“And that doesn’t worry you? Because it worries me.”
“If they wanted me dead, they would have come for me a long time ago. They know what happened with the Lombardis, so perhaps they’ve been reminded of what they lost. Probably want my help with something—but I’m not going to do it.”
“Then why go?”
“Because I want to know what it is. Information is currency in this game.”
She continued to stare at me with the same distance in her sad eyes.
I cocked my head slightly. “I would never turn my back on you or your family, Francesca.”
She was quiet for a while. “You were with them your entire life. I know they mean a lot to you.”
“Theymeanta lot to me,” I said. “But I turned my back on them when they turned their back on me.”
“You can’t just turn it off like that?—”
“Well, I can. I don’t dwell on the past. I live in the present and walk toward the future,” I said. “And you’re my present and my future and everything in between. There’s nothing they could say, nothing they could do, to make me ever even thinkabout turning my back on your family. You’re my family now—so they’re my family too.”
3
WOLFE
It was a beautiful day in Palermo, the sunlight dancing on the surface of the turquoise water. Spring had now turned into the beginning of summer, and flowers bloomed in terra-cotta pots and up the side of white trellises. Tourism had ramped up, so there were lots of families and couples in the streets and on the beach.
When I arrived, I went by my place first just to check on things since I hadn’t been there in a while. Didn’t bother bringing a gun to meet with Don Russo, just brought my knife, which was tucked into the back pocket of my jeans.
I approached the gates to the large villa that was sealed off from the public by the enormous stone walls that wrapped completely around it. It was one of the few properties in the heart of Palermo with that feature, so it made it an impregnable fortress. The property belonged to the government because it was a historic building, but Don Russo had been able to broker a deal under the table.
The gates opened the instant I approached, like they all expected me. I pulled around the fountain onto the cobblestones, seeing the guys armed with their rifles at all their posts. Their postures were relaxed, and the barrels of their guns were pointed to the street instead of me.
I left my Range Rover and approached the steps that led to the large entryway.
Santino stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, wearing a collared linen shirt and dark jeans, giving me a hard expression as I walked up like we hadn’t just had dinner together a couple days ago.
I walked up the steps and faced him. “I’ve got a busy day, so let’s get this over with.”
He nodded then turned to the guys who guarded the doors.
They opened one of them, a fifteen-foot door that was on strong hinges bearing the thousands of pounds to make it easy to open and close. Santino headed inside first and I followed him, my eyes adjusting to the darkness after standing in the brilliant sunlight.
He continued to lead the way down the hallway.
I made eye contact with the men on the way.
They looked at me like I was a fucking stranger.
I’d been one of them since I was a child. Had been part of Cosa Nostra longer than almost all of them.
Santino escorted me to Don Russo’s office, where I would meet him and his trusted cronies in a room with a gold mantel andartwork both from local artists and from the Renaissance on the walls bought off the black market.
I stepped inside the office where I used to speak with Don Russo in private all the time as his top lieutenant. The place looked and smelled identical to how it’d been before, but it felt like a place I’d never been.
Don Russo leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest.
Uncle Marco wasn’t there.
Albert wasn’t there either.
