Page 229 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

“Because somebody has to tell Isabella what’s going on. We need her help, or we’re fucked just as bad as if a housekeeper finds the body.” I paused. “I mean, I suppose I could describe her to you… but then you’d have to go out and – ”

“No,” Cat said, her voice suddenly flinty. “No, I’ll…I’llstay here.”

“You don’t want to meet her,” I said, remembering what she’d told me days ago.

“No,” she said coldly. “I don’t.”

Fuck.

Since I wasn’t attracted to Isabella in the slightest, I didn’t see her as anything but the sweet, sad daughter of a psychopathic gangster –

But that’s obviously not how Cat thought of her.

The fact that she’d rather stay with a dead body than meet Isabella made it crystal clear.

“I’m sorry, babe,” I murmured. “About everything.”

“Please… justhurry.”

“I will,” I promised, then kissed her.

78

Caterina

After Val left, I quickly got dressed.

I tried dragging a wardrobe in front of the door, but it was too heavy –

So I leaned a wooden chair underneath the doorknob.

I’d seen it done in movies and TV shows.

Ihopedit would keep people from opening the door –

But at the very least, I figured it would make a racket and warn me.

That was the only chair in the room, though, so I sat on the bed as far away from the body as I could get.

I could still see the dead man’s shoes sticking out of the small bathroom.

I should have paid for a larger room with a bigger bathroom,I thought –

And laughed.

The man I loved had just killed someone –

And I was thinking,If I only had a bigger bathroom to hide the corpse!

I didn’t feel bad about the dead guy at all.

As far as I was concerned, as soon as he pulled a gun on Valentino, he deserved to die.

I wasn’t even freaked out that Val had killed him.

When it happened, I’d felt –

Relief.

---