Chapter 112 Club
Lila POV
I stood by the front door, I was nervous. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why I would be nervous. It had been months since I’d seen the outside world. The trip here to Uncle Lucas estate the day all hell broke loose at the Moretti mansion was all just a blur. I didn’t even remember seeing anything, just hearing the screams, and the echo of gunshots resounding over and over inside my head and then the memory of my father’s lifeless body, everything in black and white except the red that seeped through his clothes, pooling around his feet.
That was the only thing I remembered clearly from that day and every other thing was just flashes and blurry images. “Stay next to me the entire evening, understood?”
I glanced up at Nico who stood next to me and I nodded. “And you keep your mouth shut, you only speak when spoken to.”
It was amazing how he could go from gentle, passionate, and caring to a controlling, fierce, and demanding boss but I have come to love both sides of him. He was direct, intense, and strong when he needed to be, but gentle, compassionate, and attentive when I needed him to be. The way he controlled his need to rule every aspect of my life and allowed me more freedom little by little was enough for me to know that he loved me. Men like him didn’t give up control for anything and they didn’t change for anyone. Yet he had changed for me.
There were three black SUVs lined up at the front. He guided me down the steps with his hand at the small of my back. A security guard dressed in a black suit opened the door of the SUV in the middle, and Nico towered over me from behind as I climbed in.
He moved in next to me, and the second his door closed, the SUV pulled off.
Two men sat at the front, both wearing earpieces and looking scary as hell.
Nico seemed tense, edgy, his fingertips tapping anxiously on his knee, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, he had made it clear that I was his weakness, and now I could see how it affected him. Inside the walls of the estate, he had more control but outside, not so much.
We drove in silence. It was dark outside, and the heavily tinted windows made it impossible to see anything. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, adjusting the short skirt of my dress. Then he reached out a hand and placed it on mine. “By my side at all times.”
I smiled. “I promise.”
He gave me a half-hearted smile just before the guy in the passenger seat turned around.
“Sir, we’re almost there.”
He nodded, and his fingers wrapped around my hand, squeezing tight and I turned to look out the window, but all I saw was the flashing of the city lights through black windows.
The car stopped, and the door on Nico side flung open. He didn’t let go of my hand and pulled me out behind him, everything happened so fast. Security guards cocooned us in, and I was literally dragged in to one direction. It was insane.
Within seconds, we were led inside a building, and once the door got shut behind us, the frenzy seemed to calm. “That was insane,” I said to him as I fell into step next to him.
“Get used to it, that’s how it’s going to be every time you insist on going out.”
I glanced up at him. “So there will be a next time?”
He glowered at me. “Don’t count on it, little pet.” But the tiniest hint of a smile on his face told me otherwise.
As we walked down a hall, music started to become louder and louder. I followed him up a flight of stairs, two guards walking in front of us, and two behind. I felt like a fucking celebrity and not in a good way.
At the top of the stairs, we reached huge double doors, ghe two men in front opened the door and gestured for us to stay put. When they came back out, they nodded toward him, and he visibly relaxed, still holding my hand as we walked inside.
I didn’t know what I expected to see, but what I saw wasn’t it. When he said he owned nightclubs, I imagined nightclubs with dark, gloomy, hard to breathe, loud music making your chest vibrate but that wasn’t it at all.
We walked into a huge, well-lit lounge. There was a round bar right in the middle, two men wearing bow-ties working behind it,black and red leather couches were placed throughout, with glass tables and granite statues of dragons that decorated the room. There were four pillars around the bar which were fish tanks, blue lights accentuating the colors of the tropical fish that swam through the bubbles in the water.
The floor was pitch black with shiny tiles, and the walls on either side of us were mirrors, yet the wall behind us red, and in front of us were floor to ceiling windows. Blue, red, and yellow lasers flashed through the window, and I walked across the room. He was right behind me because I could feel it.
As I reached the windows, I looked down, and then I saw the nightclub I had imagined, dark, gloomy, hard to breathe. From here you could see every corner of the club. The DJ box was set to the right, two guys jumping around as they created magic with the world of sound. I couldn’t hear the music anymore, but I saw what looked like thousands of people dancing, entranced by the vibe and music.
“What do you think?” he moved in next to me.
“I think you’ve managed to create your own world here in.” I turned to face him. “It’s amazing.”
With his hands in his pants pockets, he stared out the window like he was observing his own kingdom. God knew he looked every part of a King.
“This was my home away from home, like you said, my own world.”
“Was?”
He looked at me. “I found a different home now.” The way his gaze was pinned on me, his dark irises staring at me like it willed me to understand what he said.
I was his home now and I smiled, my heart momentarily swelling on the inside of my chest.
“This is the VIP lounge.” he turned around to face the room. “Some nights it’s used for entertainment purposes and nights like these, it’s used for business only.”
I raised a brow. “What kind of entertaining purposes?”
A sly grin crept up at the corners of his mouth. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
He turned to face me. “Listen, whatever is about to happen tonight, you need to keep an open mind.”
“Nico, I think I’ve been about as open minded as I can be when it comes to you and your business.”
“I’m serious. I’m about to meet with our biggest supplier.”
“The guy from Mexico?”
“Yes.”