Page 161 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

“That’s on YOU, man. I can only tell her what town you’ll be in.”

I didn’t like his tone of voice –It’s YOUR problem, not MINE– but I brushed that aside as I tried to figure out a solution.

“See you outside in five minutes,”Paolo ordered.

“Yeah, sure,” I said dismissively, then hung up.

“What’s going on?” Cat whimpered.

I stood up. “The good news is I get to see you again.”

The look on her face was pure joy. She rushed into my arms and hugged me tight.

“Thebadnews is, I need to figure out how to get away from the asshole I work with every day.”

Cat frowned. “What asshole?”

“Don Vicari’s son, Rocco. I have to follow him around and do stupid bullshit.” I thought for a second, then asked, “Did Alessandra give you any cash?”

“Oh, yes,” Cat said happily as she ran for her purse. “So did Don Rosolini and Niccolo.”

“…what?!”

Icouldn’thave heard that last part correctly.

“They stopped me before I left. Niccolo searched my purse and found the money Alessandra gave me. She told them it was so I could start over somewhere else. Don Rosolini not only gave me a lot more, he ordered Niccolo to give me what was in his wallet.”

“WHAT?!”I shouted, then burst out laughing. “Niccolo had to give you money because Dario ordered him to?!”

“Yes,” Cat said, beaming.

“I’m surethatstuck in his craw,” I chuckled.

Ilovedthe idea of Dario overruling Nic and ordering him around.

Good.

FUCK him.

“All together, they gave me a lot,” Cat said as she dumped out her purse’s contents on the bed.

I figured she was just impressed because it was more money than she’d ever seen at one time, but I didn’t have particularly high hopes –

Until I saw the giant wads of cash that fell out on the sheets.

Holy SHIT!

I grabbed the rubber-banded rolls of bills and looked at them.

One was 20s and 50s – probably 10,000 euros –

And the other was 100-euro bills. Possibly 20 grand.

Plus there was a lot of loose money, too. Maybe another couple of grand.

All told, about 35,000 euros.

Daaaaaaamn!

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