Page 168 of Niccolo (Mafia Kings #7)

O r perhaps I should put air quotes around that:

‘Dead’ men.

Dario…

Adriano…

Massimo…

Lars…

Valentino…

Roberto…

And Niccolo.

Their white shirts were all splotched with red. In the center of the stains, ragged holes were visible in the cloth…

But every single man was alive.

They walked in silently, each one carrying a pistol pointed at the floor.

Behind them in the hallway were Dante and Rachel. Her blouse was also stained red.

Once the brothers and Lars were all inside, Dante and Rachel closed the wooden doors with an echoing BOOM.

“…no…” Fausto whispered in horror as he stared at his nephews. “No – I saw you die!”

“We got better,” Niccolo quipped.

“Actually,” Dario said to his uncle, “you only thought we died… when all that happened was a little bit of Hollywood magic.”

He ripped open his shirt –

Exposing pads beneath, taped to the skin, with burst balloons dripping red.

“You’ve seen The Godfather,” Massimo said. “You showed it to me when I was eight years old. When Sonny gets shot at the tollbooth, I thought he died for real – but you told me it was just make-believe.”

“They call ‘em squibs,” Adriano said with a malevolent smile. “Tiny explosives and balloons filled with fake blood. Niccolo hired some movie guys here in Rome to come in last night and rig us up.”

“Hurt like a motherfucker,” Valentino grinned. “But seeing your face right now? Totally worth it.”

“Worth at least 28 million euros,” Roberto deadpanned –

The amount Fausto had stolen from them.

Fausto looked at the brothers frantically. “But – you couldn’t have done it without…”

Then he realized…

And he looked over at me with pure hatred.

“You fucking cunt,” he snarled.

Niccolo’s face became a mask of rage –

And he raised his gun and fired.

Fausto’s left arm sprayed red –

And the old man cried out and grasped the wound.

I gasped as it happened – but not from shock.

My reaction came from a single thought:

He would KILL for me.

I felt a surge of something indescribable –

An emotion so primal, a desire so fierce –

An overwhelming feeling of being treasured –

That I couldn’t help myself.

I rushed into Niccolo’s arms –

And he kissed me passionately.

Then I broke off and stared up at him.

It was like I had never truly seen him before this…

And I wanted him more than ever before.

Niccolo smiled down at me –

Then winced and turned to his brothers. “Sorry, I just – sorry.”

Dario chuckled. “Understandable.”

“I loved it!” Adriano laughed. “You fucking NEVER lose control!”

“Yeah, well…” Niccolo muttered as he hugged me tight to his side.

“I taught you to shoot better than that,” Lars joked.

“I was only trying to wing him,” Niccolo protested.

“Well done, then.”

“FUCK YOU!” Fausto screamed, drawing our attention back to him. “FUCK ALL OF YOU! GO AHEAD AND GET IT OVER WITH!”

“You don’t get a say in how long this takes, Uncle,” Dario said coldly.

For the first time ever, I saw real fear on Fausto’s face.

Then he turned back to me. “You little cunt – ALL your wives are fucking cunts!”

“That’s not going to work again,” Niccolo said.

“But if you keep saying it, just know we’re going to shoot you in the balls and let you bleed out,” Adriano said. “Slowly.”

“What do you want?” Fausto growled.

“First – our money,” Dario said. “Roberto.”

Roberto hustled over to Fausto’s laptop and began typing furiously on the keyboard.

“Are you alright?” Niccolo whispered to me.

I nodded yes. “You?”

He chuckled. “Like Valentino said, the explosives hurt like a motherfucker – but I guess if it helped sell our deaths, it was worth it.”

“Oh,” I said grimly, “it was horrible to watch.”

“Wait,” Fausto snarled, “how did you do it?!”

“We triggered the explosives ourselves,” Massimo said as he held up a tiny metal tube. There was a red button at the end with a wire snaking up his sleeve. “We just waited until we heard gunshots, then pushed the button.”

“But – the bullets – ” Fausto muttered, then got a grim look on his face as he realized. “Blanks.”

“Yup,” Valentino said.

“Well… they were blanks until we headed over here, at which point we switched them out for real bullets,” Niccolo said, then smiled. “Which you already know.”

Fausto looked aghast. “But – that means – was every single one of my foot soldiers in on it?!”

“You should have treated them better,” I said coldly. “When Dante proposed the deal to them, every single one of them said yes.”

“And you,” he growled. “When did you decide to betray me?”

“I decided to do what was best for me in Modena,” I said, refusing to use the word ‘betray’ with a Judas like Fausto.

He looked puzzled – until a flash of recognition hit.

“The morgue attendant,” he muttered.

I nodded. “After you had Dante kill him, I knew I had to get out from under your thumb at all costs. I just didn’t know how, until Niccolo told me his plan two nights ago.”

It was all true.

After I’d seen how Fausto disposed of people once they were no longer useful to him, I’d made my choice.

I just told him the exact opposite of what I’d decided – and lied to him ever since.

All along, I’d been searching for a way out –

A way to get what I wanted and escape Fausto unscathed.

It was only recently that I’d stopped looking out solely for myself…

Because I’d fallen in love.

I just hadn’t been able to admit it at the time.

