Page 74 of Stolen Kisses
The Antonellas didn’t associate with everyone else. The Manellos were right alongside them in badness, even in my eyes. They’d married into the Antonella family forming some alliance. I didn’t know how many people knew that, but I did. I figured they kept it hush, hush just in case the day came and they had to break the alliance.
That would make sense to show their power, but in terms of who had the most power in the hierarchy it was absolutely the Antonellas.
Raphael Rossi may think he owned Chicago, but that was because they allowed him to.
Give a dog the bone he’s after and keep him quiet. That way you can get on to other things. The real things you want to do. To me it was obvious that the Antonellas had power on a national level with ties in the government. That was substantially more than controlling one city in Illinois. Popular and powerful as Chicago was, it really was small fry when it came to the comparison on a scale.
I may be a nobody and some could look down on me as a barmaid or whatever, but I heard things. I heard things through the grapevine and in the underground.
Give a man a drink and you could get him talking. Wave a pair of tits in his face and that guy was all yours especially if you knew how to play the game right.
I knew about Crowthorne and knew to stay the fuck away.
This craziness of me sneaking into this event was … a death wish. A death wish and a risk on my life to make sure my one and only friend was safe.
Dante …fucking hell, he would kill both of us if he knew we were here.
Well … me at least, because I couldn’t find Christina.
The place was packed with all manner of wealthy people. This was some kind of fundraiser event it seemed. I didn’t know what for though and I didn’t care to find out either.
She was supposed to be here at eight. It was eight-thirty now. I’d gone home early from work. Got dressed and was hoping this was going to be the sort of thing where I’d follow her in her car or something. But that never happened. So, I came here and rolled in with the crowd, thanking God for my good looks, because I had to flirt my way in here.
My name of course wasn’t on the list. The way I was dressed however screamed that I should be. What helped was I saw a guy I knew from the bar in town.
Always drunk, Porter Canning always did what I wanted when he saw me. He owned the football stadium and Luc always had me around as a distraction when they were playing poker or some game.
Porter got me in and I had to make up some excuse of needing the ladies room to get off his arm. The man was drunk so all he did was nod.
Now here I was looking for Christina.
Where the hell is she?
I was starting to get antsy, because the same way Porter knew me, the other guys would know me too as Luc’s girl.
Well … within reason I suppose. I wasn’t actually his. Unlabeled that was me, but I’d be an idiot to turn a man like that away just because he wouldn’t put a label on us.
I stopped by a pillar on the second floor hall and looked around. This would be a good spot to see her. I could see everyone dressed in their finest from here.
I scanned the area below where all the waiters were, all walking around with food platters and drink trays.
I straightened up when I saw that creepy guy from Christina’s office. Long pointed nose and lanky with a side parting that made him look off. I couldn’t remember his name, but I just knew he was weird. He always gave me this overtly sexual look when I went to visit Christina. I think he had something to do with listing the campaigns they did with government officials.
I was surprised to see him here. He would definitely be a person to avoid.
I was looking at him so much that I foolishly didn’t see Christina behind him. My heart leapt, then squeezed. He was leading her away toward the basement.
I snapped into action and moved, weaving my way through the crowd.
Ahead the creepy guy and Christina turned down a corridor.
I had to hang back to give them a chance to go without alerting them that I was following close behind.
Once I saw where they turned, I moved and continued in stealth in the direction they went.
Once I turned down that second corridor it got a little easier to follow, but scary.
There was no one around and it was very clear that the party was upstairs.
