Page 33 of King of Omen

He pulled out my lighter, which was crumpled and destroyed, followed by my Cheroot case, which had held up better.

Finally, my precious envelope from Mia, which, to my surprise, was charred on the edge but otherwise untouched.

‘The three combined somehow deflected the ammo, and it ricocheted through your upper chest and top shoulder.’

‘Fuck,’ I breathed. ‘They saved my ass?’

‘Appears like it, boss.’

I shut my eyes in stupefaction.

‘You’re bruised up bad, but you’re going to be okay,’ Mauri went on. ‘I’ve got Dr. Scattizzi on his way to make a proper assessment.’

He finished cleaning and applying a temporary bandage, his deft hands working fast.

‘Get my brothers on the phone,’ I rasped, fighting back the wave of nausea overtaking me.

‘Padrone.’

Summoned by Mauri, Dr Scattizzi arrived at my home within half an hour.

He patched my shoulder up, sewed the open wound together and treated my bruise that was blooming into a nasty red and blue contusion across my chest and flank.

He also declined to give me the all-clear to leave my residence at will. I had to stay put for a few days.

I was incandescent at the imposed lock down, but after understanding the threat of a blood clot, I relented.

That afternoon, my brothers listened in grim silence over a video call as I recounted the harrowing events in Napoli.

‘Qualcosa bolle in pentola. Brothers, something is boiling in the pot. A plot against us is underway, and we’re sitting ducks,’ I rasped to my siblings.

The near-miss bullet to the torso had left me rattled to the core.

Along with the betrayal and audacity of the attack, it pointed to a festering wound within our closely guarded Alliance circle.

One or a group of our fellow members was not pleased with our so-called defection from organised crime.

‘I need to leave this crap-awful place.’ I groused. ‘We can’t divest in peace while still living in a city where our former partners are planning our demise, the cops are in with the mafia, and the streets are blood baths.’

‘I’m sorry. I was in Rome,’ Valerio muttered, his face stricken. ‘I should have been with you.’

‘No matter, fratello,’ I grunted. ‘You can’t be everywhere all at once. Perhaps your being in Rome was what it was meant to be. They might have planned to take you out, too, if you’d been here in Naples with me.’

‘I’ll rally our local crew to protect our interests across Europe,’ Valerio growled, keen to make up for his imagined transgressions. ‘I’ll also fly to Naples tomorrow morning to deal with the attack’s aftermath.’

‘Sounds good. Meanwhile, familia, the attempt on my life is a stark reminder we’re teetering on the edge of a precipice,’ I stated.

‘What do we do?’ Vitto asked.

‘We can fight back and annihilate the Abrazzios,’ Alessio growled.

‘Or?’ Valerio urged.

‘Become ghosts, disappear into thin air, shut shop in Italy like we’ve been planning all along and use our associates to conduct any remaining business on our behalf,’ I said.

‘So we’re fast-tracking our Sydney relocation?’ Alessio asked.

‘We have to,’ I growled. ‘It has almost closed borders, and we have a legitimate base due to Bianca, a healthy bank balance, and the most control over knowing who’s coming after us. We’ll be legit with no Australian authorities on our backs.’

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