Chapter 420: We’re Getting Drunk Tonight

The drive was smooth. City lights kept sliding past the windows. Bennett couldn’t sit still for even a minute.

She talked the entire way.

She went on about the Chiron, about the exact look on Moretti’s face when Lucas signed the papers, about how the staff had frozen when he just walked out with the key. Then she suddenly switched to the girls at the dealership, laughing as she described the way they kept staring at her like she had stolen something from them. She even imitated one of their faces, eyes wide and mouths slightly open, before laughing at her own impression.

Lucas just listened.

He still couldn’t fully understand why she was this excited. Bennett was already rich. A car deal, even a big one, shouldn’t have her bouncing in her seat like this. Yet every few minutes her voice rose higher, and the smile on her face refused to go away. She kept jumping from one topic to another without pause, clearly enjoying the sound of her own victory.

By the time they reached the club it was already six in the evening. The sky had gone dark. The building in front of them looked expensive without even trying ~ dark stone, clean lines, soft gold lights along the entrance. Everything about the place screamed money. What Lucas didn’t know was that this was the same club that first gave Bennett the idea to build her own years ago. The layout, the quiet control, the way wealth was shown without needing to shout ~ it had stayed in her head for a long time.

Bennett stepped out first and immediately grabbed his hand, pulling him forward with open eagerness. She walked him inside like she was dragging a prize into her own celebration. The air inside was cooler. The music sat deep in the background, present but never too loud. Private booths lined the upper level, far enough from the main floor that people could actually talk. They were taken to one with a clear view of everything below.

Bennett dropped into the seat across from him, still carrying that bright, restless energy. She looked around once, clearly satisfied, then reached for her phone. She was about to put it on Do Not Disturb so nothing could interrupt the rest of the night.

The screen lit up before she could lock it.

A message from Moretti.

Bennett opened it fast. The commission transfer showed first. Instead of the usual twenty percent, the number sat at thirty-five. Two hundred and eighty thousand. Under it was a short apology and a clear offer: permanent access to the top collection, full membership, no conditions.

She stared at the screen for a few seconds, eyes moving over the numbers again like she needed to confirm they were real.

Then the smile hit her face hard.

It started small and just kept growing.

"Can you believe this?" she said, almost laughing as she turned the phone toward Lucas. "He paid me more than the commission. And he gave me permanent access. Full tier. No conditions. Nothing."

Lucas just watched her. The smile on her face kept climbing higher by the second.

She dropped the phone on the table like it had finished its job and stood up immediately.

"I’m getting drinks," she said, still grinning. "We’re getting properly drunk tonight. I’m talking real drunk. The kind where nobody is leaving this place until we can’t walk straight. Don’t even think about going anywhere."

She didn’t wait for any reply. She just turned and walked toward the bar with light steps, still smiling to herself, leaving Lucas alone in the booth.

The quiet around him didn’t last long.

A woman came from the side of the upper level like she had already decided the night belonged to her.

Even from a distance it was obvious she was the type who measured every man by the watch on his wrist and the car he arrived in. She already knew who Lucas was. She had seen the videos more than once. In real life he looked better than the clips ~ taller, broader, more solid. She had watched the way he handled that bodyguard earlier, the clean force of it, and her mind had already gone straight into the gutter. Strength like that made her wonder how rough he got when the clothes came off.

She stopped right in front of his table with full confidence, chin slightly raised, like she was used to men sitting up straighter when she arrived.

"Hey. My name is Genevieve."

Lucas’s eyes moved once over the jewelry stacked on her hands and around her neck. Heavy stones that caught every light like they were trying too hard. Her dress was expensive, but her body was small ~ small breasts, narrow hips. Everything about her relied on labels and metal to do the talking.

She waited for the usual reaction men gave her.

Lucas gave her almost nothing.

"I’m not interested."

The words came out flat and final, with zero effort behind them. Genevieve’s smile held for a second longer than it should have, then started thinning at the edges.

She recovered fast and tried again, shifting closer, softening her voice the way she always did when a man needed a little push.

"Come on. Don’t be like that. I saw the video of you earlier. You handled that bodyguard clean. Most men talk big. You actually did it. I like that."

Lucas looked at her the same way someone looks at a fly that keeps coming back.

"I already said I’m not interested."

She still didn’t leave. She reached out like she was about to touch his arm, smiling thinner now, trying to force some kind of connection.

"At least let me sit. One drink. That’s all."

Lucas moved her hand away without any care and looked past her like the conversation had already ended a full minute ago.

"No."

The single word landed harder than the first rejection. Embarrassment hit Genevieve’s face first. Then irritation followed right behind it. She stepped back, pulled her phone up under the pretense of checking something, and quietly took a picture of him before turning away. Chiara had failed to teach him any kind of lesson. She decided she would do it herself.

She left the booth without another word.

A few minutes later Bennett came back from the bar with her hands completely full. She was carrying several bottles of beer between her fingers, another two tucked against her arm, and she was still smiling like the night had only just started. The message from Moretti was still sitting high in her chest, and it showed in every step she took.

She reached the table and dropped the bottles down with a cheerful little thud, bottles clinking against each other as they settled.

"The bartender is bringing more," she said, already looking pleased with herself. "I told him not to stop. We’re not pacing ourselves tonight. I’m going wide. Proper wide. If we’re still standing by the end of this, then we didn’t do it right."

She dropped into the seat beside Lucas, still buzzing, completely unaware of the short, ugly exchange that had taken place while she was gone. Across the floor, Genevieve watched from a distance, quiet resentment already settling into something sharper.