The Carrero Contract - Selling Your Soul (Mafia Romance) novel Chapter 100

I went to bed earlier than I intended to last night, unable to deal with knowing he could turn up with some random slut and I wanted to be asleep before he did. I downed two sleeping pills to make sure I was oblivious to any sexual moaning or appearance of his playthings and woke up groggy before getting down here as fast as I could. I had no intention of awkward morning greetings either and even though I am tired and feeling listless, I submerge myself into sorting the club out.

It’s cleaner and the brewery is restocking the basement as we speak. I have cases of foreign booze being shipped in and the kitchen is being filled with fresh ingredients to feed the staff. Joanne had stopped that service the second I was out the door, meaning no food was supplied at any point from the girls coming on or leaving twelve hours later.

It’s a gruelling shift and not exactly convenient to pop out for takeout, and she should have thought about that before she started having escorts passing out mid-shift from exertion and lack of food. They have a very physical job and our clients expect more than a half-arsed fuck before they want to call it quits. Food may not seem important to someone who has never worked on her back for long hours, but I have the sense to know differently. Keep the Toms happy and you keep the men smiling. It’s hardly rocket science.

Joanne is hiding in the downstairs office at this moment in time. She has been cancelling client lists for the past couple of days and having to grovel and explain to childish rich men why they cannot come to their favourite hangout while I turn my nightmare back into a palace.

I found she had fired five of our seven cleaning staff, fired two of the bar staff and four of our servers in a bid to save money and scrimped on the booze to hide the fact she was losing him customers. Memberships dropping off, and to top it off one of his high rollers had an overdose here two months back because she was failing to limit the product flow to each member. Fuckwit could have screwed everything up had he died here. I doubt Alexi even knows about this yet and I am not hiding it from him. Let her see his demon side when he’s in a rage. I’m sure she is ill-equipped to handle him if someone like me can’t.

I have the electrician coming back at the end of the week to replace all switches, and it’s not too soon as one of the sockets at the bar sparked at me this morning when I tried to plug in the neon sign over the cocktail counter. I have had to stick a sign over it which says ‘Do not use’ before one of our staff kill themselves.

I also located and had my oval club logo rehung in pride of place after finding it in storage in the basement, and personally took a match to that shitty piece of artwork she had used instead. She stood gawping when my ‘Club Carrero’ sign went back up, all polished and gleaming and signalling my return as Queen of MY club!

It’s one thing after another and it’s only now I find out the new sprinkler system, which was the cause of all the mayhem, doesn’t even work and had to be unplumbed to stop the leak. She never had it resolved, wasted thousands installing it, and now it’s off because she couldn’t figure out how it was leaking. Which is in complete violation to city code and could get us shut down until it’s rectified anyway.

So that’s plumbers, electricians and decorators all coming down this week with a view to causing more disruption before this building gets better.

We still have to abide by certain fire and safety codes even if this place isn’t exactly above board. It’s run like a legit business, with payrolls, regulations and things in place to keep the City authorities happy. Joanne has failed to answer notices and inspections in the last month and I have a pile of paperwork a mile high. To top it off there’s a huge mountain of receipts that have never made it to the accountant, and the books are a total mess. Alexi didn’t just avoid coming here; it seems he washed his hands of the whole fucking place while I was gone. There are no hints that he even checked in on it sporadically.

I’m in a rage, throwing papers across the desk in the office, which is now shared again, while scraping my fingers through my hair against my scalp in agitation, and getting more and more furious as I try to sort it out. My temper is simmering between an all-out tantrum and complete frustration; kicking my foot against the wooden leg from its crossed position, and fingernails tapping on the surface as I try and decipher more jumbled chaos.

Alexi comes swanning in around ten a.m. looking shower fresh and perky in sweats and a workout top, whistling to himself merrily, which is weird. He has on a hoody with no sleeves that’s cut out around his shoulders in a very flattering way. It showcases the sheer size and strength of those toned, muscled biceps and the way his tattoos curl all the way down to the backs of his hands, up both arms and sneak behind them under the fabric.

I have to drag my eyes from lingering on them. He looks hot, even I can admit that it gets warm in the panty area at the mere sight of him like this.

By the looks of it he has added a new addition to his left hand … where the tattoo used to stop at the wrist it now matches his right in meeting his knuckles. It’s looking glossy, meaning it has some sort of barrier cream on it as it heals, so I am guessing this was done yesterday at some point after he left here. I am pretty sure I never saw it before.

