CHAPTER 13

Jay’s POV.

I don’t know why I had to sit here and ‘supervise’ this dinner and Atlas’ security. I felt like I was fucking babysitting the both of them now.

Atlas had taken Aleara out to dinner to explain what her role to him was in the mafia. I don’t know why he couldn’t have just done that back at the compound. It would have saved the trouble of a heavily intoxicated Aleara running around a public restaurant.

Which would be exactly what was about to happen, in the short time that I had been watching her, Aleara must have sculled down at least nine glasses of heavy rum, but Atlas was too oblivious and arrogant to realise that and put a stop to it.

I didn’t know why Atlas’ was allowing this to happen. He was fucking daft if he couldn’t see how drunk she was getting, did he want another problem on his hands? I could only imagine how much of a pain she was when she was drunk, if her high earlier today was anything to go off.

Why was he allowing her to drink like this? she was fucking tiny- one glass was enough to make her tipsy, nine was going to knock her into a fucking coma.

I watched as she stood up from the table, swaying from side to side, this girl could barely put two and two together and figure out how to walk. She politely excused herself as if to go to the restroom.

Atlas was fucking clueless.

He gave me a brief nod, telling me to follow her from a distance.

I followed her and as soon as she was out of Atlas’ sight, she turned on her heels, making a poor and drunken attempt to do the bolt.

Before she could make any further poor attempts to sway her way out of the restaurant I made a low-effort attempt at grabbing her.

Sober Aleara was like an Olympic sprinter, no doubt being able to outrun me and Atlas’ men any day. But drunk Aleara was about as fast as a sloth.

She made several poor excuses to hit and struggle against me as I wrapped both my arms firmly around her waist, keeping the little runner in one place.

She turned feral in my arms, squirming and wriggling around trying to get free, she reeked of alcohol, it even made me gag. What was this bitch thinking drinking so much?

Atlas brought himself to his feet, making no hurried effort to reach me as I struggled to retain my grip on this squirming girl.

“Calm the fuck down,” I sneered, tightening my grip on her, I hated this bitch drunk.

She struggled against me harder, putting in her best effort to escape.

“Where are you going to fucking run?” I shoved her against the wall, pinning down her shoulders, “Where the fuck are you going to go?” I shouted into her ever growing pale face.

Her cloudy eyes stared into mine, not distracted by anything else in the room, not the shouting men coming to find us or the cars outside.

Fuck.

Why was she doing this to me when I knew I couldn’t have her?

I felt her legs go limp and she slumped forward into my chest, unable to even stand.

I looped an arm under her shoulder and began to drag her back inside to the main area of the restaurant, to Atlas.

“What the fuck just happened?” he raked his hands through his wavy hair, stressed and confused as fuck.

“You gave your bitch too much to drink,” I mumbled grumpily, my job was to be the second in charge in the mafia, I definitely wasn’t a prostitute babysitter.

“Give her here, I’ll take her,” He motioned for me to hand over Aleara to him. reluctantly, I did so, I knew better then to argue even though I knew he was fucking hopeless with this girl.

I followed close behind Atlas and Aleara with my gun drawn, we were finally leaving the establishment, thank god.

I watched sceptically as he lowered her cautiously into the passenger side of his car before slamming shut the door and strutting over to the drivers side.

My gaze was focussed on Aleara as her eyes fluttered open and shut in a rhythmic kind of manner. Her long blond hair covered her exposed shoulders as she shuffled around in her seat, still attempting to make meaningless escapes.

The sacrifices we must make.

I made my way back into my own car, revving the engine and speeding down the road, closely tailing Atlas’ car.

…

Atlas’ POV.

“Why the fuck did you drink that much?” I roared, she had ruined my night, she had ruined my dinner. I seriously believed that we were getting somewhere with our negotiating, but apparently not.

“Well- sometimes I just like to drink some drunk,” she waved her arm around in a somewhat circular motion, distracting me from the road.

I needed to get back to the compound or I was going to lose my shit.

I was so fucking pissed off, this was the girl who was meant to be my image of settlement, she was meant to represent my stability, what a disaster.

I knew though, I wouldn’t be able to get rid of her, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to pull the trigger and I knew that.

There was something about her that made me think twice about murdering, about my life choices.

I shot a glance back at her, that was a mistake.

Even when she was drunk, she was the most beautiful woman in the world, she could bring a man to his knees just by looking at her.

She battered her eyelids at me, what the fuck was happening right now?

She cant handle her alcohol, she was drunk as fuck and looking at me as though she thought I was a human, not just a monster.

“When we get home,” she started before I slammed my foot on the accelerator, I knew where this was going, and I knew it wasn’t her talking. It was the alcohol.

“No Aleara, you’re not thinking straight,” I told her firmly, I couldn’t ruin such an innocent thing when she was drunk. I might own the mafia but I have standards and limits. I wasn’t always a monster.

This girl was unlike any other woman I had ever encountered, she was unique and different, I felt I had to protect her, not ruin her and I didn’t understand why- that pissed me off even more.

Aleara wasn’t a prostitute.

She was so much more then that.