Page 10 of Days Of Valentino

“Follow me.” I jump out of the car, jog across the street, and walk right through the front door of the building like I own the place.

“Why are we breaking into a jewelry store?” Dante questions from behind me.

“Because the fucker tried to rip me off by giving me a lab-grown diamond.” I point towards the back of the shop. “There’s a stone in there I want.”

Without question, Dante walks that way and heads straight for the safe. I pace around the room for thirty minutes before hefinally gets it opened. I step inside, shifting through ten drawers before I find the one I’m looking for.

“Got it. Let’s go.”

“What’s it for?” Dante asks as we each slide back into the car.

I pull out the diamond and inspect it. “Cassidy.” I smile. “She’s going to marry me.”

“Are you planning on asking her first? She could say no.”

“Unlike you, little cousin, my girl isn’t going to say no.” I laugh at him.

The fucker is sixteen and asked his girlfriend to marry him. Josie was smart. She turned him down and said they’re not getting hitched in high school.

“Fuck off,” Dante grunts. “Drop me off at Nonno’s.”

“Can’t. We got one more stop to make,” I tell him.

“This was your stop? You couldn’t have done this without me?” Dante groans, and I grin.

“I could, but then you’d miss all the fun.”

Enzo and Orlando are already here. They’ve got the fat fucker who sold me a fake stone hanging from the rafters.

Retrieving the diamond from my pocket, I hold it up in front of the jeweler’s face. “See this? I found what I paid for. Guess where it was?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “I didn’t know. It wasn’t me. My staff…”

“There’s no point trying to weasel your way out of this, dipshit. You sold me a fake. Do you take me for a fool?” I drop the diamond safely back into my pocket.

“No, Mr. Valentino, I swear I didn’t know.” He shakes his head from side to side.

“Even so, the problem we have is that you did rip me off. What kind of punk would I look like if I just let you walk out of here?” I pull the gun from the holster under my jacket and disengage the safety mechanism.

The fat fucker’s eyes bulge out of his head the second he realizes he’s staring down the barrel of my nine.

“Don’t look so surprised. You knew who I was when I walked in there,” I remind the dead man walking while aiming right between his eyes.

“No, I swear. I didn’t do this!” he yells, desperate to try to save his pathetic excuse for a life. Those screams land on deaf ears as my finger pulls back, sending a bullet tearing right through his head.

“Fucking idiots. You’d think people would learn by now.” I turn towards my cousins, who are all staring at me. “What?”

“You got a little something…” Enzo smirks while gesturing a hand above his right eyebrow. Orlando hands me a towel and I wipe the contents of that fucker’s brain matter from my face.

“You two, dump him in his shop and then burn the fucking building down,” I tell Enzo and Dante. That should keep them busy for what’s left of the night.

Not waiting for a response, I walk out of the basement and straight to my car. I need to make a quick stop home before I go and find my girlfriend.

I tug my shirt over my head and climb into Cassidy’s bed. “Alessandro?” she whispers, her voice weighed down by sleep.

“It better be me. You expecting someone else to climb into your bed, babe?”

“Mmm, no, but I’d probably accept a Hemsworth,” she hums.

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