Arranged love

Bones was the perfect candidate.

So we went into business together and bought Glass, a strip club right in the heart of Sin City. It was once a run-down wedding chapel, so it felt fitting.

The girls are the elite of Vegas strippers. They must be at least twenty-one and audition, but other than that, they can pretty much do whatever the fuck they want. We have VIP rooms. The men pay for bottle service, and the girls decide how far they want to take it. We make sure the girls are taken care of and well protected. We always have armed guards on the property. Plus, most of them also work for the queens at Kingdom. They’re literally rolling in cash.

His phone rings, and he digs it out of his pocket. Hitting answer, he leans back in the chair. “Hello?” He pauses. “Yeah, I’m about to head that way.” He runs a hand down his face again. “I’ll take care of it.” Then he hangs up and stands. “I gotta go. Make sure Marco pays up. If not, let me know, and I’ll deliver the threat.”

HAVEN

I sit out on a chaise on the large balcony to our room. Nite stands off to the side by the sliding glass door. True to Luca’s word, the bastard has been breathing down my neck ever since this morning. I look over the black railing at the heart of Sin City. You can see the Strip from where the house sits. I always found Las Vegas ugly and dirty during the day, but at night, it comes to life and shines brighter than all the stars in the sky.

Standing out the most, Kingdom, dominates the sky with four towers-one for each king. Back when their fathers owned it, it only had two. They’ve built onto it over the years. When they took over after college, they made some changes. And those alterations made them even more untouchable. More royalty in this town. And gave them even more enemies.

I take a puff from my cigarette. Leaning my head back, I let it out slowly and close my eyes, thinking of Emilee and how much I miss her. I visited her recently in Chicago.

“So what are we gonna do while I’m in town?” I ask, falling onto her bed. Her entire apartment is about as big as her bedroom back at home, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Emilee never needed expensive things.

She walks out of her bathroom and gives me a big smile. “We’re going out tonight.”

“Where to?”

“A club.”

“That’s vague.”

She winks at me.

I laugh because I love seeing her like this. So free. Bones always had a hold on her. She swore she didn’t love him, and I believed her, but the Kings were two years older than us. So when Bones, Titan, and Cross graduated, they started to take over Kingdom, and that left Emilee alone. She has never said it out loud, but I know that hurt her. They grew apart, and she started seeing someone in our grade. After graduation, she chose to move to Chicago, and that was that. She was gone. I think she was running away from something she knew she couldn’t have. None of the Kings would ever settle down. They were meant to be ruthless playboys who ruled their own world and had no room for women or families.

“There’s this awesome club here called Seven Deadly Sins.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“Oh, I like it already.”

She nods. “They have these private rooms for each sin.”

“Sounds fun.”

“It is by far the best club I’ve ever been to.”

I eye her skeptically as she smooths down her dress in the floor-length mirror. She turns around and looks at her ass over her shoulder. “You’re fucking someone who works there.” It was more of a statement than a question.

She chuckles “I am. I’ll message him before we get there, and he’ll let us in the back.”

“It is serious?” I ask. I’ve known Emilee all my life, and I’ve never seen her fall in love with a guy. I don’t know if she just hides her emotions that well, or if she truly can just use a guy. Maybe Bones broke her.

I hate that I’ve only ever slept with Luca, and that I can’t get over the fact I love him so much. I want to be more like her. Detached.

She frowns. “No, it’s just a little fun”

“What does he do at the club? What’s his name? I wanna know all about him.”

The guy turned out to be a pretty nice guy. Not to mention gorgeous in that I’ll kick anyone’s ass kind of way. I could totally understand why he was head of security. We got to watch him in action twice that night.

He put us up in one of the rooms with a waitress who kept the drinks flowing all night. After the club closed, we went out and ate breakfast with him. Then he drove us back to Emilee’s apartment. I went inside while he kissed her goodbye on her porch-I might have watched out the window-and then he left. We stayed up a few more hours laughing and sharing a bottle of Riesling she had until we made our way down to the closest gas station and bought a pack of cigarettes. We had only ever smoked one other time in college. For some reason, we both thought it would be a great idea to try it again.

She didn’t care that much for it, so I put them in my suitcase. The same ones that were packed and brought here to Luca’s. We were drunk and really didn’t know what we were doing then, but I light one up every now and then.

Keeping my eyes shut, I take another drag of the cigarette. I miss her so much and wish that she were here. Hell, I wish I could talk to her. Luca may have taken my cell away, but I found a phone in his study earlier today. I waited for Nite to stop me, but when he didn’t, I dialed her number. She didn’t answer, and I didn’t leave a voicemail. What would I say? Hey, E. I’ve been forced to marry Luca, and I wish you were here to help me through it? I just hung up.

“What in the fuck are you doing?”

My eyes spring open, and I jump at the sound of his voice. “Luca …”

“Since when did you start fucking smoking?” he demands, his blue eyes narrowed on the cigarette between my fingers.

I bring it to my lips. “I do a lot of things you don’t know about.”