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I couldn’t help myself. “Precision in speech is a virtue, ma’am,” I said, stone-faced. Just to be safe, I added, “A very wise woman told me that once.”
The Widow looked down at me for several seconds with heavily lidded eyes.
“You’re treading a very thin line, Signor,” she finally said.
I was worried I’d let my irritation get the best of me. “My apologies.”
“Don’t apologize,” she said with slight amusement. “Like my granddaughter, you may be insolent, but at least you’re entertaining. What exactly is it that you expect me to do, Signor Rosolini? Declare war on your uncle on your behalf?”
“No, ma’am. We only ask that you keep in mind what I’ve told you, if and when he comes to you – ”
“Or sends his fifth-in-line instead?” she asked, smiling slightly at her little jab.
I clenched my jaw and forced a smile. “Aurelio is his only child, so I guess you’ll be getting a visit from him.”
“Oh, the heir apparent. Wonderful,” she said sarcastically, then switched to a regal tone. “I promise to keep in mind what you’ve said, Signor Rosolini. And as far as our two families are concerned, yours and mine – consider communication reestablished from this point forward.”
As the Widow said the last part, she glanced sternly at her consigliere, who lowered his eyes to the floor, chastened. Mommy had just spanked him in front of God and everybody.
“Thank you, ma’am,” I said with sincere gratitude.
Given the start of the meeting, things had gone better than I thought they would.
The Widow sat up straight on her throne. “Now, unless there’s anything else – ”
Before she could finish her sentence, all hell broke loose.
5
The door in the rear of the room – the one the salt-and-pepper guy had disappeared through a few minutes ago – opened about a foot.
I couldn’t see anything in the shadows on the other side –
But something flew out of the crack, tumbled in an arc through the air, and clanged onto the dais to the left of the Widow’s throne.
My heart froze when I saw it.
At first I thought it was a grenade –
But when the black cylinder rolled across the raised platform, I realized what it really was:
A flashbang, also known as a stun grenade.
Lars had been in the Swedish military’s Special Forces before he went to prison. When he came to work for our family, he’d spent months drilling us out on the grounds of our family estate. Hand-to-hand combat, how to efficiently search and clear a building, and much more.
One of the things he’d shown us were flashbangs.
They’re basically small explosives that aren’t meant to hurl shrapnel or destroy anything, but to temporarily blind and deafen.
Law enforcement and the military use them to disorient targets in advance of an attack –
Which is how I knew what was coming.
The Widow’s bodyguards looked down when the cylinder hit the dais.
At first they were unsure of what the hell it was – but they weren’t alarmed. After all, we were standing inside one of the most heavily guarded rooms in all of Venice. Nothing could get in here without going through multiple layers of security.
The suits didn’t panic until they registered the object’s cylindrical shape.
