Chapter 91: Out of The Bag

Chapter 91: Out of the bag

Cara's pov

"Is that her?" A woman in her early twenties whisper-yelled over the booming music to her friend as I made my way through the dancing clubbers of club Nova.

"Yes. It's her." The friend managed to lace venom into the otherwise harmless response.

They weren't the only ones whispering to themselves, several others were chittering quietly among themselves, their eyes following me like magnets.

Word had spread like wildfire, everyone and their mamas now knew I was Luca's new girlfriend. Or whore according to whose version of gossip you were listening to.

After my mother and Manuel left yesterday, I'd taken a moment to process things. Luca had been considerate enough to give me the space I needed and after an hour of deep thinking, I decided it was all good. My anxiety had slowly seeped away, giving way to a deep sense of relief.

The cat was finally out of the bag. I didn't have to stress and obsess over keeping our relationship a secret. Valentina had done me a great service by tattling. You could say I had one less burden to carry.

I was wrong.

The moment I walked into the club, I realized just how wrong I've been. Things weren't as fine as I'd deluded myself to think. I could hear them as I passed– whore, gold-digger, Luca's goomah.

I ignored them, my head held high, my stride unfaltering. I wanted to appear unbothered even though I was anything but. I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing I was affected by them even though I had no reason to. It wasn't like I'd done anything to be ashamed of. If they wanted to vilify me for falling in love then that was on them not me.

The bouncers at the entrance of the VIP area got even stiffer when I approached. Although they didn't hold malice in their gaze like most of the clubbers and had surprisingly greeted me with a stiff nod, I could still recognize the apprehension and wariness underlying.

My answering smile was rather forced and I dashed my way past them, not slowing down my pace as I hurried to the VIP room Luca described to me earlier on before he left home. He'd told me to ask any of his men if I didn't get the directions but it seemed that wasn't an option considering the fact that no one here wanted to even breathe next to me. They were either scared to speak to me or appeared to dislike me for some wild reason.

I didn't even know these people.

Luckily, I got to the office without getting lost in the migraine-inducing neon-lighted cave-like hallway.

"Hey, it's my favorite sister-in-law!" A voice that very much belonged to Santino hooted the second I swung the door open and stepped in.

The warm smile I had at hearing the familiar voice died when I noticed the other men in the room. Smartly dressed men I didn't know were sitting around a large, circular table and looking at me weirdly. I fought the urge to shudder.

Ugh, I was sick of this.

"Hey, Santi-" I plastered on a civil smile, "gentlemen." I finished with a small nod.

None of them cared enough to respond.

Well, so much for playing the Don's polite girlfriend.

I turned away, moving awkwardly to a red leather couch at the other end of the room, wanting to be as far away from the dangerous aura the men exuded as I waited in suffocating silence for them to finish up with whatever business they had going on or for Luca to appear and whisk me away from here.

The heavens granted me the former in less than two minutes. I watched with immense relief as the men began to file out of the room, leaving me pondering whether it was a good thing that they couldn't be bothered to at least glance in my direction before disappearing.

I didn't want their attention anymore than I wanted the trouble that comes with it but it was clear that they acted the way they did because they didn't see me as important and that hurt me in some way. Maybe it was Valentina's words haunting me but I wanted to be seen as important. I wanted to be worthy of Luca's love. To be more than just his pretty asset.

"Santi?" I spoke as soon as he bade off the last elegantly suited criminal.

"Mm, Signorina-"

"Please call me Cara."

"Right." He winked. "Cara. Luca would be here any minute now so you don't have to worry. Sorry about those guys, they're usually stuck up pricks like that so you don't have to worry about them either. Don't tell Luca you met them here though, you weren't supposed to. If I knew you were going to be two minutes earlier than the ETA I was given I'd chosen some other place for the meeting so you wouldn't have-"

Dear God. "Santi." I cut in forcefully. "It's fine. I'm not bothered."

He came over and plopped down on the couch beside me. "I didn't expect you to be."

A crease appeared between my eyebrows. "Then why were you-"

"Rambling?" He gave a careless shrug. "I'm hungry. I ramble a lot when I'm hungry."

I blinked at him, stunned then I let out a disbelieving chuckle. "I don't know why I still take you seriously."

He grinned beside me. "People say it's my eyes. I have very earnest looking eyes."

I didn't believe that for a second. "Santi."

"Mm?"

"Do you know how to shoot?"

A blank stare, and then came laughter. Really heavy laughter.

"What?" I pouted, wondering what the hell was funny.

It took him a minute to gather himself. "Nothing." He said as his wheezing died down. "I think I do"

I sat up immediately. "You think?"

"Yeah." For some reason, he appeared amused.

"Like how well? Can you accurately shoot a person's shin from like…" I paused to consider, "ten feet away?"

He looked like he wanted to burst into laughter again. "Yeah I think I can do ten feet."

I clapped my hands in excitement. "Great, teach me how to shoot."

His face squeezed in confusion. "Why?"

"None of your business." I wasn't going to tell him that him teaching me how to use a gun was my first step on my mission to become Luca's worthy girlfriend. I might not be able to "stop wars with powerful connections" but I'd start with knowing how to protect myself without burdening Luca.

Santino was leering at me, obviously wondering what it was I was plotting. I smiled innocently at him.

"No." He deadpanned.

My smile faded. "No?"

"Yes, no. I don't do things that Luca didn't permit me to."

I rolled my eyes. "We could always get permission from him later."

"What don't you ask him to teach you instead?"

The question caused me to pause for a bit. Why didn't I want Luca to teach me himself? Well, for one, the man was as astute as they come. I didn't want him putting two and two together and picking on my true reasons for wanting to learn how to shoot. I was tired of him knowing all of my insecurities.

