Page 66 of Caesar DeLuca
I’m shuddering from the anticipation when someone comes up from behind and throws an arm around my shoulders. Immediately, I’m pinned to their side as they tighten their hold on me and begin walking.
“Hello, beautiful,” Freddie says, giving me another squeeze. “Funny I run into you here. To think I was here to take out that pesky Caesar DeLuca. The one my ex-girlfriend’s been banging?”
I choke on my words. “Freddie, what… how…?”
“What do you think he’s going to say, beautiful?” he asks, grinning. “What’s he going to think when he finds out your ex is Alfredo Carisi?”
23
CAESAR
“Oh! You answered,” she says. “I wasn’t sure if?—”
“Ariana, are you alright?” I ask, pacing the area in front of my bed. “You’re not in trouble again, are you?”
My tone’s severe and harried. I’m already making plans in my head for rushing off to Kittatinny to see her.
“No, no… nothing like that. I’m fine. I’m actually in your casino right now.”
I stop midstep. “In my casino as in you’re in Atlantic City?!”
“Unless there’s another Crown Casino in New Jersey I didn’t know about?” She lets out a soft giggle as if she knows how crazy it is.
“Ariana, are you out of your mind? Where are you?”
“I just told you?—”
“No, where are you?” I ask, heading straight for the door. Never mind the blood on my clothes. “Where in the casino?”
“I’m by the roulette tables on the ground floor. I’m sitting in some small bar?—”
“I know exactly where that is. Stay put, Ariana.”
Halfway down the hall from my penthouse I realize I probably should change clothes. If not for decency in public reasons than for Ariana’s benefit. She wouldn’t want to be around anything that even hinted at violence.
Though it’s part of my lifestyle, I want to keep her separate of it. She must’ve traveled all this way to see me. Greeting her in a shirt that has bloodspots would make her uncomfortable. She might even ask questions about whose blood it is.
The man I roughed up for creeping on you.
I take a quick five minutes to swap out my clothes. I pause for a glance in the mirror to make sure no other blood has gotten anywhere and that my hair’s slicked in place. A surprising bout of nerves flip inside my stomach.
I’m not a nervous person at all. Rarely if ever do I find myself feeling this way.
But the prospect of seeing Ariana again—that she’s driven three hours to see me—is enough to bring it out of me. She’s the person who has been on my mind the most these past few months. Now I’m finally going to see her.
She wants to see me.
This thought has me picking up my gait. I stride toward the private elevator as Vasco emerges. “Boss, there you are. Bacardi is in your office for a drink. He wants to discuss business.”
“Tell him another time. Something more important has come up.”
“But this is about the casino expansion?—”
“Another time.”
I press the button for the elevator doors to close, cutting Vasco off as he comes up with another excuse why I need to go to this meeting with Bacardi. It falls on deaf ears. Any official business can wait.
Ariana takes priority.
