Casual Affairs

EIGHTEEN | HER WAY

"Love without sacrifice is like theft."
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

          "HELL NO."

          "Are you out of your mind?"

Clover's smile fell from her face as both men looked at her like she was crazy. She didn't understand why they seemed opposed to it. In her mind, it was the greatest idea yet.

"What? It's the best thing that we've come up with." She told them, hoping that they would agree with her.

Weston looked at her with dark eyes. "You are not going anywhere near the casino or those men. It's too dangerous."

She set the bottle down on the coffee table. "Look, unless you can come up with something that's better, I think I'm your best shot at getting whatever information you're talking about."

Clover looked at Stefano for help.

"We can at least think about it." He told her, reassuring her that they weren't throwing her idea in the trash just yet.

Weston shook his head. "No. I'm allowing her to be put in such harms way. She could get killed."

She raised one of her eyebrows and crossed her arms across her busty chest. "Do you know who my father is?"

          The man scanned her face for a brief moment, but couldn't recognize whom she belonged to. "No, I do not."

          Stefano snickered.

          "My father, one of the most successful business men in the entire county, is Joseph Paige. Now, he never let me fully immerse myself into the family fortune, but I know for a fact that he's into some shady shit." Clover began speaking. An emotion that looked like disgust flashed across her features as she spoke about her family. "He has many enemies. I've been surrounded by danger my entire life. This isn't new to me."

Weston's eyes widened at the mention of her father's name. He knew Joseph all too well. "Why didn't you ever tell me who he was? I wouldn't have ever brought you back here if I knew where you came from."

"I haven't spoken to my father in months. Daddy dearest doesn't give a shit about where his daughter is." Clover told him, resentment for her father figure rolling off her tongue.

          "I still don't think it's the best idea." Weston responded.

         It was Stefano's turn to interject. "As much as I loathe the idea of putting her in danger, I don't think it's a bad idea." He saw his friend open his mouth, about to protest. "I've seen Clover flirt her way through some difficult situations. She can be very persuading."

          She smirked at his words. "Yeah, poor little Stefano over here fell for my charm when I was only seventeen."

          "In my defense, I didn't know you were not of age at the time. I would've never touched you if I had known beforehand." He tried to defend himself.

          "Please, you wouldn't have been able to resist my body anyways."

          Weston wanted to throw up. Seeing the two of them glance at each other with a mysterious glint in their eyes made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't fathom the thought of them flirting. "Enough. I don't want to hear about your scandalous rendezvous. We need to focus on what's more important at hand."

Stefano cleared his throat and quickly looked away from her devilish smirk. "This is the best shot we have at getting intel on what they're planning on doing. They don't know who Clover is."

          "How is she going to do it? She doesn't have the slightest understand on how it works." Weston protested.

          Clover scoffed in annoyance. "I'm not as dumb as I look."

          "What if something goes wrong?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.

          She felt slightly perplexed as to why he seemed worried for her wellbeing. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

          "I believe in Clover, and you should too." Stefano said. "Plus if anything goes south, we'll be close enough to rescue her and escape."

          Weston thought about his options. The first being he went there himself and just beat the guy up for information, but that seemed unrealistic. The second one being he could just give up this opportunity and miss out on viable information that would help his cause. Or he could go with the third option, and let her go undercover.

          He decided to go with the last one.

          "Okay, I'll let her do it." Weston told them, to which they replied with a series of excited exclaims. He put a finger up, silently telling them he wasn't done speaking. "Only on one condition."

          "What?"

          "Stefano and I are going to be close by. You have to listen to exactly everything we say." He told her, his face adorning a serious frown. "And I swear to God, if you pull any stunts, I will put a bullet in between your eyebrows."

          Clover gulped.

          "Oh, c'mon, Wes. Don't be so fvcking harsh." Stefano gave him a dirty look as he wasn't pleased with him threatening her. "Clover's going to do a fantastic job. She wouldn't do anything to jeopardize us, right?"

          She felt both of their eyes lay on her, a look of hope glinting in them. Clover rolled the bottom of her lip between her teeth. "Yeah, I'll do my best."

          Both men smiled, glad that they had finally figured out a way. They began discussing the details of it, meanwhile, Clover stared at her feet.

          Little did they now, the next night was not going to go according to plan.

—
author's note

I apologize for all of the short chapters lately! The next one will definitely be longer.