Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions
Chapter 212 - A Little Bit Never Hurt Anyone

"What brings you here tonight?" Zane asked when he noticed that the other looked like he was dressed more for business than a fun night out.

"I'm here to meet some fool actually. One who happens to be fifteen minutes late already. Something about some information that he wants to sell me that he thinks I would replace interesting." Richard replied as he glanced down at his watch again, he was waiting for notification that he other had arrived.

"What about you guys? Special occasions I should take it since it seemed like there are quite a few of you here?" He asked looking over at Lena who he noticed had been watching him intently for some time. She looked vaguely familiar to him but it had been a few years since he had last seen Zane so he wasn't quite sure who she was.

"Engagement actually between these two." Zane replied as he pointed to Lena and Samuel. Ah that was why she looked familiar. Richard had met her on a few occasions as he child. Certainly was an interesting catch considering he could vaguely remember how Zane had mentioned once in passing during a meeting that she wasn't planning on ever marrying anyone.

"Good job kid." He complimented as he ruffed Samuel's hair since he was close enough to do so.

"What about the others sitting here, are they anyone that I should care for." Richard asked now that Zane had taken his seat again while the other still stood there waiting.

"Vedova Nera." Jovani replied, giving the other man a once over. He didn't look that familiar to him, but he also didn't look like someone that he should be worried about.

"Unity." Richard commented as though he already put the two pieces together. Made sense considering how close the two families looked.

"What about you? I thought that last time we met you said that you were going to be leaving the state for elsewhere?" Zane inquired.

"If I had known that you were still sticking around, I would have reached out to you already. There's still a lot of things that I could use your help with." Richard chuckled when he heard this, the mafia boss was always looking for something from him.

"You know how life works, things don't always go according a plan. A few things have held me back but I don't intend to stay here past the end of the year." Richard replied glancing over at his watch when he felt it vibrate, a sign that it was time for him to leave since his client was obviously there.

"I need to go now, but if you decide that you want to catch up some time over something that isn't business related, you still got my number and I would be happy to take you up on that kind offer." He shook the other's hand once more before he left.

The princess was going to ask who he was after he had left, but didn't get the chance as the waiter had come back at that moment with another to deliver everyone's drinks. Seeing the club of alcohol, Samuel was second-guessing his decision while everyone else had already started drinking from their glasses, even Lena.

Jovani had suggested that he order a Irish Cream Whiskey as it was supposed to be a little easier to handle due to the milk. Slightly sweeter and less bitter than other alcohols. His cousin had to convince him to take a small sip of it before he became invested in drinking it. Though it was still bitter, it wasn't as bad as he had been expecting and the slight touch of sweetness on the end of it was rather nice.

Lena had gotten something similar, but could still taste the edge of alcohol on it as she took a deep drink from it. Perhaps not her best decision as could feel it warm her almost instantly. She needed to be careful over how much she drank quickly if she didn't want to be the first one in the group to get buzzed.

"Isn't anyone here eager to dance tonight?" Jovani asked after everyone had been seated for a few minutes. The only who had disappeared occasionally was Julian and that was to make sure that everyone else who was showing up was behaving and not causing any trouble. The larger the crowd got, the more noise they were making.

Leo took him up on the offer as did some of the other younger members who were with him them. Lena wasn't interested and Samuel didn't want to go too far since he wasn't certain yet what kind of affect that the alcohol was going to have on him. Leo tried to convince him that it would be fun despite the large crowd that were already enjoying themselves. He only left the other alone when he saw the look that his sister was giving him.

He wasn't sure if it was just the fact that she really wasn't thrilled to be at the night club or the fact that the engagement was now official. Whatever it was, from his perspective it seemed almost as though his sister had become more protective of her fiancé in the few hours after everything had taken place.

He didn't think that this was a bad thing as he knew the other man would be a good influence on his sister and perhaps help her to relax more than she usual did. He just thought that it was an interesting change that was taking effect with her.

He was only slightly starting to warm up to Jovani more after the dinner they had prior to the engagement and it seemed like he was far more harmless than the other had thought. He couldn't yet say that he was fond of the other man or even liked his company, but his dislike wasn't enough to miss out the opportunity to have someone who wanted to be on the dance floor with him.

Eve didn't want to go out with them simply because her feet were killing her from the heels she was wearing, plus she wanted to take a bit more time getting to know the Scarlet family in a setting that wasn't business related.

She hadn't figured much else out about them except for the fact that it seemed the princess was the same whether she was at home or in the office. The only person that she seemed to change around was Samuel. Jovani's cousin who she had only met on a few occasions.

"What do you think about it?" Lena asked Samuel as she finished the rest of her glass. She could deal with the bitter liquid well enough if she didn't think too much about the sharpness at the end. It certainly was starting to make her head feel fuzzy.

"It's not bad. I don't think that it's something that I would replace myself drinking too often though." He replied, taking another sip out of his mug. He had only drank about half of it. He was trying to gauge how quickly it might affect him based upon the way that everyone else was reacting.

"Coffee is far better." She huffed under her breath as the waiter came over to bring her another glass. She would drink the alcohol though because it was right there in front of her and helped to drown out some of the other noise that was going on around her.

Somehow in the minutes that passed, the table became more progressively empty as Eve left to replace her own fiancé and Julian and Zane had to leave to speak with the club owner and go over some things with some of the other mafia members who had joined them. No fights had started, but some people were getting to be a little louder than the rest of the crowd in the room.

Lena didn't mind this though, even after Jovani came back, it gave her more space to relax rather than worry about everyone else that was around. She couldn't say that it was a bad day by any means. Everything had gone well. She would've just preferred to have been able to end it by heading back home and enjoying the few days left off without anyone else bothering her.

"The ring really suits you." She suddenly commented, looking at the ring on Samuel's finger as he picked up his glass to take a drink. She had always admired it before, but between the alcohol and the dim club light, there was something about it that almost made it seem like it was shining more than it had before.

She reached her right hand out to brush her fingers against it after Samuel had set the glass down and held out his hand. She was certainly that he had said something to her, but her brain was too hazy to pick up on what exactly it was.

"I think that it was right the decision to make giving it to you." Samuel froze when he heard the princess say this, even though it was a little bit hard to understand her because of the way that she was speaking.

It was the first time that she had actually said something like this out loud to him.