Page 49 of Surrender

No.

I have enough to worry about right now without bringing up the past. Giulio is right here, and Fox and I are both mussed and rumpled, sweaty and in disarray—and we can only have been fucking or fighting.

“Good evening, Giulio,” I say politely, pretending I’m not winded in the slightest. “This is Fox.”

Fox stands taller, but a lot of the languidness from earlier is gone. He’s on alert, ready to cause even more trouble.

Giulio pops an appetizer into his mouth and watches us as he chews. The knowing look in his eyes and the small smirk let me know he’s not going to politely pretend not to have noticed. “Hi, Fox,” Giulio greets. “Sounded like you two were having a lot of fun in there. Nobody ever invites me to the party games anymore.”

“That’s because you’re a married man,” I tell him, my voice steely. “And you have people to beat others down for you.”

Giulio’s eyes widen, and he chuckles. “Shit, does being married exclude you from the sex games? Somebody needs to tell… well, every single married man here. I don’t think they got the memo. Most of the clients at my clubs need to hear it too.”

“I’ll hire a skywriter,” I say. “Perhaps pay for a billboard to make sure the message really gets out there.”

“Yeah. Hey, maybe I should tell Damien about this though. He can give you my deets so you include me on your after-hours spanking-and-crying mailing list. Think Cresci and Mancini want to be on that list too?” Giulio laughs to himself and shakes his head. “I know Silvano would. You should have seen how bored he was the one time I invited him to one of my strip clubs.”

“What do you want, Pavone?” I ask. If I let him, he’ll try to amuse himself at my expense for hours. It’s better to just find out what he wants for his silence and give it to him than it is to try to get through all of this bullshit. I do need to take care of what Cresci asked me to do, even if I’d gotten… distracted.

Giulio pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts swiping something. “Send me the deets on your Russian friends. Ilya looks like the kind of guy with my kind of tastes.”

A few seconds later, my phone vibrates. I sigh and pull it out to check. As expected, it’s a message from Giulio.

I have some products he would absolutely love.

He included a kissing emoji at the end of it.

I don’t have to be a genius to know he’s talking about selling women. It’s not information I particularly want to pass along. I’ve never been interested in the sex trade before, even though I know many of my allies are. It’s just another facet of doing business with them.

“Got it,” I say, trying not to clench my teeth. I forward the contact information, and Giulio smiles when his phone buzzes in response.

“Great!” Giulio pockets his phone again. “Nobody shall ever know about the fun they were missing out on. I really think you should be willing to share with the entire class if you’re doing something like this, but Fox doesn’t look like he could handle the entire class.”

Fox grumbles, but I hold my hand up to silence him before he can say anything that will provoke Giulio further.

Giulio pushes away from the wall and hands his empty plate to me, then claps my shoulder. “All right, I’m sure Damien is worried that I’ve lit something on fire. Tell Cresci his caterer sucks. These shrimp taste like they got defrosted right before serving.”

He walks away from us casually, as if he hadn’t just blackmailed me.

As if I hadn’t just bribed him.

It sounds better that way, at least, as long as I don’t think about what sort of mayhem I’ve probably created by introducing Ilya to Giulio.

“Giulio Pavone isn’t what I expected,” Fox says, staring at Giulio’s retreating form. “And was he trying to hit on us? I really couldn’t tell.”

I grimace. “I don’t know. I could probably tell you more rumors that I haven’t heard about him. But he’s dangerous. Someone fucked with his wife and kid, and next thing we know, the entire Romano clan is wiped out.” I shake my head. “I’m not fucking with him.”

“Is he going to keep his promise?” Fox takes a small step away from me. “It doesn’t matter to me, but…”

“Ilya’s got my back,” I say, irritated about the whole situation and the potential liability. Now that Silvano’s gotten involved with the Russians, everything seems to be more chaotic. “If Pavone decides to buy his own billboard, I should be able to make it difficult for him to keep doing work with them.” I look down at the plate I’m holding and shake my head. “He’s got some balls.”

“You’ve got some balls,” Fox says, snickering to himself. “Nice, big ones. I’d love to suck on them, roll them around in my mouth, get really, really well acquainted with them.”

I glower at him, but I can’t deny that if I hadn’t just gotten off, I’d be interested in his offer. “You’re insatiable. Come on. Let’s get back to the party.”

We stop by the restroom to freshen up a bit—Fox no longer looks like he’d gotten fucked into next week, and I’ve tamped down my glower a little—and head back out to the main hall. I spot Giulio talking with Silvano, and from Silvano’s forced smile, he’s wishing Giulio were somewhere else.

At least it doesn’t seem like Giulio’s saying anything that’s pissing him off.

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