Page 180 of Niccolo

I should,I thought.

But I decided not to push my luck.

“No. You came through with the million euros. We made a deal, and I’ll honor it.”

“Good,”he said. There was no gratitude in his voice, only a sneer.“Anything else?”

“No. How’s it going with Lau?”

Fausto was gleeful.“He discussed it with his Yakuza and Triad partners. They said yes, so he’s going to stall Roberto for as long as possible.”

“Excellent. What about Aurelio? Any good news there?”

Fausto’s tone went sour.“No.”

Rather than deal with him in a cranky state, I decided to make a strategic exit. “The plane’s about to take off. I need to go.”

“Alright. See you when you get back.”

I hung up and immediately used the mobile phone to call the number Niccolo had given me.

He answered immediately in English.“Hello?”

The sound of his voice made me smile.

“I wasn’t sure you’d answer,” I said in Italian.

He laughed.“Already covering your tracks with a Hong Kong area code, I see!”

“Just to be on the safe side.”

“So paranoid,”he teased.

“Well, when the person I’m calling wants me dead…”

“NO, I want you on my SIDE. And in my bed,”he added slyly.“Did you decide to accept my offer, or did you just want to talk to me one last time before we go back to our cutthroat ways?”

“Did you get that Michelangelo yet?” I joked.

“Looking into it,”he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

“Well, until you do, I can’t accept the offer, so… yes. I just wanted to talk.”

“Mmm, I like that. Are you going to get burner phones in Italy, too, any time you want to talk to me?”

“I might.”

“This could turn into an expensive habit for you.”

“I’ll manage.”

“Well, I’d just like to repeat how incredible last night was… and that I hope we can do it again before business interferes.”

“You mean, before we have to kill each other?”

“I like my way of putting it better.”

“I do too, actually.”

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