Page 143 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

I sat there staring into the mirror, trying to contain my excitement even though my heart was almost beating out of my chest.

I’m going to see him!

Not tomorrow, not next week –

Today!

I tried to push any bad thoughts out of my head, but they still kept cropping up.

What if he doesn’t want to see me?

What if the girl he’s going to marry is really beautiful and he’s fallen in love with her?

What if it was all just sex for him, and he never really cared about me at all?

All my worries kept gnawing at me, but none of them could compare with the single thought that kept flashing through my brain like a lighthouse in the darkness:

I’m going to get to see Valentino!

47

Valentino

After collecting from the pimps, Rocco said we were going to break for lunch. He and his buddies strolled towards a pizza joint, the kind that serves fast food to tourists.

He’d just collected over $10,000 in protection money, but he was still going to eat at a shitty restaurant.

Figures.

“I’m surprised, Movie Star,” Rocco sneered. “You didn’t try to pay for a single one of them.”

“I only pay for normal people, not pimps and drug dealers.”

“Oh, you’ll be happy then – we’re doing the shopkeepers after lunch,” he said, and all his thugs laughed.

Suddenly Paolo came trotting up. “Hey, Valentino, something important came up – I need you to come with me.”

I immediately saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

I turned to Rocco. “Look, I don’t want to be there for the shopkeepers, and you don’twantme there – so can we call it a day?”

Rocco gave me a smile of smug superiority. I’d just asked his permission in front of his minions, establishing that he was the boss.

But I could see the wheels turning.

I could guess what he was thinking:

Do I humiliate him and MAKE him watch me shake down the shopkeepers?

Or do I let him go now, avoid another scene, and keep it so everybody KNOWS I’m the boss?

Rocco chose the second option –

With a twist.

“Say ‘please,’” he sneered.

I balled my hands into fists and made a calculation of my own.

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