Page 77 of Filthy Little Lies

A flicker of a smile touches his mouth when he looks at me.

“I should be so lucky,” he says, and kisses my cheek.

“What is that sound?” Lucian asks on my left. I pause to listen and realize it’s my phone.

“Sorry! I forgot to turn the notifications off.” I dig it out from my purse—newly purchased to match this insanely priced dress Cassie talked me into buying for tonight.

“Is something wrong?” Gabriel asks.

“No.” I shake my head and drop the phone back in the clutch. “Just Cassie letting me know she’s home and starting to unpack.”

Lucian stiffens beside me, checking his watch. “She’s just now getting there? She should have been there hours ago.”

He has a similar look that Gabriel gets when he’s starting to get worked up about something trivial.

“She probably did and is just getting around to texting. She’s fine, Lucian.” I assure him, but he’s already crumpling up his napkin.

“I’ll be back,” he mutters, throwing the napkin on his plate and stalking away.

Gabriel shrugs it off and answers the man sitting on his right side. Roman is talking with the couple beside him, and I’m stuck in the middle thinking about what Julia had said. Gabriel reaches into my lap, picking up my hand and squeezing it while he continues his conversation.

There’s no logical reason, but the small touch is enough to soothe my nerves. But with Gabriel, I’m learning logic doesn’t get much play time.

After the dessert is swept away, and Gabriel is done glowering at me for not touching the ice cream, he gets up from the table and orders me to dance with him.

The wife who’s been eyeing him all night frowns.

“You don’t seem like the dancing type,” I say to him once we’re on the increasingly crowded dance floor.

“I’m not. But I wanted to get you alone, and I can’t leave yet.”

“Why not?” I freeze when I step on his foot. “Shit, sorry.”

He ignores my apology and turns us in another direction.

“We have a meeting with an important man here tonight.”

“More important than you?” I gasp, pressing my hand to my chest. My attempt at a joke is ruined when I step on his toes again. He doesn’t even wince, just keeps right on dancing.

“He has power in areas that I don’t,” he clarifies.

“How do you do it?” I ask a few moments later when the song has changed.

“Do what?”

“How do you keep up with both sides of your…business? And doesn’t it scare you, playing both sides? Wouldn’t it be safer just to keep your logistics corporation? I mean you said it was worth two billion, right?”

Pressing his hand into my back, he brings me closer to him.

“It’s a drop in the bucket of what I have spread out through the world in offshore accounts. My other work is more lucrative by far. The sale Lucian made this afternoon before coming here tonight is double what Valenti Logistics is worth. And that’s only one deal.”

My jaw drops. I’m surprised we haven’t tripped over it.

“I can’t even comprehend that kind of money.” The enormous house, the perfectly tailored clothing he wears, the casualness of priceless items, all of it has seemed like something I’ve been witnessing from the outside until now. The price of this gorgeous dress and the shoes, and the bag, and the jewelry made my stomach hurt when I swiped his black card yesterday, but to him it was no different than buying a happy meal.

“You’ll get used to it.” He hugs me tighter to him.

“But still, it only takes one person to turn on you to make it all go away.”