Page 3 of The Mafia's Captive

“What about the game,” Hunter says. He seems more put off than the others.

“Are you that eager to give me more of your money?”

Hunter sulks. “Fine. I’ll hang out with these losers.” As soon as he says the words, a group of women, bottle girls, enter. They have with them sparkling champagne bottles and a mood to party. The other guys forget all their complaints as they are led out by the girls, with Jesse in tow.

Meanwhile, I collect Hunter’s diminished pile of chips into a tray and hand it to him. He takes the tray, removes a two-thousand-dollar chip, and places it in my palm. “Pity you could have much more than this,” he says, and follows the others out. He is right, but it is more than enough for me. It’s by far my biggest tip of the night, if not ever.

As the room’s numbers dwindle, I take to gathering the cards and arranging the rest of the chips, Dante’s enormous pile of chips, when he says, “You’re staying.” To the bartender he says, “You can leave.” His voice sounds cold. Colder than I’ve ever heard it before. It takes no time for the bartender to make his way out, leaving me and Dante alone. I continue with my job of putting the chips back into the trays as if there’s nothing odd about being asked to stay whilst wondering why I’m being singled out.

“Leave that,” Dante says, “In fact, I don’t want you touching anything in here.”

Fuck. That anger could only mean one thing. He probably thinks a theft has occurred. I gently place the tray of chips back on the table and making sure they were nowhere near my own chips. Mine total four thousand, easily explainable tips that can be verified by the cameras in the room. Heck, even Jesse can testify to my innocence. I am a little frazzled, but not bothered. Then Sal and the other bouncers who were outside the door come in and stand behind Dante. That shakes me up a little.

“Take a seat,” Dante’s voice is cold and quiet. It chills me as I dip back into my chair. He remains standing. An imposing figure separated from me by only a table. He crosses his arms and stares at me for what feels like forever. If it’s a way of breaking a person down, it’s effective, because I am ready to blurt out just about anything so I can get out from under his gaze.

“You’ve worked here for how long now? Three years, is it?”

I nod, surprised he is aware of me at all until today.

“And in all that time, you’ve worked on the lower floors until this year.”

“Yes.”

“Interesting.”

I can’t parse out what makes a normal career jump interesting. I believe I have earned my right to work at the private tables. Granted, it’s the first time I’ve worked at the private of private tables, but was my work that bad? “Did I do anything wrong? If it was the drink spilling, and the miscount, I swear it won’t happen again…”

He raises a hand, silencing me immediately. Even I must bow down to the invisible power he exudes. “I don’t have time to play games. Like you saw, I shouldn’t be here right now. I should be in a lounge somewhere getting my dick sucked to high heaven and yet here I am. Having to take the trash out.”

“Take the trash out?”

“Yes, exactly.”

I have heard the ‘security’ guys talk in that way. I have no idea what those words mean exactly, but it isn’t good. People who had to be ‘taken out’, have never come back. Whatever this is, it isn’t a simple miscalculation of funds or an employee performance evaluation. “Mr. Morelli, I don’t know what you think I have done, but I assure you I have done nothing wrong.”

“You speak like someone who has no idea who they’re talking to. Do you know who I am?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I am fucking this up, no matter what I say. The more I talk, the deeper the hole I dig. I must tread lightly. “My apologies Mr. Morelli.”

Everyone who works at the Grand Palazzo knows who he is and what he does. That he is the head of the Morelli Family that owns half of the town, including this place. And, for whatever reason, if I don’t say the right words, he will kill me.

2

She is beautiful. I can’t deny that. There is something about her that makes it hard to look away from her. She has a certain allure to her that makes you want to keep looking at her. She made it hard to concentrate on my game and I lost a few rounds as a result. Looking at her right now, the way her dress, a black mini dress that all the dealers wear, clings to her body, and hugs all the right parts to highlight her curves, makes me forget the reason I’m here. This must be why he chose her. She’s a distraction. A good one at that. I have to give it to Saccone. He knows how to choose his women. And to think I had half the mind to fuck her. If it weren’t for Sal coming in at the end of the game, I might have tried to seduce her, which would mean breaking one of my rules. Never fuck employees.

“Please.” She speaks, pulling me back to reality. “I know you think I must have done something, stolen something, but I assure you I didn’t.” She leans forward. I don’t fail to notice her breasts thrusting forward. “I can prove it. The only money on me are my tips.” She pulls out four chips from her lap to the table. “You can check the CCTV.”

Her obliviousness is quite convincing. If I didn’t have hard evidence, I would believe her. She’s clearly stalling, but she has no clue that I’m the one doing the stalling. I want to see what she knows, what she can give me before I reveal my hand. It’s as if she doesn’t seem to understand the severity of her situation. If she does, she wouldn’t be acting like this. Or does she think she can play with me? What she doesn’t know is that I’m the master of this game. Interrogations get me hard. Luckily for her, I’m in a playful mood tonight. If it weren’t for the ten million I’ve just won, her pretty face would be black and blue and singing like a canary.

“Don’t play games with me.”

Her eyes widen to saucers. “I — I don’t understand.”

I sit down on the chair opposite hers and notice for the first time that her hands are trembling. It’s a slight tremble anyone could miss, but not a poker player like me. So, she’s not as confident as her voice and the rest of her body says.

“Listen,” I say to her, “if you want to keep your pretty little head on top of your neck, you better cooperate now or things will go bad for you starting this very moment.”

She takes several deep breaths. The tremble in her hands increase and when she catches my gaze, she swipes her hands off the table. She looks even more beautiful, frightened. Maybe I should frighten her even more. I lean forward, staring into her beautiful doe eyes, “Do you know what we do to women like you, Corina? Liars?” I wait for her answer. When she doesn’t give one, I continue. “We fuck her. All of us. Plus my other guys outside this room until her pussy gives out. Then we cut off her tits and let her watch as the dogs feast on them. Sometimes, if the dogs are into the bitch, we might let them have a taste.”

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