Page 103 of Niccolo

Sofia

Fausto ordered a foot soldier to inform Aurelio we were leaving. “Tell him we’re going to the farmhouse near Modena.”

Thirty minutes later, Fausto’s entire fleet of vehicles hit the road.

Aurelio sped off ahead of us in a Lamborghini. He had refused to speak to his father before we left and wasn’t answering his phone.

“Fuck him,” Fausto snarled and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

As far as I knew, Fausto’s foot soldiers still had no idea we were at war with Dario and his brothers.

I figured they knew there was some bad blood, but I doubted any of them had a clue as to why things had escalated so suddenly.

And in the absence of facts, gossip and rumors always take their place.

“Do your men understand why we’re leaving Tuscany?” I asked Fausto as the Rolls sped through the darkness.

“Because I saidso,” he answered.

“We might want to give them a better explanation than that.”

“Their explanation is that I pay their fucking salaries,” he snarled.

I didn’t press it any further…

But I thought to myself,What a monumental prick.

I was beginning to see why Aurelio had turned out the way he did.

46

Niccolo

Iwas stunned – and felt foolish, indeed.

I’d joked with her earlier thatIwas audacious –

And yetshehad entered the lion’s den to walk amongst her enemies!

I knew she probably felt protected by her anonymity –

And no one would have realized who she was if I hadn’t become mildly obsessed with her.

But why take such a chance in the first place?

There were only two answers I could see:

To do reconnaissance on the property…

Or to do reconnaissance onus.

Me… Dario… Lars… my brothers.

That was the option that made the most sense:

She’d come to profileus.

We’d beat her twice… so she came to see us in person and probe for our weaknesses.

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