An Unwanted Alliance ✔️

13. Blackjack

Dario De Luca

"I'm going to have a hell of a difficult time tonight." I said as I approached my wife. She was wearing a red dress with her hairs down and I'd be lying if I said she looked any less than an angel.

"Why?" She softly asked as she met my eyes once again.

"Keeping my hands and other horny creeps' eyes off you." I huskily said as I lowered my mouth towards her ears. "Oh." She simply said and I placed a soft kiss below her ears.

"You look ethereal, preziosa." I said and I grabbed her hand and kissed her wedding ring. The jewellery is proof she is mine. I love how she never takes it off.

"Thank you. You look great yourself." She said and I smirked once again. "Why, Thank you." I said and kissed her lips lightly.

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All of the eyes were on us as we entered the casino. Some were eyeing me while most of them were starring at Arianna, who was beside me with my arm around her waist. Most of them here are from the illegal business and so haven't met her yet. They weren't invited to the wedding.

Arianna found Nina and she took her away to introduce her to some of her friends here. I met with Matteo and we went to the table where other mafia bosses were seated, playing a round of some regular game.

They were just done playing a round of roulette. I and Matteo soon joined them. I notice there were quite impressive number of men on the table. The head of Australia Mafia, Spanish Mafia and Portuguese Mafia were all present there with their underbosses but what surprised me the most was the presence of the head of Russian Mafia, Michali Smirnov. Our eyes met and the tension between us could've been cut with a knife.

The story goes like this, Michali took over for his elder brother as the same time as I did for my father. His mother was American which explains his looks but his personality is all Russian. We initially used to meet at the conferences on our legal business as our predecessors were partners. We enjoyed our friendship both on the legal and illegal business and personally used to chat a lot too. We used to go to clubs together and used to party a lot but all of that stopped when due to a misunderstanding, he pulled away from both the business.

A person who used to work for him, stole from him and fed the inside information to a rival small bunch of people. When Michali inquired, the person lied and said I hired him to do the job for me so that I can overpower his company. Furious with rage, Michali didn't listen to anyone and instantly broke off our deals in both the business which made us both face a fair amount of loss.

His men attacking our investors and threatening my crew was a normal thing. He put the last nail in the box last fall when his men attacked on of my main house and stole a major amount of cocaine from us. It was then that I decided that it was either him or I who would be the only supplier of drugs to eastern Asian. Neither of us has yet declared the war but it was brewing slowly but surely.

"Welcome Mr. De Luca, Mr. Ricci. Join us for a game of Blackjack, please." The owner of the casino who's also the host of the celebration tonight, Mr. Lombardi said with a welcoming smile.

"Sure." I said and both Matteo and I took a seat on the table. We all chugged in our first bet. The dealer handed all of us a pair of cards, minus Mr. Lombardi and he himself got a '10'. Matteo and I were playing together naturally and I've a '2' and a 'J' which brings my total to 12. Not high enough. The highest was 21. Higher than that was a bust.

The Portuguese Mafia got a total of 24 and Australian Mafia got 26, naturally backing them off the game. The dealer took their chips and asked whether the rest of us want another card. I and Spanish Mafia said 'hit', which means we'll get another card. I got a '9' this time, taking my total to round 30, which meant I lost the game. The dealer now revealed his second card, his total being 18. Michali's total was 23 while the Spanish Mafia had 22 which meant Michali won the game.

We did this for another five rounds which I lost too. Damn, luck wasn't on my side today. I usually win a lot at these games but I don't know what's wrong today.

"What's wrong, De Luca? Luck isn't on your side, huh?" The Spanish Mafia asked with a playful smirk in his heavy Spanish accent.

"Fuck you, Díaz. I'll beat your ass on the next round." I said and he winked at me. I ordered for a refill on my Vodka. I need that. I've lost almost 2.5 million tonight. I need to win at least one round tonight. Not for the money but for my reputation. I've always been great at roulette, blackjack and poker. I can't believe I've lost the last five games continuously.

"Looks like you can use some luck." Michali addressed me directly for the first time tonight. I opened my mouth to reply but Matteo beat me to it.

"And looks like it's on time." I tuned around and saw Arianna walking towards me.