Page 64 of Bulletproof Baby
"Tit for tat pussy cat," Saul beams with a shrug of his shoulders. "I get hit with a RICO case the same weekend your parents and you disappear. No. He has to go under the magnifying glass too. Fuck him. Fuck you. Fuck La Familia. I hope you all die a painful death like that video should have showed. It was great production value. Did your boy toy tell you what he did to my guy Jimmy?"
"I don't care," I tell him, shaking my head. I'm secretly willing for Val not to pay the money, not to do anything stupid that makes Saul come out of this unscathed.
"After your so-called death, I started getting packages. A finger, a testicle, you name it and he sent it. Started getting creative with the compositions too. Sometimes two body parts were stitched together."
I shook my head. "You're wrong. That's not Val."
He takes pain. I'm certain he can dish it out, but playing with dead body parts is not his thing. I know that much about him.
The phone rings before Saul can say anything else about his packages. Saul answers the call eagerly. "Yeah, is the money there?"
I can hear the voice on the other end, telling Saul with laughter, "You are going to die, slowly and painfully, but yes, the money is there. Check your account."
The call disconnects and the minute Saul swipes across the screen. There's glee in his eyes as he turns to me, gun in hand.
"You can't kill her dip shit," Hera says. "Val's not going to let you keep the money anyway, but what do you think he's going to do if you kill her? Besides, I still need to get my money. You owe me, Caputo."
Saul sighs and points the gun from me to Hera, and pulls the trigger. I scream. Ava jolts awake and cries as all hell breaks loose.
I dive under the nearest table, using Ava's car seat as a shield of sorts while cradling her head against me. There are shouts, shots, and screams of chaos ripping through the air as I cower under a table waiting for the love of my life to save us.
The movements are swift, and the thunderous rumble of several pairs of boots along with beams of light accompanies the sounds of shattering of windows and doors being knocked off their hinges. My man is here. No one takes off a door like Valentino.
"Stay put, Lia." Valentino's voice is like a wave of calm crashing over me as I hear the noises of Saul's demise. I catch the end of Don Saul Caputo. He kneels in surrender with his hands in the air as Valentino plunges a knife through his sternum and drags it up to his throat.
I turn away from the gruesome scene, opting to bask in the joy of being alive with my daughter nuzzling against my body sound asleep to the sounds of gunshots. A true New Yorker indeed. The table moves from over my head as Valentino bends down to take us in.
"You're bleeding," I tell him, touching him gently on the side of his face.
"Yeah," he sighs. "I would ask why my mother's here, but I think she's the missing piece to the puzzle."
"Shit, you transferred the money? Can you get it back? Like undo it? Saul wanted the large amount to look fishy and open you up to an investigation," I ramble out the information I learned from my captors.
"I love you. We'll talk about it, I promise," he says and leads me out of the rundown shack, commanding men all over the place and sliding into the back seat of a car beside me.
Later that night, as we make ourselves comfortable at the beach house in the Hamptons, Valentino walks around the perimeter, talking to his security team before coming inside.
"I'm going to buy the properties next door. We can tear this little shack down," he says.
"No. I like it. I fell in love with you right here. It's where I lost my virginity. The new memories trump the old ones. We don't have to live here, but don't tear it down. Make it a guest house. I'm sure Frankie will love it, or Cecilia."
"Or even your parents?" he adds. "Speaking of Cecilia, she's been on the phone with her friend, Jeff, to bring your parents out of WITSEC since Saul isn't alive to stand trial. His goons and whoever's left in his organization will be indicted. We have the support of La Familia, from the other three dons and myself, the Caputo family won't stand a chance if they go to war."
"What about Hera?" I ask him.
"She can burn in hell, right in that shack." He shrugs.
"She told Saul about me and the baby."
He pours us both a glass of wine that I'm grateful to have. It will force me to pump and dump this milk. I don't want any of today's energy sitting inside of me, and I need to purge it all. So I drink the wine, grateful to have enough milk already pumped and frozen.
"I figured that out when I saw her there. Me and Armande were in a car accident. Hit from the back, T-boned from the side, spun around, and hit by the same car that T-boned us. He's going to be fine."
"Shit. What about you?" I ask him.
"Don De Luca showed up to clear the scene for La Familia. Saul has a big mouth when he's angry. He let everyone know he was breaking away from the family because they sanctioned me to hit him for kidnapping you. Saul was watching Armande watch him. My guys who were on your detail were so busy watching you and trying to stay out of the way, they didn't realize Saul had people on them too. That slimy little fuck was a great strategist."
"And the money?" I ask him. "Are we going to have to explain the transfers? Are you going to be in trouble or something?"