by Violet Paige
The mysterious driver turned off the car and I walked into the front parking lot to try and get a better look at him. When he stepped out of the vehicle, my whole body froze. I could hardly breathe. Luka Gioti stood in front of me, dressed in a gray suit with a blue tie. His dark hair looked different, slightly longer than the last time I had seen him. And he had a tattoo that just crept out of the collar of his shirt. He looked so suave, with his hand unbuttoning his jacket, as he walked toward me. My mouth dropped open slightly at the sight of him, and as much as I didn't want to admit it, my whole body ached for him to touch me.
But that wasn’t the plan.
“Vienna?”
I simply nodded, unable to find my voice.
“It's been a long time. Do you think we could talk?”
I didn't want to talk. But this was part of what we had set up. I had to go with him.
“I guess. Why?”
“Because I’ve missed you.”
I sighed. “Fine.” I didn’t mean to sound so cold. I needed to play my part better. But his missing me made this easier. He would fall into my trap.
“Are you done here? Whatever the hell here is.”
“Yeah. I just finished my shift.”
He came close enough to me that he could whisper in my ear. “I can take you now, then.” His voice was seductive and made me feel like I was under a trance. I couldn't say no to him. I never had been able to. I looked up into his gray eyes. For some reason, I felt safe when I was with him, even though he was one of the most dangerous people that I knew.
“Yeah. I can leave.” My heart was beating rapidly in my chest, but I willed it to slow down. This was all part of the plan. Get him to trust me again.
I walked away from the safety and security of the diner, but at that moment, looking into his eyes, I didn’t care how dangerous it was to be around him. Without a second thought, I climbed into his car. The new leather creaked as I sat down in the bucket seat. Holy shit, this car was hot. The tires squealed as we sped off, heading in the opposite direction of my home. But he wouldn’t know where I lived, could he? He knew nothing about me anymore. It had been so long since we'd been together. And back then, we were just friends. He still had no idea how I felt about him.
I sat with my hands folded in my lap and looked out the window. I tightened my hands together and tried my best to ignore his brooding presence next to me. Occasionally, I would steal glances in his direction. The outline of his jaw was so much more pronounced, and the softness of his face as a teenager had turned into hard edges as an adult. He looked darker than I remembered, or mysterious. And I was dying to get underneath his skin and find out what he was hiding.
“Are you hungry?” He asked me.
“I can eat, I guess,” I said shrugging. Why did he want to take me to dinner? That wasn't the type of guy that Luka Gioti was. He didn’t date. At least that the man that I knew. But perhaps he was different now, maybe the years had changed him, maybe it was all the time he had in prison. He played it off, like he didn't know that I knew where he had been. Maybe he really thought I had been living just a normal existence as a full-time waitress. I laughed to myself. Like anyone I knew could do that. No one who had any mob affiliation could just walk away and live in normal life. Once you were in, you were always a part of it regardless of what you really wanted.
Your wants and needs were never put above the family.
“So where are we going?”
He turned down another street that I didn't recognize. I had been away for so long. I didn’t really know where things were anymore.
“A little Chinese restaurant. They have the best General Tso’s chicken in town, at least the last time I was there they did.”
“And when was that?” I wanted to trap him into telling me about present. Give me more information than he really wanted to, but I needed to know the truth.
“A while. You know how it is with the family and all. They eat the same damn meal over and over again. I needed a fucking break.”
“From the family?” He let his eyes cross the space between us and meet my own.
“Something like that.”
We pulled into a small hole in the wall type place, and that's when I realized he didn’t want us to be seen. He must have kept my location a secret, but why?
“I guess this place isn’t very well known.”
He didn't say anything, just exited his side of the car and came round to open my door. He extended his hand to mine and I stepped out. The last time he had opened the door for me was almost a decade ago.
It was for a dance at school. I didn't have a date, mostly because the men of the Gioti family didn't trust outsiders. I had decided at the last moment that without a date I wasn't going to go. My mother argued with me million times about how a woman didn't need a man and I should just go with my friends, which is when I realized that I didn't really have many of those either. I could never invite them over to my house, for fear that they would see something that they shouldn't. When you are hiding secrets all the time as a teenager, it's hard enough just to keep up with the lies.
So over the years I became kind of a loner. The friends that I did have, had dates anyway. They were the pretty girls who got asked by at least three boys each. That was the crowd that I ran with. I couldn’t tell my mother that. So I sat on the steps of my house next to the strip club in my dress and I waited for some type of miracle to happen. For someone that the family trusted to walk by and turn to me by and realize that he should've asked me earlier to be his date to the dance. And that's what Luka found me.
“What are you doing out here?”
I sighed heavily. “Waiting”
“For what?”
“My date.” I said laughing to myself.
He sat down next to me on the stone steps.
“And when is he supposed to arrive? It's not nice to make a lady wait. Especially dressed like that.”
“There isn't one.” I said admitting to my lie and starting to get a little weepy.
