“Infatuated is a strong word.” It’s also a crazy stalker word, but I have my pepper spray in my bag.
“Please don’t take offense. Women like you with natural beauty are rare.”
Was he even serious? “Ah, thank you.”
“I saw you and a little bit of drool came pouring from the corner of my mouth.”
“That’s not good.” I smiled unwittingly.Bitch, stop smiling at this fool!
“How are you dealing with this new town?” Zio asked, shifting the conversation back on a less flirtatious track.
“I’m adjusting. I think I’m doing well.” I lied. There was no way I was going to over share with Lord’s incredibly handsome cousin.
“You uprooted your entire life for this.”
“I did.” All of this random small talk. What was he getting at?
“I hear you’re from Chicago.”
“How did you hear that?” I smirked.
Maurizio’s forehead creased. He pushed his light brown hair behind his ear. “Oh, you’re fucking with me.” He grinned intensely as he stared directly into my eyes. Was this his normal way, or was he trying to hypnotize me with his hazel eyes?
“Yes, I am Chicago, as you know. But to answer your question, Nevada, it’s just another state, not another country.”
“That’s a way of looking at it.” He smirked as he gazed right into my soul. These Bregoli men were a hot mess.
“I thought the location would be the hard thing, but obviously this BMF stuff is a pretty hard pill to swallow.”
Maurizio looked around the room to make sure no one was close enough to hear our conversation. “You will get used to it.”
“Will I?” I asked with a little too much Black spicy girl magic in my tone.
“Yeah, seem strong enough to handle anything.”
Black women were tired of being called strong. I guess he didn’t get the memo. “Is that so?”
“I heard about the shootout right after my uncle’s funeral. I know you didn’t think you’d be welcomed into town with that disrespectful ambush.”
“No, I didn’t think I would ever leave Chicago, come to Las Vegas and end up in a high-speed drive-by shooting with trained assassins riding on motorcycles.” I mumbled discreetly.
“There were hired guns and not trained well. They all died.”
“How do you know they were hired hit men?” I asked because I wanted the information that I would never get from Lord. Mr. Zio was a talker.
“We got pictures of their faces from the morgue. They were all freelancers, not a part of any organization. Basically murder for hire.”
I didn’t know any of this. Something else Lord didn’t share with me. “Do you know who hired them?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know they were trying to kill Nicco, but who hired these freelance motorcycle bandits?”
“Lord, didn’t tell you this?”
I wanted to yell don’t answer my question with a goddam question, but I didn’t do that. “Don’t worry about what Lord told me. I’m asking you.” I glared into his eyes cause he wasn’t the only one who could stare someone down to the ground.
Our WWE SmackDown eye battle was abruptly interrupted when the waitress showed up at our table. She was a pretty young girl with her hair pulled back in a neat bun. She was enamored with my handsome client, which wasn’t shocking or surprising.