Page 125 of Niccolo (Mafia Kings #7)

Niccolo

T he less said about Sicily, the better.

Vicari’s assholery upon our arrival –

Valentino saying I can’t at the altar –

Isabella’s shocking revelation –

The Mexican stand-off with Vicari and his men –

The old lady’s even more shocking revelation –

Her invocation of a Sicilian blood oath to end the entire conflict –

Vicari’s resentful exit –

Caterina’s tearful entrance from the confessional –

And a group wedding with five different couples at once?!

It nearly gave me a heart attack. All of it.

It certainly made me want to kill my youngest brother.

I nearly did kill him in the small Sicilian town where we had the reception.

It was only Dario ordering me to walk away that kept me from strangling Valentino.

However, what stood out most was how badly I had underestimated Caterina and Alessandra.

I remembered what I’d told Dario about Alessandra sending her best friend to Sicily:

It’s a fool’s errand. Caterina will never find Vicari’s compound, much less sneak onto it.

Turns out she didn’t need to.

She’d just enlisted the right ally.

I’ll confess, I’d snidely thought of them as a kitchen worker and a former waitress.

What could they possibly do to challenge me, a consigliere of the Cosa Nostra?

And yet, together they had undone every last one of my plans.

They had utterly humbled me.

Not only that, but they had done it for the right reasons:

Because Caterina was in love with Valentino…

And because Alessandra only wanted to help her best friend.

I realized I’d been trained by a chauvinist and a sociopath, and his arrogance had transferred onto me.

I wonder if Fausto was perhaps underestimating Sofia as woefully as I’d underestimated Cat and Alessandra.

I had a lot to fucking learn… especially from my newest sister-in-law.

Valentino had done his best to return every perceived slight and injury I’d dealt him –

But Caterina?

I had hurt her the most of all…

Yet when I apologized, she forgave me totally and completely.

When I told her, “I hope that one day in the future, you can forgive me… and that we can put this behind us…”

Her response was to tearfully smile and ask, “Why not put it behind us now?”

And she hugged me.

There was a goodness in Caterina that, I feared, was sadly lacking in me.

Again, I was utterly humbled.

But I was glad to have a new teacher to show me how to be a better man.

As the reception continued late into the night, I received a text on my phone.

As soon as I read it, I froze.

My heart skipped a beat –

And I immediately went to Dario.

“What is it?” he asked when he saw my stunned expression.

My initial shock turned to joy, and I grinned. “The Council has agreed to hear our petition next week in Rome.”

Not only could we possibly end this war with Fausto –

But I would be able to see Sofia again.