“There isn’t one? How come?”
“Nobody asked me.” I said as the tears started flowing.
“Then they're all idiots. Jackasses. Who wouldn't ask a beautiful girl like you? Are they blind?”
I gave him a small smile. “I guess.”
“You are all dressed to go.”
“Obviously.”
“Then you have to go to the dance. I feel like that is some fairytale rule or some shit. If the girl’s got the dress, she has to go to the ball, right?”
I had never heard Luka speak to me this way. He was always usually so brash, so quick to end his conversations with me. It was almost as if he wanted to talk to me but he wasn't allowed. His father had probably made some rule about how he couldn’t be around me.
It didn't matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t break the rules.
No one could.
“I don't have anyone to go with, and I don't even have a ride there at this point. I already told my mom that some of my friends were taking me. I can't go back in there and tell her the truth now.”
“There's no reason for you to go back inside.” He stood up and took my hands. “I'll take you. I have a car, and I'm sure I can get in without a ticket. I can be really persuasive when I want to be.” He gave me a wink.
“You want to take me?”
I placed my hand in his and he helped me up. “I said I would, didn’t I? Let's go.” He opened the car door for me and took a flask out of his jacket. “Want a drink?”
I shook my head. “No I'm good.”
He shrugged, “Suit yourself,” he said as he threw one down the hatch. “I imagine there won't be much to do at this dance, so I guess we'll have to make our own fun.” He winked at me and started the car.
That was the last time I had been alone in the car with Luka Gioti. It had almost been a date. But somehow I felt like there had been more love and attraction then, than there was now. I was here strictly on business.
To find out the truth.
We sat down at a small table in a dark corner of the restaurant. It was clear that Luka didn't want to be seen. We were certainly there in secret. I didn’t mind. I didn’t need the family following me, figuring out my plan.
“Mind if I order for us?”
I didn't even open the menu. “Go for it.” I wanted him to feel comfortable. Like he was running this game, when the truth was we were both playing.
“So tell me about the restaurant. Was working there your life's aspiration?” He asked with a smirk playing on his lips.
“Not exactly. But it pays the bills. It does what I need it to do. And isn't that the point of a job? To help you handle your business? I thought you would understand that more than most. That is unless you wanted to grow up to be part of the mob. I can just see your five-year-old self dreaming of that now,” I said laughing.
“Still have your sense of humor I see. Regardless of what dire situation you are currently in.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Was he on to me? Was this all a setup from the beginning? I felt my heart race.
“You work at a restaurant Vienna. You have no family, so it seems to me that things were better when you were with mine. Am I right in all of these assumptions?”
I forgot how smug he was when he wanted to be. Especially when he was right.
“Fine you're right, I hate the restaurant. I don't have a lot of friends, and I live in a little studio apartment. But I'm making it. What the hell have you been doing? Do you think that I didn't notice that you've been gone?” I was about to continue but he interrupted me.
“You noticed?”
He smiled at me in a way that made my body ache in all the right places. But that wasn't the job. I needed to stay focused. Even if I did like him playing with my mind a little too much.
“It was in the newspapers. It was hard not to notice your face plastered all over the news when a dead body showed up. I moved to New Jersey, but we still get the news.”
He laughed, “Sounds like you've been keeping tabs on me a little bit more than you’re letting on. Is there a reason for that?”
I felt my heart pounding in my chest just as the waiter walked up to us. Luka looked at me while he whispered something in Chinese to the waiter, he nodded his head and shuffled off to get our meal. Only a moment later he came back with two small shot glasses and Luka immediately raised his to me. “To our health, and finding one another again after all this time.”
“To finding one another.” I raised my glass and sniffed it. He swallowed his and laughed at me. “It's not poison.”
I gave him a look. “I figured as much. What is it?”
“Fireball. I always keep a bottle here. Nice way to unwind before a meal.” I raised an eyebrow at him but lifted the glass to my lips and took the shot. It felt like molten lava flowing down my throat and fire burning in my belly. Of course he would be drinking fireball. Just like he always had.
“So are you going to tell me why you were in jail?”
“I thought you read all about it.”
“Some. But I’d like to know more.”
“You have a lot of questions. Why is that?”
The waiter brought over our food and another round of shots. I drank it immediately to avoid his question. I needed to play my role better, to be smarter about the questions I was asking. I couldn't let him suspect what I was really doing here. But as we began to eat and continued to drink my resolution faltered. By the fourth round of fireball we were laughing like old friends and I felt like the questions that we were both ignoring were no longer important. He talked about his family and his friends and everything that we had both missed being away for so long. By the time that dinner had ended I had completely forgotten about my mission. I was falling into him, back into his trap. I was starting to feel the same way about him that I had all those years ago.
I had loved him once. That wasn’t true love, but a teenage crush that had developed into something more real. Part of me wondered if he had claimed me back then. It seemed that he had made his decision about me long ago and this was all just part of his plan.
I knew my endgame, but I didn't know his.