It’s another gothic skull, entwined with barbs and snakes that melt into all his other black ink like a mosaic. He has a thing for dark themed images.

He is clearly going to the gym this morning and I glare at him when he throws a boyish smile my way, that cheeky twinkly look in his eye which suggests a great mood. Meanwhile, I am stressed to the max clearing up the mess he let happen.

I wonder if it’s sex induced and scowl all the more.

‘You look happy,’ He says drily giving me the once over, joking obviously, and I just cast another furious look his way.

‘This place is a shambles; I hope your accountant isn’t busy because I am sending them four boxes of shit to decipher.’ I rage at him, unamused and with sarcasm, miffed that he seems lax about the pandemonium of his nightclub.

‘Tell them it’s from me and they will prioritise it.’ He shrugs with one shoulder, a hint of a half-smile at me. He just doesn’t seem to care at all about the surface of strewn paperwork or his extremely harassed hostess and I lose the last of my frayed mood.

‘How could you let it go this way? This was half a year of my fucking life in the making, Alexi. It’s been left to drown in shit and fall apart like it never mattered. How is that good business?’

I am completely frustrated at him and toss papers his way in agitation. They fall off the end of the desk in a slippery sweep and land around his feet on the floor like scattered leaves as he gets to the edge. Looking down at them he steps back and bends to start picking them up slowly. No more annoyed than he was on entering and I wonder what gives—he’s never this cheerful.

‘I was busy.’ He responds nonchalantly as though it’s a reasonable answer that takes away all the sin of letting my baby die; an annoyingly bland and repetitive answer that enrages me.

‘Busy? Too busy to care that you were haemorrhaging money, and your whole set up to wine and manipulate clients was turning to ashes? What in the hell was more important and took four months of ignoring this place?’ I snap at him and toss a pen on top of the pile of sheets in front of me.

Alexi straightens up and slides the papers on the table on top of mine, so they spread back in my direction, and hits me with an intensely serious look.

‘Looking for you!’ He retorts; a spark of slight annoyance in his tone now, and as much as I wish it was true, I know better. Always trying to turn an edge on me and make me yield to him emotionally.

Not a chance.

‘Funny. Seriously though, what the hell did you think would happen if you left it to rot? Joanne has as much business sense as the goon you leave to watch the car park. Hardly high in the IQ department, so I am guessing she was a vixen in the sack to be left with all this responsibility.’ I sound bitter, but I don’t care. I’m pissed off, elbow deep in this stress of paperwork that is going to take the accountant days to work through, and as it stands, I don’t even have a current members list of who exactly is still paying to come here and who left. She seems to have been prioritising the same thirty clients over and over and not varying them … Seems like some of them have waited the last four months for just one night here. No wonder a lot of them cancelled.

Alexi trying to be smart isn’t making me rage less, his sense of humour is dickish.

He sighs and perches on the end of the desk as I bury my fingers in my hair at the temple once more and slump over the file I have open. Half covered in what he threw and roll my eyes as they land back on the point of my misery. I can’t even begin to figure out where to start when it comes to his client list, she has post-it notes everywhere and half of them have fallen off and stuck to unrelated pieces of paper.

‘Move over, let me see how bad it is.’ His tone softens noticeably and the heavy exhale he exudes calms my own anger at him. He comes around the table and I lean away as he towers over my right shoulder to bend down and look at what’s in front of me. Smelling heavily of body spray and shower gel and I can see this close his hair is still damp. I try and ignore the obvious effects he has on me physically, as my insides clench and tingle and tell myself that a sexual attraction is fine. I know that’s what these recurring sensations are—the longer I am around him.

It’s the acting on it that’s dangerous, and I am aware of a sizzle of tension between us. It doesn’t mean a damn thing; just a chemical reaction from my overly hormonal body when faced with a devilishly sexy male. He oozes testosterone so it’s no wonder.

He leans one palm on the desk to curl over me, the other hand on the back of my chair to steady himself, and it has the instant effect of caging me in and putting us dangerously close. My heart rate spikes and I squirm in my seat to move out of his way.

I wonder what happened to the girl he probably, most definitely, brought home if he is up and about this early. I can’t help it running through my head as I am assaulted with his familiar smell and proximity, like a long slow heat travelling through me to end up on my cheekbones.

