Stone breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“He says to kill you anyway.”
Stone stopped breathing.
“Just kidding,” the man said, then burst out laughing. All the men laughed with him.
“I may die anyway,” Holly said to Stone.
“I know how you feel.”
When the man had gotten control of himself he held out a hand to Stone. “My name is Vito.”
Stone shook the hand.
“Don Eduardo says to take you back to your car.”
“Good.”
“But I gotta kill the lady.”
“Now hang on a minute,” Stone said.
“Yeah,” Holly echoed, “hang on!”
Vito burst out laughing again, and the others followed suit. “Come on,” he said finally, waving them toward the elevator. “I’m just kidding again.” His shoulders were shaking, and tears were rolling down his cheeks.
“So, we dug this hole for nothing?” one of the men with a shovel said to Vito.
“Don’t worry about it, it’ll get used,” Vito replied.
He rode up in the elevator with Stone and Holly and handed them their guns. “You can find your car from here?” Vito asked.
“Yes, we can,” Stone replied. “One more thing. We want Trini Rodriguez.”
Vito rolled his eyes. “Everybody wants Trini,” he said.
“Don Eduardo would like us to find him.”
Vito looked at him doubtfully.
“No kidding.”
“Trini is with the fuckin’ towelheads somewhere,” he said.
“Towelheads?”
“Yeah, the Ayrabs.”
“And where are the Ayrabs?”
“Around somewhere.”
“I thought all the Ayrabs got arrested when Trini pulled off his little deal with the FBI.”
“The FBI, what do they know?” Vito said, laughing.
“Will you be speaking to Trini?” Stone asked.