I took a deep breath, then I nodded.
Dante opened the door, and, his hand still pressed against my back, he led me into a long corridor with five more doors.
“I assume these aren’t for the public eye, unlike the doors branching off the main floor?”
“Yes. This is only for you and the other employees. The doors outside lead into several rooms that the prostitutes can use with their customers.”
I nodded. It was surreal that I would soon work here.
Dante steered me toward the door at the end of the hallway and opened it. Behind it was a spacious windowless office with a desk, a meeting table with six chairs, a sofa, and two chairs facing the desk. Raffaele, who was a couple of years younger than me, and a middle-aged man with a mustache occupied the chairs. Both rose when Dante and I entered. My eyes were immediately drawn to Raffaele’s hand. His finger had been re-attached by the Outfit doctor, but it stuck out and was obviously stiff.
“Raffaele, Leo,” Dante said coolly, dropping his hand from my back to shake their hands. Then he gestured toward me. “This is my wife, Valentina. As I told you yesterday, she’ll be taking Dino’s place.” I assumed that was the guy who’d filled his pockets with Outfit money.
I tilted my head, hoping to appear self-confident. I shook first Leo’s hand, who was a few inches shorter than me, then Raffaele’s. Both men greeted me in a friendly manner, but I could see in their eyes that they were unhappy with Dante’s choice to involve me in Outfit business. They couldn’t possibly like having a woman as their boss, even if Leo would still do most of the management work.
“Why don’t you show Valentina around? You know the ins and outs of this place better than I do,” Dante said to Leo, who nodded before facing me with a stiff smile. “This way,” he said as he walked out of the room and headed back to the main floor. “Our opening hours are from six in the evening until six in the morning. Of course sometimes a group of high rollers wants to book the place for a different time slot. Then we open for them.”
It wasn’t even noon yet, so there was still plenty of time before the casino opened its doors. That explained why everything was still deserted. I pointed toward a booth. “Is that where customers exchange their money for chips?”
Leo nodded. “Yes. If a customer doesn’t have any money, we offer them credits.”
“At fair interest rates, I’m sure,” I joked.
“Of course,” Leo agreed with a toothless smile.
“And if they don’t pay back our money, who takes care of it then?”
“The same soldiers who collect all of our money,” Dante said. He was trailing behind us. I wasn’t sure if he was making sure that the men were acting civilized, or if he wanted to see how I was handling myself.
“I assume this is a by-invitation-only place, so how does word get around? Do customers have to sign some kind of non-disclosure clause?”
Raffaele snorted, but fell silent when Dante shot him a glower.
“We don’t need non-disclosure clauses. We tell customers that they can’t tell people about this place unless they ask us for permission in advance and we do a background check on the person. Our customers know to keep their mouths shut.”
“Nobody wants to mess with us unless they have a death wish,” Raffaele said proudly.
Raffaele was starting to grate on my nerves. He was a bit too sure of himself. Losing a finger didn’t seem to have diminished his self-esteem. “And you are responsible for the girls?”
“I make sure the whores make our customers happy. And I choose the sluts who sit at the bar to get the men horny, and I also decide who’s going to be the complimentary girls. I test all of them to make sure they know how to suck a cock and can take it up their asses. Anal is a must. Most poor bastards don’t get that at home.”
Dante’s eyes were burning with anger, but he wasn’t interfering. Maybe he thought it would make me look weak. I was going to be the head of this casino, after all. “I hope you don’t talk like that around customers,” I said to Raffaele.
Raffaele’s throat turned red—from anger or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell. Probably a little of both. He opened his mouth then closed it after a glance at Dante. I had a feeling that Raffaele would give me more trouble than Leo.
“Are any of the girls in already? I’d like to talk to them.”
Raffaele’s eyes darted between Leo and Dante, as if he needed their approval before he could answer a simple question. “Most of them work in Club Palermo until five and then come over here after that.”
The girls who worked here were from Club Palermo? Had any of them slept with Dante? I had to ask Bibiana if she knew the names of the women Dante chose when he frequented the club. “Then I’ll talk to them tomorrow. Make sure they come in early so I can have a word with them before our doors open.”
“What is there to talk about? They are brainless whores, nothing more than three-hole sluts.”
“Raffaele, that is enough. I don’t tolerate you talking to my wife like that,” Dante said in a dangerously low voice.
Raffaele lowered his head, but not before sending me a scathing look. I decided to ignore him for now. “Are any important high rollers visiting today?”
Leo shook his head. “No. But tomorrow two senators and a few of their friends are coming in. They don’t gamble that much. They mostly spend the nights with the girls.”
“So we humor them because we want them to protect our interests in the Senate?”
“Exactly,” Leo said, surprised, as if he couldn’t believe a woman could come to such a conclusion by herself. Men in our world would be surprised how much their wives and daughters knew about the life the men were trying to protect them from. You can’t grow up in a mob family and not figure out most of what’s going on.
Dante nodded his head in approval, and a strange sense of pride filled me.
“Okay, then I’ll be there tomorrow to introduce myself to them, and meet the rest of our employees. I hope we’re going to work well together.”
Leo nodded, but Raffaele obviously didn’t think we would. Dante put his hand on my back and we headed back to our car.
“So what do you think?” he asked as he started the car.
“I think Raffaele will give me trouble. He obviously doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’t do well with women in general, unless they are prostitutes and have to do what he says. Don’t take it personal.”
“I don’t. I couldn’t care less what he thinks of me.”
“No,” Dante disagreed. “He should respect you.”
“Because it would reflect badly on you if he didn’t.”
“That, and because you are his boss. You are going to make sure everything runs smoothly. Leo will hopefully help you.”
“He seemed okay. But you don’t trust him?”
“I don’t trust either of them.”
I nodded. “They seemed surprised when I said something clever. It really annoyed me.”
“Most men in the mob prefer to think of their women as ignorant and clueless. I know the same men who disapproved of my ruling against rape will disapprove of you working in our casino.”