"I have a feeling Sadie would find a way out of handcuffs," I said with a grunt of disapproval. "How is Isa, anyway?"
"As expected, Matteo forbade me from touching her while I am here." He shrugged, despite the fire burning in his odd eyes, which seemed to glow as if lit from the pits of Hell that burned inside his very soul. "We have come up with another course of action, but he's requested she be eighteen before I make my move."
"And?”
"I can be patient. I myself am not fond of how young she is," he agreed, barely glancing up at the stripper who worked the pole like the professional she was, with her eyes on him. Some women desired all the power of a beast between their legs, unconcerned with the consequences of those actions. Others just appreciated the extra money that came with going above and beyond the expectations of their job title.
Natalie was both.
Rafe's eyes left the stripper, uninterested in the body twining so sensually. "Her disappearance will attract less attention when she is eighteen, anyway. Parents can only do so much when their only child goes on vacation and never comes home."
"What exactly are you doing here if you aren't interested in the entertainment?" I asked, accepting the slip of paper from Bryan where Yavin had marked down exactly how much money he was sending for transfer to the accounts.
Rafe shrugged. "My men thought it would help distract me from following my Princesa. Since I cannot bring her to Ibiza for some time, regardless."
"Doesn't seem like it worked very well," Bryan chuckled, accepting the slip of paper back as I signed off that I'd seen it transferred to Bryan's custody. There'd been a time when we were less coordinated, but several betrayals over the course of Matteo's leadership meant he'd cracked down. Now when money went missing, we knew everyone who'd touched it.
Bryan hefted a bag up onto each shoulder, ignoring the silent, scathing reprimand Rafe gave him with burning eyes. To be so oblivious to the danger lurking right beside you; I'd never understand such a thing. I almost envied the lack of real-life experience, but also knew with war tensions brewing, Bryan would see his fair share of horror in the coming months.
He made for the door hidden behind one of the curtains at the back of the room, his car waiting in the alley just outside. Hefting up two more of the cash-laden bags, Rafe followed suit, and we deposited them into Bryan's trunk. As soon as it was closed, Bryan climbed into the driver's seat and took it to the next stage in the journey.
Even I didn't know where it went at that point. One of the most crucial aspects of operating safely was that no one person besides Matteo knew the entirety of Bellandi operations. Lino knew the legitimate, Yavin knew Tease, Max knew the stables, Ryker knew the Warehouse and cleanup, Ash knew Indulgence, Seb knew security, Massimo knew the Underground, Sergio knew the dealers, Brando knew the weapons, and our finance guy Nick knew the transfer of money and the process it went through once it left our businesses.
No one person could rat out or dismantle an entire operation because they didn't know everything. Everyone and everything had a place.
Turning back for the club, Rafe and I made our way inside and snuck out the door into the hallway, before Natalie would turn off the music and muss herself up to look like she'd had quite the private show with Bryan. We made our way down the hall of VIP rooms, crossing the main space to go for Yavin's office. The idea of Rafe near Sadie didn't sit right with me, what with her rebellions and how controlled Rafe appeared to want his woman.
"It is such a pleasure to see a woman capable of enjoying the female body, is it not?" Rafe asked, halting his steps to glance over to the leather couches that lined the back of the main space. Separate from the seven stages strewn around the room, they were where customers typically brought girls when they paid for a lap dance.
I sighed when my eyes found Yavin's, amusement tinting his cheeks as he laughed his ass off. Sure enough, the woman sitting on the couch with another woman grinding her pussy all over her lap was Sadie.
Both the stripper and Sadie wore huge grins, Sadie's hands wandering in a way that men wouldn't be allowed in the public room when getting a dance. But the dancer didn't mind the attention, and even though Sadie was fully dressed, all the men in her vicinity turned to watch her as she drew back a hand and smacked the stripper's ass as she got a faceful of cleavage. "Fuck," I grunted, hanging my head for only a moment as I tried to calm my jealousy.
Man. Woman. It didn't matter to me. Other hands on my woman wouldn't be tolerated.
Storming over to the sofa and ignoring Rafe's sharp bark of laughter behind me, I glared at Yavin until he got the point. "I thought my instructions were very clear," I told Sadie.
"I'm fully clothed, and I haven't touched a pole, so I'd say they were clear, yes." She grinned up at me as the stripper spun on her lap, arching her back so that her head hung over Sadie's shoulder. A taller person would have a perfect view of her tits with her ass grinding on her lap, but Sadie was buried beneath her. "Crimson is teaching me how to give a lap dance," she said as the stripper in question leaned forward and circled her hips.
"She's touching you,"
