“They need to stop looking at you,” I hiss under my breath.
“Who?” Santo asks.
“Everyone. They’re looking at you like you’re their next meal. But you’re not. You’re my next meal,” I tell him.
“Oh shit.” Drew laughs. “Mate, hold on to her. Aria can get a little violent when she’s drunk.”
“Violent? How so?” Santo questions with a keen interest.
“She’s likely to jump across the table and attack the hyenas for trying to take what’s hers,” Drew says, and Santo chuckles.
“She’s not going to do that.”
“Wait… You have a gun, right? I mean, you never go anywhere without one?” I ask Santo.
He lifts a curious brow in my direction. “How do you know that?”
“I watch you a lot more than you think I do. You’re pretty to look at.” I shrug. He should probably be hung up in a museum or something—that’s how pretty he is.
“What would you want with a gun, Aria?”
“I want to shoot them in the eyes,” I grind out, and Santo laughs. Like full-belly laughs.
“No you don’t,” he says. “Come dance with me.” He stands and suddenly I’m on my feet, a little wobbly but I manage to stay upright.
Santo wraps his arm around my waist and leads me to the dance floor. As soon as we get to the bottom of the stairs, something tugs at my arm. Not something.Someone.My entire body is yanked backwards. Thanks to the firm hold Santo has on me, I don’t fall. When I turn around to look, I find Oliver glaring at me.
“I will get what’s mine,” he says and then disappears into the crowd.
“What happened?” Santo asks. He didn’t see Oliver.Did I even see him? Am I that drunk?
“I don’t know,” I reply. “Can we go home?”
Santo looks behind me into the crowd, his eyes assessing everything around us before he nods. “Let’s get out of here.”
On our way out of the club, Santo stops and says something in Italian to one of the security guys.
“What were you talking about?” I ask him when he tucks me into the front of his car. He didn’t drink tonight, told me that he was my designated driver. I tried to convince him we could always get an Uber home but he wasn’t having it.
“I told him I was going home with the most gorgeous girl in the club.” Santo winks at me, and I feel my cheeks heat up. I doubt that’s what they were talking about at all. But it’s still nice to hear.
My head leans back against the leather seat and I close my eyes, letting the vibrations of the engine run through my body before I feel myself drift off.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aria’s soft snores fill the room. I want to wake her up. I want to devour her. I know that’s the last thing she’s going to want when she wakes up, though. I put the ibuprofen and a bottle of water on the bedside table next to her.
Then I leave her asleep as I walk out. Marcel is waiting for me in the games room. I sent him a message last night to meet me first thing. I tried to insist he drag his ass out of bed and meet mewhen I got back here last night. He politely told me to fuck off and that he’d meet me in the morning.
“What’s so urgent I had to leave my wife in bed?” Marcel asks me.
“I need you to hack into the cameras at Unhinged. I want the footage from last night,” I tell him.
“Why not just ask Williamson for them?”
“I did. He told me he’d give them to me after his own team went through them. I don’t want to wait.” Usually, I wouldn’t let someone tell me I had to wait for shit, but our family and the Williamsons are long-time friends, and I’m not about to jeopardise that when I have other means to get what I want.
“What happened?” Marcel asks.