Chapter 55

Mafia Kings: Valentino: Chapter 55 After giving Cat a couple of orgasms, I came inside her.

Then I pulled her into the bathroom where we showered together – fast, but enough to get the scent of sex off me.

I dressed quickly. She was still naked and wrapped in a towel when I stuffed the ten grand in my pocket and kissed her.

“See you tomorrow,” I said with a grin.

She giggled as I pulled off her towel –

Grabbed her ass as I kissed her once, twice, three times –

And then gave her a final, tender kiss before I jogged down the hall towards the stairs.

I looked back to see her waving at me, her naked body hidden behind the half-closed door – but I could see her beaming face.

I grinned and blew her a kiss before I disappeared down the stairwell.

When I walked out of the hotel, Paolo’s car was sitting along the curb.

I got in the back instead of the front passenger seat like I normally did.

When he looked at me in the rearview mirror, he was steaming.

“I told you to be down here half an hour ago,” he seethed.

“We need to have a fuckin’ talk,” I said coldly.

“Yeah, you’re goddamn right we – ”

“Which means I’m gonna talk, and you’re gonna shut the fuck up and listen.”

I saw the resentment and hatred in his eyes, but I also saw fear. He was used to being ordered around by guys above him, and he fell into line pretty quickly.

“I appreciate you connecting me with Caterina,” I said. “I do, I really do. You’re taking an incredible risk.”

“Damn straight,” he muttered.

“But I’m pretty fucking sure you didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart.”

He didn’t say anything.

“I’m guessing it was my sister-in-law who paid you.” When he didn’t answer again, I snapped, “This is the part where you tell me where the money came from.”

“...some bank in Genoa,” he grumbled.

So... Alessandra’s grandmother.

“How much?”

“Not enough,” he snapped.

“How MUCH?”

“...fifty grand,” he muttered.

Not much money to risk your life over, I thought.

But I didn’t tell him that.

“Okay, so you’re getting a nice chunk of change,” I said. “But just because you chose to do it does not mean you get to order me around. I’m not your buddy. I sure as hell don’t answer to you. In the future, if you want me to do something, you ask me. Politely.

You don’t tell me what to do. Got it?”

“If Don Vicari finds out – ”

“How’s he gonna find out unless you tell him?”

“If we’re late – ”

“He’s not gonna give a shit if we’re 30 minutes late.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You don’t know anything about high-level guys. He’s thinking about money in and money out, who he’s got to kill – he doesn’t give a shit about me being half an hour late.”

I hoped I was right about that...

But there was no way I was going to admit doubt and play into Paolo’s paranoia.

“Fine,” Paolo grumbled, “but – ”

“No ‘buts.’ You’re not the boss here. I am. You’re getting paid to help me see Caterina, and I appreciate that, but remember who works for who.”

“I don’t work for you,” Paolo shot back. “I work for the Don.”

And you also betrayed him, I thought, but didn’t say it.

Instead I snarled, “And I’m marrying the Don’s daughter in a couple of weeks, so it would probably be a smart play to stay on my good side, wouldn’t you think?”

Paolo glared at me in the rearview mirror, but this time he stayed quiet.

“Let’s go home,” I said, then added sarcastically, “So we’re not thirty-five minutes late.”

Paolo put the car into gear, and we started off down the road.

He didn’t say a single word to me all the way back to Don Vicari’s.

I could live with that.

It just gave me more time to daydream about Cat...

Fucking her today...

And all the things I was going to do to her tomorrow.