Page 335 of Marcello

“Lucia,” he said grimly.

“Why didn’t you tell her she couldn’t come?”

Massimo looked at me sideways. “Have you met my wife?”

I had to chuckle at that one.

“And I’m sorry Dario made you stay behind with us,” Massimo added.

“He didn’t make me – he asked.”

Massimo frowned. “Why did you say yes?”

It was something I knew from my days in Special Forces, but it was hard to put into words.

When a man felt like he had to do something – like avenge the woman he loved –

And not doing it would mean he wasn’t a man anymore –

There was no dissuading him.

Sometimes all you could do was wish him luck.

“Because he wants to walk this road alone,” I said.

When Massimo gave me a puzzled look, I continued. “When Dario faces Cesare, it’s going to be just the two of them, and there’s no way in hell he’d let me interfere in that. So I have to let him go at some point. Might as well be now.”

121

Giorgio

Inside The Mansion

Lars told us not to split up, so we didn’t.

It was probably good advice. There weren’t that many of us, and we had no idea what we were about to face.

We entered a back hall off the courtyard. No Camorra were there –

But the gunfire was slightly louder now that we were inside the mansion.

Blam blam blam!

Brattatattatat!

We had two choices: go left or go right.

There was a lot of shouting and screaming off to the left, so Adriano went right.

We crept through several expensively decorated rooms that looked like a raging bull had been there.

Broken furniture… shattered bottles… slashed upholstery… the stench of piss and vomit…

But no Camorra.

Adriano, Valentino, Vincenzo, and I searched and cleared the dimly lit rooms while the others covered us. We made damn sure no one was in the shadows, waiting to surprise us…

Then we advanced deeper into the mansion as the sound of gunfire echoed above.