Becca was right.

Plus I knew her not posting about things could cost her money.

“Post it after we get home. But once you post just know I think Dante will be here as soon as he sees it” I warn.

I hated having to ask them to wait to post things, and hated that we couldn’t just be in the open with everything but this trip was important. Not only was it a girls get away and much needed escape from Dante but it was a way to make money.

At the casino we would head to. I’d sit at the card table, counting them in between flirting with men.

If I played my night right I could walk out of the casino with over $100k in winnings and I planned on that happening. Especially because here I would walk out with cash not a check or a promise of a wire.

Real American dollars.

I’d need to buy a suitcase to carry it home.

People thought my father paid for my every whim but he didn’t. He gave me nice things, treated me like a princess but also had expected me to work not only for the family but to show me how to make my own money.

What he didn’t know was that in college we had started going to local casinos making money as the girls distracted and I worked a table. The casino weekends turned into weekday card games, traveling around between New York, Chicago, Vegas, and Miami to play at high stakes games.

It had started out as a way to make money and had turned into a way to get revenge.

That’s how I knew about the illegal card tables Dante had in the Inferno, another reason I couldn’t sign off on his permit with my name.

He knew me as Ilaria Russo but he wasn’t aware that Valaria Smith, the female card shark, was his fiancée.

And he never would.

I used a different name thanks to a fake ID that had been made in someone’s dorm room.

When we were kids I knew better than to use my name; God forbid I got caught, it wouldn’t be my family’s name that would be talked about.

“I’m ready. Are we ready to…Jesus, can you please answer this man’s calls? Some of us can’t even get a second date and you have a man who is desperate for you.” Maddie asked as my phone lit up and I saw Dante’s last text message on the screen.

Please come home, Ilaria.

Fucking home.

How could he be home already?

But he was, he was right about that and I fucking hated knowing that when I got back to Boston I would be back with him because Dante was my home now.

But instead of answering the phone I shut it off, ignoring the way my stomach tightened at the way he wanted me so much. It should have made things easier, knowing that the man that I was betrothed to was this crazy about me. But all I could see was him in the corner with that blonde and felt the way betrayal felt in my veins.

“Let’s take a picture by the pool and we can head out.” Madeline was getting us all outside as my mind drifted to Dante and the way he was trying so hard to reach me.

Could I have been wrong about what I saw? Why was I thinking about how I wanted to forgive him so soon?

I was great at holding grudges. Was he going to take that away from me too?

I needed to put Dante out of my head for the night and just focus on the game ahead.

I was going to make money and get so drunk that I’d be hungover until noon tomorrow.

And maybe then, after that I’d answer his fucking calls.

17SAMMIE

We hadn’t expected to hit the Cartel tonight but we aren’t the type to ignore when fate is shining on us.

Plus, what’s a girls trip without taking down our enemy?

When we got to the casino and saw a high stakes game being set up we instantly went into work mode.

Tessa had made sure that we had an escape route setup, in case things got bad and we needed to make a quick exit out of there.

Maddie had gone back to the house, grabbing her laptop and renting a room in the casino hotel. Once she was set up, she had hacked into the camera system.

This allowed us to go over how many people were in the room and figure out how to get Ilaria in there to play.

A few clicks later she had everything settled.

She made sure to hack into the cameras so that others couldn’t view it from anywhere except her laptop or whatever control room they had. Once the game was over she would wipe away the evidence.

Becca had sweet talked her way behind the bar, laughing with the bartender as he taught her to make drinks that she already knew how to make. Drinks she was carefully dosing as they were carried towards the room.

Ilaria had presented the fake ID she used along with a fat stack of cash so that she could get accepted at the table.

And me?

I was the muscle in the operation if things went bad. But I was also very good at making the others security forget about their jobs and focus on me.

The dress I had picked out was doing work for me, hugging my curves as I sashayed closer to the group of men who were smoking and talking to each other in low voices.

Ilaria had sat down at the table twenty minutes ago and we were supposed to be in and out in one hour.

The plan was that the drinks should really hit the men about forty five minutes in. At that point Ilaria should be up enough that when she walks out of the room with the winnings we wipe the footage and get out of there.

After we leave we drop the money at her house and party.

We’re all on operation cheer up Ilaria because her mafia father got her engaged to the son of the Boston family.

We never told Ilaria that we know about her family. Her mother had told us when she is ready to talk about it she would be open up about it. So far she keeps that secret close and we all just let her think we have no idea about it.

Whatever helps her sleep at night.

“You lost, chica?” The man is a few inches taller than me and covered in black and gray tattoos. I can’t see them all because of his black t-shirt and dark pants but,I wonder if I ask very nicely if he will let me see.