When The Sun Goes Down - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Five

                I held the tray with shaking hands, careful to keep it in front of my chest to cover as much as I could. I wore the high boots because, hell, they covered more skin.

                I approached the table where the seven men were discussing something heatedly. They looked busy. Maybe I should wait...

                Alessio caught my eye from across the room and raised a brow. I shrugged apologetically and he curled his index finger in a 'come here' motion. I grimaced and picked up the tray again. He looked moderately amused as I made my way to him.

                I set the tray down on the table and began setting drinks out in front of people who gave me an initial dirty look when I laid the tray down but otherwise continued about their business.

                "Katherine." Alessio said in a honey-coated voice. "Please refrain from crowding the table with your tray in the future."

                "S-sorry sir." I muttered and turned my eyes to the ground.

                "It's quite alright." One of the guys piped in. "I kinda like the way she bent over the table there, if she held the tray I might not have gotten to see that ass." He finished his praise with a quick spank on my behind.

I jumped and pulled the tray against my chest, my cheeks turned several shades of red. With more will power than I knew myself to possess I somehow successfully forced all of my efforts into not hitting him over the head with the silver tray. My eyes instead turned to Alessio as if asking if this was okay. 

He raised a brow, in my mind I could hear him sarcastically taunting I don't know Katherine, is it?

                "What's the matter dolcezza? That was a compliment? You not even gonna thank me?" He sounded still showing off his thick Italian accent.

(honey)

Now this was too much, even for me. Not breaking his hand was one thing, but thanking him for sexual harassment was another. My teeth gritted defiantly, daring my tongue to even try to get the words out.

                "Allora?"

                (Allora could translate to either so, or well. Its more of a filler than an actual expression.)

            My eyes skimmed the room, surveying first the girls flirting and laughing with the men, then the men, most wearing a suit and most relatively dismissive to the women. The one similarity they wore? Every single one of them housed a gun and most had the switch blade to match. 

I found sudden fascination with my shoes. "Thank you." I muttered.

"Basta." Alessio cut back in. "We've business on the table." He reminded his men his tone coming out sharp. I didn't know whether the sharp tone was intended to cut me for interrupting or his men for getting distracted. 

(Enough)

With his order it was like I wasn't there at all, as if I had actually vanished. Not one gave me a second glance as all attention turned back to Alessio. I raised my head creeping out of my shame ridden despair and he waved me off.

Like he'd have to tell me twice.

I moved swiftly back to the bar, away from the table I knew would be calling my attention again soon as the drinks emptied and the cigars dwindled. With a sigh I leaned against the bar table for a moment before letting out a groan and flopping my head down against it. 

My forehead moistened, someone must have just wiped the counter down a few moments ago. Somehow I felt as though, should I ever actually get out of this place, the excellent hygenics of this place wasn't exactly going to be one of the striking facts in my article.

The article? You know the one. The one I'm never going to get to write because I'm going to die down here.

Or worse.

Raising my head I looked at the girls again. I was engulfed in my own misery that I found I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the other woman here. They were wiping down tables, cleaning glasses, and serving drinks as though they were programmed to do so, like they knew nothing else. They did it with smiles too. I wondered what their "stories" were as Mia had put it.

                "Hey baby." I looked up to another face I didn't recognize. He waved an empty drink around in front of me, I glanced back to the table and noted one chair empty.

Truth be told, I was a shitty waitress. "I'm sorry." I glanced to Alessio several times after asking one of the girls behind the counter for a drink. "You're going to get in trouble for leaving during business."

"Better I get in trouble for being distracted by a beautiful woman than you get in trouble for failing to do your job." Gag. "He wouldn't ever shoot me." He bragged, I pretended I hadn't heard the implied but he would you.

"Well thanks for throwing me a bone." I handed him his refilled drink.

His eyes skirted me, sly little grin tugging at just the corner of his lips. "How about we check out of here and I throw you another."

My eyes widened, I was instantly furious and far less timid without Alessio watching me. "Look pal I don't know what kind of girl you think I am-" Before I could tear into this hog the way he so deserved one of the girls from behind the counter cut between us in full flirt mode. Giggling, hips swaying too much, hell she even twirled a strand of hair around her finger!

              One of the other girls grabbed my arm and pulled me away while he was thoroughly distracted by a nice pair of hooters. "What were you thinking!" She hissed.

                "He was being a pig!"

                She looked confused. "What are you doing back here? You new? Alessio never lets new meat in the VIP lounge."

                "I wish he'd reconsider myself." I grumbled and glanced back to the table where his seat was still empty. I had my guesses on where they would be going.

                "What's your story?" She asked with narrow eyes.

                "I wish everyone would quit asking me that." I looked back to the table where Alessio very slowly sat his empty glass to the table with his eyes fixed on me. The men around the table with him seemed to be in a serious and heated discussion but he had it tuned out as he watched me. "If you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to."