I stared at the dealer, silently willing him to move faster. When he placed a stack of money in front of me, I peeled off a twenty and scooped the rest into my purse without counting it.
“It was nice meeting you,” I called out as I half-ran, half-walked away from the table.
After spending a couple of minutes searching for Kon, I gave up and retreated to the bathroom where I retouched my lipstick and scrolled through my recent emails and texts.
Other than a quick text from Nico asking if I wanted to go out to dinner tomorrow night and piles of spam, I didn’t see anything of importance. I didn’t expect otherwise. Evie and Gian were on their honeymoon, my mom probably went to sleep right after I left, and other than Ava and Nico, nobody contacted me these days.
At twenty-eight, my family considered me an old maid, and for the most part, they had written me off as a lost cause. That probably explained their shared enthusiasm for Nico’s interest in me even though most people in our circle of friends and family had misgivings about him. His reputation wasn’t pretty. Over the years, I’d heard more than a few rumors about his brutality. Granted, I’d never seen anything firsthand, and he behaved like a gentleman every time I’d seen him.
I stuffed my phone back in my purse and pushed open the door. Kon probably noticed I was missing by now, and I didn’t enjoy the thought of a confrontation with him. Whereas Nico appeared cold and calculating, Kon gave me the impression that his temper ran hot and quick.
“I knew I recognized you.”
I halted mid-stride, my hand still pressed against the inside of the door. The man from the card game stood at the end of the hall, his hands deep in his pockets and his eyebrows raised expectantly.
“I think you’re confusing me with someone else.”
“No.” He halved the spaced between us. My nerves frazzled, I backpedaled, loosening the pressure on the door. It swung inward in a blur of dark brown, clipping my toes on the way and making me stumble backward. Before it fully shut, he smacked the palm of his hand against the slab of wood, forcing it open.
“You’re Carmela Trassato, Rocco’s fiancée. Well, not anymore. He’s dead so I guess that would make you his not quite widow.”
“Um, yeah.” I edged back until I hit the wall. “Did you know Rocco?”
He rocked onto his heels, and his lips curled over his teeth in what I think he meant to be a smile, but it looked more like a snarl. “You could say that.”
I peeked over his shoulder, looking for Kon or anyone. The hall to the bathroom was empty, which only served to increase my growing unease. I didn’t like anything about this guy from his empty eyes to his mocking lips. He gave me the creeps.
“Oh really? What’s your name?”
“Renzo DiTonno.”
My heart stalled, then restarted, beating like it fully intended to leap out of my chest and splatter on the floor. A whole-body tremor rocketed through me. While nobody had shared the details of who killed Rocco with me, I did know the DiTonnos had a hand in his murder, which resulted in a yearlong war between our families. Dominick had negotiated a truce, but there could still be animosity on both sides, and I didn’t want to step into a minefield unknowingly. Situations like this explained why my family kept such a rigid leash on me.
I swallowed back the nausea climbing up my throat. “That name doesn’t sound familiar. If you’ll excuse me, I have to find Kon. We have dinner reservations, and he wouldn’t appreciate finding me huddled in the bathroom with another man. He’s possessive like that.”
It was a lie. I didn’t have any evidence suggesting Kon gave a shit what I did. He didn’t know that, though. I swerved around his body, darting in the direction of the door. Barely two strides later, his hand clamped around my upper arm, halting my retreat.
“And here I thought you claimed you two were only friends. Tsk. Tsk. What would your family think of you slumming it with Russian scum? Better yet, what would Nico DeAngelo think? I heard you two have been friendly lately. I heard you’re the next golden couple in the Trassato family, destined to inherit everything.”
“Get your hands off of me!” I jerked my arm up, trying to break his hold. It didn’t work. He strengthened his grip, his fingertips digging into my arm with enough force to leave a bruise.
He wrenched my arm behind me and shoved my hips into the sink. He bent forward, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. I could smell whiskey and cigarettes on his breath, and I barely checked the instinct to gag. “Listen here, Dominick and Nico may think this shit is over between our families, but that’s far from the truth. Someone killed my brother and I won’t stop until that motherfucker is in the ground. Do you hear me?”