‘Are these the current memberships?’ He seems oblivious to me as he moves in close, his free hand behind me on the back of my chair slides around the headrest further, so my chair gets pulled in, stopping me from getting away. I try not to react or show him how uncomfortable it suddenly makes me and just focus on regulating my erratic breathing.

‘No idea. She has three lists with same names and different ones scored out on each, and then there’s this.’ I duck under him to reach for the stray piece of paper with ten names written down I have never seen before, and the word ‘Members’ in capitals at the top.

Very organised and efficient, Hoe-anne!

‘As you know the incoming payments are numbered, not named, so they could never be traced to recipients by prying eyes and I have no idea where she even put the files with that information. I have a list of payments and no clue how to allocate them to names.’ I sigh heavily, moving back and banging my shoulder against Alexi’s peck as he gets a little too close while reading the papers strewn on the table. I instinctively move further away, burning from the touch and aware that he’s now a little too suffocating on top of me, without meaning to be. I try to wheel out from under him and the chair decides to be a wanker and jam in the rug.

‘Jesus Christ,’ He mutters under his breath and flicks the sheet over to the next page, looking as confused as I was when I first opened this. Focused on what he’s looking at and not on me acting like a prize idiot and freaking out about touching him.

Get a grip Camilla. He’s hardly going to make your clothes fall off on command by touch alone.

‘Get her in to fix this shit. Make her start over and call every single name on the list to confirm a new membership, and inform them that the club is being overhauled. Cancel everything and start from scratch. Send the important stuff to Crawley over at accountancy and tell him it’s needed pronto.’ Alexi sounds stern and mildly miffed.

‘You want her to start from scratch with a clean members list and cancel all payments just like that? How do you know anyone will bother to come back?’ I blanch at him, shocked he would clear it completely … Stupidity, right there.

‘Tell them I will be here. That was what attracted some of them in the first place and maybe have her inform them that my redhead is back running things. How it was run was half the allure. You were missed.’ He throws me a loaded look and a smile before he gets up and moves away, walking to the long low cupboard we have for keeping paperwork and picking up a glass as he pours himself a whisky.

What happened to staying away from here?!?!

Also, so much for a healthy start to his day and going to the gym.

I sit back and exhale loudly, flushed from being anxious over this stuff and from the weird heat that hit the city today. It’s sunny out and the air-con is battling to keep up with it today, moisture collecting down my spine under my thick tailored dress that is meant for cooler weather.

Or maybe just because I had a six-foot odd Carrero practically on top me seconds ago. The facial bloom is definitely down to him.

I need to find ways to combat that if I am going to be near him from time to time. I can’t deny he still looks good even if I do hate him. I am back to the celibate existence and my ‘BOB’ hasn’t seen daylight in months. I should self-relieve some tension later and see if it helps my ansty behaviour when he gets within two feet of me. My temperature rise because of this man is as annoying as he is.

‘I need some air. It’s stifling in here and I need to take a break from staring at this shit under artificial lighting.’ I push back and get up, passing him at the end of the desk as his eyes follow me, intentions of taking a walk downstairs and outside for a while to reset my brain. And to get away from him until my hormones reset to normal.

‘Where you going?’ He queries, still hints of that better mood and it’s slightly infectious. I’m used to cranky and sombre from him, so being happier is somehow atmosphere lifting.

‘Don’t worry … I’m only venturing to your very safe car park to get some real air and bask in the sun for twenty minutes. I need a break and I’m getting a headache from that.’ I nod up at the ceiling, pointing out the office lights in here, even though they are expensive and not the factory type which kills your eyes. It’s not great sitting under them for hours on end. I need a change of scenery.

‘If you leave the car park, take Jackson. There’s no argument on that front.’ Alexi warns and I just eyeroll his way.

‘Yes Sir, loud and clear.’ I reply with a heavy sigh. I am in no mood for a battle. I’m too wired and uptight from the mess I am stuck in the midst of, and I still need to handle calling the stupid bitch to come in and then let her sit and undo her mess while having to monitor her. Not my idea of a fun afternoon.

‘I mean it Cam. If you leave and he’s not with you, I will rethink the punishment rules in a heartbeat.’ There’s a lightness as though he’s half joking but enough undertone to say he’s not.

‘Fuck off, Alexi.’ I throw back and walk out with an extra wiggle of attitude knowing full well if he bloody dared, I would dump his arse faster than a hot coal.

I don’t wait around for his response and get in the lift before he can start another little Cam - Alexi war. I am in no mood for it today.