Riding Dirty: Luciotti Crime Family (A Bad Boy Mafia Romance) - Kara Hart Page 0,43
had ruined what we were beginning to build together. Now there was nothing left.
We sat down at an empty booth near the back. “Hey, Ricky!” A shrill voice shouted behind me. “We've all been missing you, baby. Where’ve you been hiding all this time?”
“I've been around, doll,” he said. Makes sense everyone knows him here. I thought to myself.
“You miss me or what?” she asked him, leaning her tits over our table and pressing her ass onto his lap. She was dressed in black lingerie that barely covered any of her body. She had to be around nineteen years old. I couldn't help but shake my head at Ricky.
“You know I'm always missing you, baby girl,” he said, running his hand over the curves of her waist. She arched her back like a cat and purred for him. Her friend came up behind me and touched my shoulder.
“Just a whisky,” I said, pushing her hand off me.
“One whisky,” she said, still smiling. “Anything else you want? It's on the house, sweetie pie.” My eyes trailed down to her huge, fake tits. I wasn't interested. Ricky eyed me. To him it was a travesty someone could turn one of his girls down.
“I'm okay,” I muttered. “Just the whisky.”
Ricky looked like he was going to sock me in the face. The one girl left us to get my drink. The other girl had her arms around Ricky. “Give us a second, will ya honey?” She made a pouty face, like a child, and walked off to please another one of her sleaze ball customers.
Once she was gone, Ricky leaned forward. “What's going on with you? Your place is trashed, you're drunk, and you're refusing to have a good time with one of the best strippers in Michigan? This is low, brother, even for you.”
“It's nothing. I'm fine,” I said. “I've dealt with much worse.” It wasn't a lie. I’d get over this sooner or later. At least, I hoped I would. She did have some strange hold on me.
“You can't lie to me, forever. Something’s wrong. If you tell me it’s some broad, I swear, I'll wring your neck.” He threw his arms around my neck and I made a fake choking noise. He laughed and patted my back. “Seriously though. It's not a woman, is it? ‘Cause trust me, I got a million of those sob stories. You hit a point in your life where it doesn't seem to matter. You move onto the next, like an assembly line.” For whatever reason, that cracked him up.
“It's a little more complicated than that,” I admitted. The strip club depressed me. Woman dancing for men who thought of them as products. I used to love that shit. But now, I felt committed to a person who didn't want anything to do with me. How the hell did that even happen?
“You're a gangster, Lucas. A fucking gangster.” He knocked on the wood table loudly. “Get your head in the game. If it's some bitch, throw her out on the curb. You don't need all that baggage. Not now. Not when the roles of power are shifting.” Behind us, the woman came back with two whiskies.
Watching the women dance made me sick. The neon, plastic world these men dove into was so pointless and wrong. It made me want to walk out of the lifestyle and never look back. Deep down, cheap thrills never really were my bag anyway.
“Baby, can you believe this guy? He's asking me to leave here. Says he's got a girl back at home he has to stay loyal to. He won't take no goomah.”
“Give him one minute with my sister over there and we’ll have him back to the right side of the field. Don't you worry about that.” She moaned. I turned to look at her sister. An identical twin waved back at me and I quickly downed my whisky. Siblings? Disgusting. My brother was more insane than I thought.
I got out of my seat and walked toward the entrance. Ricky ran after me. “Whoa, where the hell are you going? Let’s stay and have a good time.”
“Right side of the field? Are you fucking kidding me?” I yelled, forcing the door open.
“Aw, c’mon. What's the matter? She's just havin’ a little fun. Jasmine’s always like that. She didn't mean nothin’ by it!” he yelled, almost tripping over the steps outside. I was almost to the car when I felt his hand brush my shoulder. I stopped and turned