Chapter 53: Party Crasher

Mario took her wrist bringing into a swift spin and caught her by the waist. His torso moved onto hers, simulating her legs to lift her heels from the cobblestone. His hand brushed across the cotton fabric over her navel, she grinned swaying her torso from side to side. Locking her hands around his neck feeling her whole self submerging into the intense rhythm.

“This is incredible.” She shouted over the deafening sound.

The bumming ricocheted off the vibrating square speakers while the dancers whined the fire sticks around their taut abdomens.

“We’re just getting started wait till you see the fireworks.”

Gina simpered as the music shrilled in her ears.

The shooting lights digitally painted the hard, musky cluttering bodies. She went in another spin. Mario forwarded catching her sides tugging her much closer. She pulled away reversing going deeper into the crowd. Poseidon, Henry VII, Helen of Troy, Medusa.

She absorbed.

Clicking on the cobblestone she went into a third whirl, going solo. Aphrodite and Aries were engaged into a dirty-grinding manifestation. French kissing, mouths hot and locked.

Mario swayed through the clutter of characters keeping her in his view. He grimaced to her enjoying the excitement of tracking her in the clutter.

The crowd jumped fist-pumping at triple pace with the beat and dizzy lights. Mario went from clear view to loss between Cupid, Hercules, Juana La Loca, another Cleopatra and Sherlock Homes. The ardent unwinding and gyrating disbursed into the cloudy night. Thunder shattered across the sky. Meaningless pieces of their costumes fell from them getting stamped on by a thousand active feet.

She rocked her hips like they were made just that holding the wig steady on the sides of her head. Her chest rose, swiveling gingerly easing her pace so she wouldn't bump onto anyone else dancing.

She looked up at the grey smoky clouds and released a breath.

A hand grabbed her elbow, her neck quickly erected looking up at who was grasping her.

“You should be more careful this is wild bunch you might get knocked over.”

Two liquid sapphires darted into her, magnetic, roping her in.

She stiffened.

Before she could utter a sentence, her hands were on his pecks and he hugged her upper back. “Come on,” he lugged her exceedingly, maneuvering his way through huddled eclectic partiers. Gina straggled against his suave plain, dark Slim Fit shirt. Her temples kept bumping into his collar. His cologne was profoundly brutal, his body tense and pulsating. She uttered something he couldn’t hear over the shattering speakers and the repetitive screaming cheers by the partiers.

“Alex!” She tuned up her pitch directly at his ear.

He responded by bracing around the gold belt on her waist tighter. Her spine hitched forcibly as he proceeded through the gallivanting maze. Black leather cloves reached on Alex’s other shoulder. She hiccupped in frightful shock having a flashback image from her nightmares.

He paused and they pivoted to find Rudy next to them in his CIA-looking suit. His hand stretched forward notifying his employer to follow him. He coordinated them in a designated root. Four minutes she had dragged along like a Barbie doll, she inhaled sensing how the air wasn’t warm or tainted anymore. He lugged her out the cluster as Rudy steered them further to where the music got milder.

Alex finally stopped, prompting Rudy to do the same they stood outside the dancing grounds facing the streaming fountain.

“Gina.”

He said her name breathy hugging her cheeks. He furrowed to her his eyes cold and serious. She exhaled gawking at him feeling her guts twitching. Tinkles, tinkles, tinkles, tinkles.

Holy fuck!

What is he trying to do to me?

Alex gestured his head to Rudy who got the gist. He straightened, buttoning his slit jacket as he ambled to the flowing water and statues, providing him and Gina with suitable privacy.

“Is that what you came here to do, look up at the weather and wait for some drunk lunatic to harass you?”

He scolded her as if she were a naïve teenager not a grown woman.

She unfroze twisting from side to side trying to get rid of the unwanted twitching.

“Gina.” He barked this time giving her a bafflingly look.

He wondered why she was acting so weird.

“Don’t you fucking yell at me,” she wrenched away from him violently.

