Page 94 of Vincenzo
I shrug. “Ehh, we don’t know that, but sure… go on.”
“And secondly, you clearly don’t fucking know the relationship I have with my family if you think I’d help mybrother get away when they had guns pointed at Amalia. When I walked into the backyard, all I saw was one of my dad’s men raising his gun toward her, so I acted on instinct and took him out. I don’t fucking know what the hell you both got yourselves into here, but I’ve always been on her side.No matter what.And that should fucking prove it.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Amalia says, stepping between the two of us and pushing her hands into each of our chests. I hadn’t realized the distance we were closing between us until now. “Both of you calm down.”
Amalia turns to face me. “Armando can be trusted. I was fooled into thinking Diego was him, and you have every right to be skeptical of someone you don’t know—especially after everything that’s happened—but trust me when I say Armando can be trusted.”
I clench my jaw, but reluctantly give her a small nod, then look at Armando. “But if it turns out you fucked Amalia over inanyway, I’m coming for you.”
“You clearly don’t know how close me and my cousin are.”
“He does,” Amalia says, “but you have to understand…” She takes a step toward me, standing by my side, and turns to face her cousin. “We were just royally screwed over by your brother posing as you.”
He releases a long sigh. “What the fuck happened, Amalia?” he asks again.
“Uhh, quick question. Hate to interrupt this fucked-up rehash, but should we be concerned that Diego’s going to come back here and—I don’t know—shoot us? I mean, this is his house, right?”
“Diego’s a fucking bitch,” Armando says.
“Oh, that, I noticed.”
“He ran away which means he won’t be returning,” he says. “At least not tonight. We’re fine for right now.”
I’m still not confident with all of this.
Amalia takes out her phone, and after pulling something up, she hands it to Armando. “Is this your number?”
Armando takes her phone and looks down at it. “No, mine ends in 8324, not 8325. This is Diego’s number.”
“Of course it is,” she says, taking her phone back and shaking her head. “It seems I’ve been fooled for a hot fucking minute.” She runs her hands through her hair. “How could I be so stupid?”
I wrap my arm around her, hating that she’s beating herself up over this, and hoping I can provide some kind of comfort to her.
“How are you so calm right now?” I ask Armando, still not sure if I can trust him.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you just walked in on your cousin killing your dad. Shouldn’t that make you feel… a certain way? Especially without context.”
“I know that out of my entire family, I trust and value Amalia the most.”
It’s a good answer, but I’m still not convinced.
“My dad’s been keeping me busy in Colombia withabuelito, but things have felt off. He had me there for far too long, practically searching for things for me to do. I didn’t feel good about it, and I knew something was off when I called Diego to check in on how things were going. So I flew back and came directly here to see what the hell was going on. Seems my gut was right.”
“Convenient,” I say.
Ignoring me, Armando directs his attention to Amalia. “But it’s all starting to make sense now. I tried calling you a few times, but you never answered.”
“You called me?” she asks.
“Yeah,andI was texting you. You would respond to my texts, but you’d never answer my calls.”
Amalia lets out a sigh. “Diego said they forwarded our calls.”
Armando scoffs. “Yeah, probably to himself.” He shakes his head. “I’m so fucking stupid. I knew your responses felt off, but I didn’t pay much mind to it.”
“I feel just as dumb,” Amalia says, folding her arms across her chest and dropping her gaze to the ground.
