The King Killer | Mafia dark romance | ✔️

19. She is not to be messed with

Antonio

It was a week since my encounter with Val. She still remained nonchalant as if nothing happened between us. Since that day I had wrecked my mind thinking of ways to have her again. It was only a one time thing but it did a number on me.

I had become a predator, stalking her moves. She knew what I was going through. Withdrawal. Her withdrawal. Yet, that vixen never showed an ounce of mercy. Why would she? After the way I treated her, ignoring, like some garbage than what was bestowed by her title. She was the future head, just like me and I never gave her that respect or considered her for the position.

"Are you ready?" Agustin walked in. Closely following him was Alejandro and not far behind them, the woman who had taken over my mind space. She smiled, walking in and plopping on the corner of the couch she always sat at.

Alejandro opened his books, scrolling his closed pen over numbers. His lower lip softly recalling all digits. It was our payment, all in books like old school. A thing or two we retained in tradition. Old mansion and the ledger keeping. Uploading on the system was easy, convenient. But with that lingered the fear of hacking, someone monitoring us.

Alejandro moved the books to Val who mirrored his expressions. Her right index ran over the sheet, muttering while her left fingers played air piano, with her thumb running over them. Since Val joined us, we had seem some fatal calculation errors and got a chance to rectify it.

Pulling her head up from the book, she shut the heaviness that lay in her lap. With a smile, she tuned to both my brothers. "They tally."

After our in-house accountant's seal of approval, we moved onto more serious topics. I walked over from my chair onto the couch where my bothers sat. I sat opposite to Val. A part of me envied Agustin who sat beside her.

"How are we with the Spain plan?" I glanced at Al who fished his phone, checking.

The silence in the room was marred by the muffled sounds from Agustin's phone. He hid the earphone in his left ear, facing me from his right. With soft gunshot sounds, his attention would divert towards the phone screen he held in his hand.

Val noticed my discomfort. I wasn't against playing games on phone or for that matter, any game. God knows the times I had enjoyed a game of snooker with my brothers. But there was always a time and place for it. Coiling her hand over Agustin's phone, Val slipped it beneath his thigh. Agustin shoot her a look before their eyes whispered silent words to each other. He understood, nodding at her.

"Nico is good there." Al drew our attention back to the plan. Valentina's eyebrows shot up, hearing her cousin's name. She leaned forward, intending to know more about him. Al moved onto the next topic, leaving her with a fallen face. "Now stage two of the plan," he smiled and tuned to Val.

She nodded, knowing very well what was demanded of her. With his undivided attention over work, Agustin interrupted. "Val won't be safe there. Salazar had always wanted us to be weak. Imagine how weak would we be, with one of our own in his territory."

I smiled at Agustin's words, the way he displayed the cluster of concern in his mind. He was a ruthless man but for Maria and Val he would always remain a kid. I still had no clue how Valentina managed to get his puppy love off of her. She was good not only with weapons, but also in getting men to leave her alone. Ironically, I it had an opposite effect on me.

"I will be fine, Agustin." She patted his hand and ran circles with her thumb. Mere gesture of her, being comfortable with my brother yet ignoring me was unnerving. I wanted to pull her out of the room and into my place. With her words, I was trying hard to focus on the plan. "And besides, Santos wouldn't do anything. He knows better than to play with me again."