Page 260 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

Extended his hand…

And waited.

He wanted me to kiss the diamond ring on his middle finger like he was the fucking pope or something.

I stared at the ring.

Everything inside me recoiled in disgust.

But I forced myself to walk over…

Stoop down…

And kiss the ring.

When I stood up, I was silent.

Vicari looked enormously pleased with himself.

After all, he thought he’d just broken me.

“Alright… you can have your little phone call.”

90

My cell sat on the desk between us. I put it on speakerphone and hit the Contact for Alessandra.

She answered after just a few rings.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Alessandra.”

“Valentino! How are you?”

“Not bad. I’m here with Don Vicari.”

‘Not bad’ was a code word we used when we called each other.

Lars had come up with a list of them.

Outstandinglet you know that the speaker didn’t have a gun to his head and that nobody was listening in who shouldn’t be.

Not bad,though, meantProceed with caution.

I’d told her that Don Vicari was listening in, yes, but I’d used the code word to emphasize extra caution.

I knew Alessandra was familiar with Lars’s code.

I just hoped she realized I was using it.

“Good,”she said.“Hello, Don Vicari.”

“Hello,” he said gruffly.

“How are you?” I asked.

“Outstanding! Massimo’s out of bed and walking around all on his own!”

---