Chapter 30: Halloween

HAYLEY

“Halloween is my favorite night of the Venetian calendar,” Ava said as she applied her eye makeup. “You’re going to love it.”

It was Hayley’s last shift before flying to Paris. Adrien had left already, and Siobhan was finalizing everything for her. She wanted to enjoy tonight, but she wanted to be far away from Luca Marcello even more.

“The way Siobhan decorates the place is to die for.” Ava grinned as she backcombed her already messy hair, then applied some fake blood to her neck.

She was a zombie—well, that’s what Hayley presumed she was. She wore a gray and black corset and a tattered net skirt that only came to the tops of her thighs, and her stockings were gray and ripped.

Arianna walked past in a red bra and panty set. She was dressing up as the devil, which was fitting. Hayley watched as she put on red thigh-highs, a red tail, and some red leather “fuck me” boots.

“Come on, let’s have some fun!” Ava grabbed Hayley’s hand and they went to their usual places.

Ben was already there, wearing a crazy scientist costume with wacky hair and a doctor’s coat, and he was making drinks with smoke, wowing the guys who were hanging around the bar.

Ava was right about the decorations. The place was normally bright and light, but tonight was dark and gothic-looking. The music was creepy, yet had a steady beat to keep the podium girls and the stage girls moving.

LUCA

As Luca leaned on the balcony between Nic and Frankie, he couldn’t help but notice Hayley. She stood out in her outfit, and it had caused more than the usual number of guys to gather around her bar.

Her white corset and white shorts left nothing to the imagination, and she had white wings on her back and wore white stockings with lace tops. Her mask was delicate on her face.

Fitting she was dressed as an angel—since in his eyes, she was.

“Borroni’s men have gone underground,” Nic said.

This was typical of Lorenzo: make threats, play a sick game of Russian roulette, send him the head of a Marcello man, only to hide away. What was he up to?

Frankie took a drag of his cigarette. “The runners are saying the streets are unusually quiet.”

“He’s also relocated his warehouse and lockup.” Nic let out a gusty sigh. “When we went to storm the lockup, we found only Deano’s headless body.”

Fuck. It hurt when they lost a man, particularly an informant. It was a dangerous mission, and Deano had never complained.

“We have no one else in the Borroni fold?” Luca asked, his eyes on Hayley as she joked with Ava and Ben behind her bar.

Ben put his arm around her and said something that made both girls laugh before they all returned to their work.

“No, it would be far too dangerous to put someone in now,” Nic explained. “And Deano was our only reliable man in there.”

Luca sighed as he thought of the man’s bravery, and he vowed that Deano’s family would be well looked after. But Luca had to focus—he had a family to run and protect.

Nic was right that putting someone in the Borroni family would be too dangerous. Lorenzo was expecting them to do something like that.

“Right now, Boss, we can’t trust anyone,” Nic said, and all three of them nodded.

“Ciao, Mr. Marcello.”

Luca turned to see Arianna dressed like the devil, her hair big and bouncy. Interesting…he was tempted by a devil and an angel. But the devil was already fucked up, so better to fuck the devil than fuck up the angel.

He gave his devil a slanted smile, took her hand, and led her to a booth.

HAYLEY

Hayley did her best to ignore the VIP balcony and keep her mind focused on the men crowding around her bar.

The place was heaving. Some of the guests were caught up in the Halloween spirit, and some were just enjoying the ~girls’~ Halloween spirit.

“You were right!” she shouted to Ava over the rowdiness as she set down the drinks Ava was taking up to the VIP booths.

Some of the girls had been sent up by request of the Marcello family, and Ava was obviously one of their favorites.

“Tonight is amazing!” Hayley beamed at her friend.

“You should see us at Christmas! I’ll tell ya, there are a lot of naughty elves strutting about.” Ava winked before taking the tray and sashaying toward the staircase.

Hayley knew that was an off-the-cuff remark, that Ava had forgotten Hayley wouldn’t be here at Christmas.

It made her sad, but then her eyes caught on Luca, sitting casually with the devil on his right. She shook her head and served the next gent.

It was after midnight, close to one a.m., yet the Venetian showed no signs of slowing down.

“I’ll take these empties to the bin,” she called over the music to Ben, who just nodded while he served someone.

The full box was heavy as she carried it out to the cold back alleyway.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

She recognized the slurred voice and the face—they belonged to a regular at the Venetian who sat upstairs in the VIP booths with Luca. And judging by the way the tall, burly man was dressed, he was obviously a Marcello man.

Hayley, remaining professional, smiled at him as she threw the bottles in the glass bin. “Hey.”

But as she went to walk back into the club, he grabbed her arm, and the shock made her drop the empty box.

“Remove your hand,” she said firmly, and he laughed a little as he removed it.

Hayley let out a shaky breath and went to pick up the box. But then she felt him grab a handful of her hair.

“Argh!” she cried out as the man dragged her to the side of the building. He threw her against the wall and moved his hands down her neck.

“Get the fuck off me!” she shouted as she fought against him, but he ignored her protests and went for the first hook of her corset.

“Why? You’re a whore.” He chuckled. “I’ll fucking pay you.”

He grabbed her face and brought his closer, and she didn’t smell alcohol. The guy was sober.

Then he pushed the side of her face into the wall and spoke into her ear. “Then? I’ll fucking kill you!”

He burst into laughter, and Hayley used all her strength to shove him away, but he was expecting that and moved right back toward her.

She went to her pocket and pulled out her knife. “Not if I kill you first!”

He went to grab the knife, but she clung to her only protection.

Then it happened, as if in a dream—she plunged the knife into him; she watched as blood poured from his stomach. He looked at her bleakly as she pulled the knife out, then slumped to the floor.

“Oh my God,” she whispered as she looked down at the bloody weapon, the bloody body.

“Hey, someone call 911!”

She saw a man running down the alley, so she took off, her heart pounding. She had to get away! What had she done?

She ran through crowds of people enjoying the Halloween nightlife, and not one person was fazed by a girl in lingerie with blood all over her.

Hayley fumbled with the key to the apartment—the spare Ben insisted be kept under the stone at the foot of the staircase—then let herself into the apartment and ran to the bathroom, where she threw up violently.

Her body was shaking with fear and the cold.

She went into her pocket and pulled out the bloody knife, then threw it into the bathtub and threw up some more.

She pulled her phone out of her other pocket. She had to call someone, and there was only one person she could think of to help her. Through her tears, she found his number and called it. It rang twice before going to voicemail.

She couldn’t leave a message.

She tried again—one ring and he hung up on her. She redialed and, again, after one ring, he sent her to voicemail.

She ripped off her shoes and thigh-highs that were covered in the man’s blood and threw them into the bathtub, then crumpled to the floor, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably.

Suddenly, there were three loud bangs on her apartment door. She froze and listened, her heart racing.

“NYPD, open up!”