Chapter 39

It’s a brain ache planning out the guest lists to never overlap what they desire, a bit like pre-booking a table at a restaurant that serves a specific diet. This club is where business and crime meet; everything looks and feels above board. Proper employee contracts, and measures to keep things safe and regulated. Despite the fact he sells sex and drugs under this roof!

He doesn’t care how sordid a request a member has if his woman or man is consensual and safe words are used without complaint. Every client has a non-disclosure clause in their sign up and the staff all have them too; nothing can go outside of these walls unless Alexi has a need for it too and getting in is like breaking into a fortress, what with the new triple entry system and lines of black suited men wandering around all night. They’re all armed, easy to spot and terrifyingly huge with wireless headphones and mics on full show.

Carrero’s infamous ‘Men in black’.

‘‘You must be Camilla?’’ A voice much like Alexi’s snaps me out of my obsessive detail checking and I turn in surprise at a tall dark stranger that could almost be him, standing in front of me suddenly. Looming over me in a very spooky moment of ‘‘I must be seeing things.’’

I do a double take, inhaling sharply and mighty confused with the doppelganger that is most definitely NOT Alexi.

‘’Yes … How did you …?’’ I am completely gawping at the insanity that someone could look that much like another person. It’s freaky and knocking me all sorts of weird.

‘’Get in here? Perks of being Lex’s twin. He mentioned he had a very sexy redhead running things down here. I’m Gino.’’ He extends a hand and it’s hard not to see this muscular giant is his brother, they are almost completely identical in looks, minus the eyes. This one has blue and it makes a huge difference to the whole package. Somehow adding some life and colour to his whole face and softening it remarkably. I take his hand delicately and give it a little shake, still trying not to stare so obviously but it’s uncanny. I have never met twins before, never met people who are literally from the same mould in so many ways. He stands, looks like, sounds like and is built as beautifully, as Alexi. Although, I can still tell them apart, even without the eye colour.

‘’Pleasures all mine.’’ I smile sexily, and he breaks into a very non-Alexi grin. It’s strange to see on a familiar face that never tends to smile like this. Odd.

I have to blink a few times to adjust to the strangeness.

‘‘He said you brought a touch of royalty to his palace, I can see what he meant now. The accent really is the cherry on top of the whole package isn’t it.’’ He’s very frank and forward I’ll give him that and far more animated and relaxed in manner compared to Alexi. If Alexi had a personality transplant maybe, then he could be him.

I am a little touched that Alexi said something positive about me though. Stupid butterflies and teen girl reactions and I shake them away as complete nonsense. Ignoring the warmth spreading through my abdomen.

‘‘Which one of you is the eldest?’’ Twins have always intrigued me and these two are very alluring to me.

‘‘Me, although he acts like he should have been. Mr Boss and all that, I was born fifteen minutes earlier and I never let him forget it.’’ He grins again and this time with an air of cheeky and likeability, a hint that Gino is not a part of this world in the way Alexi is. A personality like his wouldn’t be an advantage, he’s too friendly, too smiley; unless like his brother he uses charm to disarm and is a complete psycho underneath. The masks they wear and all that.

He doesn’t give me the same sense of unease as his brother though and normally my gut instincts are honed to the danger factor. That sinister edge is completely missing.

‘‘He’s around somewhere, probably his office upstairs. I saw him earlier; would you like me to take you there?’’ I answer politely, pointedly and nod towards the internal door to the hall. Not really angling to stand and chatter to the look-alike when I have actual things to be doing.

‘‘Nahhh I know the way, I helped him choose this place when he was scouting for a back-alley venue for his future man pad. I helped him sort out the apartment upstairs when he first started using it.’’

‘‘I see … As in D.I.Y.?’’ I find that unusual for someone with Alexi’s pay packet. Surely he would just hire someone in.

‘’No. I run a security firm, I installed all his high tech upstairs and you know … hand scanners and all the cameras in both the apartment and the other floors.’’

My face falls, wave of unearthly chill coming over me with that little detail. Cameras in the apartment?

Since fucking when?

‘’I see.’’ I falter trying not to give my surprise away and mentally start cursing Carrero out. Stomach flipping over in knots as it dawns on me, what he just said.

He’s been filming the apartment this whole goddamn time, almost five months of me living here under his roof and never once told me. It feels like a complete violation.

Complete fucking arsehole!