Page 35 of Mob Star

“I own three other casinos, and I’m well acquainted with the owners of the other six worth staying at.”

Is there anything he doesn’t own?

Terry’s come around the table to stand beside me, but she’s remaining quiet as she tries to figure out who Finn is and why he just called himself my boyfriend. Did he just say it for this douche’s sake?

The big guy, Todd, steps forward and puts out his hand as though he’s going to take the DB’s arm. The DB pulls away so hard he nearly falls over. No one moves to help him. He stumbles, and how drunk he is becomes obvious.

“Lenny?” A woman with so much collagen that she has her own life preservers walks over. “Lenny, baby. What’s going on?”

“Is he yours?” Disgust drips from Finn’s tone. Things just went from bad to worse.

“Yeah. Why?”

I look at Finn and shake my head, shooting him a pointed look not to tell the woman what really happened.

“Take him up to your room. He’s too drunk and causing a disturbance.”

“What kind of disturbance?” The woman doesn’t relent.

“The kind that’s making other guests uncomfortable.”

Great. Now she turns her sights on me. She looks me up and down, and it’s clear I don’t pass muster. I’m in a cute dress with ankle boots and a cropped jacket. I think I look nice. But it’s also obvious I’m not spending my days at a plastic surgeon’s office. She turns her nose up and looks at Lenny.

“Lenny, what did you do?”

“Nothing. The bitch wanted it.”

The woman shrieks, and Finn’s ready to lunge at Lenny. He doesn’t after all. But he gets in Lenny’s face, having to look down since he’s half a head taller than the jackass. I can barely hear him over all the noise of the slot machines, but I’m close enough.

“You do not want to call my girlfriend another thing. You want to walk out of here on your own two feet before I break them both. You want to take your woman up to your room and stay there. If you don’t, I will make sure you’re escorted off the property. It’s awfully dark tonight, and the lighting isn’t so good once you’re off the casino grounds. I’d hate for you to fall.”

Finn pushes his shoulders back, and for the first time I realize just how big he is. He doesn’t have poor posture, but neither does he impose his size. With his chest and back fully expanded, he’s nearly as big as Cormac and Seamus. He steps back and reaches for me. When I go to wrap my arm around his waist like I have before, he moves in a way that traps my arm at my side. Weird. He just defended me, but he doesn’t want anyone to see me with my arm around his waist.

Todd follows the couple toward the elevators. When we see them get on, Finn steps around, so we can look at each other.

“What did he say to you?”

“He was just being a jerk. He wanted to buy me a drink and didn’t want to take no for an answer. I ignored him. He tried to brush up against me a couple times, but I ignored that too. I was winning, so I stayed. Finn, this is my friend Terry.”

I turn toward Terry, who’s been watching all of this play out. She smiles at Finn, and I can tell she’s about to do her diagnostician thing with about a thousand questions and hypotheses the moment we’re alone. She’s an OBGYN and specializes in high-risk pregnancies.

“Hello.” Finn smiles at her and offers her his hand.

“Terry, this is Finn.” I don’t know if I should say he’s my boyfriend. I don’t know if I should say his last name.

“Nice to meet you.”

Before Terry or I can say more, Finn smiles down at me.

“Ladies, let any of the staff know if you need anything. I’ll let you continue your night. I’m glad I recognized you when Todd said there was a drunk guy on the floor bothering a woman.”

What the fuck?

Did I just get the blow off? Why’d he defend me if he’s just going to pretend like we barely know each other? Now I get why he didn’t want me to wrap my arm around him. He was just pretending. That stings.

“Do you want to find the others, Ally?”

“Sure. Thanks, Finn. It was good seeing you.”

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