“Nothing,” Arturo responded quickly. “Where should we take this party?”
“Wait, no,” the blonde I’d attracted said. “Five hundred dollars for what?”
I shouted so that I could clearly be heard over the rumble of the music. “Well, we saw you all over here, dressed all skimpy and drinking, and my brother bet me that I couldn’t get more of you to come with me than with him. Since four of you were about to come with me, I won.”
They all turned on Arturo and sent out their own flurry of jeers and swear words. One of them took the glass of liquor in her hand and poured it over Arturo’s head, and then they walked away from us, with a few of them throwing up middle fingers for good measure.
Arturo glared at me. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Can we go home now?” I asked.
He was so angry that he was shaking, but he still said, “Sure,” through gritted teeth.
We left the club and made our way out to his car. We climbed in, and it was almost terrifying how quiet he was as he drove us back home. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I didn’t want to be out, to begin with, and the fact that those women probably weren’t looking for a deep, meaningful connection, I might have felt bad. In truth, I shouldn’t have gone out at all, but the more I talked to those women, the more I realized that none of them interested me in the slightest. Arturo could try again on his own some other night, but for now, I wanted to get home and try to figure out how to undo all the damage I’d done with Denise.
When we arrived back at our estate, Arturo barely put his car in park before he was climbing out of it and storming toward the door. He was being a bigger brat than I anticipated, but if he left me alone for the rest of the night, it didn’t really matter to me. He shoved the front doors open as he entered the house, leaving them open behind him, but I was moving at a much slower pace. By the time I passed through the doors, my dad and Callista had come to investigate the ruckus.
“What the hell is going on?” Callista asked.
“Which one of you slammed my fucking door?” my dad barked, investigating the other side of the door where Arturo’s temper tantrum had left a dent in the wall.
“That was Art, but it’s my fault. I’ll pay to have it fixed,” I responded. I turned to head into the living room and heard Callista and my dad following behind me.
“What happened?” Callista asked.
I sank into the couch with a flop. “Art was trying to pick up girls, and I fucked it up.”
Callista crossed her arms as she sank into one of the armchairs opposite the couch. “Oh boy. Not to be gross, but he hasn’t had any…visitors in quite a while. That’s probably half the reason that he’s been so insufferable lately. You couldn’t have survived one night? Taken one for the team?” Callista asked.
“It would have been good for both of you,” my dad said, sitting into the other armchair next to Callista.
“You know, I really don’t want to discuss my sex life with my sister and father, so I’m gonna go ahead and stop us right here.”
“Don’t be a prude,” my dad said. “Men need sex, and if that idiot put a hole in my drywall because he’sthatpent up, Calli’s right. You should have just taken the fall. It’s not like you’re rolling in it.”
“I’m not responsible for—” The sound of a gun cocking cut me off, and then the barrel of a gun settled against the back of my head. “Yeah, this is more what I was expecting.”
“Come on, Art,” Callista said. “Put that down.”
“No,” Arturo said from behind me. “He’s going to cost us everything.”
“What do you mean?” my dad asked.
“He’s not thinking clearly. This girl is so deep in his head that he isn’t making any rational decisions. She could be planning to take us down right now, and he wouldn’t tell us.” There was a brief pause, then he continued. “She’s a liability. A big one. He’s too distracted by her. I need to be made the new liaison between us and Denise.”
“What?” I scoffed. “You don’t even like her.”
“Exactly. I won’t get my dick in a bunch over her.”
I could see the thought crossing both Callista and my dad’s faces, and my jaw dropped. “She knows that he can’t stand her. She’d never work with him.”
“Then she’ll die,” Arturo said simply.
My dad crossed his arms. “I’ve been second-guessing the decision to keep her around ever since I made it,” my dad admitted. “This would be a good compromise. Make sure that you’re remaining focused and using her as best we can as well.”
Thankfully, Callista shook her head. “Daddy, Art is way too impulsive and short-tempered, not to mention, he’s kind of stupid.”
“Fuck you,” Arturo hissed.
