Page 34 of Vincenzo (The DiMaggio Crime Family #3)
VINCENZO
A knock on the door sounds, waking me out of my sleep. I peer around the room, remembering I’m in a hotel with Amalia. She’s sound asleep on my chest with one leg draped over my hip. Her rhythmic breathing is almost in sync with my own.
Another knock sounds.
Who the fuck would be knocking on our door?
Amalia’s heavy breaths tell me she’s in a deep sleep, so I carefully maneuver myself out of the entangled sheets.
I slide my boxers on and grab my gun as another knock sounds at the door.
Fucking hell.
I walk over to the door and peer through the peephole, releasing a relieved sigh when Armando’s smug face is staring back at me.
Opening the door, I say, “You should really warn a guy when you’re coming over.”
Armando smirks at my gun hanging by my side. “I did, but my darling cousin wasn’t responding, so I figured I’d surprise you both. Make sure she’s still alive and all.”
Using the hand holding the gun, I gesture for him to walk in.
“Are you always so… comfortable with a gun like that?” he asks, stepping through the door.
I chuckle. “Why? Are you scared I might accidentally shoot you?”
“Well, after last night, you did prove to be a trigger-happy son-of-a-bitch.”
“Which means, after last night, I should’ve proven how damn well I can handle a gun.”
Armando breathes out a laugh. “You got me there.” He glances around the suite. “So, where’s my cousin?” He turns his attention back to me, and just realizing I’m in nothing by my boxers, he says, “Where are your clothes?”
“Well, if you must know, your cousin and I were just sleeping.” I smirk at him. “You’re lucky I even put any clothes on for you at all.”
Armando gives me a blank stare, then we hear a door open. Amalia pops her head out and says, “Armando?”
He turns around, and they walk toward each other, arms out. “Thank God you’re okay,” he says, giving her a hug.
“What’re you doing here?” she asks when they pull away. She looks over at me, sliding her gaze up and down my body with a smirk.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. I told Enzo last night to let you know I was planning on stopping by today.”
“Last night?” she asks, bringing her attention to me.
“You didn’t tell her about last night?” Armando asks over his shoulder.
“I haven’t exactly had a moment to tell her.” I take a seat on the couch closest to the window. “But since you’re here, now seems like a great time to fill Amalia in on the exciting events that took place last night.”
“You guys are making me nervous,” she says, eyeing us both.
“Would you like to put on some clothes or…?” Armando asks.
“Nah.” I stretch my arms along the back of the couch. “I’m good like this.”
“Of course you are,” he says, then walks over to sit on the couch across from me. He crosses one leg over the other, lifting the bottom hem of his navy blue slacks to show his striped socks.
Amalia takes a seat right next to me, bringing her knees up to her chest as she leans into me. I let my arm drape down around her shoulder.
“So what happened last night that you both aren’t telling me about?” she asks.
“I might’ve gone somewhere after you fell asleep,” I say.
She looks at me, taken aback. “Oh, yeah?”
“I went back to the club to get Fabien—lovely guy, by the way—to give me the info on the getaway car. I had my guy run the plates and get me an address. I was about to head over to the assholes’ place when your cousin showed up.”
“Okay … and?”
“We ended up going together and found the three dudes that attacked you… And then we killed them.”
Amalia stares at me as if she’s expecting me to finish the story. “That’s it?” she asks when I don’t continue.
“Uh… yes?” I say, even though I feel like that’s not the answer she’s looking for.
Amalia continues to stare at me.
“I shot them all,” I say, further elaborating.
“You shot them all ?”
“Yes.” I raise a questioning brow at her. “What did you expect from me? To let them go as if they had done nothing?”
“I mean, no, not necessarily, but I didn’t think you’d go and avenge me like that.”
Now it’s my turn to be taken aback. “Of course I did. And they’re lucky I didn’t draw the process out for them,” I say sharply. “I should’ve dismantled their bodies limb by limb like I had intended, but my gun got the best of me, and I just shot them instead.”
“Just shot them instead?” Amalia looks at me with a blank expression, but then a smile tugs at her pretty lips, and she shakes her head. “I can’t believe you did that for me. No one has ever done that before.”
“Um, excuse me,” Armando says, his tone slightly offended. “I was about to do the same thing, I was just a little… slow, apparently.”
“Thank you,” Amalia says, ignoring her cousin and leaning closer to me, placing her hand on my chest.
“Anything for you, Little Hellion,” I say, giving her a kiss.
Her scent envelops me about as quickly as my lips envelop hers. I place my hand on her thigh to pull her closer to me.
Our tongues clash against one another, then Armando clears his voice, reminding me we aren’t the only ones in the room.
“Okay, fucking stop. This is not something I need to witness this morning… or ever, to be honest.”
Amalia and I reluctantly pull away from each other, and she gives me a cheeky grin, licking her lips before turning back to Armando.
“So, the meeting last night. What was it for?” Amalia asks.
“Dad’s going to Colombia at the end of the week.”
“What for?”
“We’re having some issues with one of the routes for our drug runners, so he’s going down there to meet with abuelito to strategize.”
“He didn’t mention anything about me or Carlos?”
“Nothing, but he did check his phone in the middle of the meeting, and he looked pissed. I didn’t think anything of it, but I’m wondering if that was when the assholes let him know they didn’t finish the job with you last night.”
Amalia shakes her head and lets out an annoyed sigh. “Yeah, probably. It gets under my skin that he can’t even do it himself. He has to hire other people to do his dirty work for him.”
“Can you say you’re surprised?”
“No. Backstabbing people to get what he wants and hiding behind others is apparently what he does best.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
Amalia sits there quietly, then says, “Your dad leaving might not be the worst thing, you know. Is Pedro going with him?”
“Not that I know of. He just mentioned Diego going with him.”
“Of course he is,” she mutters. “This isn’t a bad thing, though. That means we’ll be able to get him alone. It’ll be a lot easier to get a confession out of him if he doesn’t have your dad around.”
Armando nods. “That is true.”
“We’ll work on Pedro first, and then when he’s taken care of, we’ll work on your dad.”
“When’s your dad leaving?” I ask.
“On Thursday.”
“Then that’s the plan,” Amalia says. “We’ll get Pedro alone, get a confession, and then take him out just like he did our parents.”