Chapter 10

I guess Alexi is aware that his nightclub watcher is a completely useless fart of a man after all. ‘’I pay an accountant to do the books, and they told me you haven’t filed anything with them for three months.’’

He slams another drawer and physically moves fatty over when he stumbles in his way and I guess this is what pissed Alexi looks like, yet it’s hard to tell, as apart from an edgy tone he seems completely in control. Three months?

Yet I have been throwing every receipt and paper at Luciano on a daily basis for the past two of those.

Interesting!

I guess I can forgive him for rebuffing me when he makes the pond scum of my life squirm like a fish on a hook. It’s very entertaining. ‘’I have had my own do it, I can have them ready in a few days.’’ More sweat, bigger vein and I swear it’s almost ready to explode. I can’t take my eyes off of the pulsing expansion that’s overtaking his shiny forehead.

‘‘Why would you do that? I want them now. Right … now.’’ Very low, cold and precise; that tone I met that first time and even I hold my breath when it hits. I realise that nope, I was wrong and this one here … this is his serious don’t fuck with me tone and I guess the psycho switch hovers somewhere within as Luciano turns puce; It’s the sinister in the calm … his intimidation is when that slow even deliberate dialect hits. It changes Lucie’s whole manner immensely.

I figured out Carrero’s first tell. When he slows down and goes ultra-calm he’s pissed as hell and completely unpredictable. One for the memory bank; a little unnerving and a tad psycho, but I guess it’s one to watch for.

‘‘Right now, sure … right this very … Urghhh, I will go get them.’’ He moves and turns on his heel making a half attempt at a run from the floor to the door and I wonder where the hell he is going. All the filing cabinets are in here and I doubt his accountant can be reached at midnight on a weekend. Nevertheless, he leaves and a second later we hear the lift ping, alerting us to his departure from this floor.

Little Piggy is running away at an impressive speed.

Alexi picks up the papers from the desk and starts looking through them, his eyes scanning, oblivious to Luciano’s weirdness and I recognise them as the pile I brought up.

‘’Those are today's up until eleven o’clock.’’ I point out and smile when I catch his eyes flicker towards me. He doesn’t look warmed by my attempts at play nice and carries on flicking through the receipts. I am trying to let go of my huff in a bid to still win him over, and he should appreciate that; I am not giving up on this puppy just yet, I just need to figure out a better angle to win him over slowly.

‘’He had them brought up mid-shift?’’ He raises a brow and watches me for a moment, questioning, thinking and I shrug as though disinterested in moody men.

Well as far as he knows I am anyway. I aim to remove the ’‘throwing myself at him so obviously’’ from his memory banks and try something a little subtler.

‘‘I did as I was told by the sexually repressed little beach ball.’’ I shrug, tapping my red nails on the arm of the chair. Alexi just frowns at me before going back to scanning papers, unamused with my jest and I just roll my eyes at him dramatically.

No sense of humour anyway. I don’t feel as intimidated by him as I did the first time. I guess being bruised, vulnerable and doped up affected my senses and having him turn me down flat has completely pissed me off.

He isn’t as big and scary as I thought he was. Not in the stark electric lighting of his shitty nightclub anyway. He is just a man; a good-looking, tall and muscular stinking rich man but … still just a man.

‘‘I don’t think he’s coming back! He’s probably jumping a red-eye to anywhere but here.’’ I lean forward conspiratorially with a hushed tone and this time I swear I see the flicker of a tiny little involuntary smile on Mr Cool's face. He drops it almost immediately, but I know what I saw and get that little sense of victory. Maybe he does have a sense of humour hiding deep in there after all, and I might be able to appeal to that side of him.

‘’This bar is a drain on my resources. If he has any sense he will pick somewhere I have no reach and no will to find him.’’ I catch the smirk again, sinister this time and do a double take, my face dropping at his completely serious statement.

Wait … is he being funny?

I really cannot tell if he’s joking or if he did make a serious comment about Luciano’s very short future life.