Packing Heat(52)
She was stronger than she realized. The girl was a champion. She could do absolutely anything if she wanted to, and the more we talked, the more I was convinced of that.
And the more I wanted her. I kept thinking about coming deep between her legs and wished that I could get out of the damn fucking bed and take her like I really wanted to.
Instead, we talked. She told me about her parents, about her first boyfriend, and about college. I told her about the first man I killed, a story I never thought I’d tell.
Time slowly dripped past, and finally the doctor gave me the okay.
I woke up that morning, excited as fuck to finally be getting out of bed and out on my own. There was a knock at the door, and Cassidy came inside.
Wheeling a wheelchair.
“Fuck no,” I said.
She stared at me. “You’re getting in it.”
“Fuck off,” I said.
She couldn’t help herself. She cracked and broke into a huge smile. “I’m just kidding.”
“Asshole,” I said, standing up. I was wearing clothes she had brought me from our room the day before. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“Doctor signed off?”
“Fuck the doctor. I signed off.” I walked past her, out into the hall and back toward our room.
“How’s it feel?” she asked.
“Damn good. I hated being in that room.”
“Oh come on, at least you had company.”
I grinned at her. “True. Damn sexy company.”
“Enough with that.” She couldn’t hide her smile.
“Come on. We have some work to do.”
She sighed. “Already?”
“Already. We talked about this.”
She stopped, crossing her arms. “You need to recover more.”
“No. We need to show Vince.”
I could see the uncertainty, but we were doing things my way from now on.
The first morning, Cassidy came into my bedroom. She didn’t say a word, just hooked up a VHS player to the television in the corner and put the tape in. We both watched as one of Ernesto’s top lieutenants joked about stealing money from the mafia to start his own whorehouse on the side. He bragged that nobody knew about it.
I had no clue how it had been recorded. It was probably a security tape, though the sound was pretty fucking good. There wasn’t much context, just Marco the idiot sitting on a blue couch wearing his usual dark suit. I couldn’t tell who he was talking to, and the tape stopped when he stopped talking.
We were showing Vince, and then we were deciding where to go from there. No more fucking around; no more making mistakes. We needed his help.
“Come on,” I said, “hand it over.”
She reluctantly gave me the tape. “I still think we should do this ourselves.”
“Yeah, I know. We’re doing it my way now.”
“Okay.” She followed me when I started walking toward the office.
I knew Vince would be in there. He always was. That bastard was constantly working, which wasn’t so bad. I opened the door and stepped in, and he looked up from what he was doing.
“You’re alive,” he said.
“Barely.” I grinned at him.
“Good to see you up.”
“You act like I’ve never been shot before.”
He laughed. “You looked like you were dead, man.”
“Well, I’m not dead yet. But I have something for you.”
“What’s that?” He stood up as Cassidy and I walked into the office. She began to set the VHS player up to the small TV in the corner.
“We found this at the house the Spiders lured us to.”
“They left it for you?”
“I think so.”
“Why the fuck would they do that?”
“Can’t say. I assume it was in case their plan fell through.”
“They’re fucking insane.”
“That they are.”
Cass nodded to me and turned the TV on. She silently hit play, and we stood around the small screen, watching.
I paid more attention to Vince’s face than I did to the tape. I’d seen it enough to know what the guy said. Vince didn’t look too surprised, but I could see a small smile creeping up along his face.
Finally, it ended, and Cassidy hit stop.
Vince couldn’t help but laugh. “This is fucking crazy.”
“Right?”
“That’s one of Ernesto’s top guys. If any of that is true, it could take down his whole organization.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Wait, why?” Cassidy asked.
“You don’t get to steal that kind of money from the mafia without bribing people, no matter how high up you are,” Vince said.
“We’re serious about money.” I grinned at her.
“So you guys think he had help?”