Body of Trust - Jeannine Colette Page 0,24
walk all over me. The thought makes me laugh to myself.
“What’s funny?” Sienna asks.
I shake my head. “I was just thinking about how I never fought with Anthony and yet …” I have no problem telling Jesse what I think and feel. I can’t tell her that. Instead, I say, “I gave my mom attitude all day.”
“She was shocked. When you left, she was beside herself with the fact that you actually walked out like that. She told me to keep an eye on you.”
I look at her in disbelief. “Is that what this is? You’re keeping an eye on me?”
She scrunches her mouth, as if she said something she shouldn’t have. “Well, kind of. I did tell her I’d stay with you and have my guards watch the two of us. Obviously, she doesn’t know we’re out at a club. The only way she’d know is if my guards told my dad, who told your dad, who told your mom, which is highly improbable.”
With an exaggerated breath, I tilt my head at her. “Don’t you think it’s sad that we’re in our mid-twenties and still under the thumbs of our parents?”
She laughs. “At least yours let you get an apartment. Mine will have me live under their roof until I’m married and not a moment before the priest declares before God that we are man and wife. We’re Italian. We’re going to be parented by our parents into our sixties. It’s tradition.”
I laugh at her spot-on assessment as I look down Kent Avenue. “Where are your bodyguards?”
Sienna’s head is buried in her phone as she lets out a wave of indifference. “They’re close. They know not to hover. I can’t stand when they do that. One will be in the club, scoping the place. The other will stay near the entrance.”
“Forty bucks,” the bouncer asks for the cover at the door. It’s a steep price for a weekday, which usually means there’s a well-known DJ in attendance.
Sienna pays for the two of us, and we walk into a dark room with a coat check. Down a long hallway, we can hear the music in the distance. It grows louder as we near the end until we’re in a large ballroom, four stories high with wraparound balconies all the way up.
A DJ is at the other side, up on a metal bridge hanging over a stage. Strobe lights and fog machines ignite the room as it pulsates with the rhythmic beats of Latin house music.
The place is packed, and we dance our way through the swarms of people inside.
At the bar, Sienna waves her arm in the air to get the bartender’s attention. “Two gin and tonics!” she shouts an order for us.
“Make one of those a Stella.” My order falls on deaf ears as the bartender walks away and Sienna is shaking her hips to the music.
While I’m not crazy about clubs, this place does have a really cool vibe. Since it’s an old factory, there are beams running the length of the room. The exposed pipes are painted black, and chandeliers of onyx and glass hang from the rafters, giving it an industrial-glam decor.
Sienna gets that oh my God stare of hers. “You’re never going to believe who’s here.” As I turn in the direction she’s staring, she pulls me back and says, “Don’t turn around.”
“Why not?” I ask, not liking the excited tone in her voice.
“It’s Jesse, the bartender.”
“What?” I swivel fast, and sure as all hell, there he is, standing at the other end of the bar, sipping on a beer and gazing this way.
It’s clear Jesse Grant doesn’t follow directions. His unpredictability makes him dangerous.
“He looks so good out of his uniform. We should go say hi.” She moves in his direction, but I pull her back.
“No way! He’s here, doing his own thing, and we are not intruding. Besides, he said there’s a no-fraternization policy at Villa Russo. He could get in trouble.” I applaud myself for my quick thinking.
“Ugh. Fine. But if he comes over, then it’s fair game.”
“He won’t come over here. Trust me.”
Her body sways as she peeks over my shoulder. “From the way he’s staring at us, he certainly looks interested.”
She’s wrong. He doesn’t look interested. He’s annoyed, mostly at the fact that we’re here at a club when, according to him, I’m not safe.
The bartender brings our drinks, and I slide a twenty over to him, catching a glimpse of Jesse to my left. He tightens his jaw as