He narrowed his eyes and his next words came out cold, almost condescending, but still he gave me a question, not a command. “Do you think I can’t show you a good time, Morina? That I couldn’t show you something new?”
“Of course you can’t. You’re just another guy wearing a suit.” I’d had my fair share of them come through the tourist town I’d lived in. I knew his type.
Sort of.
Something behind his dark eyes, that wolfishly fast smile and all the perfect angles of his face, made him different. He was nice enough, soft lips, or so I guessed, and was saying everything right, like he really was an accommodating gentleman… right up until he closed the door to his lair and ripped you apart.
“I’ve been with a lot of men like you before.” I searched the room for Dante.
“Like me?” The corners of his mouth lifted, but the warmth in his smile was gone. Bastian’s sheep skin was sagging, and the wolf was coming out to play. He had power or confidence or a sheer sense of knowing that he was greater than all of us.
It made me want to back away and lean in all at once.
Maybe it was the particular evening and how I knew my grandma was about to leave me. Linny lived on the edge for fun, but I was teetering on it. I was about to be alone in this world and at 23, that seemed a little unfair. Cruel, even. I questioned a lot on my good days and on my bad. I grabbed my crystals and hoped the planets and stars would work in my favor.
Tonight, the edge was close for a lot of reasons, but not for fun. The voice in my head echoed that we were doomed, like we tiptoed through a valley of razor-sharp rocks, about to trip at any moment.
I shut my eyes and tried my best not to spiral and fall. “Look, Bastian, right?”
He nodded.
“Bastian, you’re older, wiser, probably have a lot more experience with women. So I’ll tell you. I’m probably like a lot of women you meet. Like the really eccentric ones that you like to avoid. I watch for full moons. I’ve been known to sage my house. I’m a believer in signs. I’m not your thing. I read my horoscope yesterday, and my week is supposed to be filled with a lot of the same. It told me to avoid that and go down a rabbit hole.”
“What sign are you?”
“Oh, do you actually know signs?” I’d never met a man in a suit that wanted to discuss astrology.
Maybe, just maybe, our stars would align.
2
Bastian
A large part of the business deals we were tying up required both of us working together. Dante, my security and a distant cousin, could reach out to him continually for intel but it wasn’t as smooth.
When your father was the head of a dirty mob family, cleaning it up took precision, finesse, and fucking attendance.
Cade knew this was a team effort. Five years ago, we’d put out a hit on our father, brought him down, and made the conscious decision to clean the family up. One painful business at a time.
Every one of them was a mess. Drug imports and sex trafficking and illegal money laundering.
I wouldn’t leave a legacy of filth, though. My empire would know a different type of power. But I needed my team. I relied on them and built trusted partnerships with each of them. That included my brother working alongside me so I didn’t stumble through communications with a company. I needed Cade to be running checks, giving me background information, and confirming dealings as I shook hands with businessmen. Today, instead, Chet had waited for Dante to sift through information, making our communication stilted.
The deal wasn’t done. With all that waiting, Chet didn’t trust me enough to sign those papers yet.
So here I was, drinking at the boy’s night Chet had proposed when I could have been back on the jet, flying home.
The only silver lining was that it would be done soon and maybe I’d find a woman to relieve some of my stress before the night was over.
But it certainly wouldn’t be this one.
This one was a train wreck waiting to happen.
But one I would glance back and stare at, maybe tell the person on the phone about because of how ridiculous said train wreck was.
Quite frankly, the whole city of Miami was full of ridiculous people with ridiculous needs.
And hobbies.
And beliefs. Like crystals.
I worked night and day in my city to close deals. Here, they partied and read their horoscopes.
Morina checked every one of those boxes, I was sure. Her eyes lit up like Santa was coming to town when I’d shown interest in her sign.
Did she think that shit was real?
Absolutely absurd.
“Nope.” I cut our conversation about astrology off. “Don’t even know what my sign is.”
Now, those big blue eyes fell like a wounded doe’s. She did have that going for her at least. They were a dark blue, like the color of the sky at midnight. Unique, honestly.
She scoffed, “Figures.” Her gaze scanned the room again and landed on Dante.
For some reason, her picking Dante over me felt ridiculous too. Why want someone who believed in hocus pocus? Were stars what really matched people?
I couldn’t begin to fathom that someone would write off a whole person based on the day they were born. “Do you intend to ask my friend his sign?”
“Well, not if you know his birthday… was he born in–”
“I don’t know his birthday,” I cut her off.
“Well, that’s rude of you.” She hmphed.
She could think I was rude or a liar. I knew Dante’s birthday because we all made it a mission to never celebrate them. His had been a few months back and he’d been away. Probably on purpose.
“Do you want another cocktail?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Not a good idea.”
I nodded. I’d had too much already and she definitely didn’t need any more. “Drink enough on the way over?”
She studied me again, like she was sure I was judging her. “How much have you had to drink tonight? Or was it just this one?”
“Would it matter if I had more?”
“I happen to think you didn’t have much at all.”
“Why not?”
“Because, like I said, you seem older. Wiser.”
“Morina, don’t you know that just means I could show you a thing or two?”
She stared at me for about five seconds before answering. She took in my suit again, my shoes, probably even my hair before she mumbled to hell with it. “I’m kind of in the mood to see if you can really do that.”
“Meaning what?”
She sighed. “It means, I want to get out of here with you. This isn’t my scene. This”–she waved in front of me and then around the room–“isn’t really living. It’s a boring second to a lot of what the world has to offer. Linny of all people should know that. She’s a travel blogger, you know.”
“Linny is also a woman in love. That seems to trump a lot of things to most people.”
She looked her friend’s way and winced. “Right and I hope it works out. But I’m not here for love. Just a good time and maybe to forget life a little.”
I wouldn’t tell her that I hoped it didn’t work out, that Chet wasn’t a man to be associated with, that I wouldn’t really be associated with him after this deal, whether I closed it tonight or tomorrow.