Vegas Pete - A Mafia Romance (Completed)

Chapter 2: Part 2

After dinner everyone moved on to the lounge to drink and smoke and discuss whatever else needed to be discussed. I returned to my room, but couldn't fall asleep. Eventually, I put a bathrobe over my pajamas, slipped out of my room and crept downstairs. In a fit of craziness, I took the passage that led to the secret door behind the wall in the lounge. My Grandfather thought it was necessary to have secret escapes in the office and the fireplace lounge. I found Tay with his eyes pressed against the peephole of the disguised door. Of course, he was already there. He whirled around, eyes wide but relaxed when she spotted me. "What's going on in there?" I said in a bare whisper, worried the people in the lounge would overhear us. Tay moved to the side, so I could peer through the second peephole. "Almost everyone's already gone. Father has details to discuss with the Theerapanyakuls. It's only Vegas and his entourage now."

I squinted through the hole, which gave me a perfect view of the chairs crowded around the fireplace. Vegas leaned against the marble ledge of the fireplace, legs casually crossed, a glass of Scotch in his hand. His brother Macau lounged in an armchair beside him, legs wide apart and that wolfish grin on his face. Ken and the second bodyguard they'd called Nop during dinner satin the other armchairs. Nop looked to be the same age of Macau, so around eighteen. Barely men by society's standard, but not in our world. "It could have been worse," Macau said, grinning. He might not have looked quite as deadly as Vegas, but something in his eyes told me he was only able to hide it better. "He could have been ugly. But, holy fuck, your little fiancée is an apparition. That body and face." Macau whistled. It seemed as if he was provoking his brother on purpose. "He's a child," Vegas said dismissively. "He didn't look like a child to me," Macau said, then clucked his tongue. He nudged the other man, Ken. "What do you say? Is Vegas blind?" Ken shrugged with a careful glance at Vegas. "I didn't look at him closely."

"What about you, Nop? You got functioning eyes in your head?" Nop looked up, then quickly looked back down to his drink. Macau threw his head back and laughed. "Fuck, Vegas, did you tell your men you'd cut their dicks off if they looked at that boy? You aren't even married to him." "He's mine," Vegas said quietly, sending a chill down my back with his voice, not to mention his eyes. He looked at Macau, who shook his head. "For the next three years, you'll be in Bangkok and he will be here. You can't always keep an eye on him, or do you intend to threaten every man in the Outfit. You can't cut off all of their dicks. Maybe Pete's Father knows of a few Eunuchs who can keep watch over him."

"I'll do what I have to," Vegas said, swirling the drink in his glass. "Ken, find the two idiots who are supposed to guard Pete." The way my name rolled off his tongue made me shiver. I didn't even know I had two guards now. Flash had always protected me and my siblings. Ken left immediately and returned ten minutes later with Flash and Raffaele, both looked butt-hurt that they'd been summoned like dogs by someone from Bangkok. Father was a step behind them. "What's the meaning of this?" Father asked. "I want to have a word with the men you chose to protect what's mine." Macau huffed beside me, but I pinched him. Nobody could know we were listening in on this conversation. Father would throw a fit if we revealed the position of his secret door. "They are good soldiers, both of them. Raffaele is Pete's cousin, and Flash has worked for me for almost two decades."

"I'd like to decide for myself if I trust them," Vegas said. I held my breath. That was as close to an insult as he could get without actually insulting my father openly. Father's lips thinned, but he gave a curt nod. He remained in the room. Vegas stepped up to Flash. "I hear you are good with the knife." "The best," Father interjected. A muscle in Vegas's jaw twitched. "Not as good as your brother, as rumor has it," Umberto said with a nod toward Macau who flashed him a shark grin. "But better than any other man in our territory," Flash admitted eventually. "Are you married?" Flash nodded. "For twenty-one years." "That's a long time," Macau said. "Pete must look awfully delicious in comparison to your old wife." I stifled a gasp. Flash's hand twitched an inch toward the holster around his waist. Everyone saw it. Father watched like a hawk but didn't interfere. Flash cleared his throat. "I've known Pete since his birth. He is a child."