Page 179 of Niccolo

He used to hate it –

But now he heard the affection in my voice.

“Talk to you soon,”he said –

And then he was gone.

73

Sofia

The helicopter arrived at the airport half an hour before the jet’s departure.

I still had time, so I entered the main airport terminal, found an electronics shop – the kind that sells iPads and expensive headphones – and purchased a cheap mobile phone with international pre-paid minutes.

I activated it on my way to the hangar and boarded the jet with ten minutes to spare.

It was 4:45AM back in Italy, but I knew Fausto would want an update, so I phoned him using my personal cell phone.

I took pleasure in waking the bastard up, given that he’d viciously threatened me the last time we’d talked.

“…hello?”he answered groggily.

“I thought I’d call you, seeing as I’ll be in the air for the next 13 hours.”

“So you’re coming back. Good. Did you see Niccolo?”

“I did. In fact, I slept with him.”

“You WHAT?!”

“It’s fine. He thinks I’m falling for him, and he’s starting to develop feelings for me. It will distract him. Throw him off his game.”

“What makes you think he’s developing feelings for you?”

“Well, he didn’t try to kill me, for one. He did that thing where he swore on something important to him.”

Fausto cackled.“And he kept his promise?! Ha – he WOULD!”

At that moment, I disliked Fausto even more. Which was difficult, since I already despised him.

The fact that he thought Niccolo was stupid for keeping his word irritated me…

Especially seeing as I was only alivebecauseNiccolo was honorable enough to stand by his oath.

“So the double agent routine actually worked,”Fausto continued.“Did he let anything slip?”

“No.”

“Did he make you an offer?”

“Fifteen million euros.”

For the first time, Fausto’s voice became wary.“And what did you say?”

“I said he didn’t have it.”

Fausto chuckled.“Not anymore.”Then his voice became sarcastic.“You’re not going to try to extort MORE money out of me now, are you?”

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