"He's too busy." I lied.

Santino, however, doesn't believe me. "Can't help that can we?"

"Please, I'd cook for you."

He shot me a sharp glance. "No offense Cara but your cooking sucks so it's still a hard no."

My eyes narrowed. "I thought you liked it."

"I lied because Luca asked me to." He crossed one leg over the other. "It was barely edible."

The fucking ass- wait… Luca had lied to me too?

Santino's expression became awkward when he noticed the drop in my mood. "Hey, he just didn't want to make you feel bad."

"So he lied. You too. I thought we were "buddies"?"

"We are, we are. I- look, cooking is a process, you'd get there something. Not anytime soon but someday."

I could scoff in disbelief. Do made men not know how to sugarcoat when it's absolutely necessary? They were either straight up lying or destroying your self esteem with their frankness.

Turning away from him, I muttered, "Just go away."

"I can't. I'm under orders to watch you until Luca gets here."

I snickered. "You think I need monitoring in a pretty safe room like this?"

"I'm just as baffled as you. The Don tends to be overly unreasonable where you're concerned."

Mentally ill that I was, I blushed at that, immediately forgetting that I was supposed to be feeling betrayed and pissed.

I didn't know Santino was watching me until he said. "Oh, great. You match his freak."

I was spared the horror of having to answer him when the door pushed open and Luca entered the room. My heart jump-started, its beats tripping over themselves.

He was dashing as ever and he looked happy to see me too, a warm smile playing on his lips until his gaze narrowed in on Santino. From the scowl that took over his features as he pointedly looked from Santino to me, I could guess that he wasn't a fan of us sitting on the same couch.

Gosh, he was such a possessive neanderthal.

"Is there any reason why you two are sitting this close together?"

Santino sighed heavily and got up. "I better start going before your boyfriend here does some serious harm to me." He brushed off his suit jacket. "I have a date later tonight and I'd love to show up without spotting a black eye or a bruised jaw like last time."

Last time?

He gave Luca a small salute. Luca only glared at him. He proceeded to dance around his pissed boss carefully before slipping out.

Luca's dark eyes zeroed in on me. "What were you two talking about?"

I rolled my eyes and patted the space next to me.

He doesn't move.

"Are you just going to stand there and interrogate me?"

He delayed for a second, his hard eyes regarding me before he started to walk over. And my God, the man had the sexiest gait. His strides had the grace of a greek god, his hips and shoulders moving in a masculine way that made my mouth water.

I gasped when he lifted me off the couch and took my spot then settled me on his lap to straddle him instead of sitting on the space beside me like I'd asked.

"It better be the weather you guys were talking about." He drawled, his handsome face level with mine.

I bit back a smile. "Nah, we have a lot more in common for it to be that."

His eyes darkened, deliciously. "The last thing you should do now is tease me, woman."

I leaned in until the tip of our noses were touching. "Why, you're so fun to tease."

I was rewarded with a hot smack on the side of my thigh. Grinning at him, I conceded. "If you must know, Santi was just-"

"Santi? You now call him Santi?"

I threaded my fingers into his hair. "Yes and SANTI told me you ordered him to lie about my omelets."

His jealous expression slowly transitioned into a guilty one. "The fucker wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"So you did lie."

His eyes grew earnest. "I felt like I had too in that moment. You looked like you'd be greatly affected if I didn't."

He was right. I would have. Fuck him and his keen perception. Desperate to direct the conversation to lighter matters, I cleared my throat. "Well, you should be honest next time. I can't know what to improve if you keep lying about the taste of my food."

"Note taken." He mumbled before burying his face in my neck.

"Luca," I whispered breathlessly.

"Mm?"

"How long do we have before you get back to work?"

"I have an outside engagement in a few minutes and then I'd be done for the day."

I sighed when he licked the underside of my jaw. "What time would you be back home?"

"You're coming with me to the meeting." He said without missing a bit even though he was busy driving me crazy with his mouth on my neck. "We'd leave for home right after."

"Okay." I managed. "Do you… do you want to talk about my moving out before we leave?"

He stilled immediately, wrenching away from my neck to look at me. "There's nothing to talk about. You're not moving out."

One of my hands left his hair to cup his face. "Luca, I promised your father."

His eyes remained hard. "And you shouldn't have."

I heaved a sigh, shaking my head slightly. "I have to do this. People are talking."

"It shouldn't matter-"

"It matters to me. I really don't enjoy being labeled as your f*uckthing."

His eyes softened, searching my face. "Cara, did anyone call you-"

I shook my head again. "No. They didn't. Not to my face that is."

Luca cursed under his breath.

"I need to prove that I have autonomy over myself Luca, that I'm more than just your pretty goomah."

His face contorted with a wince. "Where did you learn that from?"

"What? Goomah? You'd be surprised by how much Italian I can pick up from people's conversations."

His answer was a conceding groan. "Okay, fine."

I drew him in for a brief kiss on the lips. "Thank you. I'd stay with Diana until I find a place of my own."

I was pinned with a hard glare. "Let me make it clear to you, Cara. One, there's no chance in hell that you'd be going back to that death trap neighborhood. Two, I'd find you an apartment myself, somewhere I can protect you."

My refusal was instinctive. "I can't have you do that."

"It's non negotiable."

I studied the firm planes of his face. His expression told me that I was going to lose if I tried to push it. I sighed in annoyance as I reluctantly accepted it. At least I'd gotten him to let me move out. "Fine."

His smile was smug and I badly wanted to wipe it off his face so I bent down and seized his mouth. "You're such an overbearing jerk." I mumbled in between the kisses.

"But you wouldn't want me any other way." He replied.

I kissed him harder, knowing damn well that he was right.