Page 12 of Bossy Ex's Brother

Frustration set in.

“She looks like me,” I said, pleading with the man. “Please, she’s only sixteen. I need to get her out of here.”

“I really wanna believe you,” he said. “But that’s not the first time we’ve heard that one. You’re not getting in.”

“She’s a minor,” I snapped, finally at my breaking point. “If it gets out that you're letting minors into this place, it could get shut down.”

The threat didn’t phase the big guy any more than my pleas did. He glanced at his partner, who shrugged at him in between checking IDs.

He turned back to me, stone-faced.

“Please,” I tried again.

“Hey, lady, no one cares,” somebody yelled from behind me.

“Yeah,” someone else called out. “Get out of here.”

“Is there a manager or someone I can talk to?” I asked, ignoring the crowd.

“No,” the bartender said a little too cheerfully. “The Wiley bastard left just two days ago. The boss probably hasn’t had time to get another one.”

I sighed. “You’re not going to let me in there, are you?”

He shrugged and looked a little sympathetic when he said, “Sorry. If I let you in, then I’d have to let everyone in.”

“Can you just make an announcement then and have someone get my sister out?”

He glanced at his partner again, unsure. “You’d have to talk to the boss about that.”

Great, a silver lining. “Who’s the boss?”

“Luca Rossi," his partner said, and the shock that spiraled through me was so immense that I felt it to the tip of my toes.

“Wait, Luca owns this club?” I questioned.

“He owns every club in this vicinity,” he said helpfully.

Great. Just fucking great.

How did I not know this? I mean, it wasn’t like I was a regular clubgoer, but that sort of thing sounded like something that should have been common news.

No wonder he’s such an arrogant bastard.

I took a deep breath and pinched the base of my nose, feeling like everything was conspiring against me today. Truly, I didn’t know why the universe was so pissed at me, but it was putting an endless amount of obstacles in my way.

“Hey, you going to kick her out or what?” someone yelled again.

With an apologetic look to the bouncers, I finally stepped out of the line before a riot started. And there were cheers when I did. As I walked away from the club, I thought about what to donext. I mean, I knew what I was going to do, but it was more of how I was going to go about it. I didn’t have Luca’s number, which meant that if I wanted to talk to him, I’d have to go in person and see him.

And ask for his help.

Which he’d probably mock me for.

But it didn’t matter, I thought, sighing and steeling myself as I called another Uber.This isn’t about you,I reminded myself.This is for Beth.My sister was reckless, but she was also innocent about a lot of things. She might think it was just like every other clubbing place she cut school to go to, but I could tell from the clientele that it wasn’t. This place was dangerous.

The minute my Uber arrived at the first bar, I had to swallow again. There was also a line outside here too. Even though the crowd looked significantly older, I did not doubt that it would be even harder to get in. But then a crazy idea occurred to me.

Before I could question it, I marched to the front and told the bouncer, a large wall of a man standing in front:“Hey, I don’t know if you recognize me, but I was in here earlier. With Luca.”

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