invited in here was what made her want to leave.”
She levels an accusatory look at me, and I hold my hands up in surrender. “Hey, if you want a boss that works aboveboard, feel free to find one. You know the kind of people that I do business with.”
Gracie makes a tsking noise at me and shakes her head. There are few people that I would let talk to me like this, but Gracie and I have been friends for most of our adult lives. She’s one of the few people who can dress me down when I deserve it.
“I’m never going to find another girl like her to work here,” she tells me with a sigh. “Do you know how much we get each night just because of how sexy she looks opening a bottle?”
I swallow at the memory of her long fingers caressing the cork before pulling it out of the neck of the bottle. I can believe Gracie’s words. I wanted to jump over the table and sink my cock into the red-haired beauty every time I saw her.
“You’ll find another girl soon,” I say.
She says something else back, but it’s drowned out by my restless thoughts. My men return, and Gracie turns her attention to them, flirting with them until I finish my drink.
