She got annoyed and seeing as Noah shifted in his seat, she wasn’t the only one. Discreetly, she found his legs under the table and intertwined them lightly for a second, to give him some kind of assurance. And also to calm herselfdown. It worked since the man moved to keep them together. But judging by where they were right now, it just took one person to see it somehow and it wouldn’t be good. She pulled back.
"That was inappropriate to ask."
The man smirked. "So that means no."
Amanda rolled her eyes. "Could you be any blunter?"
Inéz ignored the blonde’s comment and addressed the guy next to her. "I didn’t say that."
His eyebrows raised. "Then you’ve been with a man."
The girl started actually considering hitting him in the head with something just to knock some sense into him and make him realize what he was asking her. It was so out of place that she actually wondered whether Noah had put him up to this since he was usually the one asking before thinking.
"I didn’t say that either," she said, shrugging. The next words on her tongue might be too harsh so she swallowed the need to speak up.
"It was nice but we are going back to work now, boys." Amanda decided to step in. She could most likely see how uncomfortable Inéz was. Probably all of them did as she wasn’t one to talk about the most intimate parts of her life.
The dancer reached out to her and pulled her towards the dance floor before Elio could voice any disapproval.
"I owe you one," Inéz promised, receiving a nod from her friend.
CHAPTER 23
Admitting to being wrong or having done something wrong was never Noah’s forte. Even if he’d realized that at one point, it still didn’t matter. As long as it didn’t affect him personally, he let it continue. Whatever it may bring. But as the night was rolling, theCapowas cursing himself for coming up with the terrible idea of making Inéz his spy. Especially since it required her to be so close to Gastone. With the twins talking about her, he could live. It still got to him on more than one occasion through the night, but his anger didn’t even come close to the one he felt when Amanda had come over to their booth after Inéz’s performance, telling Elio that his father wanted to see the girl in his office. He didn’t have to be some kind of genius to figure out why exactly.
The promise he’d made to the girl rang in his head. She was to be safe, and leaving her to his Capodecina’smercy was anything but. Jealousy overwhelmed him and he began thinking of his possibilities of stopping whatever was happening in the office at that time. When he saw Alberto return from backstage, the need to get Inéz out of that room went through the roof.
Flavio saw his brother’s behavior. Probably all of the men did. However, Drew and Isaac looked concerned about their friend while the twins merely annoyed that their father was moving so fast on the new girl, disgust easy to read on their faces. They had never been ones to hide their cold feelings towards Gastone. Thiswaswhy Noah couldn’t be sure whether they knew anything about the Capodecina'sdeals.
Pulling out his phone, Noah considered calling Gastone with whatever task came to mind, but looking up at Flavio he saw a slight shake of his head, warning him not to do it. He didn’t give a fuck how it looked like as long as Inéz was untouched, and signaled this exact thought to his Underboss by going through his contact list.
"I hope Gastone’s done by now with the new girl because he screwed up big timeyesterday and needs to fix it," said Flavio, getting up.
Noah frowned, not knowing what his younger brother was doing, other than clearly saving his plan and Inéz’s cover. "What do you mean?"
"He was supposed to take care of the fucking prosecutor who was sniffing around our new construction site. I got a message a few minutes ago, and unless him writing an impeachment is the prosecutor’s act of being fucking taken care of, then yes, he failed miserably at it." The Underboss growled and retreated, going towards Alberto. They exchanged a few sentences and soon the man disappeared off to Gastone’s office. All three of them walked out of the club not much later.
The rest of the night went smoothly. Noah kept himself under control, watching Inéz dance out of the corner of his eye, pretending to give a shit about what they were talking about. He couldn’t forget her performance. Even with so little time to prepare herself for the job, she was simply wonderful on that stage. He caught himself wanting to come up there, grab her and have his way with Inéz, especially after the look they shared at the very beginning. Checking out her outfit was his pastime. She was a sight to behold. Not rail thin as the other dancers but toned and womanly. A perfect hourglass figure with outlines of her tiny waist and flat stomach that flowed into amazing, wide hips. With those sensual curves, no one could even compete with her for the most perfect body. Men loved that, and there was really no doubt as to why they watched her dance without even blinking. Her dusky complexion and long, dark hair added to the appeal.
And it made Noah want to go on the rampage all the goddamn time.
§ § §
"Did you talk to Francisco?" Drew asked Isaac when they came back to the penthouse. Isaac nodded, taking out cold pizza leftovers from the fridge for dinner. It was already three in the morning and they’d decided to call it a night.
Drew sighed, looking concerned, which didn’t escape Noah’s attention.
