“The Valentis.” His answer was clipped, and I immediately felt that familiar tingle at the back of my neck. It happened whenever I heard the name “Valenti.”
I frowned. “You answered that pretty quickly. You sure about your answer?”
“What the fuck, man? You asked me, and I answered.”
I studied his ugly face for a few seconds, wondering why the hell he answered so damn fast. Around here, people didn’t go telling everyone who they worked for on the streets—especially a cop. So, either Gio was incredibly stupid, or he was lying.
I pulled him away from the counter. “I’m sorry for the mess, Mrs. Rossi. I’ll come back around later and help you clean up, okay?”
Mrs. Rossi smiled. “You are such a gentleman, Lorik. I’ll make sure I have some of my mushroom risotto packed for you.”
“Ah, Mrs. Rossi,” I winked at her, “you know exactly the way to my heart.” I pulled Gio away from the counter and smiled warmly at the old lady I’d come to know during the last two years. A good old soul.
“So, Gio, did I ever tell you about this girl I knew a few years ago?” I dragged him toward the door. “She also had the whole gap thing going with her front teeth, only she didn’t patch it with a gold filling. But let me tell you, that girl sucked my cock like a champ.”
“That’s because your dick was small enough to fill her gap,” Gio shot back. And then his face justhappenedto collide with the wall right next to the door. “Motherfucker!”
Again, his face hit the wall. “Gio, you need to go through the door, not the wall, my man.” I smiled wickedly, like I was trying to shove the fact that I had perfectly spaced teeth in his face.
“You’re the one slamming me into the damn wall, you psycho.”
“Me?” I feigned a look of innocence. “I would never do such a thing.” And then Gio’s face slammed against the wall for the third time, right before I finally led him through the door to the sidewalk.
The precinct was about a block away. Unfortunately, all this went down while I was on my way back from my lunch break, which meant we were going to have to walk.Where’s a fucking squad car when you need one?
People stared at us while we made our way down the sidewalk. I didn’t care. If I had to care about what other people thought, I’d be bat-shit crazy by now. The fact that I was half Albanian made for some serious gossip, and some piss-poor jokes back at the station. Especially since I was the best damn detective, and those donut-eating, useless, lazy asses I was forced to work with on a daily basis were jealous as fuck. And not only was I the best detective Boston had seen in a long time, I was also the prettiest. I got more pussy in one week than those fuckers got in a year—combined.
I glanced at Gio walking with his head hanging down.
“Oh, come on, you and I both know getting arrested makes you even more bad-ass on these streets. And let’s face it, snatch-and-grabbing an old lady’s purse is real bad-ass.”
“Go fuck yourself, Stone.”
I noticed a pole about six feet in front of us. “Mind the pole.”Too late.
The sound of Gio’s face hitting the pole vibrated next to me, and Gio cursed the longest f-bomb sentence I’d heard in a while.
“You should really watch where you’re going, Gio.”
He opened his mouth, but then I glanced down the street at the ten-odd poles all lined up. Gio shut his mouth.Good boy.
We finally walked through the revolving doors of the local district station, and I smelled the fat-induced, sugar and spice scent of a fuck-load of donuts.Really? No wonderall cops get stereotyped as donut eating slobs—because it’s true.
“It was real nice seeing you again, Gio.” I shoved his ass into a chair. “Monroe, book him for snatch and grab. I found this on him too.” I tossed the bag of cocaine to the uniformed cop standing around like he had nothing better to do. It wasn’t like there were drugs, child kidnappings, or mafia fuckers soiling our streets, so we could just stand around and look pretty in our cop uniforms.
“And it was a real pleasure doing your job for you, Monroe.Again.”
“Fuck you, Stone.”
“Funny enough, you’re not the first one to say those exact words to me today.”
“That’s ’cause you’re a Greek cocksucker.”
“I’m Albanian, you fucking dildo. Get a fucking map.” I showed him the finger and turned around.
On my way to my desk, I spotted Anderson sitting at his desk across from mine.Motherfucker.My day just keeps on getting better.
“Anderson.” I took my seat. “So nice of you to finally join us on the job. How long has it been? Two, three weeks?” I leaned back.