Omerta

Chapter 76

         This was like the dinner party from Hell. For the whole first hour of cocktails and socializing I had to watch Nick be approached by person after person. Only half of them were his men who worked under him. The rest were girls. Girls who loved touching on him. Girls who flirted openly.

 All the girls had their eye on him in silent competition with one another and all I could do was sit back and watch. It was torture.

Nick never answered my text, so clearly he's mad at me. I don't understand why. None of this is my fault. He hasn't openly flirted much with the women approaching him, but if he's mad who knows what he'll do.

Then dinner was served and everyone went to their rightful places. 

        We were sat by households, but since the TerraNova's are the second in command to the Luciano crime family our table was pretty close to theirs. Nick and I kept exchanging glances but he was at the far end of his table and Giuseppe was sure to see to that.

There were several courses and people chatted amongst themselves while we all ate. There was a consistent hum of voices around the room. I didn't talk much. My mood was soured, but I tried not to show it. 

Dominic tried to help me with that also. He kept trying to engage in conversation with me and some of our other cousins who sat with us. I honestly missed more than half of what they were saying though. 

My attention was just elsewhere tonight.

-

        After the torture of dinner I thought we'd be heading out, but I was very wrong. People lingered, ordered more drinks, and talked. There was laughter and people weren't all sitting anymore. We weren't leaving anytime soon and I wanted to groan audibly.

It didn't take long for buddies of Nick's to come crowd around him. They were all shooting the shit and laughing it up, but it got the attention of the mafia princesses and soon they were crowding with them. 

       Again I saw girls going up to Nick and giving him their undivided attention. I'd see him respond here and there but I had no idea what he was saying. I'd kept my distance, but I don't know if I can stand it for a second longer.

I decided to use Dom as my in. 

It's not weird to have me standing with my cousin. I was much closer to Nick now and tried to spy without actually looking directly at them. My glances would be noticed that way. Especially standing in front of the whole room this way.

        "Nico, do we get dessert tonight?" One of the girls asked him and I highly doubt they're talking about the food here. "Don't know. You'd have to ask the restaurant" he stated somewhat plainly. It eased my thudding heart a little bit. Don't engage. Don't flirt with them.

Not long after that Nick actually excused himself to go to the restroom and I glanced at the time. I'll give it a couple minutes and then I'm 'going to use the bathroom' too. I just want a second between us where there aren't 50 sets of eyes on us. 

One minute. Two minutes. 

I couldn't wait. I left the group, paused at our table to glance around, then left the main room to the bathrooms towards the left back corner of the place.

There's a half wall that separates it from everything else. Before I fully turned the corner I paused when I heard voices.

         "It's been a while," I heard the sexy voice of a woman. And what I mean is that she had that natural tone of voice that was more sensual than it needed to be. I'm sure it gets a man's attention. I'm just praying the attention isn't Nicks.