Lady Night

Chapter four

Things at Elysium moved fast.

Lane helped show me the ropes for the first few nights, training me on how the clubs in Elysium were normally run. I learned that the dance club was affectionately known amongst the bartenders as D&D, standing for Debauchery and Drunkards, while the upstairs lounge was known as 2M, referring to the minimum salary somebody needed to make in order to fit in.

Darius, one of the other bartenders, told me that he called it 2M because the money he made up there went straight to paying his mortgage.

Either way, the clientele at Elysium were certainly on a higher shelf than they'd been at APEX.

It was almost impossible to explain to my sister the level that these patrons were on, but I still tried. Every night when I returned just as she was starting to get ready for work, I would fill her in on the elegant women and the men wearing twenty thousand dollar watches.

Audrey would always respond with some joke about her sixth grade class and how she'd fill me in on which one of them would ask her to marry them. Apparently, it happened often. Which didn't take too much of a stretch for me to imagine. Everybody loved Audrey, it didn't surprise me that her students did too.

Even though Giovanni-Mr. Russo, rather-told me that I could hire someone else to help work behind the bar I found that I still liked doing it myself. It was strange to split my hours with working in the office managing the bar and then actually out working behind it. Strange but good.

Still, I hadn't seen him since my first day a little over a week ago. Nothing in my office books held any information that would be of value to Marafi— just club sales and contracts. Nothing about the other companies or the Russo Family in general.

In fact, the only member of the Russo family I met was Giovanni. The others didn't appear to frequent Elysium as much as the Marafi Family did at APEX. I was beginning to wonder if the Russo's even bothered with the club, until one Friday I spent half an hour chatting with a guy at D&D and after he walked away, Lane nudged me in the side.

'That's Frankie," she said, "he works for the Family."

I gaped a little. "He does? Doing what?"

"We don't usually ask, but I think Frankie does some work on the docks," Lane narrowed her eyes a little, gauging my reaction with surprise,

"you know who they are right?"

The Russos? I nodded my head. Ever since I was forced to take this job, I started learning more and more about them. The Family had their hands in lots of different legal ventures. Their parent company invested in luxury goods, cars, and realty. Their illegal ventures, however, were a little harder to determine.

"Yes, I know who the Russos are. I just don't know exactly who works for them and who works for them."

Lane's eyes glinted a little with humor as she pushed a beer across the counter to a customer.

She grinned

"I'll do a better job of telling you who is who," she promised and then lowering her voice said,

"be careful not to get mixed up with them.

Frankie is... harmless, but still."

But still is involved with a notorious crime family, I finished the thought for her.

I mulled over her words, nodding to her before getting back to work. Frankie came back two more times that night to my bar, each time trying to flirt but I kept the conversations brief before busying myself with something else.

Sure, his connection to a dangerous

organization made me nervous. But I was used to guys like that. Hell, I was used to being like that.

I was not used to, however, the feeling of a heavy gaze watching me. I felt it on me the first time I talked to Frankie, and every time afterward. My skin sparked under the mysterious weight of that gaze. Every time I looked for it, I couldn't find the source.

The last time Frankie came up to the bar, I felt the heated stare on my face once again.

Quickly, before the source could disappear again, my eyes snapped up, scanning the dance floors, the walls, the tables along the sides. Nothing.

Guided by the surge of those eyes on me, my eyes drifted upward. There on the banister leading to the upstairs lounge, for only a moment, I thought I saw a shadowed figure of a man with his arms spread wide over the railing with a perfect view of the bar. The moment I looked up was the moment the shadow disappeared as did the sweltering stare.

***

"It's been a week," Marafi said, crossing his arms and fixing dark brown eyes on my face.

"And you have nothing?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, but kept my face blank and crossed my arms.

"Did you trust me after a week?"

He scoffed. "I don't trust anyone, sweetheart."

"And why would the Russo's be any different?"

The music blared around us as one of the house DJ's did his sound check, drowning out any onlooker or employee from hearing the contents of our conversation. I knew Marafi would be impatient for whatever information he was looking for, but I didn't think he would expect an update one week in.

I was in the middle of a lunch with Audrey when I received his text to meet him at APEX. She could hardly understand why I had to rush off without a moment's notice.

"Giovanni Russo seemed quite taken with you," he said a little too casually. "Perhaps you should explore an opening there."

I swallowed past the thickness in my throat at the mention of the man with the heated gaze.

Relaxing back in my seat, the perfect picture of ease, I shrugged.

"Maybe," I said. "What position does he hold?"

"He's the Don's kid brother. He acts as his consigliere. Does most of the legal work for the Russo Corp. and the Family. If there's a string to pull on, he knows which one."