The night of the Galleria Borghese, I’d had to think long and hard about whether to side with Niccolo – to throw my lot in with him completely and irrevocably, come what may.

Deep down, I’d wanted to.

I just had to convince myself it wasn’t suicide.

Fausto couldn’t conceive that I’d been lying to him all along. “But you argued like a tigress at the Council!”

“Because otherwise you would have suspected something. Plus,” I said, giving Niccolo a playful smile, “I like to win.”

Niccolo grinned back at me.

Fausto shot me one last look of disgust, then turned back to his nephews.

“How did you time it all?” he asked, his curiosity overtaking his rage. “It looked so real…”

“Since we had no idea exactly when your men would fire,” Lars said, “we knew the timing would be off when we triggered the squibs – ”

“Which is why we deactivated the sound on the body cameras,” I said.

Fausto stared at me. “Gallo was in on it, too?”

“You really pay everybody shit, you know that? I gave your police captain an extra 30 grand in cash – out of my own pocket – and he agreed to arrange it so the sound couldn’t be broadcast. Then, when everybody was ‘dead,’ I shot the monitors.

That was the signal for Dante to text everyone and tell them it was safe – ”

“At which point we hustled over here to see you,” Adriano finished.

“Why all this subterfuge?” Fausto asked. “Why not just pay my own men to kill me?”

“Because we wanted to do it ourselves,” Dario said coldly.

“Then why not pay my foot soldiers to step aside?” Fausto asked contemptuously. “Why not just walk in the front door and assassinate me?”

“You would have seen us coming,” Massimo said as he pointed at the monitors. “You might have had time to barricade yourself or grab a gun and start shooting.”

“Or worse, start throwing money at your foot soldiers,” Roberto said. “It’s hard to say ‘no’ when someone’s promising more money than you’ve ever made in your entire life… so we decided to remove your ability to tempt them.”

“Not to mention,” Niccolo added, “this little charade might give us some leeway with Don Severino, seeing as you struck first.”

Fausto chuckled darkly. He was a consigliere through and through; he could appreciate a genius plan when he saw it, even if he was the one who got stung.

“You’ll lose your 20 million euros,” he growled at me.

“But I’ll gain a husband,” I said with faux sweetness, “and a family who’ll make sure I’m taken care of.”

“Damn straight,” Adriano agreed.

Niccolo looked over at him in surprise.

“What?” Adriano said belligerently. “She fuckin’ came through for us, just like you said she would. As far as I’m concerned, she can have whatever the fuck she wants.”

The other brothers all laughed.

“So you get your happy ending,” Fausto sneered at me, then gestured towards the hallway. “What are the rest of them getting out of it?”

“Whatever money you promised them,” Dario said.

“One hundred thousand apiece,” I told him.

Dario nodded, then turned back to Fausto.

“I’ll honor that payment and give the same to all of my men.

In addition, Dante will take over your territory in Tuscany as one of my capos, the same as Adriano in Florence.

Your men will become his men – and thus my men, just like they were Papa’s.

Plus, everyone will get a share of all profits going forward – both Dante’s foot soldiers and mine. ”

“You’re wasting your fucking money,” Fausto snapped.

“Actually,” Roberto said as he continued to type on the laptop, “the bonuses alone will be 8 million euros – far less expensive than waging a war with you. And performance-based incentives should make sure everyone works even harder.”

“Listen to the accountant,” Niccolo said.

“Finished,” Roberto announced as he closed the laptop, put it under his arm, and rejoined the rest of us on the opposite side of the desk.

“I transferred everything over from the accounts he had open – in excess of 32 million euros – and changed all the passwords on his laptop. I’ll go through the rest after we’re finished here. ”

Fausto scowled. “So… you’ve won. I won’t bother begging for mercy since I know you won’t give it to me. I only ask for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Dario asked coldly.

“Make it quick,” Fausto snarled.

“That we can do,” Dario agreed. “But first: Fausto Rosolini, you have been found guilty of treason against our family – and especially against our father.”

From the grim look on Fausto’s face, he recognized the words being spoken.

As though on cue, every man in the room raised his gun and pointed it at Fausto – including Lars, though he was the only one who didn’t speak.

“The penalty for this crime is death,” Massimo said.

Roberto went next. “No request for mercy shall be entertained; no quarter shall be given.”

Adriano grinned malevolently. “I take all the pleasure in the world in this act…”

“But take solace in that your crime is yours, and yours alone,” Valentino said.

“None of your loved ones will suffer for your transgressions – only you,” Dario said.

Niccolo’s face contorted with fury. “May you burn in Hell… and may God NEVER have mercy upon your soul.”

I clapped my hands over my ears –

But it wasn’t enough to blot out the roar of gunfire that erupted.

Fausto’s body jerked as two dozen bullets ripped through his chest.

His face contorted in agony –

And then he collapsed backwards onto the floor.

Only then did the men stop firing.

Though my ears rang as I took away my hands, I could hear the tinkle of brass shell casings as they fell to the floor…

And the slow, wet gurgle of Fausto struggling to breathe.

Adriano walked away from the rest of us, stood over Fausto’s body, and aimed his gun directly at his uncle’s head.

BLAM!

“That’s for Papa,” Adriano snarled, “you son of a bitch.”