Page 101 of City Of Thieves

All churches smell of hard sacrifice and history—that musty, dank odor that wraps around your conscience and purges your soul—and this one is no different.

“Keep low,” he says as we step out into the nave with its rows and rows of pews stretching out into the shadows. “It could be just him, or it could be an army.”

My heart sinks when I look around. The place is empty. The lights are low. Fake eternal candles are flickering on the altar. Then I hear it…A quiet sob, coming from the other side of the church.

Renzo hears it, too, because he freezes, and then he’s grabbing my arm and shouting at me to, “Get down!”

The bullets ricochet off the stone wall above my head, the sound vibrating in my mind as he fires five shots back in return. There’s a flutter of movement, and he shoots twice more. I hear a loud thump as a body goes down.

“Game’s up, Sal,” he shouts.

“Fuck you, Lorenzo,” snarls a reply, but his voice is wet and wounded.

“I need you to stay here. He may still have a weapon.”

“Wait!” But he’s already approaching the edge of the darkness.

Crawling back to the wall, my head jerks sharply to the left when I hear another sob.

Anastasia.

Rising to my feet, I feel a rough hand clamping over my mouth.

“It’s okay, Tatiana,” a deep voice soothes. “I’m not here to hurt you. Where’s Renzo?”

Spinning around, I find myself gazing up at the stoical, granite-like features of Gianni Marchesi. He lets go of my mouth to allow me to speak when there’s a loud crash up ahead, and more bullets are fired.

He curses as a tall figure limps into view. Drawing his gun, he shields me with his body. “Stay where you are, Sal!”

“This could’ve all been avoided, Gianni.” As Sal steps closer, I can see he’s clutching his side and pointing a gun in our direction. “You allowed your useless son to drag his feet for three months.Three fucking months! That’s not how shit’s done, and you know it. All you had to do was make me underboss, and then Becca wouldn’t have had to lose both her sonsandher husband.”

“Don’t you dare bring my wife’s name into this, you piece of shit!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she and Rosalia are ‘taken care of’ when I’m boss.”

“It’ll never happen. Paulie and Anton know all about your Russian backdoor deal.”

Sal laughs, but it lacks Gianni’s dark confidence. “Konstantin knew you were coming. He planned on it. You, Renzo, and that Sanders bitch may have gotten lucky, but extermination starts from the outside. Belov’s men fired bullets at yourreinforcementswhile he was inside manipulating everyone’s strings.”

“Are you sure about that?”

As Gianni’s voice moves further away towards the altar, I find myself being dragged backward into the vestibule. Renzo’s swaying slightly. His left arm is hanging down by his side and it’s streaked in crimson.

“What the hell happened?” I whisper, horrorstruck.

“Bastard shot me. Stay here. This needs to end tonight.”

In front of the altar, the voices are escalating. Watching from my hiding place, I see Renzo moving up behind Sal, trapping him between father and son.

“It’s over, Salvatore,” Gianni calls out. “Only one of us is walking out of here alive. Maybe it’ll be you, maybe it’ll be me. Either way, I need to know…Why?”

“You believe a drop of family blood on a prayer card guarantees loyalty, Gianni, but the truth is, everyone can be bought if the price is right.”

Money and power.

I watch Gianni’s mouth curve into a cold smile. “True, but here’s the thing… You wereneverfamily… Renzo.”

On his command, Renzo’s bullet hits Sal in the back, sending the condemned man stumbling forward onto his knees.