Page 94 of The Devil's Heir

PAUPER: Okay.

Pocketing my phone, I leave the restroom with a smile on my face and the start of a stiffy. I'll have to take a cold shower once we get to the hotel.

This is going to be a very long week if this is the way it's starting already.

Hours later, I'm walking out of the bathroom in my hotel penthouse when there's a knock on my door. When I open it, Joey's grinning, and then walks past me, letting himself into my room. I'm in nothing but a towel hanging low on my waist.

"Come on in, Joey, and make yourself at home," I say sarcastically as I shut the door.

"Hurry the fuck up and get dressed; I'm starving," my friend states before plopping himself down on the sofa.

"We just ate on the plane. How can you be starving already?" I ask incredulously.

"I'm not talking about food, my friend." Joey winks at me.

"For fuck's sake—I didn't come here for you to get laid. The sooner I can take care of this business, the sooner I can get home." I walk back tothe bedroom and head to the closet to grab a clean pair of pants and a dress shirt.

"Oh, come on! Rossi won't even be back until tomorrow night," Joey whines from the other room.

"What's your point?" I ask as I drop my towel and pull on a clean pair of boxer briefs.

Joey appears in the doorway, sulking. It's not like we've never seen the other naked. Hell, we've shared plenty of women in the past—I'm not shy at all.

"My point is, let's enjoy tonight and then put our game faces on come morning. There's plenty of time…"

"No. We're not here for you to get your dick wet, Joey. We have to meet up with the informant and get everything we need before confronting Rossi."

Another knock interrupts us, and figuring it's Lonzo, Joey leaves to answer the door. I've just thrown my shirt on when I hear a muffled pop. It's a familiar sound—one that has me reaching for my gun on top of the dresser. I glance out my door and see a masked man pointing a silencer toward the floor.

As soon as I hear my friend groan, I know he's the one about to get shot. I don't think twice as I lift my gun, but before I can get my shot off, the assailant's head snaps my way and moves. My bullet misses him, and the fucker slips back out the door.

I chase after him, but he goes through the exit door at the end of the hall, and I need to go back and check on my friend. Grabbing my phone as soon as I get back to the room, I call down to the front desk and tell them to lock down the hotel.

I don't own the place, but I frequent it often enough that they make a lot of money off me. I also pay for top security, so this breach is unacceptable.

"This is Falcon," I growl through the phone when the front desk answers. "I need this place locked down, now! My man was just gunned down, and the intruder left by the fire exit stairs. Find him and bring him to me—and get a fucking ambulance here now!"

I drop down beside Joey. He's holding his side, blood seeping through the cracks of his fingers. I pull my shirt back off and instruct him to hold itin place while I call his father. Lonzo is on the floor below me, so it takes him no time to get to my room.

"Joseph!" Lonzo cries out as he runs into my room and sees his son bleeding on the floor.

"I think I'll be okay, Father. Don't worry…"

Regardless of whether his son was shot, Lonzo slaps Joey upside the head. "Don't ever tell me not to worry about you,bambino!"

With Lonzo tending to his son, I get on the phone with security only to find out that whoever it was got away before they locked the place down. They were seen crashing through the back door and running down the alleyway.

Cursing, I toss my phone on the counter just as thesoccorritori,Italy's emergency workers, get to my room. I tell Lonzo to go with Joey and to keep me updated. I still have Koval with me. I had left Elliot behind to see to things back home.

Someone put a hit out on me and I'm going to find out who it was. Something tells me that our old friend Rossi got wind that we were in the country and knew the reason why. So, he decided to take me out before I could take him out.

Wrong fucking move, Rossi… Wrong move!

FORTY-FIVE

Liliana

I'm not sure what's going on. After my big surprise and finding my friends at the door, Jarek left me so I could visit with them privately. He came to find me as he was getting ready to leave, pulling me from the sitting room, where I had been catching up with Fran and Heidi.