CHAPTER THREE

The next evening, Bella arrived early to work. She had given Mick her phone number when he drove her home, and all but begged him to give her a call anytime he wanted to hook up, but she hadn't heard from him at all. She'd had hoped he'd call her later that night, which was fantasyland she knew, or at least that morning or afternoon. She just wanted him to call. That was how much she was digging on him. She really liked him.

"Bella's on time, Boss," the bartender said when Bella walked in. "Is it the end of the world, or what?"

"Very funny, Jace," Bella said as she made her way down the hall. But all the other strippers and waitresses, who knew how notoriously late Bella always was, laughed. The club owner, Jumbo Fourtaine, who was in the corner doing his daily tabulations, didn't bother to look up. Which was fine by Bella.

But as she made her way down the hall and passed by the manager's office, she suddenly heard Mick's name. Not that it was an unusual name, but she'd never heard it uttered in the club before. She walked past as if she was walking on by, but stopped on the side of the door, leaned against the wall, and listened.

She knew one of the men talking was Vito Costantino, a mob guy, and his bodyguard Alfonse. She knew that the other two guys, whose names she never learned, were in the Costantino outfit too. The manager of the club was also in the room with them.

"He'll be here in a few minutes. He and Jumbo have some kind of business arrangement worked out. If Jumbo finds out I'm involved in this shit, that's my job."

"He dislocated my jaw," Vito said in a voice that sounded as if he was talking through clenched teeth. "He ain't getting away with what he did to me."

"How you gonna handle it?" the manager asked.

"The way we handle it," said Alfonse. "How you think?"

"Just keep it outside of the club," the manager said. "We don't want no cops up in here."

"Don't worry," Alfonse said as Bella could hear them standing up. "We're gonna ice him before he can get out of that cheap-ass Maserati. We'll meet him on the corner. When we see that car, we're gonna light up the sky. Surprise the shit out of his cocky ass."

Bella's heart dropped. It was her Mick they were talking about killing. It was her Mick!

She tiptoed away from that door, hurried down the hall, dropped her backpack inside the dressing room and then ran straight out of the back door.

If Mick was coming from his apartment, she knew he'd be coming south, so that was the way she ran.

Staying on the backside of the buildings, she ran up a full block. Then, as soon as she made it to the corner, she ran up to the front of a building – a chicken shack – and began looking for that red Maserati. When she looked back and saw Vito Costantino and Alfonse and their two other men coming toward that corner, she began to get worried. But when she saw that Maserati turn onto the street, she ran toward it, both her arms flailing. Mick slammed on brakes when he saw her and pressed down the window.

"It's an ambush!" she yelled, and as soon as she yelled it gunfire erupted.

"Get in!" Mick yelled, Bella jumped onto the backseat, and she barely had a chance to close the door as Mick flung his car in reverse and began speeding backwards.

Vito and his gang were now running toward Mick's car and firing as they ran, but Mick was able to swerve the car around, almost losing control, and then flying down a side alley, bullets riddling the side of his car.

But instead of going in the opposite direction of the gunfire, he turned up a back side street and began heading toward the club. Then he slammed on brakes again while he was still on that back street.

"Wait here," he said to Bella as he got out, opened his trunk, and pulled out two assault rifles. Then he began running up the alleyway that led to the club.

When he turned onto the street where the club was housed and saw Vito and his gang walking back toward the club, he stopped where he stood.

"Eh Vito!" Mick yelled out.

Vito and his men quickly looked where Mick stood. And as soon as they saw him, whom they assumed had turned tail and ran away like they had done the night before, they lifted their guns ready to fire on him again.

But this time, Mick had the element of surprise, and he was already firing on them. From both assault rifles. He gunned down Alfonse and the other two men before they could even lift up their weapons, leaving only Vito Costantino alive.

When Vito realized Mick wasn't doing him a favor by sparing him, he tried to turn tail and run away.

But Mick shot him in the chest before he turned. And then he finished him off with several more rounds.

He was about to run back to his car, knowing that it would only be a matter of minutes before the cops would be on the scene, but Bella had gotten behind the wheel and sped up to Mick.

Mick tossed his weapons into the trunk and closed it, got in behind the wheel as Bella got on the passenger side, and then he sped away.

Bella looked at him as he sped through the streets of Philly like he owned them. "The club manager was in on it too," she said. "He knew they were going to do it."

"What about Jumbo Fourtaine?"

Bella shook his head. "The manager said they had to keep it from Jumbo."

Mick nodded. "Thanks for the info. I'll handle that manager at a place and time of my choosing." Then he looked at her. "How did you find out about this ambush?"

"I overheard them talking in the manager's office. They said you were pulling up in a few minutes, so I ran to let you know."

"Good looking out, kid," he said to her as he pressed the phone icon on his car screen and then made a phone call.

Then he stared at her. Somehow he knew she was going to be good for him. When Jumbo Fourtaine came on the line, he didn't hesitate. "Kill the video," Mick said to him. "The cops ask, tell them the cameras weren't working."

"Got it," Jumbo said without asking questions. He had heard all of that gunfire too.

"Your manager was involved," Mick added.

"I knew I couldn't trust that bastard! Want me to handle him?"

Mick never left a job for somebody else to do. "No, I got him," he said. "Just make sure you erase that video and make sure no other cameras in the area have any up either."

"They don't. I already have an arrangement on that front."

"Good," Mick said, and ended the call.

Then he looked at Bella again. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. I'm going to have to find another club. In case there's retaliation."

"There won't be. Since Vito's brother got locked up, the Costantino organization been all bark and no bite. They'll fold."

"But still, I'll be too afraid to go back there. I don't know who else might be involved."

Mick drove in silence as he considered what he was going to do with Bella Caine. She saved his life. That was a fact. And he enjoyed her in bed. That was another fact. But he already had baby mamas and too much drama going on with other women as it was.

But as he glanced down her body, he knew she turned him on more than the others. And she was prettier than the others. And again, she saved his bacon. "Is stripping your dream job?" he asked her.

Bella looked at him. "What if it is?"

"Find another dream. You're off the pole."

But Bella was practical if she was anything. She never relied on a man before and wasn't about to start just because he treated her better than the other guys. "The pole is all I have right now. How am I going to support myself?"

"You aren't," Mick said, who placed loyalty above all else. Then he looked at her again. "That's my job."

Bella smiled. She wasn't above being some hottie's kept woman. It was music to her ears!

"I got you," Mick added to her delight.

But little did he know that he would have her, not for the foreseeable future, but for a lifetime.