Page 10 of Primo DeLuca

Irritation about this whole crazy-ass situation was plucking my nerves. I only cursed when I was upset and listening to this man tell me I didn’t have a way out of this situation was ticking me off.

His right brow shot up at my rant, but he continued to stare down on me without replying. Memories from my past surfaced, reminding me that I wasn’t easily bullied. I had grown up in one of the most dangerous, gutter-ass neighborhoods in the city with a crack addict mother most of my life. Now this man had the audacity to tell me I needed to rearrange my life over an innocent mistake.

Nope.

“I’m going to find my friends and go home. You can tell your men we broke up or something. Or better yet, why don’t you call me once you’re off that hit list.”

We both knew he didn’t have my phone number, and the hit list jab was a bit insensitive but a fitting reminder of the danger awaiting.

His eyes gave away nothing, but the little twitch my comments put on his lips had me fighting to restrain my own stupid smile. Under a different set of circumstances, I would have tossed all my inhibitions in the trash can for this man.

Finally, I found the strength to break the hold he had on me and backed away. I turned quickly, my heels giving the floor a little departing scrape before I strolled towards the door, praying he wouldn’t stop me. A quick glance back showed him standing in place, with an unbothered expression on his handsome face.

Once I was outside the door, I walked briskly back to the sound of the pounding drum beats pouring over dancing bodies. The reason I had ventured to the back of this club in the first place resurfaced. Where the hell had Maya gone with that guy?

After a few frantic minutes of searching the sitting areas and restrooms again, I found Tracy chatting it up with a hot Hispanic guy with a neat goatee surrounding a set of sexy, pouty lips.

Tracy’s eyes widened when she noticed me approaching. She hopped up, not caring that the man was in the middle of a sentence. Her eyes were alight with relief.

“Girl, where the hell have you been?”

“I went after Maya to stop her from doing something she might regret later.”

She waved my comment away, her gaze flicking in the direction of the bar.

“You wasted your time. Maya is being Maya. She got rid of date number two and is at the bar working on number four by now.”

My eyes slid closed on a long-winded sigh. All that had occurred in the past twenty minutes flooded my brain. I squeezed my eyes tight, the lids fluttering with stress while I shook my head to chase away the memories.

I opened my eyes to Tracy giving me the “spill it” eyes, reading whatever my expression was projecting. The guy she was stringing along stood and tapped her shoulder, attempting to reclaim her attention. She shrugged his hand away when he tried to touch her again. Luckily, he took the hint and sat back down.

“I’ve had one hell of an interesting night. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. I’m about to order an Uber and head home.”

Her head shook, and the deep furrow between her eyes highlighted her disapproval of my decision.

“It’s not even eleven yet. You haven’t even let any of these guys see the great ass you’ve got. Did you even try to trap them with those big puppy dog eyes of yours and get at least a few free drinks?”

She glanced back at the smiling face of her date, whose eyes were aimed at her ass in her black, form-fitting dress that flowed along her body like it was painted on. Little did her temporary date know, he wasn’t going to even get a whiff of what he was drooling over.

My head was moving in the negative before she started her attempts to convince me to stay.

“I’m going,” I insisted, then softened my voice. “Will you text me later to let me know you two made it home safely?”

Tracy pursed her lips and nodded, knowing that once my mind was made up, there was no changing it. She reached for my hand, giving it a caring squeeze. Her brows lifted high, showing me two sad begging eyes, but the expression wasn’t powerful enough to make me stay.

I turned and stepped away with the weight of tonight's events on my shoulders. Was it even necessary for me to tell my friends about what I had stepped into tonight? What purpose would it serve other than to give them something else to worry about?

Tracy and Maya assumed I was lonely since I rarely did anything outside of work and hung out with them from time to time. I had overheard them saying as much but hadn’t taken offense since it was partially true. Their answer to fix what they assumed was my problem was to stick a man into my situation.

I did get lonely for male company. However, the prospect of forging a relationship had always been a daunting task. Did I want one? Yes. Did I want to go through the process of getting to know one? Hell No.

Men, the ones I often encountered, were tools. I had run the gauntlet of them—the cheaters and the misogynistic pigs. The ones that pretended to be the best thing since sliced bread when they were actually burnt toast.

The worst monster I was involved with was the one I had foolishly married behind my friend's back. A month into our union I was forced to find a way to get rid of him. It had taken time to uncover his abusive nature and that he had served five years on an attempted murder charge.

My naivety had led me to believe that an older man could help solve all my problems.

Amid the drama of my younger years, I had also taken on the financial responsibility of providing care for my mother, not that she deserved my dedication based on the way she treated me growing up.

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