“Listen sir, we know who Giovanni Domenico is.” The other guy pointed to the hole in the ground. “The guy you iced tried to kill his daughter. It was self-defense. We’re cool.”
“True.” Gian approached them slowly. “In case you get a stupid idea in your heads about wanting to blackmail us, let’s even out the playing field.”
“Take out your licenses, both of you.” Gian handed my Beretta to Anthony, who’d had one of his knives out and twirled it menacingly. “Messina, cover me.”
The guys held out their licenses in dirty shaking hands.
Gian popped a swipe device into his phone. “Do you know what’s worse than a bullet between the eyes?”
“Nothing,” the man who’d thrown down the shovel said.
“False. A bullet between the eyes is the end of your problems. I can put my men on you and follow you for the rest of your life and terrorize you and your family. But that’s a lot of work I prefer not to do and I’m sure you’d like to live your lives in peace, not looking over your shoulder every second of every day waiting for the bullet that ends you. Or worse.” He swiped each of their licenses. “Anyone shows up asking about what happened here, multiple DWIs, and moving violations will appear on your licenses. And that will just be the start of how I turn your lives to shit. Don’t fuck with me. Don’t fuck with us. You’ll beg for that bullet between the eyes. You guys got me?”
“Yes, sir.” One of the men took his license back. “Um, we’re supposed to close up the grave.”
I considered all the logistics to get this body upstate given I was currently without a car. My father had his driver take off without me. Staring at the hole in the ground, I pushed past the guilt of massively desecrating Giovanni’s grave and hoped Becca would agree, burying that body right here right now was a necessary evil.
“Throw that body in the grave,” I said to the groundskeepers. “There’s a thousand-dollar bonus in it for each of you.” I snapped a photo of them for reassurance. Now they were complicit in covering up a shooting, even a justified one, as well as illegally disposing of a body. Now they would go out of their way not to tell anyone what happened here. I pulled out my wallet and started counting hundreds as the men nodded and dragged the body to the open grave.
Gian glanced at me over his shoulder. “Not yet, I need to figure out who this guy is.”
“Then you better do it fast. Someone else could show up any second.”
“I want an entire month alone with her after this,” Gian huffed. “You guys would be fucked without me.”
I took my gun from Anthony while Gian messed with his phone. “How is she, Vale?”
“She’s breathing, but she’s out of it,” he answered, holding her while Gil guarded them with both his guns drawn in two different directions.
Anthony lifted Becca up. “I’m sure she doesn’t want to see the guy who tried to kill her buried with her father.” I watched him carry Becca toward her car while Vale, Gil, and I aimed our guns in every direction.
We had a bloody, incoherent queen.
And a dead, unidentified assassin at my feet.
This was turning out to be a really shitty day.