I watched Romano scurry far away from where Luciano and I stood. I turned back to Luciano, who didn't seem bothered in the least.
All of a sudden, three extremely muscular men in snug all-black outfits crowded around Romano, roughly pulling him back to us as he struggled to get out of their grips.
If he really believed he could get get out of their grips, his age was taking a huge toll on his head.
I didn't want to know what Luciano intended to do with the gun, but my curiosity was suddenly bigger than my fear. Would it finally be the night I found out what people feared about him?
"Welcome back. That was quite a short trip." Luciano gave him a mocking nod of acknowledgement as he grabbed the gun and stared at it under the lights as if it was the most beautiful object he had ever seen. "Now, remind me again what your dominant hand is."do you
My eyes widened a bit. There was absolutely no chance he was going to do what I thought he was going to do.
"Luciano…" My voice was way too low, I wasn't sure he heard me. That was until he turned to me, his lips curling up as he gave me a smile that had my heart doing a death drop. He didn't look normal in that moment.
"It's okay, Jasmine darling. Worse things happen to better people. This is just a little warning to him," he assured.
He turned back to Romano and asked again, "What's your dominant hand, old man? I don't have all night."
"Whatever it is that you want to do to me, you'll regret it! Your father will hear of this and he won't like it one bit!" Romano yelled out, horror boldly written on the creases of his face.
"I'm sure he'll understand," Luciano replied, giving one of the three men a gesture. The man who was gestured at grabbed Romano's left hand and placed it on the table, spreading his fingers out.
I frowned as Romano started to curse at Lucian, asking him why he was ruining their long-term relationship for a cheap whore like me.
I thought about letting him get away with a damaged left hand, but with all of the nasty words he kept chucking at me, I had to rat him out.
"Wait," I called out as Luciano raised the gun.
He looked at me with an impatient frown, putting the gun down.
"It's his right hand. His right hand is his dominant."
I wondered how Luciano didn't notice it. When he played card games, he used his right hand most of the time.
I would know. I was the one whose leg he touched.
"You little demon! To hell with you! You fucking bitch!"
"Careful now, Romano. You might just convince me that you weren't the one desperately begging her for sex earlier." I wanted to ask how he knew what Romano had told me when he was not around, but I couldn't bring myself to say a word.
Luciano turned to one of the three men. "Set his right hand on the table."
Now, Romano seemed to fight even harder. He curled his hand into a fist multiple times as they spread it out.
"Oh, let him ball his hand." Luciano stopped the men from spreading his fingers once again as Romano started to scream on top of his lungs.
Lucian, without warning, raised the gun and lodged its butt against Romano's hand with so much force.
Whatever was left of Romano's composure was thrown out the door as he screamed out without stopping.
But Lucian was far from done.
He raised the gun again and went for a second strike, and then a third. Romano's voice could barely go any louder now.
Luciano cocked the gun, aimed it against Romano's hand, and pulled the trigger.
The loud bang of the gunshot caused me to jump, and Romano's blood splattered across the table as his voice went hoarse.
Luciano took the mouth of the gun and pushed it into Romano's gunshot wound with a sickening smile.
I turned around and hurried out of the casino. I could have sworn I heard Lucian chuckle as Roman kept shouting in pain, the gun still making squelching sounds as he kept pushing the mouth of the gun through Romano's wound.
My throat was closing up. The closer I got to the doors, the further it seemed to be. I wanted to be out of there.
When I finally got out, I gasped for air. The people walking along the sidewalk walked around me, staring at me with confusion. I wished I was one of them, totally oblivious to what had happened in there.
I found a taxi and hopped in, ready to pay any price to get out of that place.
~~
"I don't see you holding anything that could contain chocolates." Vera watched me with a raised brow as I practically ran into the house.
"The last thing on my mind tonight was chocolates, I'm sorry." I sat beside her on the couch, unbuckling my heels and tossing them aside as I massaged my feet.
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked.
"I don't think you want to know, Vera. God, that…" What could I say? Where could I start from?
"Was the date horrible?"
"I don't think I can call it a date. We went to the Vegas Strip, his casino. There was this old man there, Romano, and he kept hitting on me—"
"Shit."
"—and I told him I wasn't interested. He caused a scene and that fucking Luciano, wanna know what he did?"
"I don't, but I do."
"He shot his hand and used the mouth of the gun to—"
"Yeah, that's it for me. I cannot live with the image of that." She stopped me before I could go on. "So, what now?"
"I don't know, but I don't think I'm going to see him again." This caused Vera to laugh.
"Yeah, right."
"What does that mean? Do you think he's going to look for me?" I frowned.
"You signed a contract," she reminded me.
"I could always tell him I want to back out of it. I mean, he hasn't even paid me for anything yet."
As if wanting to show how unfortunate my life was, my phone chimed. I shared a look with Veronica as I dug it out of my purse.
Account: 892*****42
Amount: $10,000
From: Lucian D'Angelo
Desc: NIL
"Well, about the payment…" I showed her the screen of my phone, causing her to grimace.
"Oh, that's a lot. You'll have to decide whether to wire it back or, you know, take the bull by its horns." She shrugged, like the second option could not take me minus six feet inside the earth.
"God, this is what I want. I'm not even doing much but the money… I don't know what to do." I grabbed a throw pillow and placed it over my face, wanting to bury screams in its softness as I felt my eyes starting to water.
"I don't think I can give you any advice that could work. There are pros and cons for them both. All I know is that there are other ways you should have taken his money than signing yourself off to him. This never ends well," she said.
"Do you know anything about his exes? What happened to them? Where are they now?" I inquired, knowing the unchanging answer I would get, as always.
"I've told you this a million times and this is the last time I'll say it; I have no idea where they are now. Word has it, he dumped them all when he got tired of their shit. Some were let off with harsh words, others with a simple text. If you're lucky, your contract will expire and that's the end of it. How long will your contract last anyway? Did it say?"
"Six months," I replied.
"It's not even been a full month yet and you just watched someone get brutalized with a gun. I have just three words to say to you; pray hard, sis," she said as she stood up and sashayed into the bedroom.
My phone chimed once again, this time with a text from Lucian.
Luciano: Nice going, running away from me like that. Why didn't you stand up to Romano? Only got a smart mouth with me?
Lucian(2): By the way, the money I sent was in advance for what's to come at the end of the month. The better you behave, the higher your pay.
I was desperate for money, he was willing to give it to me as long as I "behaved."
I started to wonder what being better-behaved entailed, how many more unhinged acts of him I had to see.
My mind reeled back to the smile he had flicked at me earlier at the casino. I recalled how I almost peed myself from fear. His chuckle amidst Roman's screams…
I was in the middle of an oncoming disaster, and I knew it.