“Do you want me to call you a cab?”
I shook my head. “No. You can take me home.”
He opened the door for me and I got into the car. What was I doing? I wasn't following my plan. This was all happening too fast. All of my planning had become quickly unraveled. And as much as I knew I should slow things down I also wanted them to speed up. It was the fireball, I was sure of it, but that didn't mean that I didn't want him to touch me.
Deep down I wanted his hands on my skin. The ache that had been growing all night between my legs told me to abort the mission. Seek my revenge at a different time. By getting in this car with him I knew what would happen. But that didn't stop me. Instead it just made me want him even more.
We sat in silence in the car driving the streets of Baltimore. We weren’t going toward my apartment, but I didn’t tell him that.
I didn’t care.
I finally had enough waiting and started the conversation again. Patience had never been my strong suit.
The fireball had given me the confidence I needed to ask the real questions. Things I needed answers to.
“How did you find me?”
“You never changed your first name. I thought when you went into Witness Protection they changed everything about you. It’s almost like you wanted to be found.”
Was he onto me?
“My mother’s death wasn’t a hit. Therefore, I didn’t need to go into WPP. They considered it for a while, but then they just sent me to my family out East.”
“You have other family? Is that why you went to Jersey?” He sounded intrigued. I needed to play it off.
“Yeah, just a little bit. But they’re old, so I moved back. I missed this place.”
That was a lie.
I couldn't fight the feeling that was burying itself deep inside my stomach. The small moment that was blossoming between us was everything. I just had to hold on a little bit longer to see where it went.
I needed the truth.
“So besides working what have you been doing?” he asked incredulously.
“Nothing, really. I’ve been keeping a low profile, trying to get past everything that happened.”
“That’s a lot to work through.”
“Yeah. What have you been doing? Just working for the family? I mean after jail.”
He nodded slowly. It was clear he was apprehensive to give me any real information. “Something like that. Mostly missing you.”
“Missing me? What's that supposed to mean?”
As he turned into an alley, he put his hand up on my knee. Skin to skin contact was almost too much for me to take. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t allowed to feel this way about him. But I couldn’t tell that to my body. I felt the blood rush to my core and my pussy was almost immediately wet.
God damned fireball.
He parked the car. I looked out and saw the familiar brick building next to us, but I couldn't place it.
“I said I miss you, dammit. Why do you think I went through so much trouble to find you?”
I shrugged. I honestly didn't know. Why now, after ten years, had he finally come for me? I had always assumed that he had just forgotten about me. What was a fifteen year old girl to him back then? There had to be some other reason why he sought me out. Maybe he was here on business for the family, and he was just acting like he missed me to get the information from me he needed. Information about my mother's murder. But I didn't know anything. I never testified because I was under the desk the whole time. My mother and two other people had been killed that day in the office, and I never figured out exactly why. I’d spent years trying to uncover the truth about why she was included in that hit, but I never found anything. She was just the accountant. She wasn’t important enough to the family t
o have a hit taken out on. All signs pointed to a murder of passion. After years of searching for the truth, I finally knew why she had died, and I knew exactly who to blame.
“I know you came to me for information. But I don't have any, Luka, I never did.” My lies were the whole reason I was here. But as I looked at him, a genuine expression of concern on his face, my resolve wavered.
“I never thought you did. You were just a scared kid. Unfortunately, you had to be there when it happened, and that should have never fucking happened. And I’ll make sure that it’ll never happen again.”
“Never happen again? Can you guarantee that? Luka, your life is full of death.” I was starting to panic, my feelings for him rushing back. And if I didn’t do my job quickly, I’d be in over my head. He had to take me back to the family, then I would finally know the truth. I would get my revenge.
“If I go back to the family with you, there's no way that you can be sure that I'll be safe.” I had to get him there. To take me with him.
He squinted at me. “You think this is about coming back to the family? That’s not what any of this is about.”
I shook my head. “What the hell is this about then, Luka? You come out of the woodwork after a decade and you expect me to know what's going on. You take me to dinner for Godsakes! I don't know anything.”
He laughed at me. “You never did.”
We sat in silence for a moment, the tension building between us. He never took his hand off my thigh. Instead, his hand started slowly creeping up between my legs. My short skirt exposed more than it meant to—it was meant to help me get better tips—but now, I wasn't sure what I would get out of it. Butterflies danced in my stomach as I felt the tension in the car shift from anger to something else entirely.
“I want to taste you.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “Me? Why me?”
He looked into my eyes and simply said, “Because I've wanted to for ten years. And I'm tired of waiting.”
I had dreamed of this moment for years. For when he would really look at me as a woman, rather than the kid that ran around his father’s office.
With those simple words, my resolve started to crumble. “Don’t wait anymore.” I spoke without even thinking. I said it so quietly I wasn't sure if he heard it or not. But within seconds, his mouth was on mine, and I knew that once again, I was addicted to Luka Gioti. And I knew that that meant only one thing: danger.
