CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

REAPER

Nobody will look at me and wonder why I’m not dead. My employees knew it was all a hoax. For the benefit of my girl. She needed to think I was gone. Once Bella thought I was dead, it was going to go one of two ways. I’d find her and take her again, or she’d realize, not only was she mine, but she wanted to be. I’m relieved it was the latter.

She stares at me with unasked questions, every time someone greets me with, ‘Good evening, Mr. Bonetti, it’s so good to see you.’

If Bella asks me, I’ll answer regardless of how uncomfortable it is, but I don’t think she has figured that out yet. We take a seat at a table with a chair on one side, and a booth on the other. Automatically, I take the booth, because I plan to keep my hands on her. I watch her as she glances around the club. First, she looks at the large black ‘U’ shaped bar, with no bar stools in front of it. My plan early on was to not have people congregating at the bar. Her gaze turns to the black round tables with silver chairs, and then the dance floor, where people are bumping and grinding relentlessly.

Originally, I thought this club would be used for money laundering in the family business, but I quickly found out it was part of my father’s retirement plan for me. When he told me I was too unhinged for the mafia, I laughed because I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. He didn’t say anything for a long time, but I’ve always believed he decided Psycho would not become the head of the family during the same time period. He was sick for a long time before he clued us in, and everything was already in place before he had the conversation with the three of us. Bones wasn’t there, because he was the first to be notified. Bones is a pain in my ass, but it was probably the right decision. I think even Psycho knows that now. He isn’t a leader. Not because he isn’t strong enough, but because he’s too much like me. My oldest brother tends to do whatever he wants to, without considering consequences. In the mafia, that’s dangerous. It can wipe out entire families. Like a good boy scout, you need to always be prepared. While Psycho will set fires everywhere, regardless of who gets burned, Bones thinks more methodically, and has everything planned out, before he strikes.

The waitress brings over a whiskey and sets it in front of me, and asks Bella if she’d like to see the wine list. My girl crosses her arms over her chest, and narrows her gaze at Sheila, and says, “I’ll have a whiskey. Just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I can’t handle hard shit.”

The server looks from Bella to me with a concerned expression.

“Of course, I’m sorry.”

The waitress leaves, and Bella turns to me.

“I choose her. Can we do her?”

I chuckle and whisper in her ear.

“Settle down, living dead girl. People are going to hear you and think you plan on fucking her. Also, my employees are off limits, because I would have to restaff my club, which I have no intention of doing.”

She gazes at me with obvious shock on her face.

“Your club? You own this? I saw ‘Bonetti’ on the sign and knew your family owned it, but I didn’t realize it was yours.”

I nod. “That’s right, baby. If you have a question, ask, and I’ll tell you. We don’t have secrets.”

Once her drink is brought over, she takes a sip and says, “Isn’t it bad for business to,” she waves her hand in the air, “ you know , the customers.”

She’s trying hard to not say kill, which is fucking adorable. In the crime world, my extracurricular activities are not a secret. My staff knows full well, but they also know I don’t hurt employees. The customers are a mix, some know and some don’t, but I think the majority wonder if it’s a rumor, or fact. It says ‘Club Bonetti’ on the sign, so anyone that walks in here likely knows I’m from a mafia family. You would think people would be smart enough to stay away from a family that runs a criminal enterprise, but they don’t. Somehow it has become a cool factor. What it boils down to is, people are fucking stupid.

I shrug my shoulders.

“People know this is owned by a member of a criminal family. Do you think they stay away for their safety? No, it makes them more interested in being here. And for every person that mysteriously disappears, another will replace them to spend money in my club.”

“What about the,” she mouths the word, “police?” silently.

I brush her hair out of her face, so I can look into those blue eyes that make my cock so hard it hurts.

“They don’t work for the people, baby, they work for us. In the event that one of us gets caught up in something with some new detective, there’s another five that make evidence disappear. It’s always a possibility that things could get hairy, but it hasn’t happened yet. A case never goes far because we make it go away, one way or another.”

I take a gulp of my whiskey with my free hand, as I grip her waist harder than I need to.

She looks around the club at the different people.

“How do you decide?”

I watch her watching a pretty brunette from a distance. I know her. She fucked Kage, in this very club. Her name is Melissa, and she’s attractive, but nothing like Bella.

“You want to see her die, don’t you, living dead girl?” I whisper in her ear.

She nods slowly, without taking her eyes off Melissa.

“Do you see the man in the gray suit at the bar?”

She glances at the bar quickly, as the bartender hands the man a drink .

“That’s her current boyfriend. He’s a member of the Abruzzo family. You may remember his brother attacking you.”

Bella turns her head to me and cocks it. My cock gets hard at the fire in her eyes, as she says, “I want them.”

Bones would tell me to calm her down, because it will only escalate the situation with their family, but he is in my club, knowing what happened to his two brothers. Besides, whatever she wants, she should have. If it’s in my power, I’ll give it to her.

“Go talk to her, living dead girl. Invite her to the VIP area.”

Bella looks at me with a horrified expression. “What?”

“You’ll be fine. I won’t take my eyes off of you. If we have to, we’ll force them upstairs, but this is the easiest way.”

She grabs my face aggressively, and kisses me hard, her tongue sliding around mine. I’m surprised, but fucking delighted, when she wraps her small hand around my throat and squeezes, restricting my breathing slightly. Fucking intoxicating.

Pulling back with a dangerous look in her eyes, she says, “I’ll meet you upstairs.”

I watch my beautiful girl walk over to Melissa. My eyes focus on Bella’s ass, and the way it sways with perfection as she crosses the room.

I’m not sure what she was worried about, because instantly they are talking and laughing. Bella strokes Melissa’s dark spiral curls between her fingers sweetly as they have a conversation I can’t hear. Tony Abruzzo joins into their conversation, and my skin prickles. If he lays a finger on her, he’ll never make it upstairs. I don’t know about Melissa, but he’ll never turn down an opportunity to go to the VIP floor, because he’s never been allowed. I don’t allow members of other families upstairs unless, of course, they aren’t coming out alive.

She loops her arm with Melissa’s, and I get up and follow after them, as they walk up the spiral staircase leading to the VIP room. I take two steps at a time, because having her out of my line-of-sight bothers me more than I can handle. The second I walk in, two things happen. The tingling in my neck returns, and Abruzzo looks at me like he’s going to kill me. He wishes. I know he isn’t armed, because only my family is allowed to have weapons here. Everyone is searched. They don’t like it, but if they want to come in, there’s not a choice.

“Reaper,” he growls, attracting the attention of both women. Melissa gazes at me with wide eyes, causing me to chuckle. She knows she’s in trouble, because after years of dating mafia men exclusively, she knows this isn’t a good situation, with men from two opposing families, ready to face-off. She’s what Kage refers to as a mafia whore. She fucks men involved in organized crime, because she wants to tie one down. Melissa doesn’t give a fuck about them. It’s all about both money and power. The two things that drive our families. Without both of those things, there would be no mafia.