Victorious Vice (Bellamy Brothers #6)

26. Vinnie

26

VINNIE

“ Y ou,” I grit out.

Raven’s father stands over me, his grip tight around my wrist.

I wrangle free and then kick Jack Smith for good measure. He’s still in a fetal position, and won’t be getting to his feet anytime soon.

“Somehow I knew you had to be a part of this.” I shake my head. “Who got to you? Mario? Diego Vega?”

He frowns. “Not everything is as it seems, Mr. Gallo.”

“I’d say nothing is as it seems.” I shake him by the shoulders. “Where is Raven? I happen to know this man was sent to kill her.”

“She’s safe. Jared has her.”

“Why did you stop me from killing him?” I dig my nails into the shoulders of his blazer. “He wants to murder your daughter!”

He swats my right hand away. “Because as I said, not everything is as it seems.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “You need to start talking, Bellamy. You really need to start talking. Because you say you love that daughter of yours, but I can tell you I love her more. I would give my life for hers in an instant.”

“And you think I wouldn’t?”

I point to the assassin. “Who is this jerk?”

“A man who needs medical attention,” Bellamy says.

“He needs to be six feet under.”

Smith groans. “Help…” he rasps out.

“Yeah, I’ll help you all right.” I cross the room and leer over him. “Right into your fucking grave.”

“I’m going to call 911.” Bellamy meets my gaze. “They’re going to come and take this man to the emergency room where he can get help.”

“He’s just had the wind knocked out of him. He doesn’t need any help.”

Bellamy cocks his head at me.

I slowly turn back to face him. “You’re lying. You have no intention of calling 911. You know this guy. You stopped me from killing him.” I take a slow step in his direction, keeping a second eye on the man on the floor. “What is your game, Bellamy? I know about the deal. About the drug smuggling. I uncovered all of it when I was in Colombia.”

“I have nothing to do with that.”

I roll my eyes. “For God’s sake, would you just stop lying? Your cover is blown. You don’t have to act like the high and mighty big man of Texas with me. I know better. If you’re worried about me telling Raven any of this, don’t be. I won’t put her through that. But I will make sure she’s safe. And let me ask you this, Bellamy? Is she safe from you?”

He rakes his hands through his graying blond hair. “Of course she’s safe with me. Do you really think I would let anything happen to any of my children? Especially Raven, after what she’s been through? I went to bed every night for years wondering if she would be alive the next morning.”

“Then why did you stop me from shooting this fucking asshole when you and I both know why he’s here?”

“Because, as I told you?—”

“Things aren’t always as they seem,” I finish for him. “God, you’re like a broken record, Bellamy.”

I’m tempted to pistol whip the jerk. He’s in his sixties. I could easily take him despite the fact that he’s tall and muscled.

“Then tell me,” I say. “Tell me how things truly are. Because right now it looks to me like you’re saving the life of a man who wanted to do your daughter harm.”

He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath in. “I’ve…made some mistakes in my life.”

I scoff at that. “Who hasn’t? Are you saying your mistakes led you to the dark side? Fuck you, Bellamy.”

“Do you really want to play that card?” He shakes his head. “You stand there, judging me, when I know you’re not a man of virtue either. You may indeed love my daughter—in fact, I believe you do—but that doesn’t mean you’re good for her.”

Another scoff. “At the moment I’d say you’re not much good for her either.”

He sighs. “My children mean the world to me. Do you think it was easy for me to watch?—”

He stops abruptly.

But I’m not going to let this slide. He just let his mask slip.

I point at him. “To watch your oldest child go to prison? Tell me how easy it was for you, Bellamy. Because you and I both know there’s more to that story.”

He doesn’t reply at first. He kneels next to the man still in the fetal position. “You okay, Dietrich?”

I knew Jack Smith was a fake name. And Austin Bellamy knows his real name. Point one for me.

“You hired someone to off your daughter?”

He looks up at me, his face stony. “Are you kidding me? You think I want to be involved in all of this?”

“Seems you do want to be involved in it. You’ve got a fortune. You could take your whole family, leave the country, live in luxury somewhere and not be bothered by any of this.”

“Where would I go? Certainly not to South America.”

“Who the hell said anything about South America? You could go to Europe. Hell, go to Monaco. It costs a mint to live there, but you’ve got the money.”

He sighs. “You think I haven’t thought about that?”

“Then why haven’t you?”

He looks back down at the guy on the floor. “Because this is a fucking mess. A mess of my parents’ making.”

“Your father’s been dead for decades, and your mother passed away over a year ago.”

“Yes, I know. And I shielded my mother from what was going on within her company. Why do you think I had to let my son go to prison?”

“Because he confessed to shooting a cop,” I say. “Quit making things up.”

Bellamy helps Dietrich to his feet.

“You want to start explaining?” I say to him.

Dietrich is breathing hard and holding his stomach. “I was only following orders.”

“Yeah, so were the Nazis. Sell it to someone else.”

“I wasn’t going to kill her,” he says.

“You admitted it to me.”

Bellamy steps between us. “His job was to make you think he was going to harm Raven, Gallo.”

I scratch the side of my head. “But he received payment from Agudelo. Not from you.”

Bellamy shrugs. “I hacked my daughter’s Uber app. Do you think it’s so difficult for me to falsify some financial records?”

I blink, unable to come up with a good response.

Bellamy shakes his head. “I knew who you were in contact with in Colombia, Vinnie. I knew you would be looking up everything you could about this guy. You really should work on being less predictable.”

My mind races. “But why would you go to the trouble?”

Then it hits me. Bellamy did all of that so he could…

“You bastard.”

Bellamy frowns. “I see you figured it out. I did it so I could get you put away. Attempted murder.”

“Not actual murder?”

“He’s wearing a bulletproof vest, of course.”

“Yeah? I had my gun pointed at his brain. Wouldn’t have helped.”

“Which is why I had to intervene.” Bellamy sighs. “You and I are on the same side, Gallo.”

“Not from where I’m standing. You just admitted you wanted to send me to prison.”

He clasps his hands together, not meeting my gaze. “We both want to protect Raven.”

“Right. And you want to protect her from me.”

He finally looks up, making eye contact with me. “Bingo.”

“You think I don’t want that? I love your daughter. No doubt about that. I’ll probably never love again. But I will give her up a million times to keep her safe. She knows that.”

“There are things you don’t understand that are at play here,” he says.

“I swear to God, if you try to tell me that one more time, you’ll be able to get me on two charges of attempted murder.” I pace the room. “I’m a member of the Bianchi family. You think I don’t get how this works? If you think I don’t understand something, then explain it. I’ve got a functioning brain, Bellamy.”

“We need to speak in private.”

I raise my hands to either side of my body, gesturing around the room. “What the hell do you call this?”

He shakes his head. “Dietrich doesn’t know everything either.”

I reach into my pocket. “I’ve had enough of your stalling. I’m calling the cops on this asshole.”

“He hasn’t done anything,” Bellamy says. “I just told you that he wasn’t going to harm Raven. His only job was to make you think he was going to do that.”

“Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it.”

“You don’t have to take my word for it. When it comes to my daughter, I speak only the truth.” He turns to Dietrich. “You okay? I can have Paris take you to the ER.”

Dietrich coughs. “I’m good.”

“Then go. Get whatever medical attention you need, if any. Then lie low. I need to speak with Mr. Gallo alone.”