The mafia boss' wife

Chapter 2

Lara

We all head to the bar to grab our notebooks ready to take orders when the customers arrive and Leah, one of the other bar staff jumps behind the VIP bar to help Cole for the night. Just then the customers start arriving, the usual Wall Street type, there's a mix of the younger ones and the older ones tonight, and I'm overjoyed to see the older ones take a seat at booth 4. I smile over at Tara, one of the other waitresses, as she makes her way to booth 3 where the younger ones are sat and mouth an "I'm sorry" she's in for a rough night with that lot. She's feisty Tara. She's taller than most of the other girls at 5 foot 9 with a slim, athletic build, shoulder-length black hair with red bangs and tattoos all over her body. She suffers no s**t, which is probably why Alice has put her on that booth. The customers there tonight are a real handful. Hopefully, the night will go by without a hitch.

An hour into the shift and I've already made around $100 in tips, I'm just getting a round of drinks from Cole at the bar when the whole room goes quiet, everyone stops talking as a group of men enter. As I turn to look at them, the sheer size of them shocks me. They make Cole, who is the tallest of our friend group at 6 foot 3 look small. Cole is one of the biggest men I've seen in terms of muscle size. He is a beast of a man and me being 5 foot 3 with a size 10 frame, I always feel small when next to him. The smallest of them has to be 6 foot 5 and the muscles on these guys is ridiculous. I have absolutely no idea who they are. I have never seen them in here, but they move with a sense of, almost royalty. The way they hold themselves just seems to command respect and the fact that the whole club went silent when they walked in tells me these guys are well known and quite possibly dangerous. I look over at Cole, who has a look of fear on his face. I've never seen him scared of anything, so this makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

The one at the front, the biggest of them all. He is easily 6 foot 8, and the biggest muscle wise. Even in a suit, the guy looks like he has the body of a Greek god. I imagine those suits are specially made. I don't think they stock his size anywhere as standard. As he walks by he glances over, our eyes meet for a moment. He has the most handsome face I have ever seen, he truly is a work of art, but he also screams danger. He sort of smiles at me as he continues over to the private room we have at the end of the VIP area. There are about 12 of them altogether that go into the room and it looks like Macey, one of the other waitresses is covering that tonight. I'm not sure if I'm jealous or relieved it's not me. The rest of us girls huddle round the bar for a break between bringing the drinks to the booths on the floor and the discussions are going a little wildly. There are the wildest theories as to who these men are. Everything from football players to male strippers is mentioned. Finally, Cole speaks up. "They're none of those things, the only thing you need to know about them is that they're dangerous. Try not to get too close, serve their drinks and leave as quickly as you can." He seems to be making eye contact with me as he says this, which is odd as I'm not covering them, surely he should be looking at Macey.

As I was making my way around the VIP area, covering my own booth and one of the other girls whilst she's on her break, I notice the big one, the front one of the dangerous men staring at me through the window of the room he's in. Thinking about what Cole said earlier, I swiftly move back to the bar to drop off the empty glasses and do my best to avoid passing that room and making sure that if I do pass it I don't look towards the window. The girl whose booth I'm covering comes back, it's her first night, and I'm not too sure of her name yet. She offers to cover my booth, so I can grab my own break and I thank her and walk off. Making a mental note to find out her name of one of the others later. She seems lovely, I hope she stays.

I make my way to the staff room and grab my bag from my locker, then head out back to the outside staff area, I sit on the table and get my book out, set an alarm for 30 minutes and do some studying while I vape away. Making notes as I go, I have no choice but to use my breaks as extra study sessions, medicine is hard and honestly, I can't afford to fall behind with any of the work. I decided to become a doctor when I was 16 and my mother died, as she lie there bleeding out waiting for an ambulance, I swore to myself that I would ensure that I had the knowledge and skills to save lives in the future. I wish I'd have known how hard that was going to be when I made myself that promise. It's just me really. Once my mum passed, I stayed with my grandma for a couple of years, but then when she died a year ago I was left alone. Thankfully, I found this job thanks to Matthew and me, him, Sarah and Laura all moved into an apartment together. Matthew has been my best friend since Kindergarten. We've always had each other's backs and at this point he's really more like a brother than a friend, so I guess, really he's the only family I have left. I do have a father, obviously, somewhere in the world. I often wonder who he is, what he was like but I also don't mind not knowing him. Mum never really spoke about him but made it clear he wasn't the sort of person you wanted to raise a child with. I'm not sure whether he left or she did but I know it ended when she found out she was pregnant with me. She always said I was all she needed so no siblings for me, at least, not that I know of.

I'm brought out of my thoughts by the sound of my alarm, I pack up and head back inside and back to the rest of my shift.