“I understand.” I told him quietly. Then he bolted up and hauled me over his knee. I shrieked in surprise.
“Maybe I need to spank you, so you’ll remember…” Now his voice was very husky. He ran his palm down my back and onto my bottom. He squeezed. Then someone knocked on the door. He let me go and tapped my bum playfully and winked at me.
Phew.
He got up to answer it. James, Tessa’s husband, was at the door. Tommy stepped into the hall and closed the door. I took a deep breath, smoothed out my clothes, and zipped up the suitcase and heaved it onto the floor.
My heart was still thudding hard against my chest wall from that right there. I was relieved that he’d been called away.
About twenty minutes later he was back and got the suitcases. His whole demeanor seemed way off. He seemed intimidating, fierce. Was it lack of sleep, was he pissed at me, or had something else happened? I got my purse and my train case of makeup and beauty supplies and followed him out.
When I stepped into the hall, James was still there. He took my case from me and signaled for me to head down the stairs ahead of him. I smiled at him and he returned the smile. We hadn’t really been introduced but I thought it was odd that he was a member of the family by marriage but yet was carrying luggage to a car for me. I wondered if Luc’s husband was a guard, too.
Tommy
Things were quiet on the way to the airport and I nodded off and on throughout the flight. I had a lot on my mind and I was exhausted but couldn’t get my brain to completely rest on a plane, when falling into a deep sleep could mean I wasn’t able to react to something going wrong. She got the window seat and was thrilled about her first plane ride. Then her face lit up when we got to Vegas.
“Slot machines in an airport?”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” I told her, squeezing her hand in the limo the hotel had sent, “The city comes alive when the sun goes down. Wait till tonight. I’ll show you why they call it Sin City.”
We settled into a hotel suite and there was an adjoining room with two of my guys who would provide security while we were here. I could handle myself, with the exception of Mexico I didn’t typically use personal security, so I’d leave them both with her when I did what I had to do here.
Right now, Jimmy and Nino would be watching Tia. Nino was the son of Pop’s former right hand man and he was married to my Pop’s former partner’s daughter who was like a cousin to me and I’d filled him and his wife in on who Tia was and I’d filled him in on info I’d just discovered, telling me who her mother was to my family, so I figured he’d be extra vigilant about her. He was eager and had been trustworthy for the past 6 years he’d worked with us. And Jimmy, though still working up the ranks, had proven to be a good guy. He’d been a good friend of Dare’s all through school and was good to my sister. These two were the best I could do for the moment from a peace of mind perspective and I hoped it’d be good enough.
It was like having my eyes off of her for more than a second wasn’t good enough. I had to slow my anxiety. I guess I still wasn’t over the whole Mexico thing. Or maybe it was just my gut was telling me something else wasn’t right. I was sifting through information from Earl about Pop that I wasn’t okay with and there was all the shit Greg O’Connor had fed me, too, to contend with. That, coupled with anxiety about Tia’s safety had me off kilter. What I probably needed more than anything was a solid 8 hours of sleep.
Tia
Our suite was luxurious, with 3 bathrooms (a his, a hers, and another one) separate bedroom and dining / sitting room, and we had a great view of the Bellagio fountains as well as the Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower.
Tommy left shortly after we got there, telling me to stay in the room, to order room service, and just relax for a few hours, that he’d be back for dinner. He had the two guys stay in an attached room that was accessible from the sitting room, to be close in case I needed them. I was given strict orders to not answer the door, only to inform James or Nino if someone knocked on my door who they hadn’t already noticed. He handed me a wad of cash to put in my purse and told me to simply sign for everything and give out around least 25% for tips for room service and for if I have someone from the spa come up to give me a massage or manicure or something.
So the three of us stayed in our rooms while everyone else in Las Vegas had fun and while Tommy was off doing whatever he was doing.
At 10:00 James knocked, then poked his head in, and asked me if I wanted some pizza. Evidently they’d given up on having a break to have dinner, too. I accepted a few slices and watched a pay-per-view romantic comedy by myself. I watched out the floor to ceiling windows and saw that it looked pretty awesome down below; the city did look alive and bustling with a
ctivity. Eventually, I crawled into bed and turned the TV off hoping that tomorrow I’d get to see more of Vegas.
** ** **
Tommy was gone until 3:07am. I’d been fast asleep in what might’ve been the most comfortable bed in the world, when he came in. I spotted the time on the digital clock when woken up because he tripped and almost fell. He staggered a little, getting out of his clothes, and I could smell the alcohol coming off him from the bed. He’d been gone for about 10 hours, never texted or called me, and was now staggering into bed, clearly drunk.
He got in beside me and his hand swept up my side from my hip to my ear and then his fingers were in my hair. He murmured something almost unintelligible against my ear, something about me being lucky, then something about the smell of my hair, and then he was snoring.
** ** **
I woke up first in the morning and when I picked up his dirty clothes off the floor, I noticed red lipstick on his collar. My heart thundered in my chest. I picked the clothes up and laid them on the chair and then slipped the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door handle so that housekeeping wouldn’t come in while he was still asleep.
At around 11:00 I knocked on and then entered the adjoining room. The guys were dressed in suits but had their shoes off, both of them on their respective beds and watching a sports event on TV. I asked them what the plan was today and they’d both shrugged, telling me they were awaiting direction from Tommy and informing me that the Do Not Disturb sign was useless, no one would be barging into the suite without their go-ahead.
James said he’d already ordered breakfast up to their room and did I want him to order for me. I told them I’d do it. Apparently they had CCTV of the hall outside of our suite. The room service took just a few minutes and as I pushed the cart into the sitting area, which also had a dining table, I heard noise in the bedroom so peeked in and Tommy stirred in bed and opened his eyes.
“I ordered breakfast for us,” I said, “Not sure if you’re hungry.”
“Call down and ask them to send up some Tylenol, baby?”
“Already thought of that,” I said stiffly and passed him a glass of orange juice and the bottle of pills. He looked strangely at me, took two and downed some juice and then got out of bed and headed toward the washroom. I’d left his clothes purposely in a position near where I was now sitting, on the sofa that would make his lipstick-covered collar obvious, very obvious.