Page 100 of Niccolo

“I’ve known the Widow since Don Fioretti died and she took over his territory,” Fausto said. “Without ironclad proof of my involvement, she’ll cut Massimo down with a few choice insults and send him on his way. We have nothing to fear from her.”

But Aurelio wouldn’t be silenced. “It’s like you’re TRYING to lose! This is the perfect opportunity to – ”

“STOP!” Fausto roared. “You’ve fucked us over enough for one night!”

Aurelio looked stunned. “What?! What the fuck didIdo?!”

“You let that girl see you in Florence with Bautiste Agrella! Your carelessness has endangered all our plans!”

“THAT WASN’T MY FAULT!”

“IT NEVER IS!” Fausto shouted, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “No matter how grossly incompetent you are, it’s always someoneelse’sfault!”

Aurelio stared at his father with a look of hurt and anger.

When he spoke, his voice was quiet.

“Fuck you,” he said, then turned and headed for the door.

“I forbid you to do anything with the mercenaries until I explicitly order it!” Fausto shouted after him.

Aurelio answered by raising his middle finger and storming out of the library.

“Christ,” Fausto snarled, “I should have beat him when he was a child. Then he might not have turned out to be such a fucking pain in the ass.”

He went over and poured a double scotch.

I kept my voice carefully neutral as I said, “We need to trigger the financial attack, too, while they’re unprepared.”

Fausto nodded. “I’ll make the call.”

“And we should probablyleave and go somewhere else tonight. Just in case they change their minds about coming after us.”

Fausto sighed. “Not a bad idea.”

44

Niccolo

When Bianca told us it was Aurelio she’d seen in Florence, it was gut-wrenching.

My brothers and I hated Aurelio – we always had –

But he was blood.

Family.

The idea that he would conspire to have us murdered…

It was a betrayal worthy of Dante’sInferno.

The bastard should have been down in the ninth circle of Hell, stuffed head-first up Satan’s ass.

But Bianca’s identification of Aurelio as the mystery man supplied a missing piece of the puzzle – one that connected several loose ends.

From there, it was easy to deduce that Fausto was the one pulling the strings…

Which was far harder to take.

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