Vittorio was very, very good at disrupting energy as well as causing power surges. One quick surge and the cameras began recording. Darby was too busy trying to get himself off and having no luck to notice the tiny red lights shining, signaling the cameras were on. Because he found the entire thing distasteful, Stefano signaled his brother and they moved back into the main part of the house, staying to the shadows so the cameras couldn’t catch a glimpse of them.
They had to keep their eye on the time. By now, Francesca had left the ladies’ room and his cousin, Lucca, playing the part of Stefano, had caught her to him right in the center of his family and had taken her to the darkest corner, a lover’s tryst, while his family blocked all access to them. He could be seen from the back, nuzzling his wife while his brothers, the women and his cousins visited. It was necessary in order to keep the illusion of his presence that he return quickly with Vittorio.
They reentered Darby’s room after shutting off the cameras in all other parts of the house. He was sitting up, looking down at his flaccid penis in disgust. Vittorio took care of the cameras, making certain they were no longer recording.
“Having problems?” Stefano asked.
Darby yelped and fell from the edge of the bed to the floor. Stefano glided closer. “You really shouldn’t have messed with one of my employees. I had a talk with you and you promised you would behave yourself.”
Darby started to move, but Stefano stepped on his hand hard. Darby screamed, but Stefano didn’t move. He just stood over him, smiling down at him. “Did you think it would up your ratings to show her naked body on your television show?”
Darby tried to crawl away, but Stefano didn’t move. He ground down harder. “When I speak to you, I expect an answer. And Johnny boy, I can hurt you in ways you never imagined.”
“No, no.” Darby held up his other hand to ward him off. “You don’t understand, bitches like it. They want to be seen on my show.”
“No, they don’t. They don’t sue you because you blackmail them with the crap you’re recording. You give them date rape drugs in their drinks and then you record your friends with them and tell them you’re going to release those videos. You make a little side money that way, Johnny boy? You blackmail them on top of raping and humiliating them?”
Darby kept shaking his head, still trying to scoot away.
“You do though. I had you investigated. I do believe that the day of reckoning has arrived. That little porn film you’re watching, the rape of that girl by a couple of frat boys? Is that the only way you can get off now, hurting women? I think the world wants to see that, don’t you? The ratings of your show will go right through the roof.”
He waved his hand toward the screen. Vittorio, from the shadows, produced the necessary surge of electricity and the recording of Darby on the bed, mixed with the film and the mirror moving back and forth, showed the reality star’s underwhelming cock and the frantic pace he’d set with his fist that had clearly done no good. Audio had picked up his continual hoarse shouting at the two frat boys on the bed with the restrained girl, urging them on, telling them to hurt her and shouting graphic instructions to them.
Darby looked horrified. “You can’t …”
“It’s playing all over town right now. Live feeds, you know. It wasn’t hard to arrange.” Stefano leaned down. “You ever touch a member of my family or a person under our protection again, I’ll come after you and you will wish you were dead before you die. Do we have an understanding?”
Darby frantically nodded. The music had stopped and the house was eerily silent. Stefano stepped back into the shadows. Vittorio’s foot snapped out of the shadows, delivering a kick between Darby’s open legs. He howled and doubled over. The Ferraros were gone, riding the shadows into the next room where the screens were all playing and replaying the same video of John Darby.
Sasha was a little tired of the men smirking at her and staring pointedly at her breasts, held in by the lace of her camisole. If she hadn’t needed the money so badly, she would gladly have taken a few days off in the hopes that another scandal would have taken the attention of the bored celebrities and their entourages she served drinks to. Most groups were polite, but there were a few that annoyed her.
She had to laugh at herself about that, because she’d been fantasizing pretty heavily about playing Giovanni’s game. She would ask him to dance first. She’d already scoped out the darkest corners in the club. She knew when they took the dance floor the paparazzi would go crazy, and that was okay. Hopefully they’d get bored. She hoped to enlist Mariko, Francesca and Emmanuelle in her little dance of seduction. They just had to get the attention of the paparazzi and give her some time alone with her man.
If she managed to do half the things she wanted to do to Giovanni, she would definitely deserve the smirks and knowing looks she was getting. Then, after being completely sated and feeling smug, she wouldn’t mind those looks. The thought made her smile. She glanced up at his table. His family had headed down to the dance floor. They all seemed to like to dance and they were very good at it.
She had to admit, the Ferraro family was very good-looking and drew the eye. She had been known to stare a bit at them when she first was hired, earlier in the month. Of course, she worked the floor far down below their elevated status. She’d found herself staring at Giovanni every time he went onto the floor until she realized he was such a player. Now, she wasn’t so sure. He didn’t seem like one when he was with her. He kept his gaze fixed on her. Not once, even now, when his brothers were on the dance floor and he would have had an excuse, did he look down at the other women.
Sasha looked. She made a slow perusal of the club and the women while she waited for the tray of drinks to take up to two of the tables. Most were beautiful. Really, beautiful. Their clothes were quality, clearly designer. Their hair was styled perfectly and most dripped gold and diamonds. How had Giovanni overlooked them to find her?
It wasn’t that she thought the others were better than her in any way—she didn’t. Sasha had confidence in herself as a woman. She could take care of herself and her brother. On the other hand, she knew her heart was very vulnerable, and she’d always protected it. When she loved, she loved with everything in her. She was intensely loyal and expected the same. She wanted a home and family. She also believed in a strong partnership. She didn’t want Giovanni to make the mistake of thinking he was going to take care of her.
Her gaze was pulled inevitably back to him. He was so handsome he took her breath away. He really did. She could barely breathe sometimes when she got close to him and inhaled his scent. He had the kind of body artists sculpted or painted. He was sweet to her and caring. She hadn’t planned to fall for him. She’d started out thinking he was the worst kind of human being and somewhere along the line she’d fallen under his spell.
“You look like you got it bad, Sasha,” Alan, the bartender, said.
She laughed and turned back to him. “I do. He’s very sweet to me.”
“So, it’s really true? You’re engaged to him?”
She held up her left hand and showed him the unusual band. “I am.” It was important to play along with the engagement so the Center continued to believe she was with Giovanni and the Ferraro family. She wasn’t the best security possible for her brother. And the truth was, she liked the thought of being engaged to him, but that she kept to herself.
Fingers brushed her wrist as if the person wanted to see her ring. She turned toward the man standing that little bit too close to her. James Corlege and Tom Mariland, the MMA fighters who always came in with Aaron, stood close, crowding her against the bar. She dropped her hand to the tray, but James and Tom could clearly see the ring.