Chapter Forty Nine
Carly
In less than a day, I’d already developed a love-hate relationship with the painkillers the doctor had prescribed. On the one hand, I liked that they took the pain away. On the other hand, I hated that they made my head feel fuzzy. “I don’t want to take a full pill.”
Gio was offering me a pain killer ahead of me dressing to go to the club. I’d refused to stay at his house while he went and told the staff about my ‘accident’.
“Tesoro.”
“Don’t you ‘Tesoro’ me, Gio. I hate the way they make me feel. I wouldn’t take it at all if I thought I could get away with it.” When he looked like he was going to argue, I brought out the big guns. By big guns, I meant the tears. I let my eyes fill with them. “Please, Gio. They make me feel like I’ve gotten really high, and I don’t like feeling that way. I promise I won’t over do it. I won’t even argue if you want to carry me.”
“Oh,Bella, don’t cry. It kills me to see you cry. I will agree as long as you take the rest when we return.”
He kissed me and I sighed against his lips. “Okay. I can do that. Thank you. I need to go by the apartment, too. I need to pick up a few things. And I need to talk to Risa. She’s freaked out because I told her I had an accident.”
“We can go there once we’re done at the club. I have brought someone in to assist Camille in managing it until you are cleared to return.”
That made me frown. “That should have been my call to make, Gio. I’m the manager.”
“And I’m the owner,Amore. It is my decision to make.”
Hard to argue with that logic. “Fine. But whoever it is better not mess up the system we already have,” I grumbled.
“She won’t. Rosalia has already been filled in on how you and Camille split the duties.”
“Rosalia? Your sister? Oh. Well, okay then.” I finally took the half pill with some water and, with Gio’s help, I got dressed to go. Part of me wanted to stay there in the bedroom, to hide from the world, but that wasn’t an option.
We arrived at the club an hour before it opened. Every member of the staff was waiting inside the main room of the club when Gio carried me inside. A chorus of gasps flitted around the room as he carried me to one of the tables and gently set me down.
“Oh my god. Carly. What happened?”
Camille broke the silence in the room and I turned my attention to her. “Some of you were made aware that I had a stalker. Last night, when I went out back to get Chablis’ backup outfit, he grabbed me. He used chloroform to knock me out, but he must not have used enough, because I woke up before we got to wherever he was taking me.”
I paused and took a sip of the water Tony set in front of me. “Thank you, Tony.” I turned my attention back to the others. “I tried to overpower him. I thought if I could at least get the car to stop, I could get away. He lost control and we wrecked. I was cut up, pretty badly. He died on impact.”
“Holy shit. Thank God you’re okay. Well, besides the injuries.”
I smiled faintly at Camille. “Yeah. I’m lucky to be alive.” She had no idea how true those words were.
“Uh, as anyone else noticed we’re missing someone?”
I looked over at Midori.
“Chablis? She’s not here.”
Before I could respond, Gio spoke up.
“Chablis no longer works here. Once I discovered Carly was taken near her car, I questioned her. It turned out, Chablis knew Carly’s stalker. She was partly responsible for Carly’s kidnapping. When I offered to give her a cash payout, as long as she left New Orleans and never came back, no charges would be pressed. She was smart enough to take the offer.”
“That bitch. What the fuck? Are you saying she helped him?”
Camille sounded like she wanted to hunt Chablis down and hurt her. That was just one of the many reasons she was such a good friend.
“Si. It was her responsibility to get Carly outside so he could grab her.”
“She was jealous,” I said before anyone could ask why. “She wanted to be manager...and she wanted Gio. She thought, with me out of the way, she could get both.”
“Fucking cunt. If I ever see her face again, I’m going to make her regret it.”