My brows shot up. "A lawyer?"

I thought of the tattoos that I saw poking out of his crisp white shirts and the muscles that stretched beneath them. He certainly didn't look like any lawyer I'd ever met before. But I hadn't ever met a lawyer for a crime family before.

Marafi's eyes narrowed on my face and I fixed my expression back into one that he couldn't read. I don't know exactly what he saw there, but I had years of making sure he only saw what I wanted him to. If a man like Marafi knew what I wanted, it made him all the more dangerous.

Still, he knew the one thing I desired above all else and he'd already found a way to use that against me. I wanted out of my debt.

"How's your sister?" he asked, and my eyes shot up to his at the off handed question.

"Fine."

I rose from my chair, effectively ending our conversation but Marafi remained sprawled in his chair. It was foolish to walk away from him without his permission- unspoken or not. But I wouldn't talk about my sister with him. He already knew too much about her.

"Don't disappoint me, Sabina." And then after a moment, "and don't disappoint Audrey."

I nodded once, turning on my heel at the dismissal and the threat. My hands were fisted by my sides but my steps were steady and slow, unaffected.

My hands remained clenched my entire walk to the bus station. At some point during the ride, the grip relaxed. I spent the ride daydreaming about what it would be like to take this bus as far as it would go and then take the next one.

And then the next.

But he would find me. And, what's worse, he would find Audrey.

My daydreams sobered up at the thought and I stood the moment I heard my stop on the intercom. There was a pack of three young men in the back of the bus loudly making comments that I chose to ignore. Public transportation in Las Vegas was public transportation in Las Vegas. There were no other ways to describe it and there were no other cheaper options to get to work from my apartment.

I've lived in the city my whole life and knew that there were more dangerous things here than three idiots on a bus. When those three idiots followed me off the bus, however, I started walking a little faster down the strip.

"Aw come on!" One of them hollered. "You speeding up because of us?"

I didn't turn or acknowledge that I heard them or knew that they were talking to me. Elysium was only a little further.

"Don't be like that!"

It was broad daylight and they were drawing attention from passersby. Just a little bit closer.

I knew if I turned, they would be closer too.

"You can't wear something like that and not expect us to want to chat!"

Despite myself, I glanced down at the sundress I had on. Okay, whatever fuckers. This time, I had to acknowledge them- raising my middle finger over my head but not turning around.

The entrance to Elysium was on the next block.

"Don't be like that—"

Then, "Miss Night?"

My head snapped to the curb where Giovanni Russo was exiting the back of a black Aston Martin to step onto the sidewalk in front of the club. Forgetting the men tailing me, I stopped in my tracks feeling a little bit breathless as he buttoned his jacket. Despite the heat, he seemed as unbothered as ever in his finely tailored suit.

I hadn't ever seen him in normal clothes, I realized.

"Oh, um, hi," I said.

Another man exited the back seat. He was fairer skinned with sandy blonde hair tied back out of his face. This man would've looked as if he'd just come from surfing on the coast if it weren't for the bespoke suit he wore.

The stranger gave me a polite smile, glancing briefly at the man who was still staring at me.

The stranger cleared his throat and finally that heated gaze moved off of my face.

"I'll meet you inside, Gio," he said then glanced again at me and back to his friend. "Don't take too long."

Gio. That seemed more fitting for the man standing in front of me. The stranger departed leaving me standing, somewhat breathless and sweaty, in front of my boss while the three men from the bus hollered at each other outside a storefront.

"Come back over here!" One of them yelled, and I cringed.

Caramel colored eyes noted the cringe and he looked a little past my shoulder to where the men stood. His expression remained stoic save for a small eyebrow raise.

"Jerome!" he called out across the sidewalk to the police officer standing a little bit outside of Elysium's front door. I watched, slightly awed as the officer in question shuffled up to him.

"Those men over there are harassing my employee."

"Say no more," Jerome turned and started walking toward the men. They dispersed as soon as they saw a cop approaching.

I glanced back at Mr. Russo who was already looking down at me. A cop? He had a cop on retainer? As if he knew what I was thinking, he gave a little shrug. One that told me he probably had a lot of cops on retainer. Maybe he was a lawyer, but the law clearly didn't apply to him.

"I do not think you should take the bus, Miss Night."

Despite myself, I snorted.

"If you want me to come to work, Mr. Russo, then I need to take the bus."

His eyes narrowed and my humor dried up in its tracks. I could feel his gaze all the way down to the tingle in my toes.

"Then I will make other arrangements."

I didn't have time to ask what he meant before he motioned for me to walk in front of him.

"You know," he began, "you can call me Gio."

"Will you call me Sabina?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so," his lips quirked up in the corner, "lady Night seems fitting."