Page 52 of Niccolo (Mafia Kings #7)

R oberto didn’t like the fact that I was tagging along. He thought Dario didn’t trust him to handle the Hong Kong deal on his own.

When he found out I had no intention of sitting in on his meeting, he was still pissed. He knew something was up and was resentful that we weren’t telling him what it was.

He didn’t quit pushing until Dario brought out the big guns:

“Roberto… your don has spoken.”

That settled the matter once and for all.

After all we’d been through that morning, the rotten cherry on top of the shit sundae was when Lars came back empty-handed –

And informed us that Dario’s would-be assassin had most likely been Lars’s ex-girlfriend.

Who worked for MI6.

Or used to, anyway.

Lars thought it highly unlikely it was an MI6 hit because our family was so low on the totem pole of organized crime.

I thought it unlikely because both the assassination attempt and the mess in Venice benefited the same person – Fausto – and I found it unlikely he would be doing business with British Intelligence. Lars concurred.

Whatever the case, hiring his ex had been a brilliant stroke of psychological warfare. Lars was more agitated and distracted than I’d ever seen him before.

Like Mezzasalma, it was a double attack straight out of chess.

In the Sicilian gangster’s case, he’d failed to kill us…

But now the entire Cosa Nostra was united against us.

By using Rachel Bauer, even though she’d failed to kill Dario, her involvement had turned our Enforcer into a lovesick teenage boy with the attention span of a gnat.

I told the others it was Fausto’s doing…

But I secretly believed it was Sofia’s.

Either way, it achieved the desired result:

To diminish our capabilities as a team.

Even worse, Lars wanted to go after his ex.

To ‘find out more information.’

Riiiiiiiiiiight.

“You’re not going after her,” I told him. “It’s a poor use of our limited resources.”

“If I find out what Fausto’s next move is, I’d say it’s an excellent use of our resources,” Lars argued.

“IF – if, if, if,” I said impatiently. “Don’t you see? You’re playing right into his hands. This is exactly what he wanted: to distract you so you’d abandon us, which makes us easier to kill.”

We argued back and forth until Lars went over my head to Dario –

And for some fucking unbelievable reason, Dario granted his request.

“This is insane!” I snarled. “With Massimo gone, the rest of us should be closing ranks – not going off on wild goose chases!”

But Dario took Lars’s side and gave him permission to go after his ex-girlfriend.

I glowered as Lars thanked Dario. Then he left to go make some phone calls.

“Can I speak to you in private?” I hissed.

Everyone else filed out of the room, and I was alone with Dario.

“WHY?!” I asked.

“I have my reasons.”

“Do you mind sharing them?”

Dario glared at me. “Lars wants to go after the love of his life. You want to go halfway across the world on the slim chance some woman will be at a poker tournament. Who’s the bigger fool in this scenario?”

I gritted my teeth, pointed at him –

And said, “I fucking hate it when you’re right.”

Dario smirked. “Have a nice trip, consigliere.”

I set about arranging the trip to Hong Kong.

Because we didn’t know who we could trust – for all we knew, Fausto might have assassins waiting for us at all the regional airports – I booked a private flight out of France. I had to pay through the nose for it, but we had to make sure we wouldn’t get killed en route to Hong Kong.

Then Massimo called and gave us an update.

He and the Widow’s granddaughter were safe. Strangely enough, Aurelio had contacted Massimo directly and tried to get him to hand over the girl.

Massimo’s conclusion was that Aurelio had gone rogue –

And it made perfect sense.

Venice had been the sloppiest, most ill-advised move in a series of otherwise perfect attacks.

It made sense that our idiot cousin had improvised and then fucked up the operation…

And it made even more sense that it wasn’t the fault of Fausto’s new consigliere.

Sorry for doubting you, Sofia.

I was positively gleeful over the news. I could just imagine Fausto ripping Aurelio several new assholes over his incompetence.

If you could actually rip new assholes into someone who was a giant, festering asshole to begin with.

I checked in with Lars. I was still irritated about him going over my head to Dario, and I let it show.

“Send foot soldiers to go scope out Fausto’s compound,” I ordered him.

“You know he won’t be there, right?”

“I do – but on the off chance he’s being as stupid as we are, maybe we can settle this once and for all.

If no one’s there, I want you to send some of our men to talk to the families of Fausto’s foot soldiers.

All of them worked for my father, so most of them have lived in Tuscany for decades.

Focus on wives in particular, but also parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins – anybody living between here and Florence. ”

Lars stared at me. “You’re not suggesting we – ”

“No, we don’t do that sort of thing,” I said sternly. “No threats, explicit or implied. Tell our guys to play nice and find out whatever they can. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

And then I dropped the bombshell that Roberto and I were flying to Hong Kong.

Lars was not happy.

“What was that you said earlier?” he snapped. “Something about closing ranks and going on goose chases?”

“Well, if you can do whatever the hell you want, why not me and Roberto?” I said with a fake smile.

Lars tried going over my head yet again to Dario.

Didn’t work this time.

HA!

I knew it was petty, but it restored my good mood as Roberto and I set out for our flight.

On the car drive to Nice, I pondered what I would do if I actually encountered Sofia in Macau.

I had vastly underestimated my foe thus far…

And she was closer than ever to destroying me.

But I wasn’t done yet.

I might have been hanging by my fingernails on the edge of a cliff…

But that only fired me up.

Get ready, Ms. Toscani.

You’ve had YOUR turn…

Now it’s MINE.

I just hoped I could charm her away from Fausto.

Because if I couldn’t…

My only alternative was too awful to consider.