“I have one more night before I have to look at the same woman for the rest of my life. I’m in no hurry.”
My phone goes off again.
“The girls are going to get antsy if they have to stay in the hotel much longer. Let’s take them out tonight. Dinner at least.” Ivan breaks the silence in the car moments later.
“I can’t.” I tap on my phone.
“They’re here for your wedding; you can’t come to dinner?” Alexander chides in the annoying big brother tone of his.
“No. I can’t. You take your wives out.”
“What are you going to be doing?” Ivan asks.
I check the new message coming through.
“Enjoying my last few nights of freedom.”
“How’d the kids take the news?” My best friend, Kara, climbs up into the barstool beside me, gathering her long hair in one hand and fanning her exposed neck with the other.
I’ve spent the last hour dancing on the second floor of Lush, an elite club that offers dancing, gambling, and pretty much anything you want if you have enough money for a membership. It’s one of the few privileges of being a DeAngelo I don’t hate. And one of the rare things being related to my brothers that brought any sort of pleasure.
“They were sad.” I frown. “Then they forgot all about it by the time they got home.”
“Oh, that’s not true!” Rosa grabs my wrist and squeezes. She’s the empath of our little group.
I cover her hand and smile. “I know, but they’re four- and five-year-olds. They will forget me long before I ever forget them. And it’s good. It should be that way. They have so many things happening in their little worlds. They’ll get a new teacher next week and move on.”
She sighs. “Still. You love those kids like they’re your own. It’s not fair. This whole thing isn’t fair.” She drops her cell phone onto the table with a severe frown.
“Since when is anything fair?” Kara chimes in while waving down a waiter. “Especially in our world?”
Rosa sits back and folds her thin arms over her chest. “My father would never do this to me. Or my brothers.”
“That’s because your father is a CEO of a media company and not the head of a criminal empire,” Kara deadpans. “And your mother would have his balls if he tried to force you into a marriage.”
Rosa nods with a grin. “She would. It’s true.”
“Hey, maybe that’s what we should do. We can sneak into your uncle’s room at night when he’s asleep. We’ll put a knife to his balls, see which he’d like to keep. His balls or his little deal with the devils.”
I stare at Kara. She’s exactly the same as her teenage self– only taller and shapelier.
“You still frighten me,” I laugh. “Do you really want to see my uncle’s balls?”
She screws up her face. “No, you’re right. We’ll just threaten to stab him.”
“Always with the violence.” Rosa shakes her head while raising her hand for a waiter. “I need a drink.”
“I think we all do.” I grab the drink menu from the center of the high-top table and glance at the drinks.
At a normal bar I’d order a whiskey sour, but Lush is no ordinary watering hole. Here everything is taken up to a highercaliber. After scanning the specialty drinks, I decide on the Cranberry Velvet.
“Would you like that made with Grey Goose, Cîroc, orBelvedere?” The waiter asks after I’ve given my order.
I blink at him as though he’s just asked me which wire to cut to defuse a bomb, the blue or the yellow.
“She wants the Cîroc,” Kara pipes in then glances at me. “It goes better with the cranberry.”
“Oh. Right. Of course it does.” I laugh when the waiter is away from our table. “Your knowledge of liquor choices continues to impress me.”
