Chapter 37: A Selfish Man

HAYLEY

Hayley woke up wrapped in Luca’s arms. She hadn’t been awake when he came home, but she knew it must have been after 3 a.m.

Quietly she sat up, reaching for her phone to check the time. It was late afternoon, and she had to get ready to go to the Venetian.

She crept out of the bed and went to her overnight bag—which had been placed on the chair in front of the dressing table—and grabbed her toiletry bag, then went to the en suite and showered quickly, avoiding washing her hair.

Luca wasn’t in the bed when she came back into the room, so she changed quickly and grabbed her handbag before heading downstairs.

Luca and his two cronies were having a hushed conversation at the breakfast bar.

“Hey,” she said, interrupting them, and they all turned to look at her.

Luca walked over to her and kissed her cheek.

“I’ve got to go to work.” She wasn’t on the schedule since she was supposed to be in Paris, but Siobhan hadn’t found a replacement for her yet, and Ben and Ava would be glad of the help.

It would mean she’d have to see Siobhan and would likely receive a telling off, but it was worth it. She hoped.

“Okay. Frankie, drive Hayley to the Venetian.”

Hayley was about to protest—she was capable of getting a cab—but Luca silenced her with a kiss on the lips, making her forget what she was going to protest about.

“I’ll be there later. See you then.” Then he put his mouth to her ear and said, “~Baby~,” sending shivers down her spine.

***

“So…” Ava said as they both began applying makeup. “You’re ~really~ living with Luca Marcello?”

Hayley rolled her eyes. “~Yes.~” She’d told Ava over and over again that she was living with Luca—on a trial basis.

“Fuck, Hayley.” Her friend ruffled her big blonde curls. “You’re brave, I’ll give you that.”

Ava stood up and dropped a feathered mask on the dressing table in front of Hayley. “I take it you won’t be wanting this then?” She winked at Hayley, then left to go to her spot.

Hayley picked up the mask and looked at it. She wouldn’t wear a feather again. She couldn’t.

She placed the mask back on the dresser and picked up her featherless black one, then checked her appearance before heading out to the bar.

***

So far, Hayley had managed to avoid her boss; she was just keeping her head down and working hard.

Ben was on break and Ava was on the center stage, so she was manning the bar alone. But that didn’t bother her.

Suddenly the atmosphere changed, as it always did when Luca and company entered the club. Hayley couldn’t help but lift her head.

Her eyes followed him and his entourage up to the VIP lounge.

“Hayley!” a voice hissed, and she turned to see Max Willows standing at her bar. He looked frantic. “You ~have~ to call the detective.”

“I don’t have t—”

“Your name came up on a booking for a flight. Are you fucking stupid?”

Hayley wanted to defend herself, but he never gave her the chance.

“Don’t you realize he has your name fucking red-flagged?”

Hayley glanced nervously up at the VIP booths. Luca and company were busy talking. She returned her gaze to Max, who continued whisper-shouting at her.

“Jesus, he had a fucking ~team~ waiting at the airport!”

Her heart was racing. Any hope she’d had of escaping Detective Blake just went up in smoke. And now that she was living with Luca, she was probably going to get hurt. Or get ~him~ hurt.

“Look, just call him,” Max said, his voice low again. “If you don’t, he’ll arrest you. ~And~ he’ll make sure Luca finds out you were in a deal with him.”

Hayley could feel her panic rising.

But she could also see Luca’s cousin approaching the bar, so she tried to act normal.

“Hey, Max,” Nic said as he came up beside him. “Hayley, can you bring up some drinks, please?”

Hayley nodded, and Nic left the bar.

“Don’t fuck up, Hayley,” Max hissed before walking away. “Call him!”

LUCA

Luca watched Hayley as she worked behind her bar. Guys were looking at her, and he didn’t like it. He’d never been a jealous man, but he was jealous when it came to her.

His mind was made up: she wouldn’t be working down here anymore, even though security was tighter in the Venetian. No, he’d move her to the legitimate club upstairs—and employ a hell of a lot more security there.

“Interesting. Thanks, Toby.” Frankie hung up his phone and grinned at Luca. “You’re gonna love this.”

Luca just raised an eyebrow.

“Lorenzo Borroni and his right-hand man, Vitali, have just been arrested, along with some of his cousins and top men.”

Luca sat up straighter and looked his friend in the eye. “How the fuck did that happen?”

Frankie shrugged. “Toby said they had no clue they were even going on a raid. No. Fucking. Clue. They were driven there by three truck drivers.

“Seems the order came from someone high up, someone above even the lead detective of the organized crime division.”

Luca smiled as he took off his jacket.

“Toby said the bail is enormous and his assets are frozen,” Frankie continued, laughing and shaking his head. “He’ll be in there until his trial.”

Luca began to roll up his sleeves. “Then I think we should celebrate.”

He watched as Hayley came up the stairs with their drinks, her eyes on him as she approached. “Thank you, baby,” he murmured when she set the tray on their table, then enjoyed the blush that colored her fair skin.

Nic and Frankie started pouring drinks for Ric, Dom, Tony, and Max, and Hayley smiled and left them to it.

HAYLEY

“I’m going on break,” Hayley told Ben when she got back to the bar, and he nodded.

She had to call the detective, and the phone he’d given her was turned off and hidden in the zipped compartment of her bag. She went into the bathroom in the dressing room to call him.

“Hello, Hayley,” he purred when he answered, making her stomach drop. “You’ve had me worried. I nearly came to your place of work to have you arrested.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat.

“How are things going?” he asked. “Max told me the boss has moved you in. That was quick.”