“What I do, or don’t do is done your concern. Where did you even come from? I was perfectly fine before you pulled me out of there forcibly...at that.”

She stressed snapping at him angrily.

“Exactly.”

She arched at his hasty reply.

“It was so easy in fact to pull you away. Imagine if it was some criminal. What would you have done?”

He condescended.

Easy?

If it wasn’t for his paid muscle a posh billionaire like him certainly would have gotten lost in that hectic jumble.

She tossed him a facetious smirk implying she wasn't taking him or his words seriously one bit.

“Gina. Gina, there you are.”

They both shifted to the familiar voice calling her.

Mario raced over to where they stood making a noise on the concrete with his gladiator scandals.

“Thank god, I-” He paused upon seeing Alex right in front him. His content turned dim watching the blonde-haired man throw him an unwelcoming look. “Mr. Forester, what a surprise to you see you again-here.”

“Wasn’t I invited?”

Alex shrugged dryly.

“Sure, however you did disappear before I could tell you the address.”

He reminded the American.

By now, Alex deduced that Mario had to be suspicious of him and the object of his desire across from the two men. He might not know for sure if there was a relationship, but the Italian prick could just as well not give a shit, thought Alex.

“I know my way around.”

He continued.

“But forgot the dress code I see.”

The Italian shot back with a seemingly spiteful simper.

Gina observed the verbal battle and quickly grew tired of the pissing the contest taking place.

“I don’t need a silly outfit to depict a fictional character cause’ you see a pretender is still only a pretender.” He retorted eyeing Mario deadly and with derision.

“Is there some sort of problem you have with me, Mr. Forester, or it is my party which is obviously not your scene?” He advanced narrowing to blued-eyed cocksucker as he regarded him at the moment.

“This is ridiculous. Let’s carry on. Mr. Forester clearly forgot his manners tonight.”

Gina stepped in between the two men resting her hand on Mario’s arm.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Alex told her low and alerting

She switched to him giving the tall billionaire an hard irked gaze.

Dear Lord, I beg you bestow on me the tolerant will to refrain from slugging this insolent ass!

Thought Gina about to pop a vein.

“What are you her guardian? She’s an adult and you are officially uninvited. You can do us both a favour and leave, so I won’t have to call for security.”

Mario warned, demonstrating his own money and influence.

“Shall we?”

He held out his palm to Gina which she took and sauntering back to the party with him.

“Does the name Lorenzo Rotoli ring any bells?”

Alex shrilled, Mario feet became immobile. Gina looked to him who instantly recoiled to Alex, who then advanced to him, hands in his pocket.

She pondered what was happening.

Above all, why was Mario suddenly so pale at the mention of that name and what the hell was Alex doing now?

“Local drug dealer arrested just last year for possession of cocaine.”

He reported as if he was reading from the guy’s police records which he most likely did before this confrontation.

Mario kept quiet while Alex aimed at him, stony-faced and pressed on.

“A few friends and family members were suspected of involvement. A cousin in particular was charged with aiding a criminal by using one of his clubs to smuggle cocaine bricks and laundering heavy sums of cash.”

Gina’s face unraveled bearing maximum stunned expression. “How did you get such information?” The Italian weakly uttered out.

“Are you denying these facts?”

Alex asked brushing off his question.

“Why would I since their facts. However, you omitted the section where my club was raided by the cops and no illicit drugs were found. Plus all sums of cash were legally listed in my financial records. Charges were dropped.”

He rebutted the accusation asserting the ‘innocent before proven guilty’ citizen’s rights speech. Alex arched to him with his smug, conceited glare.

Mario stood numbly struggling to maintain his cool with the smug blonde American screening his every move. For a minute, he felt like the blue-eyed devil could hear his jumpy heart rate. Gina glimpsed back and forth from one to the other.

She wanted to say something but sensed it had escalated to more than a battle of testosterone. And she was completely out of the loop as what they were talking about.