Chapter 2.3 - Matteo
1719 Words
I look at them when they start walking towards the door. Her dad turns around to look at the two of us.
“Thank you.”
This makes me instantly relax as Luca answers him.
Valentina and he seem to be playful with each other, like they have a healthy father-daughter relationship. The fact that he was the only one to thank the people working here makes me like him even more.
I watch her back as she leaves.
“She played well.” Luca tells me. “That’s kind of hot.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes for the second time in the span of five minutes.
“She’s smart.”
“Who’s the other guy?”
I shrug. “I don’t know, but he looks familiar.”
“The angry one?”
“Oh, no. I don’t know who that is.”
“What a dick.”
“Yeah. I’m going to the bathroom, be right back.”
I exit the room and immediately spot Valentina further away.
“You had the hand.”
It’s a long shot, maybe, but I’m curious to see if she tells the truth.
“How did you know?”
I am unable to hold down a smile.
There it is.
I lean against the and pull out my cigarette pack, completely forgetting that I came out to go to the bathroom. What I want to do right now is talk to her. She looks at me expectantly.
“You just told me.”
She obviously doesn’t believe me, rolling her eyes. “How did you really now?”
“I counted the cards.”
It’s the half-truth. But I can’t inflate her ego by saying I watched her face for the most part of the game.
“Of course you did.”
“So, why did you do it?”
“One of the games we play together is poker. I know I’m better than my father at a limited number of things, and winning at most games I play is one of them. Winning against him makes him appear…human. I’m not sure if I want to stop seeing him as my dad just yet. And I know he hates losing to his daughter because I can read it on his face. Plus, I didn’t want to embarrass him by making him lose against his daughter.”
The reason seems very noble and somehow weird coming from her. She didn’t strike me as the type to compromise.
“How uncharacteristically nice of you.”
“I am nice.”
“You looked like you were about to punch that Yuri guy every time he opened his mouth.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
I offer her a cigarette.
“Are you allowed to smoke in here?”
I haven’t thought about smoking rules (or any other rule for that matter) in I don’t know how long. I haven’t thought about something not being possible ever since I realized that even the police can be influenced.
“Everything is allowed.”
I watch her cigarette dangle from her lips so I light it.
“If you know how to count cards, why didn’t you win?”
She takes my glass before I even have time to think of an ingenious reply.
“I didn’t need another Russian mad at me in that room.”
“My dad doesn’t get mad if he loses. I’ve rarely ever seen him angry.”
Something I said made her energy change. I don’t know what, but it’s like her tone and mood shifted.
I feel the urge to ask her what she’s doing after this, but the moment has passed.
She hands me back the glass when her phone rings. “I need to go back to my table now.”
“Okay, have fun.”
I watch her walk away for the third time today.
“I think I just had the most fun I’ll have tonight.” She jokes.
I smile at myself as the door shuts behind her.
***
Raisa inevitably finds me when people start leaving, including her own table once her father comes from the meeting.
It’s all a little bit too similar to my childhood in Italy, but I’ve never seen these dynamics in anyone else’s family before.
“What are you doing after this?”
It’s already 10pm, and to my surprise, I’ve made it so far.
She’s leaning against her elbows on the bar, in a way that makes her boobs pop out.
“I have no idea.”
I shamelessly look at her chest before back at her eyes. I already know what she wants judging by the way she’s looking at me.
“What about you?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation alive.
She shrugs and bites her lip. “I thought we might go somewhere together.”
I look over to where Luca is standing by the door.
“Without him.” she clarifies.
I don’t ask about Valentina because I saw her leave.
“Alright. I just need to change out of this, where do you want to go?”
“Yours.”
I order an Uber while I change, then meet her downstairs in the lobby right before it pulls up.
We get into the car, and she gets straight to the point by spreading her legs and pulling her dress all the way up to her hips. It brushes up against her tights in a way that makes her very sensual. She’s hot, so what the hell.
I kiss her, and as it turns into a full blown make-out session, I can’t help but think that this is the first we’ve kissed sober.
She never made it to the ‘Ariana stage’, as Isabella had said.
“I thought you had a boyfriend.”
She smiles, her tongue running over her lower lip. “So? Aren’t you dating Ariana?”
“No.”
The answer comes out fast.
She avoids answering by kissing and straddling me. The driver is pretending to be very focused on the road.
Why am I thinking about the f*****g driver right now?
My hands grip into the back of her thighs, bringing her closer so I can grind our crotches together. She shamelessly moans, and I’m not sure if it’s a turn on or a turn off, but I kiss her anyway.
It takes me less than usual to come, probably because I’ve only had two or three drinks and am basically completely sober.
She falls asleep after the second round, so I check my phone to keep myself entertained.
Luca DeCosta: met valentina in the lobby, she asked about you
I check the time. It’s less than an hour ago, which means Luca knows I left with Ariana
Matteo: What did you tell her?
Luca DeCosta: That you left
I don’t reply, and I also try not to overthink why I even care if Valentina found out.
Since when am I afraid of being judged?
Why am I even thinking about this s**t?
***
New York, USA – October 2nd, 2020
I meet my dad in his New York office two days after the charity gala. It’s in one of his buildings near Central Park, with tinted glass windows and twenty-two floors. It’s only the second time I come here in my life (the first time I was thirteen and he had to pick up something, but he didn’t want to leave me in the car alone).
He asks me for a short debrief about how the event went.
“And how was Luca?” he asks after lighting up a small cigar.
“He was okay, he did everything asked of him.”
“Did he bring up Romeo?”
“No.” I pause, remembering Valentina’s dad. “Speaking of, do you have the surveillance videos from that night at the theatre?”
“Why?”
“I want to see something, or someone.”
“I don’t have the ones of you entering through the back, those have been deleted forever.”
“What about the ones from inside? I want to see Romeo and the people he was with.”
He hesitates at first but leans forward in his chair to reach the computer. I go over on the other side to watch the screen.
“Pause.”
The shot pauses right before Romeo gets shot. He’s leaning over to say something to Valentina. On his other side are the women that were at the table two days ago, Valentina’s brother, and two men. One of them I don’t recognize, but I see the one from the gala immediately.
I point on the screen.
“This man was at the gala yesterday. Who is he?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because he was with Romeo, which means that they were the ‘enemy’ you were talking about. He betrayed us by telling them something.”
I also want to know because he’s Valentina’s dad, but I don’t tell him that.
“They are…” he’s struggling to find the words, which means he’s about to lie.
“Are they connected to the Russian Paulo killed?”
“Yes.”
A chill goes through my entire body at the thought of his death affecting Valentina. I haven’t even thought about her relationship with Romeo.
“Were they related to him?”
“Those two were soldiers.”
He’s referring to the hierarchy in their organization, and the reality of it being a criminal one slowly sinks in.
Is Valentina’s dad the head? Is he exactly like my own father?
“And who are the people with Romeo?”
“Looks like the man’s family.”
My eyes are pinned to Valentina as I press play. Romeo gets shot two times, and she doesn’t panic once.
“Are those his children?”
He pauses the video to look at me.
“Why are you pretending like you don’t know her, Matteo?”
--
This is the end of Chapter 2 of the book!
The next part (1st part of Chapter 3, Valentina's POV) will be up on Tuesday! (I haven't started it yet, but it will motivate me to get it done today and tomorrow
- Writer