“I can’t help you,” she whispered, but she heard him scoff on the other end.

“Yes, you ~can~. There’s no such word as ‘can’t’ in this scenario.” He chuckled. “My team is on the verge of a breakthrough. We need all our informants to cooperate.”

“Luca tells me nothing,” she stressed. It was true.

“Then get ~creative~, Hayley,” he said harshly. “Remember, this is about getting the bad guys locked up—and about your goddamn safety and freedom.

“You have till the end of the month to give me something. I have eyes everywhere. Don’t try to bail on me again.”

The line went dead.

Hayley sat on the closed lid of the toilet looking down at the burner phone. He had her. Whether she liked it or not, the detective had her.

She allowed her tears to fall. She couldn’t do this to Luca, but she couldn’t walk away from him either. She was a traitor and a liar, and she could do nothing but ride the month out.

LUCA

“Now ~this~ is a celebration,” Frankie said with a devilish grin.

Luca looked at the five feather girls, Arianna and Ava among them, then looked down at his tumbler filled with brown liquor. He had yet to take a sip.

His eyes returned to the feather girl he usually buried himself in, regardless of his pain or happiness.

“Hello, Luca,” she said with a dirty wink and a toss of her hair. She was dressed in a deep-purple bra and panties set and was wearing a matching purple feathered mask.

Arianna was not what he wanted—not ~who~ he wanted. He only wanted Hayley, and he needed to celebrate their enemy’s arrest with ~her~.

He placed his glass on the table, rolled down his white sleeves, and buttoned the cuffs.

“Celebrate well, gentlemen.” He picked up his suit jacket. “I’m going to celebrate my own way.”

“Dirty bastard,” Frankie teased, also aware of where Luca was headed.

Ava eyed Luca suspiciously as Nic shifted her in his lap and rummaged for his car keys. Luca knew she was Hayley’s friend, and she clearly didn’t trust him.

“Take my car, Boss,” Nic said, holding out the keys to his Porsche.

Luca nodded and took them, then walked straight past a frowning Arianna.

As he marched through the club, he felt someone grab his arm. He turned to see Siobhan, who looked like she was torn between anger and heartache.

“Goddammit, Luca! She was supposed to be on that plane!”

He knew his godmother cared for Hayley, and he tried to use this to his advantage. “She’s safer here. I can protect her. You can protect her.”

“New York will break her,” she said weakly.

Luca shook his head. He loved Siobhan and knew the fears she had—fears that were from her own past.

“Hayley is not you,” he said firmly. “I’m taking her home with me tonight. Tomorrow we’ll discuss moving her to the Dublin.”

Siobhan’s mouth fell open, but he turned and continued walking through the crowded Venetian.

He didn’t see Hayley at her bar, so he gently caught the arm of a passing feather girl, who stopped and smiled warmly at him.

“Bella.” This word always made them blush.

He smiled as he thought about the first time he met Hayley and called her bella—~she~ hadn’t blushed. No, she’d stood like a force against him.

He shook away the memory and looked back at the feather girl. “Have you seen the bar girl Hayley?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I saw her go into the bathroom in the girls’ dressing room.”

“Thank you, bella.”

Luca entered the room without so much as a knock or a word. Hayley was sitting at her dressing table, her mask off, reapplying her makeup. Her eyes caught his in the mirror’s reflection.

“Luca,” she breathed as she turned and stood up.

He was caught off guard by her beauty, her brown hair tumbling in loose curls, her bright eyes, as always, capturing his attention. She was stunning.

HAYLEY

“What’s the matter?” she said, her heart pounding.

Luca was ~supposed~ to be upstairs in the VIP booths, enjoying the drinks she’d brought up. But somehow he was here, walking boldly toward her, taking her firmly by her corseted waist.

She gasped a little, taken aback by the action, and he pulled her closer to his suited body, his intense chocolate-brown eyes locked on hers.

Only a few minutes ago she’d been speaking to the cop who wanted to take him down, yet when his mouth found hers, she forgot everything.

The kiss was electric. Their mouths moved to their own unique rhythm, fully in sync with each other.

She knew she shouldn’t want him, shouldn’t feel anything for him, but she ~did~.

“Get dressed,” he murmured as he pulled away. “I’m celebrating, and I want to celebrate with you.”

He let go of her waist and walked to the closet with the dresses the feather girls wore if a man wanted to wine and dine them. He looked through them, then pulled out a full-length royal-blue evening gown.

It was strapless, with a sweetheart neckline and intricate beading on the bodice.

Hayley walked over to him as he unzipped the dress, then took it from him, stepped in, and pulled the bodice up. The dress hugged her figure, and the corset underneath helped.

Turning her back to him, she put her hair over one shoulder, and he carefully zipped her into the dress, then planted a long and passionate kiss in the crook of her neck.

She moaned at his touch, but he stepped back and took her hand, then led her out to the parking garage.

“You actually drive?” she teased him when he used the electronic key to unlock Nic’s silver Porsche, and he smiled and opened her door.

“I’m a good driver,” he said and kissed her cheek.

She slipped into the low sports car, and Luca closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side.

“No heavy car?” she asked as he drove out of the parking garage and onto the main road.

He shook his head and flashed a huge smile. “Nope, just a regular car.”

Hayley raised an eyebrow as she looked at the expensive interior—leather seats, an electronic dashboard…this was hardly a regular car—and Luca chuckled.

When his hand found hers, she looked down at their laced fingers then back up at him as he focused on the road.

Something was different. ~Luca~ was different.

He’d lost his hard-man demeanor, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.