Page 262 of Marcello

…but not Giulietta.

She was still stuck inside Amato’s castle.

That gave me pause.

No matter what, I had to make sure I could rescue her.

Something else was bothering me, too.

If I alerted Fausto, and he killed Cesare and Lucrezia –

What would stop him from killing me, too?

Why wouldn’t Fausto tie up the only loose end that could implicate him?

Even if he did keep his word, what about the rest of Cesare’s crew back in Naples?

I couldn’t exactly show up at the mansion and say, Yeah, everybody else died, but I got out alive. Nobody in their right mind would believe me.

Before I called Fausto, I had to figure out what to do about Giulietta –

But I assumed I had plenty of time to decide.

That part was correct: it took forever for the shit to hit the fan.

But when it did, it was horrifying.

There were a couple of false starts.

Several cars left the mansion around 8 AM. Cesare wanted to go after them, but Lucrezia convinced him otherwise. “They’re headed the wrong way. We want them going into the compound, not out of it.”

My back ached from watching the telescope, but Lucrezia made me keep watching. Apparently, she didn’t trust any of the other lunkheads in the crew.

Hours passed – then a single black Mercedes drove up to the gate and continued on to the house. Because of the tinted side and rear windows, I couldn’t see who was inside.

Cesare and Lucrezia argued some more. I tried to get a little more information to pass along to Fausto. “So why am I watching this place again?”

Cesare screamed at me to shut up. Lucrezia was a little more tactful.

“You’re on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know quite yet,” she said, then turned to Ciro. “Any word from Mazzacane, Puorco, or Zoppo yet?”

Those were the guys she’d sent to Florence a couple of days ago.

“No,” Ciro replied. “You want me to call Mazzacane?”

“No.”

“What about Puorco or Zoppo? They could swing by the shop and see if – ”

“They’ve either done it by now, or they’re dead,” Lucrezia said. “Those are the only two options.”

My ears perked up.

WHAT shop?

And why would Mazzacane and the others be dead?

Suddenly, a bunch of cars appeared in the telescope. “I see something! Five black Mercedes and one blue Bugatti. They’re driving up the road towards the main gate, and they’re moving fast.”