Page 29 of Niccolo (Mafia Kings #7)

A pparently it couldn’t be done, because Mezzasalma failed.

Oh, he succeeded in wiping out the Agrellas, alright.

But he failed to kill Adriano, Massimo, and Lars in an ambush at a hotel.

What’s more, he failed to kill them again at a restaurant just a few days later.

He shot Adriano several times, yes –

But the capo of Florence was wearing a bulletproof vest and had only suffered a few broken ribs.

Not only that, but Mezzasalma met his end when the female hostage he’d taken – Adriano’s new lover – jerked the steering wheel and sent his car careening over the edge of a culvert.

The crash didn’t kill him.

Three bullets to the head from Adriano did that.

“Stupid fucking Sicilian,” Aurelio sneered. He alone was happy that Mezzasalma had failed.

As part of the operation, Fausto had arranged for a bunch of dirty cops from other cities to be transferred to Florence. When the police arrested Adriano, one of those dirty cops was supposed to murder him while in custody –

And yet Adriano still managed to escape.

In the end, Mezzasalma and his Sicilians were dead, and Dario and his brothers were still standing.

I couldn’t believe it.

Twice we’d sent small armies against the Rosolinis –

And twice, they’d met all comers and won.

Hell, they’d killed the Sicilian Grim Reaper himself.

The only positive development was that Fausto successfully waged his whisper campaign regarding the Agrellas’ deaths.

As far as the rest of the Cosa Nostra were concerned, Dario had ordered the murder of his family’s business partners.

The Rosolini brothers were now totally and completely alone.

And yet… they had survived the boogeyman.

How?!

I sat there in shock when I found out about Mezzasalma’s death and wondered how long the brothers’ luck could hold out.

Then I realized that maybe it wasn’t luck, but some intangible factor I couldn’t grasp merely from reading their files.

In the world of chess, all that mattered was the pieces on the board…

But in poker, you played the man, not the hand.

Perhaps I had been treating this like a game of chess when it was really more like poker.

I had been playing the board when I should have been playing ‘the man.’

“I need to meet your nephews,” I said.

Fausto looked over at me in surprise. “What in the world for?”

“I’m missing something. They have something – some quality or ability – that I won’t know until I see it for myself.”

“Luck,” Aurelio snorted.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You think luck alone explains how they beat both the Turk and Mezzasalma? Not a chance.”

“Well, you’ll have an opportunity soon enough,” Fausto said. “The girl that crashed Mezzasalma’s car woke up in the hospital, and Adriano proposed to her. Bianca, I think her name is. The wedding’s in a month or so.”

I stared at him. “Does everyone in the mafia get married after near-death experiences?”

Fausto chuckled. “My nephews certainly seem to. Anyway, you can go to the wedding as Aurelio’s date. That shouldn’t arouse any suspicions on their part.”

“Great,” I muttered.

Aurelio smirked. “Does that mean we should fuck first?”

“You can fuck off if you want,” I said, then turned back to Fausto. “Why are they getting married so soon? Dario got married after a month, and now Adriano – is that another mafia tradition?”

“It is, actually,” Fausto said. “In the Cosa Nostra, weddings either take forever, or they happen lightning fast. Engagements sometimes last for years because the families don’t trust each other…

but marriages of passion tend to happen practically overnight.

As we say, ‘None of us knows what tomorrow will bring… so we squeeze as much happiness out of whatever time we have left.’”

“So romantic,” I said sardonically.

‘Stupid’ was more like it.

Fausto laughed. He could sense my true feelings on the matter. “Some would say.”

“But it does give us an opening,” I mused.

“What?”

“If the wedding’s happening that fast, they’ll be distracted. They think their enemies are all dead, so their guard will be down. We have exactly one month to plan an all-out assault – one that will crush them for good.”

Fausto smiled deviously. “I’m listening.”