Page 111 of Niccolo

I reminded myself that he was amafiosowho had probably caused the deaths of countless innocents…

And that removing him and his brothers from the world would be a gift to humanity.

I completely skipped over the part about the attraction I still felt for him…

And the fact that anothermafiosowas paying me ten million euros for my supposed gift to humanity.

None of it helped me fall sleep.

Around 3 AM, I went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Fausto was up, sitting at the island in the center. A glass and a half-empty decanter of scotch sat before him.

“Oh. You,” he muttered. “Come in.”

I walked over to a chair and pulled my robe tighter around my pajamas as I sat down.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.

“No.”

“Neither could I. A lot’s riding on tomorrow.”

I nodded silently.

“Care for a drink,consigliere?”he asked.

“…why not.”

He got a second glass from a nearby cabinet, poured out a shot, and pushed it across the island towards me.

“So, when you went to the wedding… did you find that ‘intangible quality’ you were looking for?” he asked.

“I think so.”

“What is it?”

“Niccolo.”

Fausto smiled darkly. “Tell me why.”

“Well, your nephews have a lot of camaraderie, and Dario seems like a capable leader… but Niccolo provides the strategic underpinning of it all.He’sthe one who deduced our involvement with the Turk and Mezzasalma.He’sthe one who took control of the meeting in the parlor and came up with a plan. I know Dario had to agree to it… but I can’t shake the feeling that it was almost all Niccolo.”

Fausto nodded. “I trained him well. Maybetoowell.”

“Well… now you have me,” I said as I raised my glass in a toast.

He grunted, then clinked his glass against mine.

I took a sip and grimaced. I knew it was expensive and relatively smooth for scotch – but it still tasted like lighter fluid.

Fausto looked around the kitchen.

“When I planned all this years ago – taking back what should have rightfully been mine – I had all these beautiful dreams about what my life would be,” he said wryly. “None of them included hiding in a shack in the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s hardly a shack,” I said.

“Still the middle of nowhere, though.”

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