Page 116 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

But I wasn’t about to lethimknow that.

“My last name’s Rosolini,” I said coldly.

“Then I’m doubly fuckin’ sorry,” Rocco said with a grin. “Must suck to be named after a shithole.”

All his buddies laughed again.

I smiled. “Well, we can’t all be named after child-molesting, wannabe priests.”

‘Vicari’ was Italian for ‘vicars,’ which were lower-level representatives of the Catholic church.

There were a couple of scattered laughs from the dumber thugs –

Until they realized Rocco waspissed,and they shut the hell up.

“What did you just say?” Rocco asked, his nostrils flaring.

“Oh – I thought we were just having fun. But sure, if you want me to say it again: we can’t all be named after – ”

Rocco shot to his feet, his chair scraping on the concrete, and stomped over to me.

I had to stifle a smile.

Dude was 5’3”. He didn’t even come up to my chin.

Isoooowanted to reach over and rub his head like I would a little kid –

But guns might get pulled if I did that, and I didn’t have a gun.

So… not a good idea.

There was silence from all his friends as Rocco glared up at me, his chest all puffed out like an angry rooster.

Then he gave a dead-eyed smile. He was obviously copying his father, but Rocco couldn’t quite makehislook as unnerving.

“You’re a real joker, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Sometimes.”

“You like bustin’ people’s balls, huh?”

“Only if I know they can take it.”

That last comment was totally calculated on my part.

I was implying that hecouldtake it.

If Rocco overreacted and got pissed off, then he was showing hecouldn’ttake a joke – and I knew he wouldn’t want to admit to that.

Much as I hated Niccolo at the moment, I had to give him credit. He was a master of verbal judo, and I’d picked up a few things from watching him over the years.

Rocco realized the bind he was in and reacted just like I thought he would.

“This guy, huh?” he said with a grin to his buddies, and everybody started chuckling again, albeit uneasily. “You hungry, tough guy?”

If he was trying to build bridges, I figured I should meet him halfway. “I could eat something.”

Rocco’s smile disappeared. “Well, too fuckin’ bad, because you’relate.Late fuckers don’t eat, they go straight to work. Nowlet’s go.”

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