Page 255 of Marcello

I was still heartbroken over my family, and I felt the darkness pressing in all around me.

But this time, I had a tiny bit of light to guide me…

And hope.

For the first time that night, I had hope.

80

Romeo

After I saw Giulietta – I mean Laura –

Damn, her real name was going to take some getting used to.

Anyways, after I saw her, I went to her bedroom and searched under the mattress.

Sure enough, there was the phone.

I turned it off so it couldn’t ring, then slipped it into my pocket.

After that, I went out to the guardhouse and considered my options.

Should I move all the guards to the front of the property, and say I would handle the gardens alone?

No – one man guarding four acres of gardens would raise suspicions.

As I was considering my options, a black Cadillac SUV drove up to the guardhouse, and the driver’s side rear window rolled down.

Lucrezia.

The way she looked at me made my skin crawl – like I was a piece of meat.

I guess murder and mayhem made her horny.

If Cesare saw her looking at me like that, he’d kill me and put her other eye out.

“Any news on the Amato girl?” she purred.

“No.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure my brother forgets all about it.”

I wanted to scream at her, Why the fuck did you lie about keeping the women and children alive, you fucking psychopathic BITCH?!

But I knew better than that. I clamped down hard on my emotions and simply said, “Thank you.”

She rolled up the window, and the SUV drove up to the house.

I kept trying to figure a way out of my predicament, but the situation was hopeless – at least at the moment. Too many drunk Camorra thugs were stumbling around the grounds, pawing half-naked women or fucking them in the bushes. There was no way I could get Giulietta out without being seen.

Then I got a phone call from Lucrezia.

“Come up to the library,” she said tersely. “We have something to discuss.”

I left my guys with instructions to keep watch and trudged up to the house.

It was like a warped funhouse-mirror version of the meeting yesterday at Cesare’s house. All the other lieutenants were there – Cicciobello, Toro, Ciro, Tiratore, and Mignolino – along with Cesare and Lucrezia.